Orcs Must Die! Characters, Weapons, and Traps...

Here are a few of the assets I created for Orcs Must Die!

Karyn

A few weeks ago a friend of mine asked me to create a FB avatar for her. Since I enjoy the Fantasy genre I naturally decided to turn her into an elf... which she wasn't quite expecting BUT thankfully she loved it and I enjoyed creating it.

a Soldier

This past Christmas Holiday my aunt snail mailed me a black and white wallet sized photo of my Dad from 1965. It was his US Army Basic Training graduation photo. I decided to take illustrating it for a test drive.

Given it was black and white, no Flag depicted in the photo, and overall a fairly poor quality pic I had to roll up my sleeves and do some home work. I researched the uniform hues, my Dad's MOS insignia (Military Occupational Specialty... ie... his job), and other aspects in an attempt to breathe life and authenticity into the final illustration. Admittedly, omitting Old Glory would have been more authentic however more modern military graduation photos have the Flag as a backdrop... so I decided to add it for color\detail interest.

Overall this was a very fun\special personal project. Hope you dig it!

Critter style study...

This is a critter that I created within Zbrush for an art style study we were doing at Robot Entertainment. We started out realistic and then were directed to push the style a bit.

Orcs Must Die! Kobold Creature... First Pass Version...

I created this version of OMD!'s Kobold early in the game's development while we were R&D'ing the look of the game. At the time we were going for a more realistic look. This critter was based on a concept by Brad Crow and Nate Stefan. Once I finished up this version of the Kobold I went on to Age of Empires Online to finish up their units. Chris Moffit finished up the OMD! critter R&D and landed on what you see by the latest, and final, image releases of the game. The team settled upon a look that is much more stylized. I think the final, more playful, look fits the overall vibe of the game much much better!

The Fist Fighter: He's Sockin' it to Evil GOOD!

Click on the link if you'd like to learn more details about The Fist Fighter...
http://www.robotentertainment.com/blog/detail/SUPERHERO-THEME-PT.7-Fist-Fighter

Age of Empires III Artwork

It's about time I got around to adding some of my Age of Empires III artwork.

Freedom Bot Operator

The following image was created as an entry for Robot Entertainment's Art Blog. The theme for this series is fittingly... Robots. I had a great time working on this illustration. For a detailed write-up and work-in-progress images feel free to visit Robot Entertainment's website.

http://www.robotentertainment.com/

http://www.robotentertainment.com/blog/detail/Art-Blog-Robots-Part-1

Blast from the Past: Anvil of Dawn YouTube Walk-Thru

KaurTube40 recorded a complete walk-thru of the first game I worked on... Anvil of Dawn. A 2-D (with a dash of 3-D) fantasy RPG that came out for the Christmas holiday 1995. Current Blizzard Entertainment Artist Mike Nicholson pointed me to these videos. I worked with Mike on Anvil at DreamForge Intertainment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuEwlpq3k2o

A few creatures and other assets I created for Anvil include...
Creatures: Looking Horror, Messenger, Thunder Demon, Drowned Sailors
NPC's: Book Thing, Captian, Ghost, Oracle, Ranger, Second LT, Weapon Smith, Waterfall Mage
Weapon: Fire Bow
Misc Objects: Healing and Magic Alters, Wooden Lute Crate (with metal fittings), various accent tapestries, locks
2-D Cinematics: Sage waking up, Tower and Tree morphing from destroyed\ decayed to rebuilt and healthy.

I also had the pleasure of illustrating the spot illustrations for the Anvil of Dawn cluebook... some of these illustrations can be seen within my blogspot.

I need to send KaurTube40 a big thanks for recording this walk-thru. So many people that I currently know from the DreamForge days are watching and luving these videos. Its so cool to see and hear this game in action after 15 years. Priceless!

Color Version of the Trolloc...

Finally tossed some color on the lineart version I did a bit ago. The style of the game Borderlands inspired how I went about this piece. I wanted to add many more details such as an insignia painted on the shield and such but there comes a time you just have to call something done and move on to the next adventure.

Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time Trolloc

I read the Wheel of Time during my college years. I found the world, characters, creatures, and the lore very inspiring and interesting. One of the main creatures that always stuck in my noggin where the Shadowspawn's Trollocs. These creatures made up the bulk of the Shadowspawn's mainline infantry type units. Animal DNA magically fused with human... Trollocs were very cool creatures to read about and inspired me to create my own versions while in college and here today.

This Trolloc would be Man fused with Ram. A lower level mix version... more Beast than Man... this creature cares little (or even fathoms) rank adornment, vanity items, braids, etc etc... his armor is picked up from the things is slays... and even then a higher ranking\ higher intelligence Trolloc has to put it on for him.

All this creature knows is torment creating a furiosity to kill.

Hopefully I'll kick out the color version soon.

Robot Entertainment Saturday Morning Cartoon Art Blog

Hey all... over the past few months my fellow artists at Robot Entertainment have been kicking out images based on themes selected by our staff. Our newest addition is “Saturday Morning Cartoons”. I selected Skeletor from The Masters of the Universe. I have an affinity for the Fantasy genre so this seemed like a natural fit.
http://www.robotentertainment.com/Blogs/Detail/SMCP1

The Art of Prime IGN Article

I had the pleasure of being interviewed for an Art of Prime article that IGN put together. It was published in '04 but it's still pretty interesting for Metroid fans that may not be aware of it. Fellow artists that were interviewed were Mike Sneath, Andrew Jones, and Leroy Strauss. I don't necessarily agree with the "Shadowy" adjective used in the article's headline but... I had a good time answering the questions and feel as if IGN put together a great article.

Check it out... Art of Prime

Metroid Prime Samus Statue!

Very cool! A bud of mine that worked with me on Metroid Prime, Mike Sneath, pointed me to this statue. I created the model\ textures of her for the game based on concepts by Andrew Jones. This statue captured her exactly as Andrew and I created her... every armor segment is spot on. First 4 Figures did a great job on the statue!

Excerpt from the statue press release-----
With the instantly recognizable bulky round orange shoulder pieces, Samus Aran’s Varia Suit has served the interstellar bounty huntress well. Her Varia suit, with the ability to resist even the most extreme of temperatures, has helped Samus on her quest of aiding the Galactic Federation in defeating the Space Pirates and eradication of the deadly Metroids.

First 4 Figures is extremely proud to present Samus Aran’s Varia Suit, the first collectible statue in First 4 Figures’ highly anticipated suit series based on Retro Studios’ Metroid Prime game trilogy.

First 4 Figures has used the official game files in order to create an extremely accurate recreation of the Varia suit, with pose inspiration taken from official Metroid Prime Varia Suit artwork.

Games that I have worked on...

That would be "shipped" games. For every shipped game there is usually an equal number of games that never had the opportunity to make it to the store shelf. However, these games receive just as much TLC and effort. Even these unshipped games serve a purpose... there are alot of lessons learned (and hopefully some extra eyecandy to share :)

Halo Wars... more stuff

Halo Wars

Metroid Prime

RavenBlade

Various Armor Sets from Mythica

Some Past Concept\ Anvil of Dawn Clue Book Illustrations