TF2 - Scout Class Combaticon 02

OK! So after the rough image is approved, I start with the vehicle finals. With this game, the Designer, Chris Tremmel (who by the end of the game, was Creative Director along with Joby Otero - both fantastic) had some specific ideas for vehicles, and we based this one on a concept Humvee, kind of a light utility vehicle. Still military, but trying to keep separate from the Sector 7/NEST vehicles from the films. i mainly start with the vehicle to give myself two things; time to envision where the parts might come from for the bot mode, and to pre-create those elements to use as I construct the bot mode...


The movie guys have the luxury of using real vehicles through licensing, but for the games (and usually the toys!) I needed to alter enough of the real world vehicle to make it our own, and avoid any legal entanglements, mostly by redesigning lights, bumpers, grills - small details like that.

So this Decepticon star was an early design that eventually had to be scrapped, due to a policy of not combining real military symbols with Transformers symbols. I loved it so much, I kept it for my portfolio, though in the game, it's just a white Decept symbol for the Combaticons.

Usually this image comes after both the vehicle and robot are approved, but in my portfolio I place it in between; it provides a nice transition between the two. I create a basic illustration of how the vehicle transforms into the bot, %50 transformed, to mostly show balance points, and any complicated manuevers that might not be obvious. I give this to Justin Thomas, the Art Director (and Man among men) to help as just a starting point for his team.

Tomorrow, Robot Mode...

TF2 - Scout Class Combaticon 01

Whether or not they're are still called Combaticons, that was the working title for this batch of characters...sadly my game is still shrink-wrapped and mocking me on the coffee table until I get time to play it!

As with everything, it all starts with very simple sketches/thumbnail ideas to find form. I really only spend about 15-20 minutes (or less!) per sketch, it's kind of a flood of ideas at this point.

After we settle on an idea, I take it to the next step, a grayscale over a tighter drawing. I incorporate the vehicle form, the bot form, and if I can, I try to drop in a little action sketch to help find the personality.

So this is the image that gets sent to Hasbro for approval to continue on to the final.

Going on vacation soon...

...and I'm double-booked until the day I leave, so no more time for after hours work to post!

But when I get back, the Revenge of the Fallen game will have come out, and I will start posting all the characters I worked on for that game, so get ready for weeks and weeks of Transformer-y goodness.

I did 12 characters, some with alternate paint jobs, plus a weapons system, plus 4 downloadable characters for Xbox and PS3, so get ready...!

Creature Final!

All right, I went back in during lunch, and turned it from the Light Green Lagoon, to the Black Lagoon.

Final!

Creature 06

Still not quite done...!!!

It's the Creature from the BLACK Lagoon, so I still need to finish the water before I can quits on this one.

I just now got double-booked, so I'm hoping to squeeze in a bit more time today to get this guy finished!

Creature 05

And now, here is the wash of color. Fairly final for the paint, but I'll do a few more touch ups before hitting it with the pencils.

I kind of winged the background, and I think I'm going to suffer for it, and have to put a lot of work with the pencils to bring out the foliage. This is why you spend the time in pre-pro kids, I don't know how many times I have to learn this lesson...

Creature 04

Whoops. I meant to scan just the drawing first, but I guess I got too excited to get some paint down. Oh well.

Not too much different from the test, a little more of the legs, and some simple foliage in the background. I spent more time on the drawing to get a more accurate representation of the creature design.

Ignore the line, it's a 12x18' paper, just a bit too big for the scanner, I didn't feel like scanning three times, that's just a digital artifact.

Creature 03

And here is the final for the test, with some color pencil to brighten the brights and darken the darks, with a little white gouache to pop the highlights...on to the REAL one!

Creature 02

Here is the wash and rough details for the Creature drawing I did last Friday. These watercolor sticks are pretty cool, and they make a perfect texture for this characters rough skin. I used a few different techniques for this; drew right on the paper with the stick, and then pulled the paint out with water. I also left the stick in the water and used the colored water more traditionally as a stain, and then used the brush to draw off the stick and into the water, just like I would a blob of tube paint. Pretty fun.

Well...it looks like Blogger is being a little fussy today, I was going to post the final test image as well...maybe later.

Creature 01

I got some watercolor sticks to try out, sent to me from a great artist named Che Lopez, who I went to school with, who (in addition to all his other work) runs art classes at Daniel Smith up in the Seattle area -

http://artofche.com/Site/Home.html

I've been gearing up to do a Creature from the Black Lagoon piece, and since I just got these (and need a break from the digital stuff) I figured why not now?


Here's a couple of loose sketches with the watercolor over top. On the right, I'm just trying to get a feel with blending and adding multiple colors, and on the left I want to see what I can do to work over top the paint with some colored pencils.


Here's a more properly set up drawing to paint over, still in the testing phase, so nothing will be too tight at this point.

All right, off to do a bit of painting...!

Little busy right now...

...here's the Ravage from the Soundwave pic.

Concept Art - APC 04

And now the grayscale for the APC. A bit more detail added, but I already (in my head) redesigned the front wheels to remove the bracing and beef up the interior wheel, keeping the tires the same thickness.

Concept Art - APC 03

Here's the drawing for the APC, you can see I used the set up to base this version on.

Botcon 2

In a word...glorious.

I had a quick meeting with Hasbro that made my heart sing. I can say no more.

But just you wait...