Aliens discovered in old directory

Another previously unseen blast from the past. Found while looking through old directories- gee theres tons of little ideas like this just lying there.

Ancient History

Last Saturday night I helped farewell friend and ex workmate Mike Yeomans, who is returning to Canada. Inevitably conversations get to the where did you used to work sort of thing at these events.
Well long ago I worked at Auran on Dark Reign-
so to celebrate that some 13 14yrs-ish ago time
here are scans of hastily drawn storyboards for cutscenes that we never did for Dark Reeign. And a few other drawings of that time.
I came across them as I was looking through directories for my new website.

Witchy trolly pre sketch

Some troll head designs.

Witchy trolly zsketch

just quickly before getting onto little mates this morning. Its not quite like the thumbnail scribble I based it on. Its all bobbly zspheres still, like the dragon in progress, but I find even in this early form its encouraging.

Another hour on jetpack monkey

I think that's probably a good enough zsketch base- now for an attempt at the jetpack(and start sculpting this).
Still don't have much gorilla/monkey reference to speak of- what I really need is a shaved gorilla picture so I can see the form without obscuring fur- but I'm afraid to type "shaved gorilla" into google. I guess there are documentaries I could watch...but then its a 'fantasy' monkey...we'll see.

The dragony thing and the gargoyle are me goofing around with zsketch before bed. Dragon is looking a bit fell beast but I'll fix that.

Going down scribbling

Very quick scribbles before I try and work on a revamped website with my css learnins' this morning. A few trolls and troll ideas there too.

Jetpack Monkey

Well......... it will be.
Once I find out what gorillas look like.

40 Minute Headsphere fiddle

this morning before getting into other things
,its rough,and at the minimal 24000 points, but.....
Its fun.
Funny , its forty minutes of tinkering away rather than trying to get somewhere,
you think- I ought to get back to work but then you think "well I might as well add horns with the ol snakehook brush otherwise it wouldn't look z brush would it?"

I added a bit of an odd brush test below - yes yes I know it has cliche spike feet I just needed a surface to try stuff on.
I was trying to see whats more use- clay tubes or layer or inflate for scaly bits. I'm thinking inflate is the finishing tool for making things nice and defined- sort of steroids for your details.

More quick practice

I'm thinking I'd have to make specific brushes to do a landscape with any sort of resolution.

And whats with the beanie toys?-A quick test for a job that didn't eventuate-
(note to self and other illustrators-- don't do unpaid work on spec, .... people who expect something for nothing at the start aren't probably the sort of people who value your work or expect to pay properly for it if you did work with them)

Denver Gothic

more quick landscape practice

40 Year old ZBrush virgin

Well I'm doing it,
I'm learning Zbrush finally, (and also learning dreamweaver/CSS).
Sculpting will help my drawing and vice versa.
I'm glad I'm starting with the 3.5 version because its current incarnation is nothing short of awesome, and the interface to me now is super. Still though theres a fair bit to learn- mainly in terms of workflow/materials and optimal tools for particular tasks -esoteric sort of stuff -yet.... still though .....even with what I know already I reckon I could do a sculpt of anything I drew.
I need to try something which incorporates subtools or hard surfaces yet.
So here's some images-( and images of the crap initial things I was doodling as I read the manual/watched their videos).
The zsphere head was the first thing I did-just a standard brush but I had to start somewhere while I was reading.
The unfinished skull and dinos are freehand without ref-sort of initial tests- the trex has some odd holes. But the great thing is the way you can project what you've done onto a new base so you can't lose really.
I found later/after they have a tut with a skull with image planes...ah well thats ok,
Its amazing how it sucks you in and you could potter for hours detailing something.
I haven't spent much time detailing yet- just used their snakeskin brush on the dino's just because I wanted to see how some detail might look.
Trex doesn't have proper teeth- I was going to do them as a separate subtool- but I snake hooked a few points out so's he wasn't so gummy in the meantime.

Catch of the day -and a life drawing

I don't know why.... but 10 minutes spent before getting onto other work- this. Maybe I ought to join Peter Yong in his violent fridays, ......maybe I should start fishy friday.
The other drawing I did at QLD sculptors last night (got there very late..sigh) wasn't too bad but its still on the wall there-I'll get it and scan it next week.