Red Dragon

Trying something new,  a mid-week dragon project.

Also check out all these unrelated sketches I forgot about until now:

Farewell Insomniac Games!

Hey Everyone,

Sort of big news ,I no longer work at Insomniac Games!  Though I thoroughly enjoyed working with the team on the projects there, a new exciting opportunity came up and I decided it was a good time to move on it. Here is a segment from my goodbye email that may help explain the difficulty in making this decision:

***

Almost four years ago I moved out to LA after receiving my BFA in Illustration /Minor in 3D Animation. I knew I wanted to do concept design for games instead of what I had gone to school for, though at the beginning I wasn't sure how. I slept on a friends couch for a few months, while getting my act together, during which time I took my first workshop with Darren and Carlo. From there I took classes at the Concept Design Academy to build up my portfolio, around which time I said to myself “Where do I want to work”.

I had been a fan of Insomniac Games for many years. I remember the first time I played the demo for Spyro the dragon (I was an OPM and Underground subscriber), and at the time was amazed at the amount, size , and details of the levels. After playing , and owning, all of the original Spyro games, I moved onto Ratchet & Clank. As with Spyro I remember

playing the demo of Metropolis, and thinking “This is freaking awesome” . Subsequently I got the first game, then one year for Christmas the second two, which I remember spending the rest of holiday break playing through . Then of course came the PS3 and Resistance. I played through the SP many times, even on super human difficulty, more than once. A friend of mine and I also played through all the difficulty modes In co-op. . .   It was awesome.

It was clear Insomniac was a good goal to reach, and after months of hard work I made it. Having been a fan of the franchises it was a great honor and privilege to work on them with the same creative team.  Though I loved working on A Crack in Time, my favorite completed project so far has been Resistance 3, and am very proud of what we did as a team for it. Insomniac has definitely made me who I am in the industry. I have really enjoyed working with everyone!

***

A friend of mine pointed out when I told him I was going to leave that “it was our goal to work there”. It was, and I have, and it was awesome. Now I have new goals and opportunities, and the chance to grow in different ways. I am still a fan of the company, and will continue to be there day for new releases!

I have joined the talented team at Magic Pixel Games working on an awesome project! MPG is a great little company everyone should check out . Also, they're Hiring! 

No new art at the moment really, however here is a poster I made this week for my summer space themed “SPACETACULAR” party. I throw good parties too. (at my friend Jame's house, he also host)

Take Care everyone!

-Colin

PS: Check out Magic Pixel's Facebook page too! 

For McQuarrie

Jawa Mining Camp, done today in Photoshop. All painting, no photo mashing. I always thought this would be a cool scenario, and probably happened many times across Tattooine. McQuarrie inspired...


Last weekend we lost one of the great artists that helped shape the star wars universe. Ralph McQuarries work was an inspiration to countless artists, fans, and general population. He , as well as other great artists, worked for years developing the iconic imagery that lives on in all our imaginations. He will live forever through his work, and the legacy of all the entertainment projects he worked on (especially star wars, but he worked on so many movies and shows its ridiculous how far his artistic reach was).

Unfortunatly this past week we lost the great French comic book/surrealist Moebius as well..

RIP Ralph McQuarrie (1929-2012)
RIP Jean Giraud-Moebius (1938-2012)

Let us all draw in tribute to them, and all the inspiration they have given us!

Carlo Arellano has done a piece in support of both Ralph and Moebius!
Darren Quach has a sweet Star Wars themed tribute!

-Colin

Happy Holidays 2011!

"The Holidays are about flightless birds drinking alcohol in the snow, with presents"

Merry Christmas

-Colin

Resistance 3 Terraformer

This is the first concept that began to flesh out what the Terraformer looked like above the cloud line. 

Here is one of the first images with the 'final look' of the Terraformer. However this is not the accurate scale of the final version, it became much much bigger.

Front and side Orthos, there is no scale indicator here, I'll just say it's "Stupid Big". 

Mid-section details, with and without extending pylon. 

Detail of one of the structures at the base of an extending pylon with red stalkers for scale. 

Terraformer "Gills" detail.

Originally there was some gameplay on the exterior, this was a first pass at where you would have been dropped off, and had to fight your way inside.  

The first hall of the interior, you can see the lighting changed a bit from this first pass.

Lighting and ice pass of one of the rooms with a big generator in the center.

Diagram of one of the 'vertical generators' feeding energy into the core.

Evolution of the moving pistons. The left most is the final design. 

 Spinning 'carousel' gear that the player can use as cover...as it rotates. 

Vertical shaft details, originally for the final falling sequence, some details where used in the various elevator shafts'.

A diagram of the central beam structure in the heart of the beast, the scale here is also 'stupid big'.

 This was a drawing of the original design of the final room sequence, similar gameplay, but completely different arraignment. 

Drawing of details of the new final room.

 The end of the game , destroy this machine feeding energy into the core and it goes crazy and stuff blows up. 

Though i worked on many parts of Resistance 3, I spent the longest on development of the terraformer. Not only was it one of the first things i worked on, but it was also one of the last things I worked on. It was almost a project within a project, being so different (completely alien) from the rest of the designs in the game. Though there was some Chimera architecture here and there, it was always nestled in the ruins of humanity, this was its own monster. The designed changed quit a bit here and there, and I think we're happy with what we got in the end. I think when you play through the level, you really feel like you're climbing into the cold heart of a giant mechanical beast. As a sci-fi lover, designing a "miles high" alien death machine was a art-nerd dream come true. 

Though Ratchet and Clank: A crack in time was really fun to work on, Resistance 3 has been my favorite project so far. I think the team at Insomniac did a really great job with the gameplay and art of the campaign. It's also my favorite Resistance! Bias!

If you haven't you should totally check it out! If you have no idea what it is check the Insomniac Site!

-Colin

Resistance 3 Round 2

 Random Props

Here is a bit more variety of types of concepts for R3. I also included some sketches of the Washington Square concept from the previous entry. There's a turret here that you'll see if you go up against higher levels in Multiplayer (which here are now quite a few. ) . The radio looking thing is an actual recording device from the lade 40s/ 50s that I redesigned a bit to help match what it is used for in the game, though you just pick these up and they help tell you stories about the world.

The first image in the entry is a chimera Interior that was suppose to be the inside of a machine that carried you around. The chimera wall is really massive and impressive in-game. Note the scale of the red marks in relation to the structure. Massive. There are quite a few more things to share, and in a few weeks, or months, I'll do an entry about the Terraformer, which I spent most of my time on the project on.

Get the game! :D

-Colin

Resistance 3 Concept Art

 Here are a few concept pieces I did for Resistance 3. The first few images are for the first section of the game seen in the trailers. The other couple are early concepts for later campaign levels. The planet is seen in the opening/loading cinematic and you can see it through a giant 'wormhole' in the sky that you're fighting to close. You wind up seeing the destroyed version of this several times in the game.

Below are some props for various Multiplayer (MP) modes and the campaign. The turret is special to the MP mode 'Breach' where they protect a core that the enemy team is trying to destroy. Below that is an early version of a chimera set piece. The last prop is from the MP mode 'Chain Reaction' and if the enemy team activates it after a base dug of war with your team, you loose.

I have a ton of other images that I'll upload later. Some of them are sketches and pretty much all the ammo pick ups etc that you see in the game. There are more images from some later levels, but I want you to check those out for yourself first :) . So go get Resistance 3 so you can check it out for yourself! 

Until then, keep on drawing! 

-Colin