Sketchbook: Ian Snyder

[hobodactyl]

Hey everyone, we're finishing up our game Gammon Trigger, and I'm starting concepts for our next game. Right now I'm just working on my concept skills and trying to get a feel for the world.

Crits are definitely expected! :)

For now I'd also like responses as to if my concepts are giving you any sort of feeling of a place, or if they're just too empty now. Blah blah, anyway, here's what I've got so far :)

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/desert_concept_2.jpg

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/desert_concept_1.jpg

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/team1_concepts.jpg

Here's one of my first concepts, probably won't be using it but I still kinda like it :P
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/concept1.jpg

Right now I'm focusing on developing two distinct cultures, and what I'm showing now is what I have for one of them, so let me know if these guys don't feel cohesive to you. I've got a story brewing around, I'll post some details when I have some more interesting concepts to go with it :)

[konstruct]

INTRESTING INDEED- (I dig your handle btw, more things need to end in "dactyl")
anyways, I really like your use of colors and overall brushwork. The environments would benefit greatly from some atmospheric perspective though.

something you might want to take into consideration as far making cohesive designs, is the silhouette is easily the most important part. Before color, paneling details etc, try and get some shared forms in the silhouette and you`ll be solid.

Silhouette is important because its what the brain recognizes before all else, so no matter how cool your details are. If your silhouette is wak it`ll hurt the entire piece.

Awesome work though. keeping my eye on this one.

[hobodactyl]

Well, here's something I've been working on for the John Howe Fan Art submission for this month. Not too happy with it, so any crits on how it could be improved are appreciated! The theme was "Tilting at Windmills," so the idea was to show a quixotic endeavor. I immediately thought of Ray Bradbury's short story "The Dragon," so this is kinda an homage to that.

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/iansnyder_drachen.jpg

[pangarang]

hey your concepts are looking pretty alright! I'd say your executions a little on the lacking side though. Try experimenting with different brushes to get some textures. Also, one really helpful tip I learned from way back when - is convert your images to black and white and see how much they pop then. It's a great way to see your value range. It may be a small quick fix, but sometimes the smallest things make the biggest differences!

keep up the great work.

[hobodactyl]

pangarang: Thanks a lot for the tip; I knew that my images often come out flat-looking, and the black and white trick should help me keep an eye on that! I've been lazy about experimenting with custom brushes, as well, and a little worried about becoming too dependent on them, but I'll start practicing with them.

Here's a practice sketch for the Gameartisans treehouse comp going on:

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/treehouse_wip.jpg

[hobodactyl]

Feeling pretty scatter-brained, trying to decide on stuff to work on. Here's the beginnings of a new environment I may actually finish up :P I was excited to get it into Unreal Ed (I haven't messed with it before).

Starting on a stylized Viking-esque landscape, kinda mulling over a back story.

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/viking_village_wip.jpg

[hobodactyl]

Just got some stuff into Unreal 3, so I'm excited :D This is on my crappy laptop, so I'm pretty sure most of the shaders aren't working right :(

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/ut3_ruins.jpg

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/ut3_ruins2.jpg

[hobodactyl]

Moar

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/viking_village_wip2.jpg

[hobodactyl]

Trying to put some stuff into Unreal 3; haven't been able to mess with shaders and lighting much since I'm on my laptop.

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/viking_village_wip3.jpg

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/viking_village_wip4.jpg

[hobodactyl]

Haven't been happy with my results in UT3Ed so I'm messing around in 3dsmax trying to get it how I want it to look; I may play around with some toon shaders or something.

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/1-1.jpg

[hobodactyl]

Hoping to be able to call this done soon, gonna take a break from it and see if I want to add anything.

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/viking_village.jpg

[hobodactyl]

Not calling it done soon I suppose :P Too many ideas for it!

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/viking_village_wipperoni.jpg

[Kawe]

ooh, I like the stylized look.

that thing that looks like a waterfall could use some work. at elast from the image you posted. in fact the whole last image is rather unimpressive compared to the earlier ones.. I was expecting a whole village. like.. 3-4 more buildings and maybe a town hall on another island.

maybe try turning up the lightmaps a little? see how it looks with shadows that is.

[hobodactyl]

Kawe: Thanks for the ideas! A big problem is I'm still learning about lighting in Max; I haven't done lightmaps or anything, I need to look up some tutorials on that. Right now I just have 4 FDirect lights :(

I'll see what I can come up with to make it more like a whole village!

EDIT: Any tips on lighting are appreciated :)

[hobodactyl]

More work on this stuff

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/vv1.jpg

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/vv2.jpg

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/vv3.jpg

[Ferg]

Hey man, really like how this environ is coming along, especially the way you've stylized the water texture. I think it could benefit from some tweaking, though, the normal map on the water is little too similar to the rocks. Maybe scale it down a bit so it tiles more, and alter the swirly pattern a bit?

Also might want to try playing the the shape of the windmill sails where they intersect in the middle, for some reason the overlapping squared edges don't quite look right... maybe if they were all cut so they tapered in at the center and didn't overlap?

My 2 cents.... cool project man, def be watchin it progress

[hobodactyl]

Thanks for the crits, Ferg, I made some changes based on that!

I'm ready to call this finished, but any crits are welcome.

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/vv2-1.jpg

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/vv1-1.jpg

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/vv3-1.jpg

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/vv4.jpg

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/vv5.jpg

[hobodactyl]

Here's where I got today; I figured out how to get the shadows working how I want, but I think I need to fix a few normals and UV's still. I tried cleaning up the tree a bit, blah blah :P Worked on the sky a bit, too.

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/vv6.jpg

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/vv7.jpg

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/vv8.jpg

[dark_lotus]

TBH - I liked the slightly "murkier" version (the one submitted yesterday) - it has a nicer feel to it. Maybe tone down the lighting some to keep it slightly softer. Other than that - it looks awesome :)

[hobodactyl]

Thanks dark_lotus, I've been super busy but I should have an update on that soon.

Messing around with making an old friend, still a lot of work to do:
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/crono_wip.jpg

[hobodactyl]

Think I'm done with this d00d:
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/beauty1.jpg

Might do some poses later.

[curry23]

Chrono! I never played Trigger, but I loved Chrono Cross in middle school!

[zenarion]

I love the way you texture, those rocks and trees are awesome!

[hobodactyl]

zenarion: Thanks!

Here are some concepts I've been working on.

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/char_lineup_1.jpg

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/desert1.jpg

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/hunter.jpg

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/shoot_out.jpg

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/town_streets.jpg

[Zephir62]

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/hunter.jpg


This is just waiting to ooze with cool, if only you developed it more

[hobodactyl]

Thanks, I'll work on that! Here's another for today:

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/another_moody_guy.jpg

[hobodactyl]

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/hunter_2.jpg

[hobodactyl]

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/mountainfortress.jpg

[hobodactyl]

Working on the Gameartisans minicomp:
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/gameartisans_monster_wip.jpg

[hobodactyl]

Update:
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/gameartisans_monster_wip2.jpg

[hobodactyl]

Nothing too exciting, just a study of a picture from Jordan:

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/jordan.jpg

[Kawe]

the last image looks hot.. literally :)

[hobodactyl]

Kawe: Thanks :)

More practicin'
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/riverbed.jpg

[hobodactyl]

Here's a new one; sorry, Bryan, loved your presentation too much so I wanted to try it with one of mine :D

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/scavenger.jpg

EDIT: One with less zany proportions:
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/scavenger_norm_props.jpg

[Japhir]

very cool!

but i've seen that exact presentation elsewhere... by another artist. (can't find the image right now though :()

ok found it: http://www.bryancavett.com/wip/merc_concept_ver1.jpg
i thought that his had the same background color as yours, but apparantly it didn't... :poly131:

[RazorBladder]

that kind of textured colour block presentation is intensely common among concept artists. Hawkins is particularly memorable for it.

[hobodactyl]

Japhir: Please read my post first :P

Razor: I figured it was pretty common but I definitely got the idea from Byan's concept :) Thanks for pointing out Hawkins, he's got really great work!

[Japhir]

ah sorry about that... :(. me = sorry, your character = cool :D

[hobodactyl]

Hey man no worries :P

Here's a new dude:
http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/scientist_alien.jpg

[JGalito]

the style of the rock structures, houses and the wind mill reminds me of psychonauts, as well as the textures and lighting.

[konstruct]

DUUUDE- getting better and better, those last environments and characters are looking pretty good.

[sub_roland]

Big fan of the last piece awesome little creature

[hobodactyl]

Thanks a lot everyone! I'm out of town right now but I'll try and get some new sketches up later this weekend :)

[JGalito]

i have made a few levels in unreal. there's a really good book that is made by 3dbuzz.com
another good site for unreal tutorials is http://udn.epicgames.com/Main/WebHome.html if you have any other questions i might be able to help. three levels that i made are simulations at a hospital and the other one is a simulation at the carnegie museum of natural history.

[hobodactyl]

Here's a new bad ass dude

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/badass_dude.jpg

[Japhir]

you're right, he's badass :D. very cool, though the feet look weird because of the huge boots.

[JGalito]

there is something wrong with the proportions and a little with the perspective. make sure that the understructure looks right in perspective as well as proportional before you get too detailed.

[hobodactyl]

Thanks for the crits guys, yeah proportions were a bit wonky :) Here's something I'm working on, any crits are appreciated; planning on adding details, but I'm not sure if that's enough :/

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/bad_alley_wip03.jpg

[hobodactyl]

WIP of my Character of the Week entry at CA; the theme is Red Sonja:

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/red_sonja_wip03.jpg

[hobodactyl]

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/red_sonja_wip04.jpg

[hobodactyl]

Guess my character of the week was too racy for photobucket :P Here's the new guy I'm working on:

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/thug_wip_3.jpg

[JGalito]

if you have your own website you could put images that you want on here from your ftp.

[hobodactyl]

Yeah, I'm not crazy about it, I may do that later :) Here's the last update on this guy for now, not really happy with how he's turning out:

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/thug_wip_6.jpg

[hobodactyl]

Here's what I've noodled out for the current Game Artisans minicomp:

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa76/lordkhronos/goatmonsterwip2-1.jpg

[Dakkon]

Love the angled horns. It's a nice contrast to the rest of the head.

I'd just be careful of losing detail in the face with that much depth variation.