Research L 14

I've decided to invest in environment design, I am forever in love with character design, the clothes, the little details such as small scars, motifs and visual values a person or creature can carry, but it's starting to feel like comfort zone, and as such I need to expand, to grow, I'm not sure how much of good quality these next environments may be, as Im still learning, but growth is something that happens to you, growth is not necessarily good and as long as we stick to good, we'll never have real growth.

The concept just really came to me, I chose an image that inspired me to do this concept but it was the concept I liked the least, or felt drawn to the least, I notice that the bar is often set too high when doing these, I go over ambitious to make something really really cool, and I get crippled by it's possible awesomeness when it's not working my way. I guess I'm afraid I can't pull off the ambitious or really good idea I have, so I went with a lesser one. I still get bothered when this happens, when I'm crippled by how cool a briefing is, but I guess it's just natural as Im not used to do environment designs, if it was a character or prop, I wouldn't have these worries.

I need to teach myself to find better reference, reference that works with me instead of agaisn't me too. I find that it does 80% of the job when I find the right element. Pinterest seems the best ally, as it suggests many other similar images based of one that I deem really good, into a narrower search.

/end ramble

Sculpting prototypes!

Here are some WIPs!
I'm sadly not able to commit to these as much as I'd like, (time-wise) because I've gotten a job as concept artist in May, my time is limited when it comes to personal work. :(

Nonetheless, I am pushing it as far as I can and not having that as an excuse not to keep shooting at it.I'm learning a ton off the record, I had to learn how to model hair with fibermesh, cards, Xgen, so much stuff, that I doubt that I will use in a regular base, but knowledge is power, right?

For now, here is a rough sculpt, I was going to show the rest of the body, but it's not as showable as the bust, there is a lot of details that I need to pinch together from the neck down, a lot of frankensteining to do before I show it all... I just wish a day had more than 24 hours... And I think I must have started over like 3 or 4 times on this sculpt all the while cursing Zbrush and everything that is digital...Anyway, after this chick is done, I'm hoping to do a couple of faster ones, with what I learned so far and turn them into a case study, as with this one I'm focusing more of design language, while the next I intend to explore other things, like storytelling, and really go home with the storytelling, as I feel that a image that tells a great story will always overshadow one that is synthetical well made, with all design theories there.
We'll see.

I feel there is a long way to go until this is done, but sharing WIPs is crucial for me, it helps me get a sense of what I'm doing, who I am exposing myself to.

Weatherdeep Kid Klan - A Post Apocalyptic tale

To continue the series of illustrations, I've gone a step ahead in storytelling and wrote a story that would complement the concept art I am currently working on.
I'll keep this brief and just post it below, welcome to my page, I hope you enjoy. :)

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Ambient

Three thousand years from today's date, after a age of strong climate change on Earth, the planet and it’s continents had started to move around, to destroy themselves and little by little, to reshape.

Now with new continents, in the once peaceful continent of Midian, it was born the peaceful nation of Weatherdeep, where it’s explorers who had been blessed to come by this land, filled with gold and zinc, had established themselves around two hundred years ago. It was not a long time to wait until the wealth and prosperous mood of it’s first capital to spread from the main city walls to outside, and new villages and ports all around Weatherdeep started to be built.

It was not long until the youngest of the explorers of the ancient tribe of founders, Jacob Kentucky, the mascot and dearest of the sailing crew, to earn the status of president of the main city capital, he took the land to glory, as trusty guardian until the next seven years…

To the north of Weatherdeep there is the independent city of Zion, to west lies the nation of Thile, and however the relations between them were always civilized, it was not long until some of the cities of Thile start to become jealous of the symbiotic relations between the capital and Zion, and if it was not enough, there were rumors of a deep vain wish of the nearby continent from the south, Hillrock, about the wealth and success of Weatherdeep.

The lack of information on the villages to the east, which was rich in technology in the pre-Midian era, started to show a lack of climate conditions to grow food within their land, forcing the scientists of each continent to develop their own technology and own resources, paving the path to the nuclear-organic war of the seven legions.

Old Tree house

A group of adventurers of the now deserted and ruined area of the old city of Sunnyside, took over a vehicle that was partly destroyed, from the pre-Midian era, a school bus to which they use has hangar, a bus that was not used for centuries and was once stolen by looters from an old museum of antiquities, and as such, was left behind later to be acquired by the boys clan.

There has been some time since the four brothers of no blood bound, have been searching for supplies to extend their survival in the wasteland, at least for as long as a couple more merchants passes by, which can take months to happen and it’s not really certain to ever happen to being with…

Of the four survivors, all are boys, of young age between ten and thirteen years old, one may meet: Headz, the team's sniper, ence the name; Benny, the closest brother to Headz; Moody, the clan shaman, who assumes to have some sort of psychic and healing ability, as doctor and then, Caesar, the self-proclaimed group leader, the one who has armors that are so heavy that he can almost not move from where he stands, all of them made from scraps, tires and other do-it-yourself garbage that may or may not help stop a bullet.

Six hours have gone by, Benny and Caesar find themselves heading to the village to the north, for a supply run.

Headz doesn’t stop from running his eyes on his telescope every now and then, which by itself was already an habit he picked up from being a sentinel to the group defenses…

Headz is always helped by the impertinent shaman, in hopes to finally see his brothers come back home, it doesn’t matter at this point if they return with empty or full pockets, all it matters to them is that they do return home.

When the moment comes that they give up on the watching for a while and rest their gaze from the surroundings to think about climbing down the house, they notice a glimpse, a light, that comes closer, probably a lens or reflective focus of some kind, something that blinds them for a few seconds.

They turn again and find a girl, almost a woman by now, but older than the ages of Moody and Headz combined together. She speaks:

<<Do you guys have radio antennas? I can pay… it’s kind of... urgent.>> She pauses, tries to force a smile and hide the fact she was nervous.

Even if they are little, they are not stupid, at all, the brothers don’t like to negotiate with adults, and certainly not with someone who they never seen around, but what matters is that the girl came with a modified bike, and that can be useful as a token of trade, antennas, batteries and junk they don’t need for a ride or even firepower help to take to the town towards north, it wouldn’t take more than fifteen minutes to get there, at least with that bike, and they would avoid the sand mutants, they wouldn’t catch the bike and would be scared off by it’s noise alone, they hate it.

She sighs and her facial expression changes to another level of deep anxiety. <<So, will you help me? I have this radio and I do not think it’s a broken antenna, I haven’t heard from two of my companions from my group ever since they infiltrated to the town up at north…>>

However they have always learned to do not trust the older people from an early age, and let alone someone with attributes from the opposite sex, as it is normal for boys of their age to distrust, the fact remains that she can be useful and her fear is visible… she is not that much older than them.

And after all, what is going on at the town at north? The supply run was almost a shot in the dark anyway, it is thought to not hold much in food or other useful items, since the last radioactive storm hit it. Whatever it is, Headz and Moody fill up with fury, end up agreeing and set up to meet and follow up north at around noon.

<<We will go.>> Headz says while he nods with his sniper rifle towards the girl, from up above the bus, casually pointing. <<But no funny business.>>

Whatever it is, they really get angry but above everything, they want to teach a lesson to whom or what it is that is causing all the ruckus.