Make sure to check out awesome (that’s right, awesome) concept art posted on Project Offset website. Many moons ago these guys shocked game developers around the world with amazing real-time engine demo. I’ve been following that project for years and after twists and turns the guys finally landed at Intel. They are still developing the game and polishing the Offset technology at the same time.
What was cool about that project is it’s visual design approach. The technology is moving very fast but design could be timeless. Project Offset offers you heroic fantasy adventure in a vast, exotic world forged with magic and sorcery. Some of the locations actually reminds me of the things I’ve imagined while reading Conan novels by Robert Howard.
If you’re a techy geek then visit the technology section and see all the possibilities and features of Offset engine. For artistic folks, well concept art section and especially environments would definetely put you on fire.
Don’t miss Khang’s Video Blog – Part. 1! Khang Lee is a conceptual artist who has started to visualize Project Offset from the beginning. Now holding an Art Director position he’s still responsible for Project Offset look and feel.
There are also some sort of competition is going on. If you’re familiar with 3D and in-game models creation techniques then you can submit your model(s) to the guys and pray for the best. Looks like talent hunt but someone may be interested anyway.
http://www.projectoffset.com/
I’m not goin’ to talk how female characters are dominating the videogame worlds and all that fluff. Personally I don’t see anything wrong with looking at beautiful women. But what do I see is a difference between Western(European) and Asian approaches. They both using female body features as attractors but the results are so different.
Take a look at Jill Nabato, a character from the upcoming Final Fantasy XIII game:
Where is your attention focus? Glasses, face or something else…?
The same works for in-game models though they have more technical restrictions (poly count etc.). Few days ago I was amazed to see this:
TERA is one of my favourite Korean MMO’s speaking of visuals (frankly I don’t play games), and it’s great to see some good character design and modeling work. I strongly recommend you to check the official website for more cool stuff from TERA.
And it’s off topic, but how do you feel about zombies? Read more…
When I wrote ‘millions’ in the previous post I thought maybe I’m a bit exaggerating. But according to Fox, Avatar trailer smashed all records on Apple.com with more than 4 million streams (not counting YouTube with 1 mio views and other media sources).
The reaction to 2D trailer was mixed but after experiencing 3D preview at Avatar Day people were blown away completely. It was fun to see the negativity in comments drops to zero. Looks like it was planned to let people see 2D version prior to 3D so they could feel the difference. Was it a marketing move or not it worked pretty well. The only problem is that there aren’t enough 3D digital cinemas around the world.
By the way, if you’re into that movie I’m recommending you to check out Avatar Movie Zone. It’s an unofficial website related to that epic movie with infos varied from news to conceptual artists credits.
Also the official website got some revamp with story and photos sections:
http://www.avatarmovie.com/
Get ready for Pandora!
That was the Na’Vi line that probably millions of people have heard last night (or day depends on you world location). Prior to that the web was hitted by new shots from the upcoming James Cameron’s (JC) epic adventure called Avatar. There were a lot of buzz and hype around the movie taking the fact that nobody outside the film crew haven’t seen ANYTHING from the movie. No leaked shots, no spy shots, no official media… nothing. Yet the hype was really strong. It’s JC new movie after all!
The first shock wave came from screening at CinemaExpo, Amsterdam. We’ve got a couple of pictures with spaceship orbiting the planet [Pandora] and amazing, unearthly looking location with two humanoids walking on the tree in the night swamp. In addition to that the web was buzzed with impressions. The second wave came from ComicCon, San Diego where about 6,500 people were able to experience ~25 min preview from Avatar. The net go nuts again.
It’s been announced at ComicCon that August, 21 would be an ‘Avatar Day’ with ~16 min preview in as many 3D cinemas around the globe as possible. In addition the first official trailer was planned to release on the net right before the Avatar Day. Countdown clock was ticking at Apple Trailers page and last night I was checking how the numbers are goin’.
It was fun and exciting to see the clock ticks to 01 min, then 00 min and… nothing happened! I believe 10 or so minutes later Apple Trailers change the clock to Avatar banner linked to the trailers. Yay! But no one link were working. Duh! It was really fun to monitor some websites (like MarketSaw) updating almost in real-time with people buzzing about this sh*t. I don’t recall any other movies generating such vibration, besides maybe Phantom Menace.
I’m sorry for that long introduction but you can get an idea how much expectations and attention is going around Avatar. It’s not a big deal to describe how cool the footage is, how the scenery and characters looks like etc. just watch the trailer!
And considering the reaction, it’s quite mixed. Some believe it’s sort of advanced cartoon while others prise the JC’s effort and got really excited.
Whoa… spend almost a day working on a single shot! I started with a pencil sketch, when scan it and repaint digitally a few times. Once I was happy with the look I printed it out on paper and traced the drawing with ballpoint pen and scan it again… can you imagine?!
However the result still wasn’t good and I was really disappointed. The graphic novel look (or, if you prefer, comic look) I was aiming for wasn’t there. It looked like crap actually and I feel quite miserable about it. In the drawing process this is a critical point, you either drop your artwork and admit the defeat or continue the fight. I choose fight and throw heavy artillery…
Current test comp looks like this, although the colors are missing (yeah, it’s gonna be a color novel, so you can imagine the workload!):
Usually Selena doesn’t talk like that, but you can get an idea of her temper and attitude towards humans. And I can’t help myself but it appears as spagetti western instead of fantasy tale!
Selena (the girl you see on banner) is a youth elf and skyship captain. She’s one of the main protagonists of Rainbow Dreams project I’m currently developing.
Selena was born and risen in elven tribe, living in tropical archipelago of Rainbow Dreams world. Her home is a group of islands lost in the ocean. There are huge mountains covered with lush and exotic vegetation. Countless rivers flowing down to the ocean making it looks like a riverworld. If you hike somewhere you’ll see huge trees and flowers with lots and lots of roots and vines. The foliage is so big sometimes that you can park a few cars on just one leaf.
Here is a recent concept art depicting Selena’s home islands seen from the beach. Obviously you can’t say it’s super exotic but just wait till the next shots!
Muramasa: The Demon Blade is a videogame developed exclusively for the Wii. It attracts my attention because of the stunning visuals and art direction. It reminds me of good old days playing Gods (anyone remember Bitmap Brothers?) and other classic arcades. The game has a very distinguish style drawn from Japanese mythology.
While browsing the official website I saw fan art contest announcement. If you’re happen to live in US and at least 18 years old you can participate and maybe win. The organizers are looking for some amazing artists to create Muramasa-inspired Japanese-style fan art. The submission deadline is set to September 1, 2009 11:59 p.m. PST and there are plenty of time. For more details and rules, please, visit the Muramasa website (look for fanart tag):
http://www.muramasathedemonblade.com/
Nowadays Internet grants an amazing power both to artists and Art Directors (AD). Recently I’ve stumbled onto a blog running by Senior Art Director at Dungeons & Dragons® Wizards of the Coast, Jon Schindehette. That’s amazing how much ADs you can find these days online at blogspot, twitter or facebook. And most important, there are great opportunities to showcase your work or get a portfolio review.
Read more…
These big events like E3 is always fun because besides the games and all these new products you can enjoy the female beauty. Personally I’m more into the asian type (isn’t that obvious?) and it was great to discover ChinaJoy expo.
Running since 2003 ChinaJoy is designed to be another top event in global game industry. Everyone knows how big China market is (about a half of WoW players are from China), so such events attracting many companies from Europe, North America, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The goals of the event are similar to others – promoting new products and services, attract public attention etc.
To get some attention you need magnets. Besides all these geeky electronics the best magnet is always been girls. And if you turn these girls into elfs or other fantasy beauties, man, you’ll got all the attention you want. I know it may sounds cheesy but I’ve been painting females for videogames for years and I don’t recall clients saying well, we’re tired of these ladies, let’s put some boyz or monsters on that poster. There are examples of bad design or bad layout however (I remember doing elf mistress for russian mag cover and it was a disaster!) but if done right it’s very rewarding.
Well enough talk, hyperjump to China Joy 2009 Showgirl & Cosplay compilation created by mmosite guys or, if you’re serious, visit the official conference website.
These kind of etudes are totally spontaneous work. You don’t pre-plan it, making tons of sketches and carefully observing reality around. You just grab the stylus launch some paint app (in my case CS3 – I’m migrating slowly from PS7.0) and start painting. I like these sessions because it’s relaxing yet exciting at the same time. And they are fast, a few hours usually is enough.
Beware of the nudity (NSFW) before you proceed!
Read more…
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