Action Points

I haven't updated in ages. Been pretty busy trying to do a lot and just forgot about the blog.

I've made a number of pictures and for a while I was heavily focused on creating a youtube channel and building the visuals for branding. So up first is that.

I had edited video before but never put my art and animated it some in a video editor. Since I do a little bit of writing about games I felt pretty strongly about some topics and felt that writing just wouldn't be good enough to reach a wider audience. I really don't like the idea of video blogging though and think the subject should be valued for it's content rather than who said it. On the flip side though I know a disembodied voice can turn some people off and know it always helps if they can attach a face to it. I found inspiration in the Sprite Communications that Snake and Otacon have in Metal Gear Solid 2. (As seen below) 

I liked how it felt like secret transmissions between Snake and Otacon and wanted to try and give the viewer that same feeling. Recreating all the original assets and then learning how to use them correctly AND animating my video opening was quite a bit of work but I'm fairly pleased without things look now.

Feel free to check the videos in action! ActionPts on Youtube!

Game Poster

It took ages! But I finally finished it. This was A LOT more detailing than I expected.

And now a few close up shots for a better look at the details. Since this is going to be turned into a poster

I made it at around 600 dpi. I think this is the biggest image I've ever done.

There's the hero and the mysterious monument he encounters. And here's one of the "monsters" he has to face.

That's all for personal art, for now. If you're looking for other art you can see a weekly comic I make about video games at Gather Your Party.

Surprise Post( it)!

Are you surprised? Probably not as surprised as I was when I got a package from Giant Robot. I was in the post-it show a while back held there but months had gone by and I had thought my post-its might have just gotten misplaced or thrown out (I was a late entry.)

So here's some of the post-its that I got in the show!

You might recognize those top four from this blog entry. I like these guys so much I wanted to put them out there. Those bottom two were two other characters of different stories I couldn't resist drawing for the chance. It was humbling seeing my art on the wall with great and famous artists of different mediums some alot of which I didn't even know.

And because I knew it might be cool to give the audience something they might recognize I made these post its based on the Rupees from the Legend of Zelda series.

I had made five; green, red, blue, gold and silver. Each with a little tag line expressing how valuable they were in game. One person bought the Silver rupee post-it (it said "Aw yeah") on opening night and that blew me away. Strangely though the green rupee post-it wasn't in the mail. I remember it said "Neat."

Now that I think of it though, I had gotten paid for more than I expected so I guess someone bought the green one before the show came down!

If anyone wants to buy these go ahead and e-mail me at the address in my blogger profile. I'll sell them even cheaper than if you had bought them at the giant robot show!

Lastly I want to say a huge thanks to the talented Mark Todd and his equally talented wife Esther Pearl Watson who made the entire show happen. Thanks!

Game Poster 1

So a few people asked why haven't I been updating? Besides working a freelance gig (which I cannot post about yet) I have been working on several materials for an independent project of mine. Short of it is I'm making an indie game and when I'm not occupied with the current freelance job I try and force myself to be productive with the independent project writing the design doc, doing character designs, working story out, etc.

I plan to use kick starter, its a great website where people can put up their unfinished creative projects for funding and sponsorship by anyone. Of course its expected the generous donators be compensated and as such I've been working on some promotional material for the lower tier donations, which in this case is some posters. I don't have my project up yet but since I know there's other artists who read my blog, you might want to check it out! Kickstarter!

Here's the first two stages of the first poster.

 

This poster was going to take a lot longer than the second poster because it has so many more elements to it. Most of all it has the main characters and some of the game related props. So in this stage I worked out a general composition as I worked through the designs.

Now everyone's drawn in and the composition is practically done. May need some minor tweaking. Then it's on to the part that really brings it together. Color. I'll need to settle the color choices of the characters and elements so that they work in the image's arrangement and then hash out an approach that will give the coloring style a vibrant feeling, which will probably mean modifying my brushes and layering things for a certain effect.

But the colors aren't done yet so for now here's just a little taste of the hero's color palette.

Been Busy

I'm still around. I've got a lot of stuff I've been working on. Should have something up sooner or later.

-M

Burrito

I finally got around to scanning this. Drew it when I was waiting for the check. Medium was black ink, Styrofoam container and what looks like an accent of beans.

Carl Sagan