MICA 2011 - Spring - Concept Art
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Story character....
In the 23rd century, the contrast between poor and rich has become drastic, 70% of the population being the rich and middle class, while the 30% is the low class. The Government becomes in control of the world and decides to imprison the lower class and use them for entertainment purposes. They put them in a battle royal, where the stronger team survives. Each team is owned by a wealthy the person, the more money the more people. The owners give them new technological weapon based on a magnetic force and can only be used in practice and fighting zones.
One of the wealthy owners are against this system, so he decides to help his members survive by giving them information to help benefit them in battle. The team leader and his crew fight to get to the top and collect parts to better their weapons. Once one of the fighters figured out a way to unlock the weapons outside of fighting zones, they train to get stronger and attempt to escape this corrupt system.
Cubone Boy
Sandstorm in Incredible Land!
The year is 2106, and things are quite different from how they once were. A shifting climate has caused widespread drought and searing heat across the American landscape, frying everything in its path and turning 85% of the country into an inhospitable wasteland. Now, it’s up to America’s trusty Transcontinental Relocation Service to safely move businessmen and travelers from one end of the country to the other.
With most of the country a desert and independent vehicular transportation barred, the American way of life has changed drastically, including the elimination of perhaps the most important thing of all - the teenage cross-country road trip.
Which is how Wildemere Peters, a weary old man who took the job of ATRS driver as a youth to fulfill his own dream of seeing the desert, ended up in his tiny, rusted hover transport with two good-for-nothing hipsters. While they’re excited to be finally seeing the wild American desert for themselves, Peters couldn’t be more unhappy with his present company and silently rues the day he ever thought this was a good career move. But things suddenly take a turn for the worst when, without warning, a violent Sandstorm quickly approaches over the horizon. Hours away from the nearest safety hub, Peters and his passengers are helpless to outrun the storm as the furiously blowing sand consumes the vehicle, tossing it far off track and tumbling it about before depositing it, half buried, in the middle of nowhere.
When everyone comes to, they stumble out of the vehicle only to find that they’re no longer any where near the road. To their horror, they’re nowhere near anything. With only emergency rations to keep them sustained, they dig out the transport to find that it still barely functions. Knowing that they’ll need it to stay sheltered from the blistering heat and radiation, they climb back in and putter slowly around the barren wasteland in search of the road. After endless hours of searching and with supplies dwindling, they begin to feel that something about this desert is very wrong, and - in their increasingly delirious states - begin to suspect that they're somehow on an entirely different planet. But could that wicked surprise sandstorm really have transported them to another world, or are those shimmering gold spires in the distance all in their heads?
---
Summary! (Because I’m still working out plot details. And yeah, plot holes galore). But it’s basically like a supernatural road trip story. I want to have a bunch of stuff happen out there in the desert but I’m not sure what kinds of, if any, other characters I want to include. I’m planning on having the ending very open, so as not to reveal whether or not they were actually hallucinating the whole time. They do end up getting rescued though. When Peters’ vehicle doesn’t arrive at its destination, the agency tracks his transport and finds all three of them passed out inside of it, buried in sand.
Also, I’m not sure if the car counts as a character or an environment, I just really wanted to draw it!
longing to be left alone
Once upon a a time there was an old man who was a master of alchemy. The old man was very wise, and realized that his purpose in life was fufilled and there was no more he could do for his small tribe in the Himalaya mountains, The old man was very generous, and provided them with all the crops and cattle they needed for the rest of their lives only using some soil and his magical alchemy. The village loved him very much and praised him for his wisdom and knowledge, but the old man grew weak and just wanted to be left alone to die. One night, with just a walking stick the old man set out on his journey to wander the mountains in peace for the rest of his days. The villagers always tried to follow him, but could not scale the mountain tops like he could. He yelled and cursed at them as they followed, hoping they would turn back. But it was no use, the villagers followed, falling off the jagged cliffs to their death. The old man decided he had no choice but to scare them away with his alchemy so that nobody else would die.
He picked the limbs and body parts of the villagers off mountain tops and molted them together with slabs of fallen ice, bringing it to life with the last bit of magic that he had left. His plan worked, the moster scared the villagers all the way back to their little town. The old man was finally in peace. Since that day the monster follows the old man everywhere he goes to make sure that nobody will bother him again, even in the afterlife.
Story Character
A long time ago there lived a horse that was the kindest and gentlest of all the Indian ponies. She was the only horse that would allow the little ones to near her, while the other horses were easily spooked and quick to run away. She was very important to the tribe because she taught all the children how to ride and take care of the horses. She worked very hard for the tribe and she had become old and tired. To reward her hard work the Shaman transformed her into a beautiful young girl. She was happy to be young again but she could not understand the ways of the humans, there was so much to learn! She soon wandered off into the forest, confused and missing her old body. In the forest she would sometimes find young boys and girls who had also wandered off just like her. The girl had then made it her job to lead the children back to the tribe so that no child would be lost. The tribe was once again grateful towards her so the shaman decided to reward her once again. He made her into a spirit that would guard the tribe for all eternity. When she became the spirit, she kept her human form but had all the strength and speed of a horse and a beautiful long tail. She was once again happy and with her new powers she kept everyone safe. She taught all the horses to be gentle like she had been and everyone in the tribe loved their new guardian.
Final
Time Travel and Ghosts
Story
This is Ephy (ef-ee), an average student at, MAMA (Maryland Advanced Magic Academy), a college for wizards-in-training. She and her classmates fight all sorts of magic monsters you've probably never heard of, learn to brew their own
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Druid Hill
Original Story
That dapper young man in the above image is named Lucas. He's 7 years old and had gone through life without a care in the world. That is, until the portal under his bed was opened, revealing a whole other world, an underground world, of monsters. Not only did Lucas have no idea that these monsters existed, but the monsters had no idea that Lucas existed.
When the monsters' portal to Lucas' bedroom opened, they were confused, this world was so bright, so colorful and so scary. One night while Lucas was laying in bed, he heard a strange sound coming from underneath him. Body still planted to the mattress, he lifted the bedskirt, and lowered his head to see what had made that noise. Cries and screams rang out, not just from Lucas, but from the monsters as well. It's hard to say who was more terrified. Neither of them had seen such weird looking creatures before. Lucas lept from his bed to the bean bag chair across the room, then through the door that led to the hallway, just in case any of the monsters had climbed out of their world and where planning to eat him. He sprinted to his parents' room and dove under their covers. When his parents went to go investigate these "monsters", all they found was the left shoe that belonged to his pair of red sneakers, and his favorite teddy bear, Winston. Lucas couldn't believe it. Where did the monsters go? Where they even there in the first place? Of course they were! He saw them with his very own eyes!
He knew he had to get to the bottom of this.
Will Lucas befriend the monsters and create a universe where monsters and humans can coexist? Or will Lucas find a way to defeat these monsters and close the portal forever? Are the monsters even real, or is he letting his imagination get the best of him?
I honestly have no idea either, I haven't gotten there yet.
Original Story Concept
Amelia: (her necklace is her dead mother's ring on a cord, very sentimental)
Monday, May 2, 2011
Final Concept
Friday, April 29, 2011
Final Story
A father and daughter own and operate a repair shop, Danielle (Dani – 17 yrs) and Richard (late 30s-early 40s), in a small, West-coast city. Dani follows in the footsteps of her quirky father who is brilliant as an inventor and she often can be found wandering the outdoors, collecting specimens from nature to expand her knowledge of science. Her father believes that he has created an invention that might patch the holes in the ozone layer. The artificial ozone patches however, are designed to repel chemicals that come into contact with it, begin conflicting with the elements of the natural ozone layer and begin to repel it. As the remaining ozone begins to deteriorate, people begin feeling the drastic effects on earth, plant-life and wildlife dying, water supplies dry up and oxygen grows thinner and thinner. Before time runs out, the father hopes to reverse the effects of his experiment and attempts to put his recent experiment involving a set of stones that can harness energy capable of achieving time and dimension travel that has not quite been finished yet. They do indeed transport the father, but the stones are left behind. The daughter is left to combat with the declining conditions of the planet and attempt to find a way to use the stones herself so that she may save her father. She fashions them into devices that she attaches them to an earring and her set of work boots. She is skilled, but not as adept as her father in the ways of science, and therefore has no idea of how to track where or when her father may have gone, causing her to search through a vast variety of times and dimensions to search for her lost father. She ventures off into time and space just as the very city she lives in begins to melt and collapse into flame. Each dimension that she enters presents her with an alternate world, with an alternate planet-threatening disaster and an alternate version of herself. Each alternate-self she encounters presents her with a new set of skills and abilities that she has mastered only in this world. She continues her nature-collecting habits in these new dimensions, storing specimens of plant, insect, etc, in the jars attached to her belt to bring with her when she returns to her own time. Gaining skills, equipment, and special abilities, she quests for her father and a way to return to save the dying planet in her own dimension.
I was envisioning this story as a video game, each dimension functioning as a new mission, or new level.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
Big Huge Games Trip
BIG HUGE GAMES
I’d like everyone to meet me at the Mount Royal Light Rail Stop at 4:20 PM on Wednesday. Even if you can drive, I’d prefer that you light rail with the class as I have papers for you all to sign.
Bring your dinner and money for a roundtrip ticket on the light rail ($3.20).
At Big Huge Games we’ll do the following:
1) Studio Tour
2) Demos (3d Studio Max and possibly one other one)
3) Brief Q&A with industry professionals outside of concept art
4) Critique of Jo-Jo and the Fiendish Lot. Guest critics are Andrew Auseon and Big Huge Game artist/designer Jessica Hara.
Because we have a pretty good projector, you don’t need to print the final Jo-Jo pieces. We’ll just look at them all together on the projector.
Following those four things you’ll all be released to take the light rail back to MICA.
For next week:
Take your story idea and do ONE concept, either character or environment, of your choosing.
Print this out to at least 8” x 10” and bring to class for one last critique.
Be prepared to briefly explain your story. Also give a quick write-up of it on the blog with your post.
Thanks! Email me with any questions!
-Colin