Apr '18

Name: Jwcmack
Artstation: https://www.artstation.com/gregorymack

Hi All! I currently live in the Bay Area (SF) and until recently was working as a graphic designer. Rather recently I found myself with a surplus of extra time for no reason at all haha...

Looks like I have no excuse now and have to start putting myself out there.

Join me on my journey to make better art, either till I'm employed or they cut off my utilities!

There are 119 replies with an estimated read time of 14 minutes.

Apr '18
1

Hi Everyone! I've had a idea stirring in my mind recently, for now I'm just going to be calling the project 'Night Breakers' as a working title.

The self brief I constructed is this:

Night Breakers is an isometric dungeon crawler loosely based on the many myths of King Solomon and his Temple. In the game the immortal mage Solomon used a ring to enslave Demons to build his Temple. It became an archive, place of learning and a city unto itself after hundreds of years of continued labor. Eventually Solomon looses control over the Demons and they revolt, opening a portal to Hell. Solomon seals his Temple/City from the world, to halt the apocalypse. Recently the seal has been broken and demons have begun to poor into the world. Now adventures travel from all over seeking challenge and loot, ignorant of the dangers they will encounter.

Start Screen (PC)

Placeholder screen for now, my goal is to make the project feel cohesive by building UI elements as well. It will be easier to design as the project comes into its own.

Title Screen.jpg1512x969 321 KB

Early Solomon Sketches

Solomon Heads.jpg1104x614 218 KB

Clothing.jpg2413x964 614 KB

I wanted to explore, age and powers as by most accounts, he can do anything. I decided against making him older than 30, there are many legendary old wise men populate RPG's, why should he be virtuous or old? He asked God for Wisdom, doesn't mean he has to be humble about it. An all powerful mage who's posses almost every desirable quality and has God's approval? Probably a pretty arrogant guy who doesn't feel bad at all about unleashing Hell on Earth.

Enemy Sketches

My first sketch that kickstarted the whole concept. I think that middle eastern culture has a bunch of cool design opportunities. Also did you know Solomon had 700 concubines? Had to make this a mob/character when I learned that. :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

Apr '18
1

Eyedropper/Sample Current Layer - Taking Samples from unselected Adjustment Layers?

I am running into the this issue where my eyedropper tool begins sampling from the adjustment layers and not the current layer. I found plenty of threads of people providing similar examples but no solutions at all. If anyone has any tips on how to fix this I'd be eternally grateful. :sob:

EDIT: Set my sampling mode to 'All Layers No Adjustments' and it samples fine. Something is wrong with the 'Current Layer' mode....

2018-04-17 22_33_06-LNPOverlayWindow.png1882x998 1010 KB

Apr '18

Turned my attention to the UI for this morning after meeting up with a friend.

Nightbreaker UI Demo

Currently the visuals are at a very basic stage, my focus is on ensuring the experience looks smooth and all elements are in place. The nightmare scenario I'm trying to avoid is investing time in assets I don't need or pursuing an aesthetic that doesn't translate well to in-game. Once everything is laid out the most work will be on copy+pasting animations/polish.

Going to grab some food and return back to the Temple Guard, he's near finish but I stopped to work on this. I really had to establish a draft logo, UI before I went further.

Apr '18

Currently working on my environment work...

Apr '18

Today's progress so far, going to go to the gym and maybe start another project in the evening so I can get sort of balance going in my workday.

May '18

Hi all, as some of you may have noticed I've been floating between projects recently and then stopped posting. This is the result of getting some really good advice from leads of recruitment at some top game companies which I wont name. Although the advice was solid it left me a bit rudderless and questioning whether I still wanted to pursue a career in games.

1) If you cant work in production (Maya, Texturing knowledge at least) you are not employable. (SketchUp doesn't count for obvious reasons) This makes sense to me although how I will teach myself these skills I don't know.

2) You need to do realistic work (photobashing etc) so you can get your foot in the door at more companies. This also makes sense, I have to make the decision if I want to pull a complete 180* on my portfolio.

The path to employment is mostly clear to me now. Learn 3D, go Photoreal, build out portfolios with Characters, Environments and Vehicles. I'll have to make a decision soon.

For now I'm starting another illustration, a Temple Gaurdian, half man half lion :sparkles:

May '18

Posting another update before I head to the gym! The theme has really come together. I pulled some more reference from Buddhist monks and changed the trees to cherry blossoms to unify the asian influences.

I lost some of the strong shapes from the sketch, so I'm going to work that back in tonight. After that I will merge the gradient maps so I can correct my values as it looks a little washed right now (maps are pushing my dark values to midtones).

May '18

Another post before I head out today, didn't get to merging the gradient maps but that will be soon as certain elements I just want to move through without negotiating multiple masks.

Corrected some hand and arm anatomy, refined fabrics/materials. Probably in desperate need of a curves adjustments to the whole piece as it is all very light and lacks the atmospheric fade to the background elements I want.

May '18

Another day another update!

  • Altered Composition
  • Rendered Background
  • Merged layers, added bounce lighting, fixed braid structure on belt and hair
May '18

Little late on today's update, I went to the gym and came back to refine more this evening. I just started watching Last Man animated series, and it really pumped me up to get some more hours in tonight.

Further refined materials and value across the entire image, added thematic elements like better god rays and motion blurred petals. I find I'm adding a lot of rendering that could have been done easy at the start had I been more patient and confirmed my values. :tired_face: :tired_face: :tired_face:

May '18

Happy Monday, more lion updates