Monday, November 20, 2006

another pitch concept



Here are a couple of images I drew for a group pitch to Nelvana studios last year. We worked out a story about a group of kids in space with mech-like suits of armour but everyone we showed it to said it would be too complex and expensive to create a series (in 2d or 3d). The target audience was supposed to be kids 8-12 so the designs arn't too intense or agressive, but it was pitched as an action show so I tried to keep things fun and cool-looking.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

flying tank car thing





Here is a cool model I made for the 2d show Grossology. It gets rendered out in a toon shader for the show with two tone colours and black outlines, which is why I made the stripes out of 3d geometry. It does not get used too much in the show, which is a shame because it has a cool design and I rigged the wings, treads and the rear suspension. I even made one of the characters in 3d, just for fun.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Some more concept work





A few more pages of design work for Nelvana, dating back to the Spring of 2006. We would meet in groups and get information about the shows and characters, and then have a week or two to come up with some sketched and designs. We would meet again and eveyone would show thier drawings and discuss what worked and what didn't. It was a fun process, though I am not sure if any of the properties will ever get made into television series or how these designs effected the final versions of the characters.

Character designs for Nelvana






Nelvana will have pitch sessions from time to time where employees can submitt ideas for short films or series. They also have design sessions where we develop properties already owned by the studio. Here are some sketches I did for shows that where in the early stage of development and looking for direction in terms of character design and style.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Comic Layout Pictures 2



Here is the layout for the landing sequence, which I did before the drawings in my last post. I think the newer ship design is better, but the long and narrow one works better for these compositions. Alexi.

Comic Layout Pictures





Here are designs for a comic book sequence I've been thinking about for a while. I need a to land on a platform which extends over a vast cliff. I've been trying a few different designs foe the palace as well as the ship, but it's getting there. Alexi

Animal characters



Some characters I've been developing. I had an idea for a short about a group of animals that live the lone tree in the centre of a small park in the middle of a city. I havn't written any stories yet, I was first trying to establish the characters personality through thier designs. I dropped the bug characters because they look way too much A Bug's Life designs, but the ones I inked and colored seem like a fun group.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Monster Creature Scene Concept



This is the concept image for my entry in the last CG talk competition. The contest had a "journey" theme, and I added the key and matches to hint at a backstory for the characters, and provide a reference to show thier tiny size. The idea was that some person had done something to them, and now they where out for revenge. I like the colour designs, which where based on various tropical tree frogs and lizzards. The second image shows a hand drawn image I was going to use as a bump map for the characters scales. Alexi

Monster Creature Wireframes



Here are a couple wireframe images of three monster creatures I modeled recently. I was going for a funny and cartoony style with a moderate amount of detail. I planned to use them for a CG talk digital art contest but I did not have time to finish. I got as far as U.V. mapping the characters was preparing to rig them (just enough that I could pose them for the image). I like the designs and I'm waiting for another opportunity to use these guys. Alexi

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Complete Image; Airship and Town


Here is the whole scene composited together, as I submitted it to the contest. The clouds and ocean are composited with photographs and some photoshop trickery. It was a difficult composition, and in retrospect I would have liked the town to take up more of the space in the background. Also, I think I should have made a thicker layer of clouds instead of the ocean, so that the city itself would be up in the sky. When I put together my next demo reel I will try some new variations on the compositing and layout. Alexi

Character design


Here is a render of the character I used in the CG talk spectacular challange, based on my braviators series pitch. The design is based in WW2 era technology and fashion, combined with some sci-fi and fantasy elements. I wanted the flight-pack device to look like it would fun to fly (even though landing it would be a problem). It took me some time to arrive at the current colour scheme, but I think it worked out well in the end. The only problem is that some of the decals came out backwards in this render. I'm planning on rigging the character and flight-pack one day soon so i can do some animation with it. Alexi

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Town model


Here is a render of the town I modeled and textured for the CG Talk Spectacular challange. It is based on an idea I have been developing for a television series or video game, involving a group if characters that fly around in ww2 inspired jet packs. The town was modeled in fairly low rez geometry with simple tiled textures. I created about ten base structures, which then u.v. mapped, and then duplicated and combined to create dozens of unique buildings. I used a character to maintain a uniform scale throughout the town, and i tried to create an organic and interesting street pattern. The waterfall and ocean where a combination of maya shaders and digital painting, and the lighting was rendered in several passes and composited in photoshop.

Female Character Render


Here is the knight chatacter, shown in the bind pose before any rigging. I only rigged the character enough to get it into the pose I needed for the final image, then i deleted the joints and corrected the geometry. I added all kinds of detail the I knew would not show, just because it was fun to model. I'd like to make the low rez version of the character one day that I could fully rigg and use in an animarion.

Character Renders


Here a detail of the two characters rendered, without the background I included to the CG Talk contest submission. I think the lighting and texturing turned out well, but as I wrote earlier, I ran out of time and did not pose the characters as well as I could have. The two wire frame images (shown in previous posts) show the updated versions. Alexi

Creature Wireframe


The second character I created for the CG Talk Master and Servant challenge. I spent so much time building and texturing the characters I didn't have much time to pose, render and composite the final image, so it did not turn out as well as I would have hoped. Still, I like the design of two characters and I'm pleased with how they turned out. Alexi

Character Wireframe

This is a wire frame screen capture of a model I made for the CG Talk Master and Servant contest. It is a very detailed and complex model because the contest called for a large final image. It was fun to build but difficult to pose because it is so heavy. Alexi

Sunday, September 17, 2006

warcraft character finished


This is the better of the two paintings in my opinion, though parts of it are a bit unfinished. The character himself is not really in the typical Blizzard style, but l like how the design turned out. I don't expect to win any prizes with these entrees, but it was a good excuse to practice my digital painting. Alexi.

Starcraft contest entry complete


I've finished the starcraft figure enough that I can submit it to the Blizzard art contest. I decided to keep it sketchy and focus on the desing, rather then go for the look of a finished painting. I kept the pencil outlines and used simple brushed to roughly block in the 3d volumes. At the end I overlayed some texture on top of the painting to give the piece more interest. Alexi

Thursday, September 14, 2006

starcraft character concept


This is the second image I'm submitting to the Blizzard art contest. This one is based on the ghost character with the added twist of being a sniper. As a unit in the game she would have the ability to find and damage enemies from great distances, which I think would bring an interesting dimension to the starcraft gameplay. Alexi.

warcraft character concept


Here are a couple sketches I've been working on the Blizzard art contest. I've got them near completion, i just need to add some texture and some lighting effects. This first character is for the warcraft 2d character design category. He is supposed to a half orc, half torrin creature, that would be a light infantry or scouting unit in the game. hopefully I can getit finished up by this Sunday. Alexi

link to art gallery site

For my first entry I'll give a link to my galley on photo bucket. I've been uploading all the drawings and sketches I can dig up, as well as renders of 3d models and some oil paintings.
It's not in any kind of order, though most the images at the begining are the most recent, and then art from the last three or four years is all mixed together on the other pages. Some of the 3d models have names next to them because they are for work (made for the t.v. series miss spider, ruby gloom, grossology and backyardigans) here at nelvana. I'm going to be posting my newest art and 3d images on this site from now on so I can add explinations and get some feed back.

Here is thethe link to my gallery:

http://s114.photobucket.com/albums/n241/alexichabane/

Alexi