JAC Art

More from Trail of the Twister

2011-10-07T01:27:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple more pics I had to do for Trail of the Twister. The first is a weather truck, the second a type of "spring house" harboring a well within.

Grange

2011-08-21T19:02:00.000-07:00

Here is a "Grange House" that shows up in "Trail of the Twister" that I had make.

A couple more barn pics.

2011-08-15T04:54:00.000-07:00

The top pic there is a device I had to "invent" that is meant to be a backpack that sucks up rodents.

The barn!

2011-07-09T03:39:00.000-07:00

These shots are from the game Nancy Drew: Trail of the Twister. Basically, it's a barn that was converted to a garage.

Cellar

2011-03-06T17:48:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple more shots from Nancy Drew: Warnings at Wavererly. I had to make a cellar with a pretty crazy looking furnace. On the opposite side of the furnace we put a wall puzzle, and around it there had to be a wall that leaked, so I was asked to make it look as if there were shapes made by the leaky wall. The shape would change each time you went in and out of the cellar. This is the spider shape. As with the rest of the art fromt his game, I modeled and lit it in 3D Studio Max and worked with Zack Rock on the textures.

Walkin' around the corner

2010-11-21T22:52:00.000-08:00

Just another couple shots.

Ramsey Hall Entrance Comparison

2010-10-31T17:17:00.000-07:00

Here is a comparison between the clear, snow, and night versions of the entrance to Ramsey Hall that I made for Nancy Drew: Warnings at Waverly Academy. Please note that I did not work on the room you see beyond the door's glass.

Welcome to Waverly

2010-09-26T05:27:00.000-07:00

So we finally move on to images from "Nancy Drew: Warnings at Waverly Academy". The game pretty much takes place entirely in and around the building you see here, which is basically a dorm. I was responsible for the exterior, but what you see here is a shot with snow everywhere, and that only happens later in the game. I had to render this environment with 3 lighting setups. Of course I will show more images later that show the difference.

I modeled and lit this environment with 3D Studio Max. I worked with Zack Rock on the textures.

Cave Diving

2010-08-15T22:33:00.000-07:00

While I made both these shots in 3D Studio Max, they were designed for a 2D puzzle where the player navigates an animated sprite of Nancy Drew through an underground cave diving maze. This is only a couple shots from around 30 used in the actual puzzle.

Double-XP Upate

2010-08-07T03:53:00.000-07:00

My "personal time" art projects have still been centering around my comic blog site, http://double-xp.blogspot.com/. So, just wanted to post a few bits of pics from some of my recent comics.

Blue Hole

2010-07-17T04:11:00.000-07:00

So here is another environment from Nancy Drew: Ransom of the Seven Ships. The blue hole as actually a place the player can go cave diving amongst a couple other activities. Of course in the game the water is animated as well.

Monkey center arrival

2010-06-14T01:56:00.000-07:00

This is the first shot the player sees when arriving at the monkey center via the golf cart. Again, this shot is taken from Nancy Drew: Ransom of the Seven Ships.

Double-XP!

2010-06-09T11:09:00.000-07:00

I haven't been posting as often as I'd like due to a new comic blog I've been working on with my friend. So, I've been posting a comic there every other week and that's been taking up a lot of my personal art time. Here is a link to the site:

http://double-xp.blogspot.com/

Here's a couple pics from my comics:

Monkey Center

2010-05-18T14:08:00.000-07:00

This is an area meant as a habitat for monkeys on the island in Nancy Drew: Ransom of the Seven Ships. In the final game, there are also several leaf rustling animations and several monkeys hanging out that the player can interact with.

A Couple more beach things...

2010-05-02T12:32:00.000-07:00

In addition to the environments, any item you get as Nancy Drew within those environments has to be created by that evironment artist. As an example, I wanted to show an image here of a metal detector you need to get. I also added a shot of the sand that you see at one point just to show how some of the scenery looks close up.

Squatter Camp

2010-04-05T07:24:00.000-07:00

I thought last weeks would be the last of the Sangre Beach shots, but I decided to show these since I don't really consider them the same area. Basically, you can take a path away from the main part of the beach and end up at a small squatter camp. In the game there is usually a character sitting on the stool, though I didn't work on the character so I'm not including him here. The top shot is what you see when you turn to leave the camp, and the bottom is the camp itself.

Snow from Final Fantasy XIII

2010-03-29T00:55:00.000-07:00

The game I've been playing most recently has been Final Fantasy XIII. So, when I decided to sit down and sketch something this past weekend, I just went with one of the characters from the game, Snow.

Some more Sangre Beach!

2010-03-29T00:45:00.001-07:00

Above, we have a pic of where you first show up when getting to the Sangre Beach location in Nancy Drew: Ransom of the Seven Ships. Your main mode of transportation in the game is a golf cart, so in any environment you go to you have an establishing shot of said golf cart. Fortunately, I was the one to create the golf cart, which was pretty fun.

And the last two here are just a couple more shots from the main beach area.

I modeled and lit these shots in 3D Studio Max. I worked on the textures with Jayme Cory.

More pink sand!

2010-03-08T02:52:00.000-08:00

Here we have another shot of the beach I made for the game Nancy Drew: Ransom of the Seven Ships. This shot shows more of the pink sand and a bit of the water, which in the game was animated.

I used 3D Studio Max to model and light this scene. I worked with Jayme Cory on the textures.

New Sketches

2010-02-28T22:20:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, at home I am having some issues with 3D Studio Max, limiting my work with it. Still, I wanted to do something this weekend and just drew a few characters. The one in the middle is Duke from G.I. Joe, once more cementing my place as a child of the '80s. The other two are just random characters that hopped in my head.

Beach Path

2010-02-27T17:06:00.000-08:00

This shot is from the game Nancy Drew: Ranson of the Seven Ships. I had to make a beach that was meant to have sand that's pink in color, which apparently is a real but rare occurance. I will show more of the beach later on but for now I chose this just to show some trees and foliage that I worked on.

I modeled and lit this environment in 3D Studio Max. I worked with Jayme Cory on the textures.

A couple "Phantom of Venice" shots

2010-02-15T01:42:00.000-08:00

Here's a couple more shots from the game "Nancy Drew: The Phantom of Venice". One shot is an exterior you see right in front of the office's building. The other is from a puzzle that takes place in a set of sewers.

Both of these pics were done in 3D Studio Max. Kris Ulmer helped with the textures.

3D "College" Josh

2010-02-15T01:35:00.000-08:00

This is a model I made sometime last year. The model is based off a cartoonized version of myself from college. I didn't intend to focus too much on the texturing, just wanted to make a fun model.

This was modeled in 3D Studio Max.

Me

2010-01-31T23:49:00.000-08:00

This week at work I started on a new game, so most of my creativity is going towards something I can't show. However, I did a quick digital sketch of my face sans glasses. I also decided to throw in another render from the office environment I showed last week. This pic includes a stuffed cat, which is just a random thing you can find in one of the filing cabinets.

Office

2010-01-25T04:29:00.001-08:00

This scene is from, well, years ago now. It's from the game Nancy Drew: The Phantom of Venice, which was just the second game I worked on. This was meant to be a bare bones office that fit a particular characters personality, and it overall worked.

I modeled and lit this scene in 3D Studio Max. I worked with Kris Ulmer on the textures.

Leonardo with some color

2010-01-17T20:06:00.000-08:00

I decided to color Leonardo and go for a more painted look. I meant it to be a little more rough and loose, but I made one part look a certain way so I decided to do everything that way. I may go beyond this and add a background and the other Turtles, but it's not something I am going to work on immediately. Oh, and to those only familiar with the turtles from the cartoon and movies, the original comic had them all wearing red.

All the coloring was done in photoshop.

Old Room

2010-01-11T00:53:00.000-08:00

These shots are actually from the first game I made an environment for- Nancy Drew: Legend of the Crystal Skull. It was meant to be a simple but creepy room for an old lady that practiced Hoodoo. There were some nice touches when actually playing, such as occasional lighting flash and the rocking chair rocking and creaking on its own. I made this years ago now, and looking back on it, I have some fond memories but definitely see how the past couple years have taught me a lot.

I modeled and lit this environment in 3D Studio Max. I worked with Jayme Cory on the textures.

More images from the Hut

2010-01-04T09:02:00.000-08:00

I wanted to add just a couple more shots from the Hut environment.

Happy New Year part 2

2009-12-28T02:18:00.000-08:00

Here is the final version of the New Year's pic.

Inside the Hut

2009-12-21T08:13:00.001-08:00

I recently posted the outside of the hut environment from the game Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy. So, now we get to see a couple from the inside. The first is the first view you see once entering. The second is a closeup of some wicker baskets. The scene was fun to work on for me because I was able to provide some moody lighting and also litter the environment with an assortment of items.

I modeled and lit the environment in 3D Studio Max. I worked on the textures with James Silvers.

New Year Preview

2009-12-21T08:08:00.000-08:00

New Year's day is generally just another day for me. It usually marks the end of a Christmas or winter vacation for me and a lot of others, so it's never really been a time of celebration in my opinion. So, I made my New Year's card simply to have a reason to draw and color the character you see in this post- Grimlock. This is just the inked version of course, and I will post the full version soon.

2009-12-14T06:10:00.000-08:00

Moving on from the great hall, this pic is also from Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy. This is meant to be a run down hut found in a swamp like area. It was a fun scene to make and came out very close to how I originally imagined it. When the player gets here in the game, there's an animation of smoke coming out of the chimney that I used After Effects to create, which was faster and less render heavy then if I were to do it in 3D Studio Max like the rest of the scene.

I modeled and lit this scene in 3D Studio Max. I worked with James Silvers on the textures.

How to draw a human head!

2009-12-07T00:22:00.001-08:00

Everyone at some point or another who is in anyway interested in drawing has most likely come across a "how to draw" book. The pages usually consist of them first saying to draw some basic objects and then connect them in some way and "BAM!" You just drew your favorite character.

I have some issues with this. First, I haven't met any artist who I admire say this sort of book has helped them. Second, no teacher I have ever met has said these things help in any way. Third, they tend to ignore the fact that basic object drawing is more difficult then drawing something more complex, such as an actual person's face. The slightest mistake in a basic object is glaringly obvious.

This comic is actually inspired by one made in a similar fashion which was published in a magazine that I happened to have read a very long time ago. Unfortunately I don't remember what publication it was.

Upstairs

2009-12-07T00:19:00.001-08:00

Here are the last couple pics I want to post in the great hall area from Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy. These are just a couple shots from and upstairs hallway you go to via a set of spiral stairs.

Merry Christmas!

2009-11-30T04:20:00.000-08:00

Here we are with Optimus Prime placing a star on top of a tree along with a floating plate of cookies. I had a lot of fun making this, just like my other Transformer cards. Prime isn't really the best fit for Christmas colorwise, but he still has some red and it just seemed fitting for Prime.

Sabin & Edgar

2009-11-22T23:17:00.001-08:00

Sabin and Edgar Figaro, from the game Final Fantasy 6, are two of my favorite characters from... well pretty much anything ever. While I am still working on some coloring for other projects, I drew these two over and just decided to post them.

Armor of the great hall.

2009-11-22T23:12:00.001-08:00

Here's just a couple more shots of the great hall from Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy. The second shot isn't actually in the game, but at the time I was making the armor and testing out the lighting, I rendered this shot and decided to keep it around. You never really get to see the armor this close in the game otherwise.

Leonardo

2009-11-16T01:41:00.001-08:00

Yes, it's true, I'm a child of the 80's. This past week I've had a lot of extra things I needed to get done, especially on the weekend (my main time to work on any personal projects), but I did manage to draw up this guy. I don't know exactly where I plan on going with Leonardo here, but I know that when I do add some color to him, I'm going to try something different from the Transformer pics.

Navigating

2009-11-16T01:30:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple shots from inside the castle from Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy. One is when you initially enter into the great hall and face the fireplace. In the actual game I used particle effects in 3D Studio Max to animate the fire. The other is while still in the great hall and looking towards an archway leading to spiraling stairs. For those who don't know, the Nancy Drew PC series plays like Myst- an adventure/ mystery/ puzzle game where the player navigates through areas via prerendered backgrounds. The lights you see in these shots are meant to be a blue, illuminated liquid, which is pertinent to the story.

I modeled, lit and animated everything with 3D Studio Max. I worked with James Silvers on the textures.

2009-11-09T02:41:00.001-08:00

So here are some more pics from Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy. These are both from the exterior of the castle when first getting to the castle.

I modeled and lit these in 3D Studio Max. The textures were done by myself and James Silvers.

A couple steps...

2009-11-07T00:45:00.001-08:00

So now I just wanted to share a couple steps in making the Transformer holiday cards. First, I make a pretty loose sketch in my sketchbook (of all the places for a sketch!). For this project, my reference was the actual figure of this character. The sketch itself didn't take long once I knew what position I wanted him in, but actually decide on the pose, or trying different ones and not liking them, can be the time consuming part. Once I'm happy with the sketch, it gets scanned in to my computer.

So then the pic gets taken into Photoshop and I digitally ink the lines. This allows me to have some nice, clean lines and also allows me to improve the perspective of areas that are off that I couldn't tell from just sketching.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-01T01:33:00.001-07:00

So, just like with Halloween, I made a Transformers themed Thanksgiving card. The character I went with is named Rodimus, who happens to have appropriate Fall coloring, and he also has some pie! You may think that since he's a Transformer, that the pie slice he's eating would have to be from a giant pie, and you would be right.

As with the last one, I drew the character in my sketchbook, then scanned him in and used Photoshop for inks and colors.

Driving!

2009-10-31T04:05:00.000-07:00

Since my last post was 3D art that I made for a game called Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy, I'm going to share some other images from that game before I move on to showing 3D art from anything else just to keep things a little organized. The last image was a downloadable wall paper, but this image is actually from the game, so the size is a bit smaller.

This pic is actually from the introduction of the game. Nancy is supposed to be driving, and since the game takes place in Ireland, the steering wheel is on the right side. When you view this scene in the game, it's actually all animated. The camera is animated to simulate the bumps of the road, the scenery is going by, the steering wheel is moving (thought you never see Nancy so her hands aren't there), the meters are slightly animated and the mirrors also reflect the passing scenery.

I modeled, animated, and textured everything in 3D Studio Max and used Photoshop to create the texures. Also, I used After Effects for compiling layers and adding some subtle effects.

Great Hall

2009-10-25T02:53:00.000-07:00

Here is a wallpaper you can download from herinteractive.com. It's from a game I worked on around two years ago. The pic is of an old castle's great hall that's actually had large chunks of it blown out. In the game, the great hall is also getting set up for a wedding ceremony.

I modeled the environment with 3D Studio Max and I worked with James Silvers on the textures.

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-25T02:35:00.000-07:00

This isn't my most up to date pic, but since I haven't posted anything yet and it happens to be close to Halloween, I am going to post this first.

It's a Transformer! I decided to take on an odd project- making holiday card style pics with Transformers. Why? I'm a pretty big fan of Transformers and the holidays so it seemed like a good idea. This character, Sideways, isn't too well known outside of Transformer fans but I thought the color scheme worked well for Halloween.

I sketched this pic and used Photoshop to color it.