Hey guys, I have moved all operations to a new domain. It will function both as a portfolio and a blog.
www.jason-w.com
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
D3 Art Contest - The Ear Collector
Hey guys, recently I've finished an illustration for the Diablo 3 Art Contest. I played the original Diablo, but was only really hooked into the universe with Diablo 2. I remembered spending countless hours doing Mephisto and Baal runs. Naturally, I am very excited with the long-awaited Diablo 3. And since there was an art contest tying onto the release date, it was the perfect opportunity for me to show my eagerness for game.
IDEA
To be honest, I did not try the Diablo 3 beta. I wanted to start the game afresh - in its most polished state, so I refrained myself. My busy schedule during the semester definitely helped me accomplish this. Therefore, I did not know a lot about Diablo 3. The official site and the numerous concept art definitely helped me in visualizing what the game was about.
For the idea of the piece, I turned back to Diablo 2 for inspiration. There were already a lot of technically superior submissions for this contest, and I knew I had to compete on another area. With the 'success' of the LoL fanart contest, I've once again decided to focus on storytelling from my own experience with the previous game.
One of the unique items in D2 was the ear. It was something left behind by the victim after he or she has been PK-ed. It did not serve any purpose, other than for bragging rights; a trophy item. I pitched the idea to my friend, Jacky and he added that I could make the main character a ear collector. Sometimes you get the best ideas from bouncing it off other people who shares the same interest.
I initially wanted to go for a Demon Hunter and Witch Doctor combo, since they were the 2 character classes that I was interested in trying out when I lay my hands on the game. But I swapped out the Doc for a standard Barbarian as the victim for the final illustration.
LINEART
I wanted the pose and proportions to be accurate, so I took a few photo references with the help of my friend Zishen. Together with other photos of the female anatomy (from my other.. references), I was good to go.
I sketched out the original composition in my notebook. However, I do not have access to a scanner at the moment, so I can't post that up. I usually begin my process on paper, as it allows me to think about the bigger picture, rather than be bogged down by the details at such an early stage. Once I'm happy with the rough drawing, I do another rough drawing on Photoshop. The good thing about the digital process is that I can make use of the transformation and liquidfy tools to get my proportions right before starting to paint.
I am still not very comfortable with doing very precise lineart in Photoshop. Therefore, I usually take 1 or 2 additional passes to lockdown the tiny details. Many people ask me why I bother to refine my lineart, since the final piece does not actually show any of it. My answer to that is simply because it is easier to correct any mistakes at the lineart level. In general, its easier to shift and manipulate things around when they are in their basic forms.
PAINTING
I steal color palettes off other illustrations. I do that all the time. But I only start with their colors in the base layers, and go through several revisions of curves, color balance and hue tinting. The end result is usually something that doesn't really look like the source material, so in a way, I think its still considered ethical...? Anyway, this step of the process is extremely quick, with the aid of a big brush. The key thing is to set the lighting and the color temperature of the piece. I always create a top layer filled with black and set on saturation blending mode to constantly check on the values of the piece. If this step is done right, it is very hard to screw things up.
Next, I go ahead and detailed the environment. The focus of this piece is the 2 characters, so I avoided making the background too elaborate. I prefer to work in 1 layer, as it allows me to quickly adjust the hue and values just by switching the blending mode of the brush to multiply, color dodge or overlay. Here, I made the lower third of the image more purplish so that the painting doesn't look too monochromatic. After the environment is done, I moved on to quickly rough out the characters. Instead of concentrating on just one area, it is best to quickly identify the highlight, midtone and shadow areas of the entire figure. As I mentioned earlier, it is easier to make any adjustments early on during the painting.
And now.. the slow process of detailing. Every now and then I switch to a soft brush and adjust the contrast of the image using the brush blending modes. I added some motion blur effects to emphasize the force of her movement. I also used liquidy to adjust her arm and thigh thickness.
And it's done! The finishing touches include adding a few photo textures and setting them to low-opacity overlay modes, doing a few rounds of curves and color balance and sharpening the image.
Had a lot of fun doing this piece. Don't forget to 'like' the picture if you.. well, if you like it:
http://reveal.diablo3.com/en_EU/art_contest/#!/gallery/most_recent/4832
15th May couldn't come sooner!
IDEA
To be honest, I did not try the Diablo 3 beta. I wanted to start the game afresh - in its most polished state, so I refrained myself. My busy schedule during the semester definitely helped me accomplish this. Therefore, I did not know a lot about Diablo 3. The official site and the numerous concept art definitely helped me in visualizing what the game was about.
For the idea of the piece, I turned back to Diablo 2 for inspiration. There were already a lot of technically superior submissions for this contest, and I knew I had to compete on another area. With the 'success' of the LoL fanart contest, I've once again decided to focus on storytelling from my own experience with the previous game.
One of the unique items in D2 was the ear. It was something left behind by the victim after he or she has been PK-ed. It did not serve any purpose, other than for bragging rights; a trophy item. I pitched the idea to my friend, Jacky and he added that I could make the main character a ear collector. Sometimes you get the best ideas from bouncing it off other people who shares the same interest.
I initially wanted to go for a Demon Hunter and Witch Doctor combo, since they were the 2 character classes that I was interested in trying out when I lay my hands on the game. But I swapped out the Doc for a standard Barbarian as the victim for the final illustration.
LINEART
I wanted the pose and proportions to be accurate, so I took a few photo references with the help of my friend Zishen. Together with other photos of the female anatomy (from my other.. references), I was good to go.
I am still not very comfortable with doing very precise lineart in Photoshop. Therefore, I usually take 1 or 2 additional passes to lockdown the tiny details. Many people ask me why I bother to refine my lineart, since the final piece does not actually show any of it. My answer to that is simply because it is easier to correct any mistakes at the lineart level. In general, its easier to shift and manipulate things around when they are in their basic forms.
PAINTING
Had a lot of fun doing this piece. Don't forget to 'like' the picture if you.. well, if you like it:
http://reveal.diablo3.com/en_EU/art_contest/#!/gallery/most_recent/4832
15th May couldn't come sooner!
Sunday, April 29, 2012
And so...
...I failed in my resolution to post at least once per month on this blog.
Anyways, here are some selected artworks from the semester that just ended:
For the 3rd assignment for the Concept Art class, we were required to create a character that would fit into an environment chosen by our lecturer. I picked something that looked kinda steampunk as it was an area where I have not really explored. Came up with a few sketches, and she preferred this one. For the final illustration, I tried to imitate Dave Rapoza's method of rendering, with heavy emphasis on chiaroscuro.
The final assignment was to create a boss fight scene. There was no restriction for this assignment, and we could go for whatever style we fancied. And since I already did a 'realistic' boss battle scene, I decided to go for something more cartoony. I tried to keep the characters fairly simple in terms of design, choosing instead to focus on the composition and epic-ness (adding more than the stipulated requirement of at least 2 characters). In terms of style, I did not actively try to imitate anyone for this particular painting, choosing instead to fall back on what I've learned thus far. I wanted to illustrate the fun of playing an MMO with friends, and I hope I've achieved that.
The bulk of my time from the past semester was spent on 2 main modules. The 3D animation project and the sequential art class. And today, I am glad to present you the completed 16-page comic from the sequential art module. I took this project as a challenge to improve my painting speed and I'm glad that I could finish it on time.
You can download the entire book here: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?r6u48950qhdz4pt
This semester has not been exactly smooth sailing for me, but I'm happy to have made it through in one piece. Here's hoping things do improve next time around.
Anyways, here are some selected artworks from the semester that just ended:
For the 3rd assignment for the Concept Art class, we were required to create a character that would fit into an environment chosen by our lecturer. I picked something that looked kinda steampunk as it was an area where I have not really explored. Came up with a few sketches, and she preferred this one. For the final illustration, I tried to imitate Dave Rapoza's method of rendering, with heavy emphasis on chiaroscuro.
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| Witch Gone Wild Detailed Sketches |
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| Witch Gone Wild |
The final assignment was to create a boss fight scene. There was no restriction for this assignment, and we could go for whatever style we fancied. And since I already did a 'realistic' boss battle scene, I decided to go for something more cartoony. I tried to keep the characters fairly simple in terms of design, choosing instead to focus on the composition and epic-ness (adding more than the stipulated requirement of at least 2 characters). In terms of style, I did not actively try to imitate anyone for this particular painting, choosing instead to fall back on what I've learned thus far. I wanted to illustrate the fun of playing an MMO with friends, and I hope I've achieved that.
 |
| Boss Fight Detailed Sketches |
 |
| Battle at Sundown (Boss Fight) |
The bulk of my time from the past semester was spent on 2 main modules. The 3D animation project and the sequential art class. And today, I am glad to present you the completed 16-page comic from the sequential art module. I took this project as a challenge to improve my painting speed and I'm glad that I could finish it on time.
 |
| Shadow Wind Cover Page |
This semester has not been exactly smooth sailing for me, but I'm happy to have made it through in one piece. Here's hoping things do improve next time around.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
The Rough Road Ahead.
Things aren't happening as smoothly as initially thought. Certain complications during the game project has resulted in me leaving the team. For reasons unknown, my friendship with a good friend of mine is going through a tough time. And my grades took quite a dive this mid-semester. However, this being the mid-semester, there's still plenty time to remedy it!
First, an update of my artworks so far:
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| Creature Design for Concept Class |
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| PRJ300 Character Design |
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| PRJ300 Character Turntable |
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| PRJ300 Robot Design |
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| PRJ300 Environment Design 01 |
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| PRJ300 Environment Design 02 |
Seems like I will be in for a tough time animating this and finishing every other assignment... But I will not give up!
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Happy 2012!
OK, so I'm like... 7 days late to the party. Anyways it's been a good holiday and I've managed to accomplished quite a fair bit of the things that I've planned to do. I worked on 2 art pieces during this time period:
The first was a 3D model of Akane, the villain character which I designed for a Projects class a few semester back. The main objective of this exercise was to brush up my 3D skills in preparation for the next Projects class (3D Animation Production). I ended up rushing a little to finish this model due to time constraints (I didn't want it to 'spill-over' to the next semester) and thus the results were slightly unsatisfactory.
The second was for a League of Legends fanart competition. The artwork was inspired by a joke from my friend, stating that teaming up with one of my weaker (in terms of LoL skill level) friend was like playing in a 4v6 match. The goal of this painting is not to insult noobs, but rather to display the fun we had as a class when we played the game together. Irregardless of skill level and whether we were 'feeding' or 'owning', we managed to enjoy the experience.
I've recently switched to dual display and it has caused quite a bit of confusion in terms of color and values for me. This is due to the different calibration settings on both monitors. Thus, I am unsure which one is more 'accurate'. I had to ensure that the painting looked good on both displays, and that definitely took up a fair bit of my time.
With a new year, there are also some changes and some new things to look forward to. Firstly, I want to update this blog on a more regular basis, with a target of at least a post per month. OK, maybe a post-per-month isn't all that 'regular', but at least it won't be a once-per-semester kinda thing.
As mentioned above, there's the big 3D animation project that's coming up. But perhaps what's more exciting for me personally is the game project that I would be involved in. It's still in the idealization phase (and frankly, I haven't gave it much thought yet, due to my involvement in the 2 artwork above) but the prospect of working with all the talented people in the team is a good reason to be excited about.
All that plus the start of ICT and plans to have a year-end trip with my cousins, 2012 is beginning to shape up to be a busy year.
The first was a 3D model of Akane, the villain character which I designed for a Projects class a few semester back. The main objective of this exercise was to brush up my 3D skills in preparation for the next Projects class (3D Animation Production). I ended up rushing a little to finish this model due to time constraints (I didn't want it to 'spill-over' to the next semester) and thus the results were slightly unsatisfactory.
The second was for a League of Legends fanart competition. The artwork was inspired by a joke from my friend, stating that teaming up with one of my weaker (in terms of LoL skill level) friend was like playing in a 4v6 match. The goal of this painting is not to insult noobs, but rather to display the fun we had as a class when we played the game together. Irregardless of skill level and whether we were 'feeding' or 'owning', we managed to enjoy the experience.
I've recently switched to dual display and it has caused quite a bit of confusion in terms of color and values for me. This is due to the different calibration settings on both monitors. Thus, I am unsure which one is more 'accurate'. I had to ensure that the painting looked good on both displays, and that definitely took up a fair bit of my time.
With a new year, there are also some changes and some new things to look forward to. Firstly, I want to update this blog on a more regular basis, with a target of at least a post per month. OK, maybe a post-per-month isn't all that 'regular', but at least it won't be a once-per-semester kinda thing.
As mentioned above, there's the big 3D animation project that's coming up. But perhaps what's more exciting for me personally is the game project that I would be involved in. It's still in the idealization phase (and frankly, I haven't gave it much thought yet, due to my involvement in the 2 artwork above) but the prospect of working with all the talented people in the team is a good reason to be excited about.
All that plus the start of ICT and plans to have a year-end trip with my cousins, 2012 is beginning to shape up to be a busy year.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
The Art of Flip's Adventure - A Post Mortem
Some links for more information regarding the game:
Facebook page
I was tasked to redesign the art about 3 months ago, before the start of the Fall semester. Here's how the game looked before:
To the programmers' credit, they did take the effort to find sprites that sort of fit into 1 theme. I quickly did a few thumbnail drawings and color tests to see how I can improve the look. They gave me full liberties in terms of art direction, but I did not want to go too far off the original template they present me with.
I won't post any of the subsequent production art as I don't want to spoil anything for the potential players. The game should be out for download sometime between Christmas and the start of 2012, so do check back the Facebook page if you're interested. I shall proceed to share some lessons I've learned during this project.
What Worked
More than 50% of the art assets completed before the start of the semester
Fall 2011 was a relaxed semester, by Digipen's standards. However, I was still busy enough to go through a couple of late nights. That's why it was always good to already have much of the project in progress before the start of the semester. I will like to thank the programming team for spending the Summer holidays looking through and approving the art. Establishing a firm groundwork for the art pipeline is quite crucial, and we were able to start polishing and cleaning up by mid term.
Good communication between artist and coders
I think this is the most important thing to nail when it comes to game production. Very often, the artists don't get along well with the programmers, and it really hurts the production. When working on Flip's Adventures, there were very few instances of me having to go back and forth between my own work and the programming side. Everything seem to flow pretty smoothly, and thus the art production was pretty much on schedule for most of the times. Being on schedule allowed us to polish more and eventually add more stuff into the game (including the game story and achievements).
No clear style
I wanted to follow the somewhat Sci-Fi looking theme originally presented by the programming team, but the end result looked like a mash up between futuristic and steam punk. This, coupled with a generic main character resulted in the programming team having to squeeze their brains to come out with a coherent story that can tie the whole game in. Once again, I blame this on the lack of research on my part. Testers mentioned the lack of a 'wow' factor, in which I totally agree.
In conclusion
This project is by no means a failure. In fact, it is quite well received by the lecturers and my peers. However, I do find a lot of room for improvements on my own part, and I'll definitely work harder on the next game project.
Facebook page
I was tasked to redesign the art about 3 months ago, before the start of the Fall semester. Here's how the game looked before:
To the programmers' credit, they did take the effort to find sprites that sort of fit into 1 theme. I quickly did a few thumbnail drawings and color tests to see how I can improve the look. They gave me full liberties in terms of art direction, but I did not want to go too far off the original template they present me with.
I won't post any of the subsequent production art as I don't want to spoil anything for the potential players. The game should be out for download sometime between Christmas and the start of 2012, so do check back the Facebook page if you're interested. I shall proceed to share some lessons I've learned during this project.
What Worked
More than 50% of the art assets completed before the start of the semester
Fall 2011 was a relaxed semester, by Digipen's standards. However, I was still busy enough to go through a couple of late nights. That's why it was always good to already have much of the project in progress before the start of the semester. I will like to thank the programming team for spending the Summer holidays looking through and approving the art. Establishing a firm groundwork for the art pipeline is quite crucial, and we were able to start polishing and cleaning up by mid term.
Good communication between artist and coders
I think this is the most important thing to nail when it comes to game production. Very often, the artists don't get along well with the programmers, and it really hurts the production. When working on Flip's Adventures, there were very few instances of me having to go back and forth between my own work and the programming side. Everything seem to flow pretty smoothly, and thus the art production was pretty much on schedule for most of the times. Being on schedule allowed us to polish more and eventually add more stuff into the game (including the game story and achievements).
What did not work
Not enough research
This is the main grip I have with the art produced for the game. I have to admit that I was too eager to jump into production. This is my first game in what- 3 years? I wanted to start immediately, and therefore I skipped the research process entirely. And this mistake really came back and haunt me later on during the production. One main complain about the art was that everything looks too blocky because of the tile-based sprite system that we were using. I really should have surveyed other similar platforming games to see how the professionals deal with this problem.No clear style
I wanted to follow the somewhat Sci-Fi looking theme originally presented by the programming team, but the end result looked like a mash up between futuristic and steam punk. This, coupled with a generic main character resulted in the programming team having to squeeze their brains to come out with a coherent story that can tie the whole game in. Once again, I blame this on the lack of research on my part. Testers mentioned the lack of a 'wow' factor, in which I totally agree.
In conclusion
This project is by no means a failure. In fact, it is quite well received by the lecturers and my peers. However, I do find a lot of room for improvements on my own part, and I'll definitely work harder on the next game project.
Epic Art Time
Here's a shout-out to an experimental site that me and my classmates are trying to maintain.
EPIC ART TIME
We're trying to create something similar to Gorilla Artfare, where like-minded artists can share WIPs and resources to help each other grow and improve. I don't think you'll need to register to post comments, but if you are interested to join the community, just send a message to Max, the admin of the site.
EPIC ART TIME
We're trying to create something similar to Gorilla Artfare, where like-minded artists can share WIPs and resources to help each other grow and improve. I don't think you'll need to register to post comments, but if you are interested to join the community, just send a message to Max, the admin of the site.
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