Hai Phan - Freelance Character Artist

Hai Phan is an artist I came across when I was looking for tutorials that involved the entire pipeline. It was in CGCircuit that I found his videos and the fact that he wasn't going for a realistic approach but rather a really nice stylised that made it so appealing. 

His tutorials were helpful as he didn't approached a software specific but rather explaining the general concept and industry standards. 

Hella is the character he mainly worked with and it was amazing to see most of the process on the making. 

His portfolio is fascinating and quite extensive (have a look!); the amount of different characters and creatures that he creates varies a lot yet you can still sense a style within. 

Not only his videos were really accessible but it was really easy to get in contact with him and he was kind enough to answer some questions that will be useful as primary research for my dissertation. 

Limitless Hiroyuki

 

Hiroyuki Takahashi (タカハシヒロユキ) is a Japanese designer that has no limits.
His work has clearly established his style as playful, colourful and over the top. His compositions are masterly composed and every design he makes he works in every detail on the character, for the character and around it, ending up with really dynamic yet simple piece of work where chaos and technology seem to be iconic of his.

The mechanical precision in his vector lines gives to his work the possibility of multiplying its effect and working along with his iconic patterns and his fashion sense the outcome of his work really stands out.
It is definitely a very attracting style, which like in the picture below, I think it could work very well as character design or even as a concept style for a video game. Would love to see more games with more colourful and surreal styles rather than just semi realistic. Make sure to visit his website as he does loads of other stuff and collaborations with other artist.

L'Odyssée de Cartier

L'Odyssée de Cartier is the new Cartier film (advert ) which takes you to a journey between dreams and reality. This is the very first time that Cartier has decided to create a cinema epic focusing on its history, its values and inspiration, its artistic and universal scope.

It was directed by Bruno Aveillan, and certainly it's a fascinating piece of film.  It effectively transmits the elegance and design that the company always focus on.

Wicked Animatic

Defying Gravity Storyboards from Heidi Jo Gilbert on Vimeo.

This is an animatic I found from Heidi Jo Gilbert, a CalArts artist. In it is a possible representation if the play Wicked was transformed into an animation. The concept is awesome and obviously the songs are fantastic.
I found it interesting because it gave me a good idea of what actual professionals take as storyboarding and animatics and it helps me to race my standards on my own work.
(I did not download this song for my ipod after this... ) 

José Alves de Silva

Jose Alves da Silva is a Portuguese 3d artist that has had loads of appearences in magazines like 3dtotal and 3dcreative.
Appart form loving his over stylised way of working, I found very interesting to find a some images of the same final product, but in the different phases of it's making. Like the one below, you can see the turn around of the character on actual clay, a final 3d model and the final product with textures and post production. Also de fact that he started his current 3d passion by doing a degree of architecture kind of game me a little bit of hope of being someone in the industry.
Check out his website and portafolio:

http://www.artofjose.com/
http://josealvessilva.daportfolio.com

Yi Lee

Yi Lee is a Corean artist who I've been following for years now. His most recent works are more towards characters' concepts, which I find really helpful as reference and inspiration for my own creation. 

The reason why I find his work amazing is not only the style (a characteristic semi-anime one) but the colours and brush textures. The contrast he creates with some key colours using them as light and soft tones for shadows are some points I find attracting, even more than the concept and composition itself. 

Make sure to visit his website (and translate it to make your way around it):

http://tatoomcity.net/ 

Tahyon - 3D fractal

One of the artists that I recently started following is Joldos Dan Emanuel, a CG artist (and furniture Designer), who has an amazing collection of works, most of which are representations of 3D-like fractals. When I first saw his pictures I thought they where produce on a fractal software (I've try some before) but I haven't seen any that produces ones of such a good quality.

Then, while looking at his website I saw a video and it was just surreal. It is a nice composition of constant flow and morphing shapes that hypnotise you. The concept of space and physics as know completely disappear and the boundaries of creation seem endless. 

I really wish to have to make a concept like this, probably adding a narrative, but the idea of breaking those boundaries is something that excites me and will definitely will look in the future for ideas like this one. 

Growing up

Growing Up from Lucas Ridley on Vimeo.

One of the things I like to look at is rather than following only mainstream work is following track of some other students from different universities around the world.
This time it was Lucas Ridley who caught my attention with his impressive animations that he made while  being in his student years at Vancouver Film School under the program of 3D animation and visual effects.

The one above, 'Growing up', seems to have a similar topic as ours for this project (Little and Large) which made it even better.
The animation it self, regardless of the amazing illumination and well done textures, is really fluent and vivid. There might be some tiny little mistakes on some parts, but being a student and achieving this quality is something really impressive.

Taking from this not only to put effort on my future animations it also encourages me to do more work with the post production of my projects.

DYE Fantasy

While most of the animations these days are focused on an underage audience (except some parts of japanese animation) I like to see that there are some people out there interested on bringing it to a more mature audience. The animation itself it's gorgeous and despite the mild gore it can content, I think the value of the idea, the colours and the very well textured composition makes this animation worth watching.

Just mind the blood...
       

DYE "Fantasy" Official Video by JEREMIE PERIN from TIGERSUSHI on Vimeo.

DYE "Fantasy" Official Video by JEREMIE PERIN Tigersushi and Excuse My French are pleased to present the new video for DyE's new single, Fantasy.
 Directed by animation wunderkind Jérémie Périn, the video tells the story of a group of highschool kids ready for teenage mischief. They break into the local swimming pool intending a session of innocent nightswimming, in an awkward climate of romance and apprehension. What happens next is for you to discover here.
Directed by Jérémie Périn Written by Laurent Sarfati & Jérémie Périn Artistic Direction by Mikael Robert Produced by Excuse My French / PH & Tigersushi Executive Producer : Constance Guillou Production Coordinator : Perrine Schwartz Commissioner : Jill Caytan  

Draw with me

This is one of my all time animations I've seen on DeviantArt.
It was made by Mikeinel, a digital artist from the Philippines, and a collaboration for the music with Daniel James (HybridTwo).
Mikeinel describes the video as as a story about a girl and a boy separated by an unbreakable glass, which sounds like a very simple concept, but the way he face this 'love' story was completely out of my expectations and I just cant get over the plot twist that exist in last few seconds of the animation.

Beautiful colour concept. Sort of surreal and artistic that fits the whole concept of a desert world where only the two of them exist.
The plot twist was a bit inspiration for the ending of 'Isolation'. A more psychopathic ending that enhances the desire/feeling of loneliness on your own mind.

Second Wind

One of my favorite videos on Vimeo is this short animation called 'Second Wind' as part of a project of Ian Worrel. It was a project on his final year at CalArts and the tools that he used where pencil and paper for the man and the cat line animation. It was coloured in photoshop, composited in after effects onto backgrounds constructed in photoshop out of various pieces of media (pen/ink, pencil, paint, photos).

Pretty impressive animation with a touching narrative that brings good memories of when most animations where hand drawn. Enjoy!

When working on the final editing for 'Isolation' I realised that there's loads of things we should have worked on. 

Things I notice is that probably the combination of having the backgrounds on a more artistic-looking with the simple front might be too contrasting. Probably playing more with textures would have been helpful.
Next project, I'll make sure to give the editing more time and dedication.

Clouds

This was one of my inspirations that I found on the web. It was a final second year project of Sam Miller, a student of animation from the University of Hertfordshire in 2008.
I think the animation is beautiful and it has a really artistic touch on it. The fact that most of the backgrounds aren't as detailed as the main character gives the idea of it being a paint.
The concept is simple, but really original.
It really impressive how a small group of people can manage to make such an amazing project.
Also, not only is well animated, but I think it has really well planned shots and a positive editing.

The sound goes along very well and the voice of the mother at the end it's just awesome.
This kind of animation may look simple, but I'm pretty sure now that it takes a LOT of effort to achieve something like this.
I really hope I manage to improve the quality of my work on the coming years.

Also, check out Sam's website! It's got really nice illustrations :)

Lake Hurwitz

Lake Hurwitz is an absolute fantastic digital concept artist that lives in San Francisco. His work focuses on a realistic imitation of traditional painting, and the real part that attracts me from his work is the way he captures expressions, moods and colour in a way that he considers 'speed painting'. Now I've seen a lot of speed painting artist, but no one as accurate as him. Anyway, here's some of his work and a link to his CGhub account to see the rest of his art:

• Professional for 1 year, 8 months
• Field:
  GamesConcept Artist - Illustrator

Jerad S. Marantz

Remember the Kraken in the recent film clash of the titans or the amazing creatures of infamous 2? Well if you do, then I assume you understand the high quality of work that the concept artist Jerad S. Marantz does when it comes to creating fantastic creatures.

I came across this artist by accident, and almost refused to take a look at his work since part of the title of that post included the film sucker punch, which I never wanted to see after watching at the trailer.

Thankfully I had a look at his work and realise what an amazing artist he is and how many interventions he has done for many projects in the film and game industry as he is the lead designer at the Aaron Sims Company.

Anyway, what calls my attention from his work is the amazing detail in the textures that he puts for most of his monsters. Mixing that with an incredible ability to render and you get real life-like creative monsters and creatures.

After watching all his work, I got got really impressed at the ones for Zack's Snyder’s Sucker Punch, so I think I'll give it a chance to the film.

Even though my project with my character Reban (and also Belina) doesn't go that far, I always had the thought of adding this kind of creatures at some point in the story being Belina the one creating this weird creatures. If I ever keep with the story, I hope by that time I have a good technique level to achieve concepts of this quality.

Meanwhile, have a look at his gallery and start stalking /following his blog

Thought of you

While thinking and doing some storyboards for my flip book animation, I decided to look at some traditional style animations. Most of the works that I found where part of famous animations and really detailed final works.

Then I came across with this impressive artist called Ryan Woodward. Apparently ever since 1995 he's been doing commercial works for Hollywood mainly, but leaving aside of all the works he has done for Warner bros. or Walt Disney Studios, I'd like to focus on one of his most recent works part of the project Conté Animated which involves concepts of exploration of the human body, 2d animation (the illusion of life), contemporary dance and experimental processes for the better understanding of art.
Putting all this forms together to support a central idea of the complexities of intimate relationships.

What I found interesting is that rather than focusing of creating a narrative that communicates a define story, he decided to explore an individual experience unique and personal that goes straight to their own sensibilities.
Just have a look at the video and you'll see what I'm talking about:

Thought of You from Ryan J Woodward on Vimeo.

Impressive isn't it?
This short was a winner award of merit in Los Angeles Cinema Festival of Hollywood Fall 2010, The Indie Fest award winner, 2D or not 2D animation Festival Golden Pencil winner and many other nominations. No wonder... animation should also be applied to some other forms of art like this one does. Expand horizons.

I know that for my tendency at the moment to do things detailed and my 0 experience on animation, I wont be able to achieve anything close to this, BUT I do intend to work a lot more in a fluid way of work and a to improve my observational skills to a higher level.

Have a look at Ryan's Conté Animated website.

Lili Ibrahim

This time I'm going to talk about Lili Ibrahim, a Sweden artist based in London who's studying Illustration and animation.

I was just looking at her website and couldn't help to fall in love whit her work. Thinking that she's a student like us and she does that quality of work makes me want to push myself a bit further to improve (probably she's not a student anymore, but still...she's awesome).

Apparently she's got a lot of inspiration from acting, which would explain a lot in how well she represents facial and body expressions.
Just like me, she's aiming to work on the game industry and for that she has done some work in 3D using software like Zbrush, maya and 3D max, but for her illustrations she uses Photoshop CS5 and a Wacom intuos 4.

I strongly recommend to pay a visit to her website, deviant account or tumblr account, and have a look not only to her final illustrations, but also she's got an amazing quality of sketching (which is something I still need to work more on).
She's got a really nice technique on digital painting, in which she changes a lot from the original idea, but I think this gives you a really good opportunity for polish the final product, instead of getting stuck in the original idea, which might not be as good. You can see her process in some tutorial she made for her deviantart profile.

Looks like we've got a big competition or even better a good companion in the concept art industry.

Jace Wallace

While trying to look for an alternate type of drawings that could take me one step aside to try different styles, I remembered one artist that I've been following for a while (not stalking). He's name is Jace Wallace; an american concept artist and illustrator who seem to have done more works about fashion and naked women than anything, but still, the way he works is just impressive.

Proportions and shading for skin is one of his strong aspects that I admire, but also the composition and originality in most of his works is impressive itself.

Something that I notice while looking at his blog is that he refers at his works as "sketches" or "doodles", even though for me they are really professional looking... I suppose that's call talent.
For my character, Reban, I'm not even trying to change my style, since 1) I don't have enough time to do everything again and 2) it would look awkward to have to different styles in the same project, so I'll stick with it for now, but I'm definitely going to try to be more quick with my sketches from now on... at the moment I need to improve my quantity of ideas, and then the quality.

by the way...this is his website

Tetsuya Nomura ♥♥♥

Well, I know manga-style animation shouldnt be part of my portfolio, but I still can help to hide my respects and admiration to Tetsuya Nomura, a japanes artist born in October 10, 1970.
He's been my inspiration since long time ago, specially because he's the responsible for the character designs and concept art of franchise such as Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts.

BIO
Tetsuya Nomura was born in Kochi prefecture Japan on October 10, 1970. Fans of his art probably know him best for his work on the Final Fantasy series, and for his habit of often influencing his character art designs with his personal tastes in fashion and silver jewelry. Originally starting off in a vocational school creating art for advertisements, Nomura was hired by Squaresoft at the age of 21 to work on battle monster graphics for Final Fantasy V in 1991. Pleased with his work, Squaresoft next appointed him as graphic director for Final Fantasy VI in 1994, and in the following year, gave him the role of character designer for the production of Final Fantasy VII.

Nomura's first major character design role, FFVII. Nomura's involvement in Final Fantasy VII didn't stop at character design. He created storyboards for the many impressive summon sequences, covered monster and logo designs, and even had some influence on major key events in the story, including the idea for Aerith to die. The huge worldwide success of Final Fantasy VII further secured his position as one of the controlling minds behind the series' design and direction. Nomura worked closely with director Yoshinori Kitase on the development of Final Fantasy VIII, heavily contributing to ideas for a 'lighter' story and a school setting. He acted as lead character designer and battle visual director, setting the feel for the game with his designs for characters, clothes, weapons, and Guardian Forces, as well as sequences for limit breaks and summons. He also added personality details and some choice vocabulary for the characters he designed.

Illustration for Parasite Eve II. At about the same time, Nomura's design talents were hired into other games, including Parasite Eve, Brave Fencer Musashi, and Ehrgeiz. When Square entered the PlayStation 2 era in 2000, Nomura served as character designer for the company's first major titles on the system, The Bouncer and Final Fantasy X. It was shortly after that Kingdom Hearts would mark his first role in fully directing a game, while still providing the concept art and character designs as well. The game was well met, and Nomura resumed the same role for Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts II.

Nomura's clothing designs are a hot topic among his fans. Nomura has often cited the Final Fantasy series' original character artist Yoshitaka Amano as a great inspiration with his detailed whimsical illustrations, even crediting him for the idea behind Edea's design in FFVIII. He also credits motion pictures, music videos, and magazines as a frequent source of inspiration when drawing and making storyboards. His interest in motion pictures has further been demonstrated in his direction of the CGI film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, in which he also served as character designer for. Nomura employs a variety of mediums when drawing, but he most often uses the contemporary technique of first making sketches on paper, then scanning the lines and further processing the art on computer, where most coloring is done digitally. Early sketches on paper are often created with mechanical pencil, though he has also been known to make use of colored pencil, as found in his illustrations for Final Fantasy VII.

Currently, Nomura continues to be a busy and influential designer in video games, overseeing the art direction in the three Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy XIII projects for PS3, as well as director for Final Fantasy Versus XIII. Other present projects are Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII for the PSP, and It's a Wonderful World for DS.

Artist's Video Game Work
1992 Final Fantasy V (SNES)
1994 Live A Live (SNES)
1994 Final Fantasy VI (SNES)
1995 Chrono Trigger (SNES)
1996 Super Mario RPG (SNES)
1997 Final Fantasy VII (PS)
1998 Parasite Eve (PS)
1998 Ehrgeiz (PS)
1998 Brave Fen. Musashi (PS)
1999 Parasite Eve II (PS)
1999 Final Fantasy VIII (PS)
2000 The Bouncer (PS2)
2001 Final Fantasy X (PS2)
2002 Kingdom Hearts (PS2)
2003 Final Fantasy X-2 (PS2)
2003 Final Fantasy XI (PS2)
2004 Kingdom Hrt. CoM (GBA)
2005 Sam. Lgn. Musashi (PS2)
2005 Kingdom Hearts II (PS2)
2006 Dirge of Cerberus (PS2)
2007 The world ends with you (DS)
???? Final Fantasy XIII (PS3)
???? FF Agito XIII (PS3)
???? FF Versus XIII (PS3)

There's a lot a could talk about this artist, speaking about his style that's very iconic and that if you look at the artworks of all this games in order you can tell the evolution in him.
What I find more inspiring at this point of creating a character is his ability to make iconic and unique personalities and looks on his characters.
I assume that his passion for fashion is what gives a really outstanding costume, but at the same time he designs a personality in the character that manages to stay in your memory. Once you play several games in which this characters appear you can easily tell which ones he design.

Right...like I said he's been one of my influences, but not that I've decided to leave this kind of style, I'll try to make this artist one of my last manga-concept artist...
(but still...LOOK AT HIS WORK!...isn't he amazing?)

Stein Louisse

This time I'm going to talk about Stein Louisse, an artist focused on digital illustration and animation who's based in Hilyersum, Netherlands.
What caught my attention about this artist at the moment is the easment in which she can change of the draws from being cartoon-ish to a manga-like style. That is something I'm trying to do at the minute; get away from my tendency of just drawing manga, but at the same time I don't want to forget it since is the reason why I started drawing in the fist place.

Anyway, another reason why I'm featuring this artist is the sexiness in the composition of most of her illustrations. The way she captures that beauty and provocative aspects of the female body and expressions is something I hope to achieve in my illustrations.
Also, she has participated in some animation projects.
I'll leave some pieces of her works, but you should take a look at more of her works in her portfolio and blog.