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

End of Class Assignment

Return to an assignment you've worked on before. Look at a character or environment you wanted to pursue that you didn't.

By the end of class tonight, 10 pm, complete a color concept of that character or environment and post it to the blog.

Make these at least 8.5 x 11 inches.

For homework this week you only need to come up with your story and decide what you want to do as your final concept piece for the last week of class. It will be an environment or character from your story, but for this week all you need to do is come up with the story. Start the concept if you want to, however.

Take care, and everyone have a great week. I'm sorry to bail!

April 20th Class

Hey all,
Just a reminder, come to class this week with your finished pieces posted to the blog.
You DO NOT need to print them for this week, but definitely for NEXT WEEK. Just remember to post them to the blog.
Also, we have concept artist Andrew Murray visiting from BHG.
Finally, I still have to leave for a flight, I'm afraid, but here's fair warning: I'm going to be giving you a real-world Concept assignment you might get on a job. Bring supplies to work with.
Best,
Colin

Assignment #7 - Jo-Jo and the Fiendish Lot

For this assignment, you'll be developing a series of concepts for a theoretical movie adaptation of Jo-Jo and the Fiendish Lot.
You have the choice of the following:

• 2 Character Concepts and 2 Environment Concepts
• 1 Mood piece (combination of characters and environments) and 1 character and 1 environment.
• 2 Mood pieces.

For either choice, you must do one environment from the living world and one from the afterlife, though those environments may be part of the mood pieces.
Additionally, you will be expected to show a large body of thumbnailing and visual development.
We will do a final critique on April 20th at Big Huge Games. Andy Auseon will be present.

Class starting late

Dear all,
Today I had Jury Duty and was selected to serve. The trial also is running long, so it rolled into tomorrow. The latest it can go is five, so let's go ahead and start class at 6:00. If you can, come with your dinner or eat dinner beforehand so we can jump into stuff and get rolling.

Here's the schedule:
Andy Auseon will be in, so remember to have read Jo-Jo and come prepared with questions. POP QUIZ. FOR REALS. I guess that means it's not POP.

QUIZ! FOR REALS.

Also, you don't need to print your new sketches this week, just post them to the blog. I'm going to try and speak to you all individually and go over your work so far.

Otherwise, come prepared to work on your final Jungle Book pieces. Decide on one environment OR one character. You won't be doing both at this time.

Please spread the word about this. I'm posting to the blog, as well, but I don't think everyone will check their MICA mail or the blog.

Thanks all, and I hope everyone had a good, safe break. See you tomorrow!
-Colin

Guest Artist for tonight: Shaun Martin

Be on your best behavior. Tonight we have Shaun Martin coming by. Shaun's principal Dungeon Artist at Big Huge Games, and was art director on a Wii title BHG worked on awhile ago. He knows his stuff, and has a unique style and creative approach.

Assignment: Read Jo-Jo and the Fiendish Lot by March 23rd.

Author Andy Auseon will be attending class on that night to present the assignment and answer questions you have. Come prepared.

Assignment #5 - Jungle Book Thurmbnails

Imagine a director comes to you, wanting to do a new movie of "The Jungle Book," but in a new style. The director has approached you to do the initial concepts for it.

For this assignment, you'll be reading The Jungle Book and doing environment and character thumbnails in preparation for choosing an environment and character to do concepts of.

For this project, you won't be genre shifting the story, but you can portray it in any style that you wish. The animals must remain the animals they are, however, and continue to live in the jungles of India.

Bring in print outs of your sketches and thumbnails and have them up on the wall for a critique.

Also, read the Jungle Book in its entirety. You can choose characters and environments from any of the stories, and don't need to decide which to use before you sketch. Feel free to explore several in the thumbnailing stage. You might want to draw as you read.

Due Date: March 9th (1 week)

Here are few illustrators and concept artists that work a lot with animals. Use these as inspiration, or take a completely different approach. The style is completely up to you.

Illustrator and cut-out artist. She has some really cool stuff and very stylized approach to animals.

http://britsketch.blogspot.com/

French illustrator. I think she has one of the most expressive approaches to drawing animals that I've seen.
http://www.claire-wendling.net/

Weekly story blog by Karl Kerschl. It’s a good read, anyway, but his animals are very traditional yet beautifully drawn and with a lot of subtle emotion to them.

http://www.abominable.cc/2011/03/02/the-story-of-vivol-moon-bear-part-eight/

Heinrich Kley, a german caricaturist and editorial cartoonist from the late 1800s / early 1900s.

http://www.thescreamonline.com/art/art7-1/kley/kley.html

Ben Basso, keeps a steady blog but specifically has a section called Sunday Pets, updated weekly. It has wild animal/fantasy creature drawings in it. Very unique approach.

http://benbassosketchblog.blogspot.com/

Katy Hargrove, a character artist for Guildwars, but keeps a steady sketchblog. Scroll down to find her animal sketches. They’re awesome.

http://tangrala.blogspot.com/

Guest Artist for tonight: Jay Gillen

Jay is a 2004 MICA graduate, and the principal Outdoor Environment Artist at Big Huge Games. He's got a lot of experience in concept art, and is one of the best folks I know generating ideas and not settling on his first thought.

He's got an awesome selection of work that can be found here:

http://jaygillen.com/

Big Huge Games Open House

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=156420051080499

Thursday, March 24 · 6:00pm - 9:00pm

We kindly ask that you RSVP via email to RSVP@bighugegames.com by March 22nd. In your RSVP please note if you'd like to reserve a portfolio review slot and specify your primary area of interest (concept, character, UI design, environment, level/world design, animation, modeling, texturing, etc...). Review sessions are limited and during past Open Houses have filled up quickly.

RSVP for a portfolio review.

More Concept Artists we'll be looking at

https://daarken.com/

http://gulzarjunaid.blogspot.com/

http://www.wendypark.com/illustrations_spike.html

http://www.goodbrush.com/

http://www.jonfoster.com/#portfolio

Assignment #4 – Character and Environment

For this assignment, you’ll take the character and environment thumbnails you did (those from a story you’re recreating) and you’ll create one finished, colored concept piece for each of them.

Don’t jump straight into these. Before beginning the final pieces, do a few more thumbnails, either approaching new directions or combing/refining elements that are effective in previous thumbnails.

5-10 character thumbs

5 environment thumbs

Following those, begin your finished concepts. The character may be on a solid color background.

Both of these should be at least 8.5 x 11, printed with acceptable quality.

Due date: 3/02 – 2 weeks

Assignment #3

Assignment #3 – Character and Environment

For this assignment, you’ll be choosing one of your favorite stories (be it from a book, movie, game, etc.), and selecting one character and one environment.

Recreate this story in your own way. Change the genre, change the setting, change the characters, but let the story be true to its self.

Think like the Iain McCaig video we watched, but feel free to push it even further.

Create fifteen character thumbnails and ten environment thumbnails to bring printed to class.

Print these cheap.

Due date: 2/16 – 1 week

Reading List:

You have two new books to order:

The Jungle Book:

http://www.amazon.com/Jungle-Book-Puffin-Classics/dp/0141325291/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1297283276&sr=8-2

Jojo and the Fiendish Lot:

http://www.amazon.com/Jo-Jo-Fiendish-Lot-Andrew-Auseon/dp/B0048BPGW4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1297283324&sr=1-1

Have these in hand by 2/23