Realms Unreel Ramping Up!

Amid all the chaos of renovating a house and planning a wedding, I've managed to squeeze in a little illustration. Been playing with compositing 3D and hand-drawn elements using Sketchbook Pro, ZBrush and Photoshop. This image is still likely to get a few little tweaks before it's done, but I think it's a good example of what I'm trying to do for the book:

Realms Unreel Update

The latest update on the book is up at:
Realms Unreel Illustrated Kickstarter Project

Here's the latest in-progress work of the Zeke avatar shot and the Dom ZBrush model. I'm trying to keep hacking away at this project outside of work now - More to come soon!

Life Changes!

What a summer!  Sophie and I not only got engaged, but this weekend reached an agreement with the seller on our first home purchase! We certainly have thanks to give our friends who made it possible, including our outstanding Mortgage Broker / Life Advisor, for whom we made this card on her recent visit to the Bay:

Realms Unreel - First Pass Thumbs

As those who know me are aware, it's been one hell of an eventful summer! Though Realms has subsequently fallen into a slower pace than would have been, Audrey and I are still working on the Kickstarter actively. Here are our first complete set of thumbnails for the images; these are rough guides   (like storyboards) of scenes we've hoped to picture which we will reference in creating the final images.

More to come soon on development of the final look!

Speed Sculpt

Did this caricature of a friend over a lunch break and then in an hour or so before work as a speed exercise.

ZBrush creature skull

Over the past 2 months I've been spending a lot of time tuning my ZBrush skills in the hope that I can use that software to help create some really cool images for the Realms Unreel Illustrated project. Here's a quick fictional creature skull sculpt that I did in ZBrush 4R3 over a few early mornings before work, crossing elements of a human, gorilla and dog skull. It's got a couple of errors but was a fun learning experience so I'm going to put it down and move on.

Realms Unreel Update: Dom & Ava in Progress

These in-progress designs are starting to get a little closer to how Dom & Ava will be shaped, as well as the basic colors they would have.  I'll be finishing up this design pass on them shortly and moving into other designs (Serapin & Emmie) as well as experimenting with ZBrush illustration effects for the book using a character sculpt that I've been making for a separate project (hopefully will post here sometime soon!).

Ava's final design is going to start to feature a more dramatic fabric draped over her shoulder, and the face/hair will most closely approximate the center top drawing.  Dom is going to be getting slimmed down a bit into a more Ancient Greek ideal sort of body, though this was a solid round of exploring the boundaries of character shapes and sizes.

Realms Unreel: Early Sketches

Kicking off the Kickstarter!  Audrey and I have started drafting out some designs for the characters you'll see in the Illustrated version of Realms Unreel.  In the coming month, these designs will be refined and I'll be exploring the potential of using ZBrush to achieve a unique look.

For now, enjoy some early sketches!  All of these drawings, mostly ballpoint pen, are going to evolve quite a bit before we commit to building the final illustrations.  Audrey and I are getting into the habit of checking in and sharing reference and sketches to start the conversation as to how the Realms Unreel characters and world will take shape.  Thanks again to our supporters; I'm looking forward to bringing you a lot of cool imagery this year as we get to know Dulai and near future Silicon Valley!

Sketch_wo Challenge: Your Co-Worker as a Vampire Hunter

Experimenting with a new drawing/illustration challenge with a small group of co-workers.  Good chance for me to play with techniques & look.

With any luck, posts will slowly be going up at the drawing challenge blog:
http://sketch-wo.blogspot.com/

For now, here's my first attempt at using Sketchbook Pro for ipad (Really makes me want my own ipad 3!)

Concerned Skinny Rocker (75 min)

Quick ZSketch based on Steven Tyler... ran out of time before I could add any color so he got a quick black & white spin.

Scary Overweight Redneck (90 minutes)

First Model Night speed zsketch of the new year... I'll be continuing to do these on the side from taking an online class, plus pick up a little gesture drawing to loosen up as I roll into starting the Realms Unreel project in mid-February.  It's going to be an exciting 2012!

Last Week for Realms Unreel Kickstarter!

 

We're so close to reaching our goal!  Audrey and I started going over some initial sketches (see above) in starting to explore the main characters, and it's been great fun to play with early impressions of where they will go.

 

This is the *last week* of our Kickstarter effort to raise interest in a first run of the illustrated book, so if you'd like to be part of Realms Unreel now's the time to make a pledge!  As a bonus, expect some very cool new gift additions to show up on the page in the next couple of days.

http://kck.st/vX58t4

Hope you'll consider supporting the project!

Halloween Costume

A bit late posting this, but I thought it would be fun to share my first ever costume created with the help of 3D modeling software: Dark Helmet!  The materials used were very inexpensive (mostly cardboard & duct tape with old black acrylic paint) and the whole thing was done on the Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning of Halloween weekend.  Learned a LOT from the process and looking forward to a more refined surface texture on my next costume.  My gal - persevering as I tested her limits of patience on a "last-minute" costume idea - even went as Princess Vespa with an industrial strength hair dryer!