slynyrd

Concept Album - 10

The battle rages on all through the night. Something has got to give.

No thumbnail sketch for this one. The scenario was established in the previous piece, but now the robos are in the advanced stages of combat with apparent body damage, and wrecked buildings. It took a while to find the right pose and scale for the robos. I tried something slightly abstract with the sky to channel more expression. Turned out pretty wicked.

Next update will be the concluding piece. Don't miss i...

Concept Album - 9

And so, the time has come for the final showdown.

As we reach the climax of our story, I notch up the detail with this scene. At first, the setting was going to be a desert wasteland, but was changed to the city for a more epic vibe. I was a bit nervous about the complexity of executing this scene, but the process went surprisingly smooth. From the outset of this series I set some stylistic limitations in order to capture a cohesive aesthetic. One of those limitations is to avoid po...

Concept Album - 8

In this piece we revisit a location from an earlier scene, however, an evil presence has arrived. To capture a foreboding mood I first went with surreal orange lighting and beat up the temple a bit. I was then directed to destroy the temple more and more, until the idea changed to have it completely destroyed, and present the enemy threat. The orange colors still felt a bit too happy, and didn't mes...

June Schedule 2021

Hey folks! Wow, it's already the 6th month of the year! Time for the town council to have budget meetings for 2022, or something like that. Hope you are are doing well and making the best of it as the days fly by. After a very stormy May, I'm actually looking forward to hot summer weather. But of course, there are many business duties to attend to this month.

As for the concept album project, the deadline got extended into July, but I intend to pretty much have it wrapped up by the end...

Concept Album - 7

He's gone off to war, and it seems he's not coming back this time.

This one came together pretty smoothly. I ditched the buildings in the thumbnail for more nature and a few ominous structures to emphasize her isolation. I tried out some footprints but it felt too noisy. Otherwise, my original vision from the thumbnail mostly survived the process.

Meant to post this earlier, but I've been so into the pixels that I lost track of my calendar. I will have a new schedule up soon! &n...

Concept Album - 6

Our hero contemplates the adventure ahead.

A few changes have been made to the track order, and the producer is going with a different title track. This art is now going to be the main album image. Nature, isolation, and vastness - it's right up my alley, so I'm all for it.

The idea is pretty straight forward and it's a subject I'm comfortable with, so I jumped right into the pixels without any sketching.

The parallax doesn't loop in this sample gif. In order to make it...

Hyper Echelon - 2

Heya! Got another intro scene complete for the game. This is for the robot colony, Krillis, where you meet the wingman, Thexter. His ability to stun works great to slow down foes for the 'destroy all enemies' medal, and his ability to break stun balls make him a strong choice for Hyperspace missions.

All right, just a few more of these scenes to go.

ICYMI check out the latest devlog, which explains all about our name change, and my thoughts on the beta testing. 2021-05-22 01:22:15 +0000 UTC View Post

Aloft

A had some precious downtime on Sunday, so I decided to make some personal art.

I've been hankering to make some quick minimalistic pieces again. Well, I call quick something that can be completed within a few hours. Sometimes the simple stuff can take a lot longer than you think. The fewer details the more deliberation over each pixel.

I pushed the light desaturated colors for an ethereal dreamy feel. I ended up with a lot more colors than what I would typically called minima...

Concept Album - 5

It pains me to leave your side, but I must take the fight to them.

As a big fan of airships, I was especially excited about this piece. The Chinese style boat is a bit new for me, and I had to research a lot of ancient warships to capture a suitable aesthetic. The sails were particularly challenging to find the right balance of functional details and pure visual appeal in the context of the composition.

I plan to make parallax scrolling with the background clouds and ships whe...

Concept Album - 4

Trouble looms on the horizon. Peace won't last without action. It looks like a fight is brewing.

I made several thumbnail concepts for this one, but I couldn't visualize the scope until I started slapping things together with pixels. Sometimes I downscale images and make sort of a collage of ripped images and rough sketches to quickly realize the composition before spending much time on handmade elements. This can save a lot of time in the long run. Once I'm happy with the composition...

Hyper Echelon - 1

This gamedev cycle has thrown every curveball at us you can imagine. Now, in the eleventh hour we've had to go through a name change. That's correct. Thyrian Defenders is henceforth to be known as Hyper Echelon.

I've created an entire blog post that details the name change, and covers various other topics related to our testing phase. In short, we felt it necessary to distance ourselves from Tyrian with a distinct IP. For the truth is, our game is not inspired by Tyrian at all. It was...

May Schedule 2021

Hey folks! Hope everyone is doing well. There’s been a lot going on with my work lately. If you’re wondering why I haven’t released any original content in the past few weeks, it’s because I’m freelancing for an album project. I’m sharing my WIP on that with $5 and above patrons. I’ve explained the situation in those posts, but allow me to review for those not on the inside loop.

I normally avoid freelance work outside short term commissions, because I prefer to dedicate m...

Concept Album - 3

The story begins. All is well in the kingdom. All is flourishing, and the lovers are together, for now... We will visit this scene again a bit later in the story.  

You can see several states of the process, including my initial thumbnails. I'll animate this one later, but the static comp is done.

This level of high saturation is a bit out my comfort zone, but I'm enjoying the exploration.

Concept Album - 2

Here is the finished art for the first track of the album, which is also the title track. It's sort of an atmospheric epilogue of the story to come. I'm interested to know how you interpret it.

I struggled the most with the values and bringing everything together into a cohesive scene. It's a bit weird to have the atmospheric perspective to the ground since the scene appears to be somewhere in space, but without it there is little illusion of depth. I feel like tweaking it a little mo...

Concept Album - 1

Hello folks. I've got some exciting news! Well, I'm pretty excited about it, and I hope you will enjoy a curveball in my usual content.

I recently took a freelance gig for a music producer, who I can't disclose at the moment. I usually avoid large commissions, as it disrupts my patreon and gamedev duties, but this one has a fat budget, and provides a great opportunity to spread my work to a massive audience. I couldn't rationalize refusing the offer.

To sweeten the deal, they ag...

Thyrian Defenders - 81

Welcome to Hyperspace Beta. It will be a rough ride full of space wrecks from those who couldn't make the journey, but it's the only known means to reach the Ether system. Strap in tight!

We've recently updated the playtest version of the game with a lot of significant changes, and It would be a great time to take on new testers. If interested, please register your email on our site and we will send you info on how to join. Thanks! 2021-04-10 01:05:52 +0000 UTC View Post

Stone Language - 6

Curious formations found along Horse Thief Trail. I captured the epitome of a Kansas summer in this color scheme.

64x64px 128x128px canvas
30 colors
Photoshop

April Schedule 2021

*Schedule updated as of the week 12-16. As mentioned in a recent post (Concept Album - 1), I will be sharing my progress on an exciting freelance project for the next several weeks. This replaces some content I had originally scheduled at the beginning of the month. The above schedule reflects the updated schedule, while the original text below describes the old plan.  

Hey folks! Another page has just flown off the calendar. I hope you all are having a great year and making progr...

Thyrian Defenders - 80

Hey space jockeys! Here's the latest from a far far away galaxy we call Thyria.

After analyzing the feedback from testers, and observing their relatively slow progress into the game, we've realized this game is just too demanding for most gamers these days. We've already made significant balancing changes since the start of the beta, but we're still not seeing a satisfactory engagement with the game, as only one player has beat the final boss so far, and most players seem to have near...

Stone Language - 5

More neat rock formations I found hiking off the beaten path.

Covered in lichens and contrasting oxidization patterns, I found this one was quite complex to capture the details with great clarity, so I focused more on the pure forms of the clusters. Sharp and chunky!

64x64px 128x128px canvas
36 colors
Photoshop

Plotting a Course

It was raining all last weekend, and I was cooped up struggling to find inspiration for a new piece. I created several potential sketches, but nothing was calling to me. Finally, the rain stopped, my old reliable muse graced me with a glorious sunset.

I faired the storm well and reveled in a moment of beauty, while some folks were dealing with flooded basements. I could really feel how fine the line between chaos and order is at that moment. Life is full of suffering, but the only way...

Pixelmotion - 29

Plotting a Course

Aim for beauty, aim for good, and brace for the winds of chaos. Calm is only an interval between storms.  

184x244px
54 colors
72 frames
Photoshop

Thyrian Defenders - 79

Magma Tetradon wants a bathing partner. Can you handle the heat?

One more intro scene down. Although the magma areas are pulsing, I might add a little something to make the overflow look like it’s moving, but I’m going to keep pressing forward for now.

Next stop, Hyperspace Beta. More than half way through the intros!

Stone Language - 4

A stone monolith rests where land meets water. Mighty it stands today, but on a geological time scale its soft limestone structure will quickly erode into the beach.

64x64px 128x128px canvas
42 colors
Photoshop

Thyrian Defenders - 78

Save the dragons!

Got the intro to Draconia animated. Thinking of a few tweaks, but fair enough. Most players will watch these once and forget about them, so I don't want to go too crazy. As with all these animations, the process involves a combination of creating the assets and animations in Photoshop, and putting it all together with motion in After Effects.

Next stop, Pyrex, the fiery world the dragons worship. Already got a good start on the background. We'll see how it sh...

March Schedule 2021

Hey folks! I survived the deep freeze of winter and spring is right around the corner. It's time to heat things up on the art front.

This month I have a packed schedule focused on completing the remaining story content in Thyrian Defenders with a healthy serving of original arts to boot. Looks like it's going to be pretty busy, but as always, I'll try my best to deliver.

Thanks always for the support of my awesome patrons!  

Thyrian Defenders - 77

After making the first jump through hyperspace, our heroes come upon Draconia, the dragon planet. Unfortunately, this beautiful world has also been struck by the Exodon. Not even the dragons could stand up to their sheer numbers. But don't let that scare you. It's up to your small squad to push out the threat. Good luck!

This is some WIP on the intro scene to Draconia. You can see I realized all the cloud layers so I can apply parallax scrolling when I animate it. I also plan to add dr...

Stone Language - 3

Limestone cleavage by the lakeside. The only cleavage worth gazing at around this redneck watering hole.

A lovely mix of light and shadow within the early fall colors transforms an unassuming pile of rocks into a place of rapture.  

64x64px 128x128px canvas
40 colors
Photoshop

Tutorial - 87 - Space Environment

Here I present a practical approach to environment design with a space scene. Much more explanation in the full feature.

Full Feature 

Tutorial - 86 - Pickups

Oooh, shiny goodies. Go and pick em’ up! All items described in the full feature.

Full Feature