A Brave Effort

A few years ago Trent Kusters and myself were throwing around some ideas for a game; this illustration shows the main protagonist, a character with flaming red hair you play from a young age, slowly watching her grow up during your adventures. The colour of the hair may make the character seem familiar. We were beaten to the punch on this one, and this seems to happen an awful lot. The only consolation we have is that our ideas were proven to be competitive  :)

Here's a Head

Warm up sketch

How to trap a Monster Pirate: Scooby Concept.

Sometimes a game just doesn't go ahead, despite a great pitch ... this ghost of the deep unfortunately never saw the light of day in any finished form. It's a real shame when you know you could have done a fantastic job on a game.

Thought I'd air him out here for a while anyhow ... a demonic buccaneer falls into  Mystery Inc.'s home-made trap.

Scooby Doo and the Spooky Swamp Character Concepts

Scooby Doo and the Spooky Swamp has just been released on Wii, DS and PS2 (I know, PS2 ... who'd have thought?). Above are some of the more interesting character and enemy concepts created for the game. Once again had a lot of fun on this title ... love playing with those horror and villian stereotypes! You can check out the game site here. Below is a concept for the Mystery Inc clubhouse from the first game, dug up and dusted off for your amusement. This design was unused - I'll save it for my own tree house project then.
 

Blight Thing

Here's a sneak peak at a concept paint for a friend's thingy.

EDIT: Updated

Dryad v1

I've been crunching down on Zbrush as hard as possible over the last week, burning midnight oil and making sure my graphics pipeline is as smooth as disco. Although I'm down with the theory, I'm not as drilled as I'd like - too much managment and too little practicle. But after a few bumps I'm pretty easy with the Maya > Zbrush > Maya thing. But two things I'm not happy with; (re)topology (not snapping to the old mesh? C'mon!) and creating adaptive skins from Zsketchs - I just can't seem to get a simple, clean mesh outa them. I think you have to go all hi-res and subdivided straight off the bat to get anything like fingers to remain after skinning. If anyone has some advice, let me know. The image above is a quick Zsketch of my Dryad concept - I'll think I take this one as far as possible.

From the Vault: Isaiah

WIP

Well ofcourse I've been busy! Sheesh! Just a snippet of a WIP creature (Dryad) for an embryonic game. The rest is under development and will probably never see the light of day if life keeps getting in the way.

Pike Master

Concept for a video game character, tba.

Alien ... Seahorse?

I've been toying with the idea with an alien bounty huntress, Star Wars style. I'm kind of thinking along the lines of a Sy Snootles. Then taking it to 3D, add a splash of Zbrush and end up with a game-ready and hi-poly model. Might make for some nice renders. Here's a first take ... not happy with the legs ... they look robotic. Also, missing arms from this profile if you were wondering. I might give un-shoed feet...

Feeling Devilish

Scooby Doo!

Here's something a little different ... some monster and bad guy concepts done for Scooby Doo First Frights (on Wii, PS2 and DS).

It's a cool game! Check it out! LINK

(BTW, it's got great reviews - all unfortunately except a shmuk at IGN who didn't work out it's target audience!)

Peace Out!

Ophilia Searching...

Only time for a quick Ophilia sketch tonight ... busy with a few commissions. I'm searching for the right age and cuteness. The loosely drawn hat and clothes seem to convey the scruffiness well. Story thought: Ophilia was sent to the Arcadian mines with an older sister. What happened to her during their escape into the city?

Updated with new pic. Almost happy with the shape of the head and hair.

Royal Army Officer

The 'Red Coats' ensure that the Empire is well protected, and it's colonies remain under control of the Crown. I'm happy to mix up both early and late 19th century uniform and technology (the wealthy and powerful keep the good stuff only for themselves ofcourse), but I think that this is just a little too modern. I'll try some stockings next time!

Note: I'm over rendering concepts. Gotta loosen up and blow them out - otherwise it's just one a night.

Low Energy Sketches

Not much energy tonight ... just enough for some quick sketches. Just feeling around for style. Note that the hairstyle on the Ophelia study is somewhat based off of my daughters' wild locks.

In other news I've got a heap of illustration work coming up for some exciting RPG projects (including a big computer game tie-in). It'll probably mean disappearing off the radar again :/

Van Daemon's Town

Here's a speed painted concept for the location of Ophelia Twist - Van Daemon's Town. It's pretty obvious to me now that my mental image of the place is far more grand then being just 'a settlement' ... I might shift it to being an established 'beggar city' - an isolated place where all the rif-raf of the empire are dumped. Shown here is the main canal where many of the larger, more solid buildings have been established. The inhabitants lower 'Scum Catchers' into the silt-river below to grow the Kelp that keeps the majority of the inhabitants alive. Floating high in the background is Saint Maxamillion's Cathedral, seat of power for the Church of the Holy Pleroma on the moon Arcadia. The Church is wealthy enough to afford the Cavorite necessary to float the cathedral. Many see the Cathedral's separation from the city as a sign of the Church's disdain for the inhabitants. Also seen floating above the city is a more conventional airship, balloon floated and steam driven.

Bat Dog

The Catchman needs a pack of slavering bat-dogs to help root out and bring down swift children. I'll be checking out the Hyenas from Lion King for this one!

Ophelia Street Urchin

So this is a stab at Ophelia in looser garb ... she's probably not aerodynamic enough like this. She needs to be able to do her acrobatics unhindered. But this could be good everyday disguise gear!

The Catchman

These mysterious hunters devoutly hunt down errant children and take them away in bundles, but for what purpose? Not sure what weapons he'd use to capture yet ... also would like to include some steam-punk elements to his costume. Will refine.

Ophelia Twist | the artful dodger

Ophelia Twist, orphan female 13 years, was sentenced by His Magesty's court to be transported to the Lunar Colony of Van Daemon's Convict Settlement, for the term of her natural life, to be hastily sent forth-width via Aerial Ballonsphere, for the wretched crime of theft (Bread Loaf & sundry).

This is a story idea that's been kicking around my head and some of my sketchbooks. Essentially a sci-fi-steam-punked version of Oliver Twist, a young Ophelia is trained by Fagan, Master Thief, in the arts of pickpocket, acrobatics and lockpicking. Her escapades bring her and her thief clan into conflict with the cold-hearted Governor-General and troops of the moon-colony. The little fury guy is a rat-weasel, vermin trained as familiars who squeeze through tight holes to poach keys, etc. The penal colony itself is a warren of over-built walkways, wooden houses and smoke belching factories. The elite of the colony live on balloon-floating, upper platforms.

Would also make for a cool game!