Worked on this again a while back, and although it's not finished, there is some value and color progress. Used a gradient map to establish base color foundation. I haven't looked at this for at least a month, but I'm still pleased with it, which typically never happens with my work, so I suppose I should take this as a sign and update it even more in the near future when work and freelance slow down a bit

Quick sketch tonight. Didn't think about this much, just started putting shapes and colors down. The piece changed several times in a matter of minutes. Experimenting with motion blurs gave me the idea for rushing water, rocks became lily pads, and eventually added the blood running down stream. Not a polished piece by any stretch, but it was fun to let my my and body run wild for a bit.

Oh happy day! Received the official word from my boss over at Ninja Bam that I'm now permitted to post the work I've done for this particular project. The other one is still in development so for now these will have to do. Below are some environments, vehicles, & UI work that I did for the project. 

Tiling environments

All the vehicles have at least basic animations. The Ambulance, Fire Truck, & Police cruiser all have rotating wheels & sirens that spin/flash. The jet pilot is able to eject from the cockpit. The tank treads & wheels also animate, but were a special case requiring 3 unique images of the tread and wheels in different states in order to do so.

Basic premise behind the UI is a tire with various text. Initially "Ninja Bam presents" as the splash screen, but  afterwards the tire would rotate x number of times to the official title--"Travel Time" Also note that only a small section of the tire occupies the screen space at any given moment. What remains are various icons representing each of the select-able vehicle types on the UI screen. 

At this point, the general idea is that evil scientists are experimenting on a water elemental. The scientist will be lit from underneath by their monitors, which should help sell the idea. The main source of light will be the stasis tank itself. At this point I'm thinking of keep the majority of the image relatively dark and only illuminating the key points. Adding tight highlights to metal and other shiny objects should also adds some nice subtle detail to the darker areas. Also considering making the water elemental (a mermaid) transparent...the idea being that at first glance the viewer might think the tank is empty, but upon further inspection will see that there is in fact something in the tank based off how the light is bending and refracting off the creature. I'm apprehensive about my ability to render this to my satisfaction, but unless otherwise prompted will give it a go. I'm also considering the possibility of being able to view certain vital organs of the creature as this could also be interesting.  

Received some good advice from Andrew Runkle regarding the perspective of the piece. He suggested I employ a 3 point perspective to make the piece more interesting. I still plan to play with the various transforms in Photoshop in order to get the exact result I want, but even this minor change adds more interest to the piece. NOTE: It would probably be easier to sketch out the rest of the image first and then apply the desired perspective shift simply so I can work with more vertical lines.

What began as abstract sketching, has become this over the past two days. I'm still not exactly sure where I want to take this piece. I'm satisfied with the look of the stasis chamber and the floor inset, but the rest of the piece still remains in question. I may potentially push the whole piece left so the stasis chamber isn't as centered, but I'm undecided on this currently. The remainder of the piece (the room, the columns, and the observation area) are still very much WIP. 

The observation room in particular bothers me, but I'm not exactly sure what about it rubs me wrong. I may try to inset it into the dome ceiling on the upper right, with a whole panel of observers instead of just the 2. I also like the idea of the observers being behind the camera with their shadows being cast into the piece itself; although I'm not sure if I want the piece to be so ominous. 

The mermaid could also do with a more interesting design. The half human, half fish is overly generic, and I'd like to design something much more compelling; especially considering it's at the heart of the image. I imagine however, that this will take a considerable amount of time since I don't have much experience in this area. 

At this point, I'm still very excited for this piece. Here's to hoping I don't lose my passion or get bogged down with other work or menial tasks. 

Still working on my hand painted textures. The watery sandy rock texture is a WIP, but I'm calling the viney wooden boards done for the moment. I wouldn't say I'm satisfied with it (namely the boards look too flat) but, it is what is and I a like what it represents. Until next time...

This is my first blog post of what I hope will become an archive of any and all art I deem worthy of being posted. To start with here are two textures I've somewhat recently been working on. The only goals I had in mind while making these were to hand paint them and make them aesthetically pleasing (if only to myself).