FK Creature Concepts

We use a few different animators in Fantasy Kingdoms.  One of the animators, I make front concepts for the creatures for him to generate the assets.  Here's some of the concepts:

This guy was inspired a bit by Rex in the BBC show Primevil.

FK - Map Background Images

Here's some larger versions of the map background corners for Fantasy Kingdoms.  They were made to feel a part of the map parchment and not be too distracting, so they don't have the vibrant colors of the in-game map assets. 

The in-game versions are much smaller and are programmed to float above a repeatable parchment texture, so that it can fit to any-sized monitor.  They basically sit behind the playfield and then move out to the corners when a player goes to fullscreen.

Top Left Corner

Bottom Right Corner

Bottom Left Corner

Kingdom of Giants Assets

An archway to go with the grass fence below

A flower planter made from Mr. Morden's Salve Metal Tin.  The name "Mr. Morden" was borrowed from one of my favorite tv shows "Babylon 5."

I wanted to add some uniqueness to the house in a shoe, so I thought it would be fun if it was a pirate's boot. 

Our trees have two states with the 2nd growth state being harvestable.

Our producer loves the glowy flowers from the movie Avatar.  I thought I'd make a glowy piece and give it a rock base that matched some previous in-game rocks made by my co-artist in crime in FK!

This set was originally called Land of the Giants, but was changed since there was a tv show with that same name.  Most of these flowers are around twice the height of the player's character. (Select the image to see the actual in-game size!) :)

Fantasy Kingdoms - Vector Characters and Creatures

 

Above are the two base player characters and an NPC named Harmony (right) larger than in-game.  These were vector creations in Flash.  They are animated, and those animations were initially done by another artist, but I have made a few tweaks since then.  They have different hair, accessories that can be switched out.  I, also, have made a few seasonal items.  The colors of skin, hair, accessory, clothes are changed programically when a player makes a selection in-game.  These characters have back versions as well. Harmony (right) is the mentor for new player's in-game, and she has her own set of kingdoms that player's can visit. 

The cats are also vector and were created in Flash.  Our creatures are mainly outsourced, but the blue cat was the first creature for the programmers to test in-game.  The other cats' creation soon followed. I did animate these although animation isn't a strong skill for me, I can get by. :)

Fantasy Kingdoms - St. Patrick's Day

 

Lucky's Tavern, Clover Wagon, Fairy Luck Tree

I suppose Lucky's Tavern was a bit of a stereotype, but the idea popped into my head, and it was too fun to miss.  This was actually done as a giant pilsner in anticipation of the later Land of the Giants set (which is our current in-game collection as of this post.)  For our building sets, we generally include four buildings: a house, tavern, magic library and alchemist, so this one completes that set.

I'd been wanting to do a Gypsy-style wagon and found a reference of an old beat-up Irish wagon online.  I used the shape as inspiration for this wagon.

The trees have two states.  The second one is the "growth" state where there is some kind of "fruit" that has been added that can be harvested.  I didn't post them on previous posts, but those trees also have a base fruitless version.

Fantasy Kingdoms - Chinese New Year

Some of the assets I created for Chinese New Years above.  A celebratory banner, rabbit terracotta warrior, a lantern bonsai tree, and a Chinese Airship.  Select the images for the larger in-game sized version.


Since it was the Year of the Rabbit, I wanted to make a rabbit warrior based on the Terracotta army - historically made by artisans for the first emperor of China and found buried underground (in 1974 according to Wikipedia) - Yeah, I watched a documentary special a while back on the history of China. 

Bonsai is a bit more Japanese although there is a Chinese equivalent.  I found a gorgeous bonsai reference which made me so envious of the patience and talent to raise and care for such a tree, I entertained the thought for a moment.  (I have cats, so it seemed overall an exercise in futility.)  This was my ode to that tree.  I added a little rabbit graphic on the base.

For the Chinese Airship, I combined the inspiration of the parade dragon floats along with my desire to create a floating ship.  I actually designed similar wings for an old ship I'd drawn a long time ago.  All the little details were fun to play around with creating.

Fantasy Kingdoms - Winter Assets

Some assets I created for Fantasy Kingdoms for the Winter Collection.  This was my first building collection for the game, so I was excited to be able to create them.  They're pretty big, so select the image to see the in-game size.  For the statue, I wanted to make an Ice Queen type image.  I had fun creating the little decorations on her dress.  I made the base to match the winter ground pieces.

Fantasy Kingdoms - Valentines Assets

A few of the assets I worked on for the Valentine's Day Release for Fantasy Kingdoms.  I'd been wanting to do some floating island images, so this was the perfect opportunity.  Alicia and I worked closely to match the floating island look between the different assets we were creating.  The little creature dolls were fun to create.  These dolls are show larger than the in-game assets.

Some background on the gremlin:  We have a gremlin creature in-game.  His original head was based on the Art Gremlin sign that I created in the event that an asset was missing.   I worked with our outsource 3D artists to pin down the final look for the 3D creature.  For Valentine's Day, it seemed like a fun item to make some little male and female dolls of the gremlin - some creatures that were so ugly that they were cute.

Fantasy Kingdoms - Some Earlier Assets

Here's some early assets created for Fantasy Kingdoms. FK is an orthographic farming/decorating game on Facebook.  The left image is Harmony's Wishing Well, the center is the Dreamcatcher Tree, and the right is the Wizard's Tower

Creature for Sony Contest

This guy was created in 2007 for a Sony contest.  This was my last year of school.  The game was called Folklore.  I noticed most of the entries seemed to be robotic.  Ah well.  All the screenshots and descriptions were very fantasy.  I emulated the backgrounds they had for their own characters.  I, also, had to include some information about his personality and powers.

I had written:

"An explorer at heart, the Peregin leaps to adventure with little thought for safety.  The Peregin uses its oversized ears to glide or make incredible leaps over the world below.

Attack Description:

Can create a wind that picks up surrounding materials such as leaves, sticks and light rocks to pelt enemies and reduce their attack accuracy.  A short wind burst blows attacking enemies away."

Unnamed Project - Concepts for Environmental Objects

Some concepts I created at CMI for an undisclosed project.  These were a fun exercise as I generally default to drawing characters.

Concepts for The Hollows Series by Kim Harrison

Some character concepts in different styles from a couple years ago.  One being Rachel Morgan (redhead) and the other Ivy from early on in the series.  I need to go back and re-read the early books so I can continue on with the stories.

Low Poly 2D Objects

These are low poly 3d models created for the game Kaneva while I was at CMI.  These were pretty fun to make.  Low poly 3D can have a lot of charm!  Textures were hand-painted without use of any photo source in them.

My Pyramid Cafe - 3D Characters

Some 3D characters for a PSA I worked on at CMI.  (Modeling, Texturing, Zbrush.)  Original concepts by Shaun Bryant.  Rigging and animation done by other artists.

Characters were, of course, based on different fruits and vegetables. :)  Appleonian is my fave!