Matte paintings

So, by now it is clear that I won't be working with Dreamlords anymore, in a few months time, hopefully the game will live on somehow.

That said, I have a few paths I could take after that. One of them, that I will post about here regularly from now on, is matte paintings. 

Basically, there is a workplace for me, if I can learn how to properly render images of city-scapes. But I really haven't done stuff like that for ages... So I will use the contacts and tutorials I have at my disposal to try and learn it.

This right here is a paintover I did, with no real knowledge on what the hell I am doing :-D

But it will serve as a base to understand what I need to do, what I need to improve etc.
Some things I learnt by doing this first image:










* I just did this with no particular thought on WHY, or WHO is going to use this image. This is not really ideal, since I don't really now what details to add, colours to use or anything.  If I had a theme, or was trying to say something with my image, it would probably have been easier

* I have a lot of flat surface, which makes the paintover look very basic and cartoony. I have used some textures, but the lack of detail hurts the image.

* Everything from "feel" to what to include in the scene is depending on what I want to portray, so for the next one, I will try to think of a theme and THEN go image-hunting.

Basically, it looks like shit, but it's ok for learnings sake. In the past, I would probably just have tossed the painting in the bin, but I gotta learn this stuff :-)

Makin movies

Started to make some videos again and to practice I started with editing a movie about the excellent Invasion mode for good old DOOM (using the SKULLTAG ENGINE). Video is available at 480p




Then on to the real deal with collecting clips I made for trailers for Dreamlords, into it's own movie. I didn't have a lot of time to make these, and as the only graphical artist, there was no time to build any 3D-assets, so I tried to make the best use of 2D, with some details like hair and capes to make it come alive. (Be sure to check it in HD)

Soldier boieeee

So I tried something I generally don't do, a realistic soldier :-P 

Still done with my style though, a bit cartoonish. And pretty bland too. A well, onto something else.

Pirate Lass, again

Couldn't abandon my little pirate lass, so I gave her one more image, wanted to "frame" it with a circle of some kind, so I used the fire from the match and the bomb to do it.

1. Idea

 

 2. Lineart

    

3. Basic colours

 

4. Tones and final touches.

Dreamlords GUI

I´ve done so much GUI work for the 3 Dreamlords games that it is silly :-D

I tried to gather some of it into a collage for my portfolio site, but I barely touched the surface, since most of these buttons and icons also have 4-5 states as well.

As time went on, I used more and more colour and and bigger elements. The first GUI-stuff looks pretty bleak and small compared to the later stuff. I was a bit afraid of colour in the beginning since I was new, and didn't want to be the "intrusive artist". :-P oh well, in the end it was just me left anyway, so I let go and added saturation. And it was for the better to be honest.

No need to use grey in our games as well, we have enough bleak tones in everyday life :-)