Back to it

So with Diablo vanquished and no games I want to play until Darksiders 2 comes out, I figured I go back to my street scene and do some more modeling work on it. I'm just going to keep adding detail until I get bored or a cooler personal project grabs my attention.

Expose 10!

I just found out one of my pieces got accepted into Expose 10! I couldn't be more excited! The piece is this one found here, which was inspired by a random image of figurine I found in a Japanese artbook, I wish I knew the artist to give credit for the concept but I don't speak Japanese:

Waiting for the End of Time.

You can see some work in progress here:

Pelican Machine Head

I have to be honest I was a little worried about submitting a piece based on a concept not my own. BUT I've seen entries in Expose based off of IP not owned or created by the artist. I just hope no one faults me for submitting something that is essentially fan art.

For posterity

I tweeted this but I figured I'd post it up here cause I'm pretty flattered that Kotaku (one of the biggest game websites) did a story on the Sworcery AV Jam and one of my pieces was in their gallery. Out of the MANY pieces submitted I'm humbled that one of mine was shown.

Some Stylish Tributes to Sword & Sworcery


That's me! Allll the way at the bottom! ;P

JAM!

So for the past week I've been working on a piece for the awesome Sword & Sworcery AV Jam. For the uninitiated Sword & Sworcery is an amazing iphone/ipad and now pc game that should really be played by all.

Sword & Sworcery

So the creators of this game put out a call to arms so to speak for peoples to create artwork or music inspired by the game. Being the fan I am and in need of a personal project I opted in.

I decided to model out in 3d a specific screenshot of the game. Given the limited time frame I knew that I couldn't do things like fully texture it out and what not so I chose to stay minimalist (like the game itself).

This is the final piece I created.

Once submitted Craig Adams the creator of the game suggested that since it was 3d I could do more than one piece with the same assets. I figured, why not?

And finally the last one I did, which may be my favorite (or at least tied with the first)

All in all a super fun way to get creative! I really enjoyed this and HIGHLY recommend you check out all of the works collected on this tumblr site:

SworceryAVjam

We found the Megatome....

So I'm taking a break from my other project right now because this just came up.

#sworcery

It's basically a call for entries inspired by the game Superbrothers Sword & Sworcery EP. Which was one of my favorite games of 2011. It just came out on Steam and I highly recommend it. Anyway the official kick off isn't until the 11th but since I'm doing my entry in 3d I need a little more time than just  weekend. Also some amazing artwork has already been submitted (as you can see in the above link).

Here is a progress shot with my two favorite art helpers.

I hope to finish it by the deadline! Should be a cool little piece.

but that's why the dark is there....

Between work, and all of the video games that have come out over the past few months I've had precious little time to work on my own work. I currently have SIX different projects in different states. This is one I started a while ago and only now started getting traction on. It's just a generic futuristic building, but I'm enjoying it.

Also if so interested check out my new flickr account. I got a Canon T3i for Christmas and I decided to actually learn how to use it, so I'm taking some classes. Nothing too crazy, I'm very new to this. It's fun all the same though.

My Flickr page


Till next time!

The Last Guardian

Wow! So what started as a simple tribute piece when the HD remake came out, turned into quite the artistic endeavor!

I've been asked "why Guardian Heroes" and that made me think about what this game means to me.

It's kind of funny now that I think about it but once again I remember going with my friend Carmine (see my "Game that got away" post) to buy this game. We went to FuncoLand which for those of you who may not know; started the whole used game selling and buying thing. At least to my knowledge. Now this was back in 95-96 I believe and I couldn't drive yet so we got a ride from my mom and we busted into the store. he picked up Doom for the Playstation, and I knew what I wanted: Guardian Heroes!

I remember seeing and article in Game Fan prior to the games release. It just captured my imagination. I was a huge fantasy buff (being the nerd I was). But outside of roleplaying games in those days finding ANYTHING fantasy in games was actually kind of difficult.

But this simply wasn't a high fantasy Tolkien retread, this had a style all its own. Anime was still new to me. I don't think I had even watched an Anime film at this point. So seeing this style was a breath of fresh air.

I popped it in once I got home, my older brother Chris (who I shared a bedroom with) was still sleeping as I had gone in the morning while my mom ran errands to pick it up. The opening cartoon struck me immediately, the music the characters, just the overall sense of adventure.

Starting the game I of course picked the warrior Han and started to play. I wrote about this a few posts back when I started this project (Undead Hero), but when the Undead Warrior finally makes his appearance at the end of the first stage I knew this game was something special. At this point Chris had woke up and when the UW screamed out even Chris was like: dude this game looks bad ass! Or something like that, cut me some slack it's been like 17 years!

Over the next weeks and months I played the game almost everyday. Trying play EVERY SINGLE path in the game (at the end of each level the game gives you a choice of where to go next). I even tried to chart the branching paths in my sketch book.

People always talk about getting lost in books or movies as a form of escapism, and that's what I think this game (among countless others) was for me. It was a bright vibrant world that although dangerous was one that I could succeed and triumph in. For a fat kid who got picked on in school, that was priceless.

Anyway. I still pull out Guardian Heroes from time to time (on my Sega Saturn) and play through it. I was REALLY excited when I found out that it was getting a re-release, but REALLY bummed when I found out that it was coming out only on the XBOX 360 (for now). But even more exciting is that I read that Treasure the company behind GH wants to do a proper sequel. I say proper because we're not going to count that shitty Gameboy Advance version.

So that's a long winded reason as to why I felt the need to pay tribute to this game. It's not as creative or inspiring to me as say OddWolrd, or Shadow of the Colossus. But it was a part of my life when I needed it most. I look back on the times I spent playing it by myself, and with my brothers very fondly. THAT alone makes it something special.

I hope you enjoy this piece as much as I enjoyed making it! I learned a lot while working on it and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The graphic design elements were inspired by one of my favorite contemporary artists Marko Djurdjevic who uses graphic design to great effect on a lot of his covers for Marvel.

"The Last Guardian (Hero)"