Tabula Rasa, NCSoft, Concept Artwork BIG POST (PAGE 2 UPDATE 12/02/08)

[Chris J. Anderson!]

Hello.

Due to big NCsoft layoffs I am, after 2 years, able to show the work I have done for the company. I haven't posted on CA.org for a long time, and I'm happy to return to participate with this community once again.

Hit me up at chrisbeckons@gmail.com if anyone wants to chat.


Here are some environments I worked on for Tabula Rasa...

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_envio_artworks_023.jpg


http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_envio_artworks_022.jpg


http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_envio_artworks_021.jpg


http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_envio_artworks_020.jpg


http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_envio_artworks_019.jpg


http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_envio_artworks_016.jpg


http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_envio_artworks_08.jpg


http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_envio_artworks_015.jpg


http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_envio_artworks_012.jpg


http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_envio_artworks_011.jpg


Here are some Props & Vehicles...


http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_props_artworks_012.jpg


http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_props_artworks_017.jpg


http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_props_artworks_016.jpg


http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_props_artworks_018.jpg


This one was actually for ADV Films, but I revamped it...

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_props_artworks_05.jpg


More Tabula Rasa works...

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_props_artworks_06.jpg


Some character concept art. (These two are not for NCsoft)...

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_charact_artworks_021_red.jpg


http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_charact_artworks_020_blue.jpg


These characters below are for NCSoft's other MMORPG IP's...

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/magi_female.jpg


http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/magi_warrior_male.jpg


http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/ice_warrior_female.jpg


http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/desert_warrior_female.jpg


This was for a different styled IP game for NCsoft. More based on polygonal traits...

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_charact_artworks_014_eve.jpg


http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_charact_artworks_013_spect.jpg


http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_charact_artworks_012_cryst.jpg


This was for an NCSoft IP with a more cutsy, more simplistic style...

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_charact_artworks_018_cute.jpg


http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_charact_artworks_019_puff.jpg



And this is for a personal book project I'm working on...

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_illust_artworks_02_hype.jpg

Thank you for you time everyone. Cheers.

Chris A.

[artiphats]

beautiful work here. I love the polygon styled characters and the enviros, but my favorite piece is that giant floating fortress.

This all goes into my "inspiration" folder, thanks for posting :)

[Gax]

The fifth one, is ...Awesome.

Great job mista.

[Neolight]

Thanks for sharing these Chris, I admire MMOFPS's.

My favorite of the batch has to be the third one down. I love the subtle accents of red you threw into the structure.

Inspirational pieces.

[Victor B]

What fantastic work! Love the environments and the various styles used on the Character Designs, Many thanks for sharing.Hope you continue to post as you can.

[Nickodemus]

This stuff is rad. Lovely work!

[creedguytrent]

Tasty!

[jabraniho]

Mr. chris anderson!!!
These are awesome!!
finally posted!

talk to you soon.



-jung

[James Kei]

Nice clean professional work.

[Max Challie]

Too bad Tabula Rasa was sub-par, since the concept art looks so good. It was great to be able to look through this, I just had to create a Chris J. Anderson folder. Is is me or is there an anatomy problem in the last one? The guy on the right, right arm, bicep? It's probably just me.. the armour designs are sweet.

[Duman]

Very cool. The environments are dead sexy, have a very nice alien feel to them. A lot of interesting geometry and designs. Well done.

[threecharles]

Beautiful, I really like the massive mother-ship looking one. Keep it coming!

[Dahami]

Max Challie, perhaps it's the way the shoulder armor overlaps the bicep that makes it look awkward.

Chris, I love your Tabula Rasa environments. I wish someone would put together a deluxe "The Art of Tabula Rasa" book with large reproductions of the game's concept art and design work in a high dpi print process. So much beautiful art went into that game. I guess Richard Garriott isn't the only one leaving NCsoft these days, but he's the one who's most famous as creator of the Ultima games and now a space tourist. Sometimes people just have to move on. Best wishes to you Chris, and I'd love to see more work like this so please post again sometime soon.

[teho]

i like prop concepts a lot. thank you.

[Cloister]

The purplish ones are really powerful. Especially that floating stronghold (or whatever it is) strikes me! Great!

[Kan Muftić]

Great work, man. I am interested in your environment techniques. Care to share some?
5ive bling-blings from me,
Khan

[krossj]

Awesome stuff Chris! great to see you post again!

cheers

[mcunha98]

Greate style !

[psychoboy]

cool step; something we don't get to see everyday;

esp. the characters

[lewiston]

Props and ships are fantastic.. not sure about your characters though.

[Jasper_]

Hey thanks for sharing this stuff man. I love seeing what the industry professionals are up to. Those environments are awesome, 5 stars.

[The_Macedonian]

Thy're all more than great, but the first looks extremly real

[GRMC]

yeha really like your work man . its inspired me crazy..... :)

[RicardoGuimaraes]

Great work! Very inspiring!! Congratulations!

[kev ferrara]

Great great stuff! I love the Calatrava meets Giger architecture especially and those great characters, particularly the girl with the torpedoes coming out of her ears, the girl with the hand prints on her outfit, and the geometricized girl.

Sweet stuff!

kev

[ian081271]

Hey Love the Environments very cool work... I am inspired once again...

Cheers
Ian

[Ead]

oh Yeah.. top notch enviros Chris, the green interior is real nice. And the id stuff is solid too.

[CHARLES CARVALHO]

Wow man!!! Very, very good!
Your work is inspired... Congratulations!

Hug!

[xchosun1x]

really nice work Chris...
always nice to see your updates

what are you working on currently?

[corspufo]

hot freaking damn, sweet work son. Sweeeet work. Quite inspiring.

[Noah Bradley]

Friggin' amazing.

Particularly the environments.

[kinjura]

5 stars. This stuff looks incredible.

[JohnnyB]

AAAaaah this is why i wanna become a concept artist, to be able to produce art, and instill life into my work like that >_< great stuff man....hope i'll get there soon enough Dx PS: Awesome, awesome work :D

[gustavo desimone]

very good, I love your paintings conceptual

[sickles]

Your work is incredible soooooo gooood man great job

hey how did you get so good? i want to be this good. how did you begin did u draw portraits ? :)

[cgaddict]

Your work is phenomenal. Your pretty much mastered landscape painting as far as I'm concerned (great composition, use of values, and color schemes). Your figure painting is equally as impressive. No critiques on my part, keep it going! :D

[soulburn3d]

Great work Chris, really love those environments. Sorry to hear about the layoffs, and best of luck getting picked up elsewhere (if you haven't already found yourself something).

- Neil

[TheBullion24K]

Hey Chris... A lot of fantastic stuff, I can't begin to imagine the other fantastic things you have hidden away :P

Hope you don't mind, I sent you an email. Let me know!

[mime]

Wow very nice !
I really love your environments and the "polygonal characters".

[Chris J. Anderson!]

Hey everyone, thanks for all your kind words! I'm glad you like this.

artiphats: Hey thanks, cheers!

Gax: Thanks a lot.

Neolight: Hey thanks. I was actually so worried about the red accents in the third one down, that I almost didn't keep them. I'm glad it works.

Victor B: I''m glad you like all of the works, I'll try to post more stuff, cheers.

Lunarsis: Thanks!

creedguytrent: Thanks!

jabraniho: Wassup Mr. Jung Park! Thanks dude!

James Kei: Hi James, thanks for the comment! Cheers man!

Max Challie: Yeah the fate of Tabula Rasa is unfortunate, although it was fun working on it. Thanks for the comment on the guys right arm. I may have to revisit that area.

Duman: Thanks!

threecharles: Cheers!

Dahami: Hey thanks for the comment on the guys arm, I'm definitly gonna have to revisit that. Yeah it would be cool if they did release a Tabula Rasa art book. There was so much done for it. Cheers!

teho: Thanks!

Cloister: Hey thanks!

Chupacabra: Hey Khan, thanks a lot. Yeah, I think I'll do what you suggest and post a step by step process tha shows how I create some of these.

krossj: Thanks, great to be back!

mcunha: Cheers!

psychoboy: Thanks a lot!

lewiston: Thanks! And yeah, characters can be hard to make appeal to everyone.

Pyroclasm00: Hey much appreciated, thanks for the stars!

The Macedonian: Cheers! that first image was my first try at a more detailed environment. It was pretty fun so now I want to do more to that level of finish.

GRMC: Thanks GRMC, cheers!

RicardoGuimaraes: Cheers!

Kev ferrara: Hey thanks a lot! I'm glad you like those particular chaacters. They were the most fun out of the bunch to do.

ian081271: Cheers!

Ead: Hey thanks! That green one took me the longest.

CHARLES CARVALHO: Thanks!

xchosun1x: Hi James, thanks man! Hope to see you when I visit Cali.

corspufo: Thanks a lot!

Noah Bradley: Cheers!

Kinjura: Hey thanks for your comment, and the stars!

JohnnyB: Hey thanks Johnny I appreciate your comment! I hope you become a concept artist too just keep drawing, cheers dude!

gustavo desimone: Thanks!

sickles: Hi sickles, thanks! I'm never sure where I stand on the 'pretty good, or pretty bad' artist scale, I just keep doing what I'm doing. I try to get better by learning from other artists around me. Maybe you could keep studying other artists work to learn from them as well. It helps a little.

cgaddict: Cheers & thanks!

soulburn3d: Yeah the layoffs where uncool, but was gonna happen. I hope I get picked up soon as well.

TheBullion24k: Hi, thanks for the email. Now that I have time I can actually respond to it. Cheers!

Mime: Thanks!




I thought I should post a step by step process of how I go about creating environment paintings.
Here's the process of the second environment on the first page...


There wasn't much time to do this, so I had to create this quickly.
I started with rough thumbnail sketches to get a feel for the shapes. The
assignment was to create a strange fortress in the mountian wastelands.

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_Dry_Lake_01.jpg


Here I clarified the thumbnail with some rough shape ideas. Here I focused on foreground, mid, and background. The Mid ground being the main focus.

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_Dry_Lake_02.jpg


Starting the color phase. I needed a tone that gave me the basic mood I was going for. The middle being a slightly brighter than the rest.

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_Dry_Lake_03.jpg


Started laying in foreground, mid, and background color tones. Forground being the darkest. Also, each form having two color tones for basic lighting. I
tried to keep foreground, mid, etc, on different layers this time to see if that would help me keep cleaner edges, which is was pretty helpful.

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_Dry_Lake_04.jpg


Add more tone complications to the basic shapes. Also, used vertical grid to keep vertical shapes from tilting, and a perspective point to keep needed rock texture shapes on proper planes.

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_Dry_Lake_05.jpg


Keep in mind that when painting this, I keep the image very small on the screen, like as long as your index finger, to see the shape better from afar. This is just a close up to show how I build it up. This one I added more contrast and color saturation.

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_Dry_Lake_06.jpg


From here on, it's all about details. The last image sets up all the major key elements for texture details and effects so it's easier to build up the image further without loosing track of how bright, dark, big or small a shape is suppose to be.

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_Dry_Lake_07.jpg


Finalizing more details. From here on, this is a good set up for if you wanted to turn this into a matte painting and really clarify everything to photo realism. Or you can stop here if directors feel it gives you enough information for the project.

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_Dry_Lake_08.jpg



Here are a few speed paintings.

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_ca_mountains.jpg


http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_ca_rocky.jpg


http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_ca_crater.jpg


http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_ca_green.jpg



Here is a step by step of how I build up a speed painting. This assignment was to create a spikey, rocky lands area. First I blocked in the atmosphere.

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_Spikey_Lands.jpg


With the round brush and the flat brush, I blocked in the clouds basic shapes. To give it dynamics, I focused on defining the underside, goving it a darker feel, instead of being too puffy and formless. I also focused on giving the cloud 4 basic shades of color and value to work with.

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_Spikey_Lands_01.jpg


Start painting in the rocky forground. I concentrated on keeping the number of color shades and values down to a simple 4 or 5 and no more. Easier for me to focus on lighting and shape designing the rock forms that way.

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_Spikey_Lands_02.jpg


Adding more color and value shades, complicating the area a bit more.

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_Spikey_Lands_04.jpg


At this point it's all about rendering texture details, defining smaller shapes more, etc. Everything, shapes, color, themes, is all set up so it is easier to render without ruining the shapes.

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_Spikey_Lands_05.jpg


Once again this is a good set up for if one wanted to take this further into a more photo realistic image because all the main elements to play with are set. Or stop if the goal was to create a loose painting.

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_Spikey_Lands_06.jpg


Cheers!

[Chris J. Anderson!]

Here are some extra works I've done for Mythic Entertainment's "Warhammer Online", and some Tabula Rasa concepts.

Some crates for Tabula Rasa...

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_ca_pr_crates.jpg


Swords for Tabula Rasa...

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_ca_pr_words.jpg


Evil weapons for TR

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_ca_pr_ne.jpg


And some Warhammer works...

http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_ca_war_tree.jpg


http://www.chrisjanderson.com/web3forumimages/web_ca_war_head.jpg



Cheers!

I posted some figure drawing information in the "Drawing From The Mind" thread here

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=30205&page=19

just in case anyone wanted to check it out.

[theincredibleandy]

Where did all of this come from?!?

Fun work, Chris. You can obviously pump out good art, and it's great to finally see the piles and piles of decent work you have here. It's neat to see your process stuff, too. I especially like your tech designs.

Keep blasting these out, and keep showing us!

[Boom]

What a huge load of awesomeness. Thanks so much for sharing this. :)

[Victor B]

Woah, great update, love the step by steps!thanks for sharing!

[xchosun1x]

damn chris...this is all just super amazing work.
we should definitely get together when your in town.
Keep up the awesome super kick ass work!

[corspufo]

Awesome. I'm trying to improve my environment work, so seeing your workflow has really helped me out and also lets me know that i'm moving in the right direction. I love your work and I'm always eager to see more. Thanks again!

[JustinBeckett]

killer work. I love the enviros.

[TheBullion24K]

Hey!

Wow that last post had so much great and fantastic info! Book marked for sure!

Thanks again Chris.

[jabraniho]

NICE UPDATE!!

YOU ARE MY HERO!! =)

-jung

[Strela]

Amazing art, great tutorial, great thread.

It's a pity concept art can't save a game. No offense to anyone who worked on it but TR was one of the worst MMORPs I've ever played and I can't stand MMORPs. The reasons why are discussed elsewhere-- basically death by committee.

Sure wasn't the fault of the artists though.

Too often, amazing art is being used to sell games with lackluster gameplay. If marketers were smart, in trying to save bad games pre-release from a financial perspective, they would be pumping even MORE money into concept design, to put even more gorgeous paint on the underlying lump of manure-- since, apparently, good coding and good game design are just WAYYYY out of reach these days.

It's almost becoming a cliche in the last couple of years how concept art will be released for failed games and games that never came out. It's just such a damn pity, but on the other hand at least the art gets to stand on its own.

I've already received far more enjoyment from the concept art for TR than I did from the game itself. Thanks again for all your hard work.

[Dahami]

Part of the appeal of an RPG is being/controlling a cool looking character who explores cool looking environments with cool looking props (vehicles, weapons, etc...) and have it all blend seamlessly together into a consistent make-believe universe. Tabula Rasa did a great job with this. Maybe quest/mission structure, level advancement, player interaction and so forth could have been better. I think the game might have succeeded if it had been given another year or so, with the inevitable revisions and content updates. I suspect that when the economy crashed that NCSoft got cold feet and saw Tabula Rasa as no longer worth funding.

I really wish they would get all that concept art together and publish the ultimate Tabula Rasa art book, exploring the worlds of the game and vehicle and costume design and so forth. Ballistic Publishing could do it! Of course, I doubt it's going to happen, and so I'll have to rely on generous posts from the artists involved here at CA.

[RocketMonkey]

Nice work, mate!

[Dragonspit]

The entire thread is simply awesome, but really appreciate you posting the wip. love seeing that processes you guys use.