Concept Art for Sons of Anarchy promo on FX
These are some concept art sketches for a Sons Of Anarchy promo on FX. The idea was that these dusty, gritty scenes would be sketched onto the screen as short promotional spots for the show. Collaboration with Nomenclature Design.
Darkgame Concept Art and Assets
The images below show a few characters and environment concepts I sketched and modeled here and there between 2009 and 2010 for the game "Darkgame" by Eddo Stern. I'm only showing about 20% of what I created. I was a grad student at UCLA DMA while Eddo was developing this game, and I think our sensibilities matched. He had been growing this idea for years, and was starting to investigate a new visual style. We were both interested in pushing the traditional methods and aesthetics of interactive 3d worlds to new places, outside of standard representational language but still narrative. So in a way Eddo was very respectful and encouraging of my style, while still pushing me towards something that he could hopefully use in the world of his game.
The premise of the game was ambitious to say the least. Eddo wanted to create a custom interface for players that engages three senses - sight, hearing, and touch. The players compete with one another in a 3rd person tracking and hunting game. The controller features a traditional hand-held controller, headphones, and an octopus-like haptic feedback device that sits on your head. The objective of the game when I was working on it was to hunt down your opponent using all the information available to you in a large, disorienting world. In order to aid your search you could obtain special powers from various entities roaming the environment called "traders," which you can see conceptualized and modeled above. These traders could give you powers like enhanced vision or an increased range of hearing. They could also give you the ability to spawn a decoy or multiply. One of the ways of interacting with your opponent when you found him/her was to trade sensory input. For instance if you attacked your opponent with the power of "skin/touch," you would lose some of your existing abilities - like vision or hearing/audio - but you would gain increased haptic input. An exchange like this might leave your opponent's screen completely dark or her/his audio completely mute.
Unfinished Swan Concept Art and Assets
These are some sketches I created for the Playstation 3 game "Unfinished Swan" which came out in December 2013. The game is a beautiful puzzle/exploration game that employs various unique mechanisms for understanding and navigating your environment. The most compelling of these in my opinion is the use of black "paint" to reveal objects and pathways amidst your completely white surroundings. The levels and mechanisms get increasingly complex from there. I was hired on as a contractor and I created some animations and models for the game. My role was pretty brief, but among other things I was tasked with helping to conceptualize the system of vines that you can grow and climb in the game.
Raven Promotional Site Concept Art
Below are some concept sketches for a site promoting the release of the movie "The Raven" about Edgar Allen Poe. From most accounts the movie was terrible, so perhaps it is a mixed blessing that this concept was never picked up - but I like the idea anyways. Matt Checkowski from D4D proposed that we create a online identity for the Raven with a twitter account. The raven might spout whimsical or foreboding riddles, respond to tweets, etc.
Satcon Solar Logo Animation
Below are a couple little logo animations I made for Satcon Solar in 2011. Satcon makes inverters to convert DC current from solar power into AC current. These inverters are pretty complicated machines, but they mostly look like large boxes :) Hence the prompt from this client was "Satcon: The Building Blocks for Utility-Ready Solar." The version on the left was the official version and I made an "alternate ending" on the right.
RedBull DJ Booth Animations
Below are some concept sketches for some animations I made for Grant Davis' 9-screen VJ booth at various RedBull events. He was really sweet in inviting me to contribute to this visually. I think the basic idea was to come up with something new and interesting that fit the medium. I don't think I met Grant's expectations, but it was fun to participate and try my hand at such a new medium :)
Environment Sketches