darkspore

ENVIRONMENT CONCEPTS

Landscape, machine, and prop designs for alien environments, combining imagery and tropes of classic science fiction with the shape and design language of the Spore franchise. Seen here, a derelict spacecraft floating among the asteroids of Zelem's Nexus, and designs for the lush jungle world Verdanth.

Zelem's Nexus

Verdanth

the godfather 2

SWEET LIFE MURAL

This is a mural for the wall of a strip club in the secret backroom of a bakery called "Sweet Life." Given that our game was set in the 1960s, I took the opportunity to explore period illustration styles, taking inspiration here from the paperback covers of Robert McGinnis, and also from actress Ann Margaret.

INTERIOR ENVIRONMENTS

Havana, Miami, and New York in the late 1950s and early 60s. These paintings were done to indicate to the texture artists the color palettes, textures, lighting schemes, and furniture and object mods for the various locations, and also to suggest the mood and atmosphere. The rooms were of a few standard size-and-shape templates, so care was taken to make them seem as individual as possible and to capture the proper tone and feel for each setting. The locations and period were well researched. Painted over screenshots of flat grey untextured Maya models of the basic box rooms.

Havana Miami New York

the simpsons game

CINEMATIC BACKGROUNDS

These background plates for the cinematic scenes in the Simpsons Game were painted in 2D to match both the 3D environments of the game and the 2D style of the Simpsons Movie. There are both foreground and background elements. The characters here are toon-shaded game renders for temporary placement purposes only. The final characters for these scenes were hand animated in 2D by Film Roman to match these backgrounds, and often-- as is the case with the Frink's basement and Simpson house scenes below-- my own storyboards.

The Game Engine

Frink's Basement The Simpson House