Bonbon Voyage - Gingerbread House

And finally, the gingerbread house. I wanted each side of the house to be distinct so that if and when the player caught a glimpse of it from withing the labyrinth, he would have a reasonable chance of orienting himself at least in relation to the central landmark.

The production schedule was getting pretty crunchy by this point, so the orthographics aren't nearly as well noted and explained as I would have liked. Luckily, I was working closely with my modeler and texture artist, the fabulous Brandon Orden, and we were able to clear up the more ambiguous bits face-to-face.   

Bonbon Voyage - Gates Orthographic

The next orthographic for Bonbon Voyage. 

As the player approaches the hedge maze, the first thing he finds is a large gated yard filled with tantalizing candy treats. The initial idea was to slam the gates closed behind the player, forcing him to make his way to the gingerbread house in order to escape. The further we got into game development, however, the more we realized that this step wasn't necessary - the player wanted to explore whether or not he was locked in. Closing the gates only served to frustrate those avid explorers who insistented on scouring the whole game world to illuminate every last lamppost.

Bonbon Voyage - Hedge Orthographics

This is the first orthographic design I did for Bonbon Voyage, a game in which the player must work his way through a labyrinth of hedges and candy to reach the gingerbread house in the center. 

We knew we'd be using a ton of hedge pieces and connecting them at odd angles, so the cylindrical topiary piece served to hide the corners and create visual interest without limiting how the hedge units could fit together.

The candy cane lanterns lit up when approached by the player, helping him to recognize territory he'd already explored.

Goes Around - Prop Design

Here are the orthographic designs I did of prop and scenery units for my film, Goes Around.

Mo'kai Character Sheet and Still Frame

The final character sheet offers a comparison between the original concept art and the 3D model.. Below is one of my favorite frames from the film. 

Mo'kai is running a time trial through an obstacle course as a right of passage. The film opens on him navigating the final stretch of a high-tech pipe gorge.  After nearly missing his leap over a deep chasm, he crosses the finish line and struts away victorious.

While the story is short and simple, this project was mostly about pulling off an entire film by myself. Character design, world building, and design documents were prepared ahead of time from a loose prompt. Then the remaining visual development, modeling, textures, rigging, animation, rendering and compositing were crammed into a single 14-week semester. Most of the work was done in 3DS Max, textures created in Photoshop, and compositing done with After Effects.

Phorbas of Argos, Armored Satyr

The idea here was that the creatures of Greek myth stuck around and were simply incorporated into the societies which developed in the Mediterranean after the fall of Rome. I placed this guy roughly in the period of the early Crusades, which gave me some liberty to mix and match periods of armor. He's a mercenary with a collection of pieces picked up along his journeys. 

When it came to the animal anatomy, the biggest challenge was getting the right mechanic without making him look dainty and unstable. He's supposed to be a warrior, after all. For that, I looked at the chunky hoofs of Clydesdales and beefed up the leg muscles accordingly.  

Polly Watson

My inspiration for Polly was the golden era of movie musicals, specifically a book I'd been reading about the backstage culture on the sets. As opposed to the typically quiet and good-natured backup dancers, "the knitters," whose body shapes and measurements are all uniform within a very specific range, Polly is a leading lady, and her forms are more extreme and exaggerated. As soon as she walks into a room, you can tell that she'd never fit in with the chorus line. Despite her talents as a dancer, her career will not last long because of her spoiled diva attitude, racy costume choices (Bare navel! In the 1930's! Scandal!) and tumultuous attempts to seduce the film's producer. 

Will Fain Concept Art

This is the concept art for my first human character to be modeled in 3DS Max. The face and proportions are modeled after my friend Will, and the character design was inspired by the story and world-building of Janelle Monáe's albums, The ArchAndroid and Metropolis. It is a retro-future in which it is possible for an android to be persecuted for falling in love with a human. While I didn't invent the concept of an electro-dagger, it was fun to imagine what one would look like.  

Character Design of Joni Johnston

This character design is based off a good friend of mine. I wanted to play with proportions and shapes while clearly expressing her personality and style.