Life isn't about finding yourself; Life is about creating your self.

[smuli]

The latest environments have very realistic palettes and I like the brushing on the terrains. I miss more variety for the brushes though, seems like you're just using a big soft and small hard brush. Get a good brush pack like M@'s or Barontieri's brushes, and experiment.

On the matte painting WIP, nice dilapidated feel but the black holes in the building look confusing. They could use some more definition of exposed construction beams and floors and such, as well as highlights on the edges. Good mood and composition though. I'm curious as for how you did it, did you use one or many photos for the photography part?

All in all, really good job with the environments lately, keep them coming!

[NyeAlexandaFrayne]

Thanks Smuli! Yea they mainly use the soft round a chalk brush, a few of the more foliage heavy ones uses some custom ones though. I will probably try to be a bit more experimental though

I agree with you crit for the matte painting WIP, the destroyed holes have a long way to go, there are going to be light sources from within the building such as fires or lamps etc so hopefully they will bring out some definition and make them the main focus point.

The matte painting WIP uses mainly one photograph for the base plate, with another sky photo and some other small elements. From this base plate some elements where taken out before any painting or other elements were added.

il post up a step by step when its done

[invinciblewombat]

the environments and matte painting are looking great, your figure stuff still needs work though, use reference on them and practice!

[NyeAlexandaFrayne]

@ invinciblewombat, Thanks, and yes i agree, my figures are lagging behind at the moment, im concentrating on enviro's for a uni project.

This is something i did yesterday? day before perhaps, not really too keen on it though.

[The_Flying_Dutchman]

Nice diverse work! especially the ambient occlusion mech platform renders. I've often had fun with basic renders and then overpainting them in photoshop, giving a piece the best of solid perspective and that painterly organic finish. Also with Z-depth you can create interesting density and fog in photoshop without murdering your hardware with a render. That's besically why I tend to go that way, because I don't have the processing power or patience to wait around for the rendering(which never looks as cool as when I might scribble).

Enough waffle. Good work, keep it up!

[NyeAlexandaFrayne]

~@ The_Flying_Dutchman, Thanks man! Yea i can see my self going that route in the future, i havnt really tried it myself yet, i think i still have much to learn before get to caught up in techniques which might hinder my progress, although a dabble in it will not hurt haha

Here are two more images that i created to test pipelines for my dissertation.

x

[smuli]

Great paintings, you've been really raising the bar lately! I like the composition and mood in the castle night scene, the chiseled look on the path and the rock around it look especially good.

On the two paintings on the last post, you've separated the foreground and background with values so clearly that I think it seems even a bit too extreme. The first one could use some soft highlights on the figures to tie it together with the background a bit, and on the second one too, the metal parts at least could use some highlights. The soldier's knee forming a tangent with the gun's contour looks confusing too, remember to pay attention to negative shapes. But nitpicks aside, I really like how you did the apocalyptic feel on the city, I really like the colors, smoke and ruined buildings on the background!

Great work with the environments, keep them coming!

[NyeAlexandaFrayne]

@ smuli, Thanks man, and cheers for the crit, now that you mention it see all of these things haha, ima try and sort them out tonight!

piece from today.

x

[NyeAlexandaFrayne]

update on my destroyed building.

[NyeAlexandaFrayne]

Here are two Youtube videos.

The first one is a 15 minute speed painting of three images i created during my dissertation.

The second is my first ever animation, created in 3Dmax, sorry about the size, i will have to render it in HD size one day.

[cricketts801]

Nice sketchbook

[Kambei Shimada]

Really nice 3d work your 2d work is improving too.

[Veshkau]

Great improvements. I like this one especially http://www.conceptart.org/forums/att...1&d=1337811537

[NyeAlexandaFrayne]

Great improvements. I like this one especially http://www.conceptart.org/forums/att...1&d=1337811537

@ Veshkau, Thanks! I really appreciate it! Means a lot coming from you

@ Kambei Shimada & cricketts801, Cheers! stop by again sooooon

Here are some larger stills from my animation, and some better renders of my low poly mech from awhile back.

[NyeAlexandaFrayne]

Making a game in one week.

(don't read this if you have NO interest in games production)

With all the coursework and exams finished students at the University of Bolton decided that they would undertake the challenge of making a game in one week.


The idea for game came from two third year game art students and one third year game design student.



The idea was to involve as many of the game students at the University of Bolton as possible, this included game artists, game designers and game programmers as well involving students from first, second and third years.



This week challenge was designed so that not only could the students have a game to show after the week was finished but also to gain some insight into how a gaming company operates and how the separate disciplines combine and work together.



This challenge took place within the University of Bolton but was very much a student run event. The students were left to do their own thing and the many tutors at the university only popped in every now and again to see the progress and give their thoughts.



The game concept was created though meetings that took place before the work week began and everyone involved had input towards the final game, either through the overall game idea and concept, mechanics, in game assets, textures, promotional art, website, GUI, trailers etc.



The final idea for the game was a racing game created within UDK. This was done so that we did not have to create an FPS and to keep the game accessible as possible. UDK also offered huge benefits for such a short production cycle (although the programmers were not too happy )



The game itself I would say is a cross between Wipeout and Motorstorm. The general idea is hover vehicles racing around an urban environment with the environment changing themes throughout the track. The style of the game was voted on and it was decided that a hand painted look would be the most efficient for the team to produce in a week and also stay relatively consistent within the team.



My role within the event changed as the days went on and I found myself working on various areas of interest. So a big thank you to everyone who made that possible! J I began by doing some quick concepts for the environment and some of the buildings that would surround the track.



Along with the concepts the team was tasked to create a logo for the development team itself, luckily one of my logo designs was chosen by the team. I showed six variants and the team voted for the top left, not my personal pick but almost everyone else voted for the same design.



The first day I started off working on the font that would be used in the menus and HUD. I did this by finding several free fonts that could be used by the team and combining, altering them to form a new font that suited our game. This took longer than I thought it would to create all the characters we would need but I think it was worth it in the end.



With the success of the ‘Bolton Dev Studio’ logo I was tasked to create the logo of the game itself which was ‘Accel Chroma’.



I literally had no brief or general direction for the logo and was just told to do whatever I wanted which proved to be somewhat troublesome. But with that I decided I would try to create an image which resembles something like a racing car of today but set in our world. With this in mind I thought of an extreme close up of one of our vehicles with ‘accel chroma’ perhaps being a sponsorship on the side of vehicles panels.



I had no idea if people would like the idea but I ran with it anyway haha. I had to create everything in the image myself. I would have liked to base the vehicle on a side shot of one of the vehicles in the game but the 3D models were not yet completed at this time. The font used was using the characters I had created for the in game font previously. The rainbow effect on the text was not my decision but still made it into the final logo design



After the logo I joined the grind and started producing 3D models and textures. The models created were all pretty low poly and the textures were created from taking other members texture work from other models and adding my own elements for my models. This included elements such as windows and signs. This was done to save time and to try and keep the style consistent.



And that I believe is all the different types of work I managed to squeeze in to the week. I really enjoyed the week personally; I think I managed to stay away from most of the stressful stuff unlike some of the members trying to manage the event haha. What I found really great was the experience of it all, just looking around the room to see everyone working on their own thing but knowing it’s all connected and all adding to a much larger objective.

Was really great to see and a good insight into how it works in the industry. It was also good to see first, second and third years collaborating on something not in university time or for a uni project. I don’t think the final game was the best thing to come out of the week, I think the experience of doing it was and I think every other member that took part would say the same thing.

BELOW ARE SOME OF THE IMAGES I MADE FOR THE EVENT AND SOME VIDS FOR IT.

[NyeAlexandaFrayne]

First thing that isnt an enviro in months. RIP Andy Whitfield.

[NyeAlexandaFrayne]

horrible sketch from today.

[NyeAlexandaFrayne]

trying to fix a few things.

[NyeAlexandaFrayne]

progress, doing them RAS rails was a ****** ball ache..

[NyeAlexandaFrayne]

progress. again.

[NyeAlexandaFrayne]

progress. slow and steady.

[NyeAlexandaFrayne]

still at it.

[NyeAlexandaFrayne]

half way.

[NyeAlexandaFrayne]

Not much progress, drew a little more and i tried to sort out some some shit on it, re-sized a few things, and tried to sort out the line weight a little, trying to use thicker lines around edges of certain parts etc.

[Kambei Shimada]

Nice stuff man, its crazy though you kinda approach your 2d work like its a 3d model your making. Interesting approach.

[smuli]

The soldier piece is shaping up nicely, impressive attention to detail! The face looks squished in vertical direction though, just lowering the jaw would fix it.

[NyeAlexandaFrayne]

@ Kambei Shimada -Thanks man, iv messaged you on your profile

@ Smuli - Cheers for that, iv adjusted it now! i have to go back to the face anyway, need to properly draw in the balaclava (sp?)

I havnt finished the lines yet, so thought id post up some sketchbook stuff in the mean time. The other day, i did however graduate from university so iv been taking it easy, chilling with family etc

x

[Zidartha]

Great sketchbook *subscribed*
And that little Sackboy easter egg in your soldier piece ♥
Keep it up

[NyeAlexandaFrayne]

@ Zidartha, Thanks, aha yea, iv been playing a bit of LBP2 recently XD

not completely finished, still need to sort out his balaclava and few things, buts its almost done.
x

[NyeAlexandaFrayne]

still on it, haven’t sorted out the balaclava area yet, although i have sorted out some scaling issues, crazy how much they were off..
Left is the updated version, head isnt so wide, he now actually as a neck and his legs are not soooo long.