[Flinthawk]

Hey everybody, finally getting around to working on something I'm not being paid for. I was in an art meeting telling our producer what we'd done for he week, blah, blah, blah so I had this PostIt pad and a pen so I started doodling. Thought I could make this one into a decent painting. So here's the original PostIt and two steps in the painting process. I'm still working on it right now and probably for the next few hours so if anybody has some early critiques and comments lemme have 'em 'cuz I'll be checking in regularly. Without further ado...







Just decided to leave the figure as is for now and move onto blocking in the rest of the scene. I'll post an update sometime in the next few hours. Also, here's a link to the sketch I was basing the warrior off of...something I did back during the summer: click me

-Flinthawk

[This message has been edited by Flinthawk (edited January 28, 2001).]

[Blitz]

This is cool
I love how you took advantage of the very tough to work with medeum, Sticky Note

Looking good..

I am curious...Where do you work and what is it you do? Just wondering. I hope to make it as a conceptual artist sometime. Its gana take some practice though.

*Thumbs Up*
Blitz

[Flinthawk]

Well, here's an update, time to stop for the night. I still want to do something with those clouds, they're not quite what I wanted them to be but they're getting there. A few other things will change as I render this but what does everybody think so far? Any other comments or suggestions? Here goes...



Blitz: Yeah, those sticky notes are pretty rough to work with, especially when you're using the other side and your pen gets all gunked up with that sticky crap

To answer your question, I work at Pipeworks (the guys that did most of those Xbox demos...start up company). I'm a Production Artist (read: Art Monkey) which means I do pretty much anything they need of me artistically like 3D modeling, texturing, animation and now I'm doing some concepts for our 'ambient' characters as I like to call them. That and I'm working on our in-game cut scenes and doing the occasional MaxScript. If you're looking to be a concept artist best I can tell you is to keep drawing your ass off, work on creating characters, objects, environments and drawing (mostly the characters) in orthographic views i.e. front, side, 3/4 pose and head turns. This helps for when you give it to the modelers.

You may not break into any industry straight off as a concept artist but I'm sure, like here, there're plenty of opportunities to work your way into that kind of position as I am now. Best way to get in is to make sure that you have both a solid art background and a solid computer background in Photoshop/Painter and one of the major animation packages (MAX or Maya are best bets). I'm getting paid much more than people they usually grab from the University nearby simply because I know my 3D tools.

Hope that satisfies your curiosity, thanks for the comments on the piece so far

-Flinthawk

[Flinthawk]

Well, Blitz, I'm 22, just like most of the other industry newbies I do know two people that are 19 and 20 now who've been in the industry for almost a year now...both of them guys I went to school with. Unfortunately, after high school, I spent two years working and saving money and then a year taking programming before I actually took any art classes so I got a later start than I'd have liked. I'm here now so that's all that matters I still have plans to continue my education though.

Feel free to e-mail me any links to stuff you've done, I'll give you any suggestions and critiques I can think of. I'm not the most experienced person in the world but I can pass on info and suggestions that I've gathered from the past couple years of talking to industry guys.

-Flinthawk

[This message has been edited by Flinthawk (edited January 28, 2001).]

[Blitz]

Thanks for the great reply
Right now I am a senior at a computer graphics college and am about to graduate in April. Im sure it will take me a while before I get a chance to break into the gameing industry as a concept artist, I figure its best not to kid myself into thinking Im going to just jump right in.
I am learning all sorts of stuff from 3D (Max, Softimage) To good 2D skills. At first I wasnt sure what I wanted to do but I fell in love with the 2D stuff as far as creating my own characters and such. There is something cool about being the person who designs the look of the characters. 2D has been my focus latly as I am illustrating a short childrens story for my senior project. I plan on honeing my skills in Max as soon as I finish school. Haveing both those skills will help my chanses greatly as far as getting a job.
Just a couple more questions
Fist off how old are you? I have been notecing the age for people in the industry of games seems to start at around 22 or 23..This is good for me as I am only 20;D
And second, Would it be cool if I was to e-mail you with some links to some of my Pics and Sketches so that I could get some feedback frome someone who is a Production artist in video games? Any type of critisisum would help.

Holy shit did I ramble on or what..Sorry

Blitz