Corrupted Graphics (concept art)

A couple of posts back I featured some concept artwork of the demo corrupted city (go on, have a nosey if you really want to). These graphics were created for the those scenes - supposedly (made up) corporate logos/signs that have been digitally corrupted, to fit in with the corrupted architecture of the environment they'd feature in.

Some old Machine/Terminal/Manufacturing sketches

I'm still finding some dusty old sketches as I sort through stuff on my computer. Here are some quick concepts for a selection of industrial/mechanical wotsits.

The Invasion of the Corrupted City (concept art)

...When the invasion finally happened, the city was completely unprepared, despite warning signs over the previous days. And as predicted, the virus creatures easily penetrated the barricades and headed straight for the nearest power sources, completely draining the city of it's electrical supply within mere minutes. The city's inhabitants were now left completely defenceless, exposed and at the mercy of the approaching virus armada...

The Corrupted City / Demo Virtual Environments 02 - Concept Art

Following on from my previous post, here's a subsequent iteration of the Demo Environment exploration, but this time it had moved more towards a 'corrupted world' of fragmented, unfinished simulations of buildings and structures. The general concept was based around the notion of an over-arching AI being presented with glimpses of our real world, and attempted to replicate it unsuccessfully (as if some of it's data had been corrupted in the process of trying to form the emulation). The second lower picture was a quicker initial sketch that evolved into the larger panoramic view above it.

Demo Virtual Environments 01 - Concept Art

A few early rough concept ideas for a 'test' environment that players could use to hone their skills and experiment with traversing various types of terrain. I played around with a few different aesthetic ideas using the same rough layout - the scenes were deliberately intended to resemble non-permanent, virtual elements.

Electro-Shock Barrier System - Concept Art

...After the city was over-run, the authorities felt they had no choice but to introduce limited access to the general populace. The Shock Barrier System (SBS) was felt to be a suitable balance of limited intrusion and effective deterrent. When inactive, the barrier remains relatively hidden apart from an illuminated marker. Only when approached does the barrier first alert a resident by springing upwards to form a rigid bollard, and audibly advising them to stay clear of the area. If the subject doesn't retreat, the barrier will then revert to armed mode by expanding its enclosure upwards, revealing its inner weaponry and projecting a 'virtual' scrolling warning barrier. A second audible warning then precedes the final stage of the barrier's defensive system - emitting a high voltage charged shock that renders any living creature incapacitated instantaneously. It has so far proved to be very effective!

New Website Design

I finally got around to updating my creaky old website with one that's a bit simpler and easier to navigate: www.jamiemartindesign.co.uk . I'll be adding an additional '2D' page to it soon, with all of my concept artwork - I just need to lay it all out first. If you find anything that's broken at your end, please let me know.

The Old Bridge Checkpoint

Another one I've dug out from the archives:

...The old bridge crossing had originally been established to prevent access from the city confines out into the wastelands beyond the river border. It was meant for the population's own good; no-one knew the dangers of the barren land out there better than the Military Council who threw together these temporary gateways after the 'event' first occurred. But not too long afterwards something had happened to the basic AI units that they had dumped there to guard the checkpoints. No-one knows how or exactly when, but after they turned, absolutely nothing had been able to get across the bridge - not for years - not even those who were legally permitted. It almost became a thing of legend, like a troll waiting for it's next victim. And it's had it's fair share of victims, that's for sure. That heap of robotic rusting industrial junk stands steadfast, determined to block access in any direction, still to this day...

3D Stylus Pen Concepts

A while ago I did some quick concepts for a client to visualise an innovative new type of Stylus they were intending to bring to market, including a proposal for the packaging the product would be presented in.

D/S Integrated Sidearm (Phase-2 Variant)

Side profile concept of the sidearm in it's 'ARK Police' matte grey livery.

Early concept sketches exploring a variety of silhouette and detail options.

The Phase-2 variant of the D/S 'Particle System' Integrated Sidearm proved to be a huge success in the Policing and Security sectors where a non-lethal approach was preferred to the standard projectile weaponry previously adopted. This revolutionary Sidearm is considered by many as the precursor to today's Particle Energy Weapons, and is still widely used by an array of military establishments around the system (albeit in a modernised format).

Slayer - Robot Concept Art

Following in the 'starting with an S' naming convention, here's another concept scribble I've dug out from a good ol' chunk of time ago. I seem to have actually attempted to take this concept into Cinema 4D for a brief period of time, but obviously gave up and moved onto something else. So here are the fruits of that (short) labour.

T-K-1 Stalker (by Uto-Technologies™) - Robot Concept Art

Here's a sketch I've recently dug out, originally created a few years back. This design never went any further than what you see here - its form of locomotion was not particularly well conceived. But, ignoring that, I did actually write quite a bit of technical blurb to go with it:

The ‘Terrain’ or ‘T’ variant of the K-generation ‘Stalker’ Bio-Robot was introduced as a stealth mechanoid with the agility and speed characteristics of a Panther (it‘s developmental code name was ‘Cat’). Seen here in it’s ‘raw’ guise, the T-K-1’s party-trick is achieved through light-bending surface ‘plates’, allowing the robot to all but visually disappear into it’s surroundings. Unfortunately this technology is very susceptible to damage; any malfunctioning light-plate will produce an ‘image tear’ in the robot’s surface, exposing it to it’s environment. In addition, small, localised EMP charges temporarily jar the robot, and disable the signal to these plates, again exposing the robot. Such occurrences normally only last 1-2 seconds, before the robot’s CPU resets the image feed.

Over 1.5 metres in length, and able to reach speeds in excess of 60mph, the T-K-1 is known as a ‘hit and run’ mech; many of it’s victims never even see or hear it approaching. It is designed to adapt to a variety of payloads (carrying over 40kg has been known) depending on terrain and mission requirements. It’s most common setup consists of an electric-plasma turbine mounted at the rear of the main body, which provides additional acceleratory thrust in addition to the robot’s four legs.  Intelligently controlling the unit is a Dual-Bio-Tech CPU (Uto-Technologies™ revolutionary organic/electronic processor), which can regenerate its power-supply to 100% within 2 hours (when at rest) via it’s solar-capacitors (mounted atop it’s head)*. 

Many T-K-1 Stalkers are fitted with a ‘Scavenger’ unit; a much smaller mechanoid (no more than 30cm in length) that is concealed within the Stalkers undercarriage. This Scavenger is deployed when the T-K-1 either meets an obstacle it can no longer navigate beyond, or when it wants a vantage point perspective of a target without having to break cover. Although this Scavenger is a separate unit, it is still a component of the T-K-1 Stalker’s AI; they are one in the same ‘entity’. 

•NB: Due to the lack of consistent sunlight available in many environments, the Stalker seeks sources of artificial-light (eg street lighting) to recharge itself, although such locations inherently come with the risk of exposure to others (as their camouflaging light-plates have to be inactive for charging to take place). 

ION trailer - the recording studio

A quick little sneak peek behind the scenes from when we were recording the dialogue for the ION teaser trailer at Improbable. In these shots Tom Johnson, our sound designer, is recording Caryn Krakauer in the sound booth - she is the first voice you hear in the ION trailer as a US Astronaut.

Free Bokeh Light Lens Effect Brushes (Photoshop)

I created a couple of custom brushes for Adobe Photoshop (CC 2014) when was I painting my Terminator 30th Anniversary Poster, to simulate an out-of-focus 'bokeh' lens effect for the distant city lights (as seen in the above cropped section of my poster background). So I've shared them here for you to use on your personal projects.

One is a single, pressure sensitive brush (linked to opacity and size), and the other creates a random scatter effect, again dictated by pen pressure.

My personal workflow was to create a dedicated Photoshop layer for each colour, using the 'Linear Dodge (Add)' blending mode.

If you find either Photoshop brush of use, please leave a comment.

DOWNLOAD PHOTOSHOP BOKEH BRUSHES HERE

Throwbot concepts

A couple of Throw-Bot concepts I was commissioned to do for a robotics company. The main stipulations were: 3-wheeled and rugged.

ION game official trailer (and previz)

To complete (for now) my ION-related posts, here is the trailer I directed as a teaser for our game, created by animation house Platige. It was unveiled by Dean at E3 2015 a couple of weeks ago. Apparently the audio (via Tom Johnson) was so fantastically bassy it was shaking the auditorium.

One of the first things I did was to create a rough 3D previz to test whether my concept for the teaser could potentially work or not (from an informative and impacting point-of-view). This was then used as an initial blockout guide for animation house Platige to start working from.

ION TRAILER CREDITS:

Production: Dean Hall, Nick Button-Brown

Creative Direction: Jamie Martin

Audio: Tom Johnson

Art Director: Jamie Martin

PLATIGE IMAGE

Producer: Artur Zicz

Postproduction Manager: Karolina Mann

Animation Director: Kamil Dąbkowski

Lead CG: Piotr Borowski

Layout: Krzysztof Kamrowski, Kamil Dąbkowski, Szymon Pawlik

Modelling: Szymon Burzawa, Maciej Hrynyszyn

Rigging: Tomasz Kurgan

Textures: Piotr Tatar

Animation: Piotr Borowski, Tomasz Kurgan, Anna Elert

Simulations: Grzegorz Jankowski

Rendering: Marek Gajowski, Grzegorz Flaga, Marcin Waśko

Compositing: Marek Gajowski, Pavle Milicevic

Online: Wojtek Rogalski

ION game promotional poster

This is the first piece of promotional artwork I have created for our game ION. Pre-packaged human - delicious! I also used the artwork to guide the end sequence of the ION teaser trailer.

My original concept sketch of the clone, which acted as the basis for the final poster.

ION game logo

This is the logo I designed for our upcoming PC/Xbox space/scifi game ION. It went through quite a few iterations before this ended up being the one chosen by Dean. ionthegame.com

THE TERMINATOR - 30th Anniversary Movie Poster & Modern Trailers

I make no secret that I'm a big fan of The Terminator. It's been a favourite of mine since the moment I first saw it - I was mesmerised from then on. In fact I made a short blog about making a T800 Endo Skull last year (you can see it here).

To mark the 30th Anniversary of the movie's release I decided to illustrate the above poster, capturing the moment that Arnie first arrives and the rollercoaster thrill ride begins. I also rolled up my video editing sleeves and tried my hand at cutting together what I imagine a modern version of a trailer for The Termintor would look like if the movie was to be released today.

The first trailer is a longer more spoilerific cut (which seems to be the typical approach of many contemporary trailers), and the second cut is a sleeker, less spoiler-ey version. My one self-imposed rule for both trailers: do not show the robotic endoskeleton. After I released the trailer(s) I received a very kind compliment from Gale Ann Hurd (producer and co-writer of The Terminator): "Your ‘trailer’ serves as an absolutely fantastic reminder of the storyline and the film’s iconic imagery." That was very nice of her!

Controller Handset Concept 02

Following the controller design shown in my previous post, I was asked back to design another one for a new robot they were introducing to the marketplace. The controller (and robot) were to be all-weather, durable products - hence the rugged, chunky design. 2D artwork created in Adobe Illustrator.

Controller Handset Concept 01

Here's version 01 of a handset I was commissioned to concept for a robotics company. The main image is my original bare 2D design, created in Adobe Illustrator, and the other 3 images are renders of my finished 3D version to be used as promotional product renders (click them to enlarge).