Monday 28 October 2013

My most recent art work

Coda - Environment concept from my IP project

Key Moment illustration from my IP project

Character Illustration I did for practice

Environment concept that I did for fun
I realised I havent updated my blog lately, this is a bunch of work I have posted over at my other sites. Most of my recent artwork will be found in my course modules to the right of the main page. I don't have much time for personal art at the moment, so it will all be course work for the foreseeable future.

Saturday 17 August 2013

Amvanei IP Project, Legend of Korra fan art, and available for freelance

Hi everyone, heres a rather large update to keep this blog up to date with my other sites. Firstly I am currently posting a lot of my work in my new online sketchbook over at CGhub.com you can see wips of my work there, and it is generally the best way to keep up to date with what I am doing at the moment. http://cghub.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19745

I am currently working on a intellectual property project, that I am hoping will tie all of my work together, my goal is to use the project as eventual preproduction work for my final masters project next year. My previous work on the action RPG I will try to implement into this project.

Below is some of the work I have done so far.

This is a rough version of the world of Amvanei where my IP takes place. The colours represent the different biomes in the world.



To get the project started I initially created 3 mood illustrations of locations in the world, my focus was on showing the biome in particular. These are locations primarily found in the Northern hemisphere of Amvanei.


An illustration depicting the pirate Galazeal Mora as he destroys and Ladanian merchant skip and evades capture.


An illustration depicting the town of Mah'ladahs harbour, and central trading port of ladania.
Today I finished this illustration as well which was done for a change of pace. Its an illustration of Korra, from Nickelodeon's animation the Legend of Korra which is a great animation that I highly recommend. I based the textures of her costume off of Inuit reference I gathered, since I wanted to go for a more realistic depiction of the character so that it fit with my other illustration work.


And finally I am also available for freelance work, please be aware that new clients will be expected to pay 10% of agreed upon final commission upon receipt of my initial sketches. Please send all enquiries to my work email at: enquiries@chrisreillyart.co.uk ill get back to you as soon as I am able.

Sunday 14 July 2013

Huntress, action rpg progress, and new sketchbook

Huntress
Female Player design model sheet

Grunt development sheet
Here is a collection of my recent art. The first one is an illustration I have just finished for my portfolio. I am currently doing a series of 3 targeted (company/genre etc specific) illustrations in a aim to get work.

The last 2 are from my summer project which I am putting on hold for now whilst I complete the portfolio illustrations. The first is the model sheet for the previous character design I posted. And the second is a grunt development sheet.

I also have a new sketchbook over at CGhub.com. Im trying to keep it updated with my most recent work. I will post all my work in progress shots there. Cghub sketchbook

Sunday 30 June 2013

Flooded Tomb level section

Female player character design

Rocky Beach Illustration
High rez here: http://scriar.deviantart.com/art/Rocky-Beach-381887688


Here is a bunch of work I have done recently. The first is the final level section for my summer project. Its a flooded tomb concept, I decided it would be some sort of entrance area to a dungeon. The next is a female player character, part of my summer project brief. And the last I just finished is from a sketch I did the other day, I decided I liked it enough that I should take it to finish for fun.

Monday 17 June 2013

Summer Project - Crossroads, and Fortified Hamlet concepts

CrossRoads

Fortified Hamlet
Since I am on my summer holiday; whilst those that started my course in september are doing their final projects, I thought it best to do my own self initiated summer project. My goal is to add to my portfolio of work, prepare for my own final project which ill undertake next year, as well as giving a more structured approach to my own study. The above are the first 2 designs for levels in the game.

Here is the brief I have set myself:

The Brief

You have been tasked with designing a level and its contents in an action RPG game. You will also be expected to model some of your designs.

Action RPG. Ala Fable, Kingdoms of Amalur, Batman Arkham franchise, God of War, Torchlight, Diablo etc Or create in sub genres, such as an MMOARPG such as Guild Wars 2, WoW, Rift, Tera etc.

This can be a game based on pre existing franchise as listed above, or it can be one of your own design. (I decided to go with my own design so I potentially have my own I.P to develop upon)

Aim:

Concept art section:

Design 3 sections of your chosen game level. In Kingoms of Amalur for instance this could be the opening area to a dungeon, its mid section, and the final boss area. See the concept art for Torchlight 2 and Kingdoms of Amular. If designing for an mmo this could be 3 unique points of interest within a particular section of a zone example a village, a watering hole, and an enemy encampment. Might be worth planning your overhead layout for your designs first.

Design the players character the character should look like they fit within the world of the game. If choosing a game with a clear protagonist such as Batman. Then you should create a unique character that can be played within the context of that world.

Design a grunt npc – npcs that you fight on a regular basis, not usually very strong individually. Almost always found in groups, for example the bandits in Fable. Perhaps split these in to 3 designs, a character that fights at range, one in melee, another who is a nuisance npc (throws bombs, hinders the player character etc)

Design a squad leader npc – a special unit, still a unit that appears regularly but is much more powerful individually than the grunts. Usually these types of enemy npcs come mixed with the grunt npcs. So create a visual link between the two groups is advised. An example would be the baton carrying grunts or the dual weapon wielding grunts in Batman Arkham asylum.

Design a mini- boss or Special type of creature, example the Titans in Batman Arkham Asylum, the special powered creatures in Torchlight. These could be unique mobs or lieutenants of the boss etc

Design a Boss. Remember that usually the boss is a reflection of the level design and the previous npcs are usually the minions of the boss or have some relation to it. Doesn’t have to be friendly to the previous characters, for example maybe its a experiment gone wrong or a creature the previous characters were trying to secure for their own purposes. Moreover this could be a rare unique boss that appears randomly in the level, however again it should look like it belongs there.

All characters or creatures must have model sheets which include front, back, and side views.

Create a prop/modular asset sheet. Props or assets would be things like weapon racks, barrels, piles of rubble, buildings, walls, vases, books, shelves, treasure chests, coins,etc basically the things you would use to populate the level. Usually these can be unique designs for that particular level or modular. Think of each one as having a specific purpose either to enhance the visuals of the level, or to have an effect on game play. Example see the prop sheets for Torchlight 2, or have a look at dungeon prop sheets.

Design 3 weapons this could be a low level, mid range level, and a high level weapon. Or it could be 3 unique weapons that have specific functions example the boomerang, sticky bomb paste, etc in Batman. Alternatively design 1 main weapon, and 3 unique attachments or upgrades for that weapon.

Design 3 armour sets or costumes for your main character. Like the weapon this could be a low level, mid level, and high level set. It could be also be 3 variations of the same armour such as in WoW where you get different tiers of the same armour depending on the difficulty of the dungeon.

Alternatively design 3 unique items that create a set to be collect. Such as the special sets that give you bonuses in Torchlight.

Create Icons for your weapons/armour/utility items. Basically anything you have to select in game to be used/picked up etc. Create a sheet with all of the icons on.

Create a splash screen/main menu background for the game, ie the contents page for the game that has new game, multiplayer, options etc on.

3D section:

All 3D work to be based on previous concept art.

Model:

1 Character, either main character, grunts, boss, etc.

3 weapons or utility items

3 props or modular pieces such as a building, vase, treasure chest, book shelf etc

Aim to texture all of your models.

Create all models to a UDK reference size

Either render all items in UDK or create a render in Maya using mental ray.

Summary:

Concept art section:
Design 3 sections of your chosen game level.
Design the players character
Design a grunt npc
Design a squad leader npc
Design a mini- boss or Special type of creature
Design a Boss.
Create a prop/modular asset sheet
Design 3 weapons
Design 3 armour sets or costumes for your main character.
Create Icons for your weapons/armour/utility items



3D section:

1 Character
3 weapons or utility items
3 props or modular pieces

Sunday 2 June 2013

War Magi version 2


This is a reworked version of this Illustration [link] that I did for my portfolio just before my MA started. I thought Id try improving it now that I'm on my summer break :)

I started initially by changing the pose and rendering, then I tried adding more figures. In the end I felt it would be better to essentially just redo the whole illustration from scratch by cropping it down and make it more focused on the character.

Sunday 7 April 2013

I found some time to work on my environment that I posted previously. This is what it looks like at the moment. Spending most of my time with course work so I havent had the chance to do much personal art or studies.

Easter break has finished now, Ill be back at uni tomorrow so I have no idea when Ill be able to finish this piece.

Friday 15 March 2013

Autumn Fortress work in progress

Since the wordpress blog I have set up is hard to navigate I decided it would be better to make multiple blogspot blogs for each module of my course where I will be posting the course work I am doing currently.

You can navigate to these by clicking on the links to the right.

Ill be consolidating my sites when I get the time, I have stretched myself far too thin. I neither have the time, nor the inclination if I am honest to constantly update every blog and sketchbook I have.

At the moment I think I will keep this blog, deviant art, Cghub and twitter. I will be deleting everything else. My facebook page as well since it feels pretty pointless to post there, I think I might just add a followers button instead.

Anyway I dont want two posts in a row thats just text, so here is an Environment concept I am working on when I have the time.

Monday 25 February 2013

Hey everyone, as mentioned my course started a few weeks ago as such much of my time has been spent doing university work. You can see everything I have been working on, on my course blog here http://chrisreillyillustration.wordpress.com/.

Hopefully at some point Ill find some time to do personal work and 3D work which Ill be posting here.

Saturday 9 February 2013

WarMagi illustration. This is a personal piece for my portfolio, just wanted to do something fun ha.

Im starting my MA in Concept art for Games and Animation at Teesside on Monday, cant wait it looks like an even better course that I first thought. Theres life briefs, and lots of lifedrawing opportunities as well which Ill definitely be taking advantage of.

Only thing I am not looking forward to is Dissertation round 2 :s

Thursday 31 January 2013

Here is a 3D project I have been working on, its based on this miniature: http://fantastische-welten.blogspot.de/p/ausweg.html



These are the initial models with the UVs sorted out and a checker texture applied to make sure its all working. At a later stage I had a better idea of how the UV mapping worked so I think in retrospect I should of spent more time in this phase as I had to redo the UVs for some of the smaller models in the scene.


A progress shot on the texturing.


And the final model with the texturing and a light set up in Maya as well as the hand painted textures that I used for everything. I used 256x256 for the most part, 1026x1026 for the main brick texture, and 512x512 for the ground and arch. I was hoping I could do the lighting and rendering in UDK, I had all the collision set up as well. I was having too many problems with it in the end as such I think Ill leave that part until I better understand the program. The fact that I thought you could just import a fully textured model and that was that, pretty much shows my lack of understanding of the program.

On another note I will be moving to Teesside tomorrow, as I will be starting my MA in Concept art for games and animation in a week or so time. Still waiting on funding (PCDL loan) but at this point its just a matter of waiting on paper work, so hopefully it goes in on time.

Wednesday 23 January 2013

A new illustration for my portfolio. I wanted this to originally be my final illustration of 2012 but I decided to make it a multi figure piece to really challenge myself so it ended up taking much longer than I had originally planned.

Also I will be studying an MA in Concept art for games and animation at Teesside in February, I've been on the fence about studying an MA for awhile. Originally I was looking at doing one for 3D as there's more work in it quite frankly lol But im no where near good enough yet to get on an MA for that so I decided I might as well kill 2 birds with one stone and do a course that improves my concept art whilst also giving me the flexibility and time to learn 3D. 

So lately ive been rushing around trying to organise for that, everything was very last minute. I got my unconditional place on ... CHRISTMAS EVE -_- As you can imagine it was impossible to get anything sorted out at that point so I had to nervously wait until January convinced it was too late to do anything.

Atm I'm waiting on finance but its taking so long Im going to have to travel up there without it, luckily it seems I am going to get the full amount after all - was not exactly optimistic on that front lol but I've been given a preliminary acceptance by co-op just waiting on the last paper work now. So I figure its worth the risk to move up there at this point, now to sort out accommodation and move up there, most likely next week lol (told you it was last minute).

If anyone ever chooses to do an MA dont decide to do it 2 months before the course starts I can honestly say that it wasn't the best choice I've made in retrospect ;)