RKTBlog

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. Things have been busy at Pixar, so whatever free time I have is usually spent drawing these days. I’ve got a few things in the backlog to post, however, so over the next few days, hopefully I can keep the entries coming.

Here’s an environment I designed while I was at Liquid for a game called Merchants of Brooklyn.

This concept piece was drawn at the very start of development.  It shows a pit fighting area of a futuristic casino.  At the beginning of 2008, the developer, Paleo Entertainment, was looking to create a demo to build up interest among publishers. A big trade show was happening in the near future, so we had only a month to crank out an entire level. The game was finally launched not too long ago.

The overall look of the game has changed a lot since I worked on it, but I was pleased at how the designs came out. They weren’t drawn in my typical style; part of my job on the project was to help establish a look for the game. It was a challenge, but one that I welcomed!

Here is some video of a game I helped out on last year while working at Liquid Development in Portland, OR. My friend, Jane, was the Character Art Manager on Damnation, and I came on mid-way through production as her assistant to help make fixes to textures, and even paint some historically-tinged digital paintings for cinematics.

Here’s a cool new Space Invaders themed video from the Norwegian band, Röyksopp, and their upcoming album, Junior.

Happy Up Here from Röyksopp on Vimeo.

Brent- Work in Progress 2

Here’s the latest version of Brent.  It’s close to the final version, I think.  I’m still tweaking the background, and I have a few small details to finish on him, such as giving his shoe a tiny bit of texture, but it’s not much.  I had to put him together for the portfolio at this stage, so I thought I’d show him off, since he looks pretty complete now.

I’m using a trial version of Photoshop CS4.  I’ve only got a few more days left before the trial runs out, and I’ll be sad to see it go.  Unfortunately, I can’t afford to get the new version (I’m still on CS1!), but the ability to rotate the canvas while painting is a GODSEND!

This is just about one of the coolest things ever!  It’s from a great blog called Everything is Terrible.

Facercise from Future Schlock on Vimeo.

I’m experimenting with different painting techniques in my recent character series, “Portlandia”.  I haven’t settled on a particular style yet, but that’s okay.  Once I figure out what I like, I’m going to go back and unify all the character designs so that they match.  Although, they shouldn’t match too much.  The final look should be pretty eclectic, incorporating some flat graphic elements next to more painterly ones.

Here’s the latest painting of Lisa Marie, featuring a loose energetic painting style.

Here’s a quick little painting I did for a real estate website.  Quick, but not to shabby, considering I only spent a couple of hours.  Its for a page advertising my web design services to real estate agents.  I wanted to put the page together as quickly as possible, so it’s pretty simple, but it was crying out for some imagery.

Ever since we got a DVR, Mike and I have been strangely addicted to the show “It’s Me or the Dog”.  Here’s a clip of it from The Soup. The face this dog makes has been cracking us up for weeks on end now. It’s in all their commercials, and every time I see it, I laugh so hard I almost cry! It’s good to know we’re not the only ones amused by it.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted an update on this painting.  I’ve only been able to work on it in small doses, so it’s been going a little slow, but I finally think enough has changed that it’s worth showing off again.

Click to Enlarge

The value structure’s changed a little.  Details and textures have been added to some of the main buildings and cars.  The trees are more resolved.  There’s still a long way to go, but I’m happy with the progress so far.

Today, as I was checking my favorite video game blogs, I came across a pleasant surprise.  A trailer for a game I created some concept art for at Liquid has just been released.  It’s called Merchants of Brooklyn, and its being developed by Paleo Entertainment.  Liquid was involved in the early stages of its development, as Paleo was preparing a demo.  Since the game’s release date is still some ways off, I can’t share the conecpt art yet, but you get some glimpses of  the casino/pit fighting area, which I helped design, in the trailer below.