Friday, June 7, 2013

Raging Spaniard's House of Pancakes and Friendship

A lot of videogame art production is now dependent on making...

















A lot of videogame art production is now dependent on making isometric ground tiles. Somebody at work asked me how to make them and I was happy to make a small tutorial explaining the process. The last tutorial I posted here seemed to be pretty well received, so I hope this one can help some people out as well :)

inki-jinx: Unfortunately I was laid off from my day job last...





















inki-jinx:

Unfortunately I was laid off from my day job last Thursday, and now I'm looking for more 2D/illustrator work in the Bay Area. Above is a selection of the work I've done in the past 2.5 years for OMGpop and GREE International.

I am a senior-level 2D concept/game artist with 6-year background in the video game industry. In that time I've worked on DS, Wii and iOS games. Interested in pursuing a full-time, senior level/management position.

Here is a link to my resume: http://shellyrodriguez.com/resume.html

And another, to my full portfolio: http://shellyrodriguez.com/

If you like what you see, even if you know no one in the industry, reblog! You never know who might be out there, searching for an artist just like me. :)

Thanks so much, hope you enjoy what you see~

Shelly

Photo



Making the most out of the train ride (Monster Hunter!!)



Making the most out of the train ride (Monster Hunter!!)

Beowulf! One of my favorite characters from the Skullgirls...



Beowulf! One of my favorite characters from the Skullgirls universe. Its a shame he didn't get picked in the first character vote, hopefully theres better luck in the second round of voting.

You can also download a wallpaper friendly version here, if you like :)

sanshee: A poster about a beloved and timeless...









sanshee:

A poster about a beloved and timeless classic.

Illustrated by Xavier Garcia and available exclusively at Sanshee.com.  

Its finally out! Thanks again to Sanshee for the opportunity. Over 100 hours were poured on this, so I hope my passion for the game shows :)

Some sketchbook drawings while working the Inki-Jinx booth at...







Some sketchbook drawings while working the Inki-Jinx booth at Wondercon!

inki-jinx: This is the video I created to introduce my...



inki-jinx:

This is the video I created to introduce my Crabapple character on Kickstarter! If you like cute Japanese inspired things (come on I know you do) CLICK DA BUTTON! 

Not famliar with Kickstarter? The gist is this—all or nothing funding in 30 days. I put this project together to fund a 250 pc. run of 12" Crabapple plushies. 

To learn more about the project (and see more photos of Grumps McChumps), click here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inki-jinx/inki-jinx-crabapple-plush

REMEMBER! SHARING IS CARING SO HIT THAT REBLOG, CHILD.

Regarding the "high cost" of making Skullgirls:

This was originally posted in NeoGAF. There was a thread to discuss this GiantBomb article that outlines the cost of developing a character for Skullgirls. You can begin to read the reactions to this post in pg.10:

Here is some reference from my own experiences. Typically I don’t like to share these kinds of details with people who just DEMAND information they havent earned, but discussion has shifted here a bit and its good to see.


I was one of the contractors, well, still am! I did some of the cleanup animation. By the time I got an assignment, the animation rough had been approved by Kinuko and at this point it could make the final game or it could not (that’s all in the testing, balancing and memory management) Smartasses in this thread have questioned the need for engineers in a game that’s already “done” and that’s a big mistake. The original game had to have animations cut because we had run out of memory, so on a technical standpoint, how the fuck are we gonna add more characters? Well shit, good thing there’s engineers on the team to figure that shit out, huh? That’s only one of the challenges too.

But anyways, to the point. You may get a short animation (6 frames aprox), medium (12, 15 ish) or large (20 plus) there’s also varying degrees of importance (normal move vs animation that only triggers when two duplicate characters hit each other with the same move) and there’s also character design details to add to the difficulty (Valentine is more simple than Painwheel, for example). One extra wrinkle is the level of sketchiness in the animation rough. Some animators will make the drawings so tight that there’s no room for improvisation while others will basically blank out the face and all of a sudden you find yourself animating faces from scratch!)

For an outsourcer, since you don’t have access to the team at your immediate need, its important to be diligent with the reference materials. Very few artists draw like Alex or Kinuko and its our job to make our art look exactly like theirs. If you look at my art youll find that my style is not really close, so I cant just start on the task right away, I need to study the reference provided carefully and make sure I “get” the character before I start.

So once you start, the first deliverable is to digitally ink all the frames. I’m a classically trained 2D animator and have a fulltime art gig, so eventhough I’m fast I can only start working on this when I get home. This is another of the unfortunate realities that come with an ambitious project like this, that a lot of outside help already has other projects going on, so they cant give you 8 hours a day. I came home at 7 after drawing all day and spent another 5 hours doing Skullgirls work. Typically after two days I would send a medium sized animation over for approval from Richard, who is the awesome cleanup genius at Lab Zero. Approval usually takes about a day because Richard is getting deliverables from the outsources, who if you have seen the credits are way more than 20 … So basically Richard is art directing 20+ people AND doing cleanup work himself, meaning he basically doesn’t get to go home (so its great to have to listen to assholes here tell me that he needs to justify his $600 a week) I had the pleasure of meeting him a few months back and hes going gray already, haha.

So yeah, approval. While I wait for that to show up I get started on the next frame. Very rarely does the linework get approved on the first try. Usually something is inconsistent, a weapon looks weird or the shapes are a little flat. Depending on the damage you may have to do 20% percent of work or maybe even up to 50. Its important to get this stuff approved because otherwise you cant move on to shading and coloring, which are the next steps.

Once you’re approved and do the shading and color pass (which take about 60% of the time it takes to ink) you send those off for approval as well, make some last minute touch ups due to feedback and THEN the animation is done on your end. Before it ends in the game proper, chances are Richard has fixed some things himself … So Id say on average I could get about 60 ish frames of animation a week, and seeing how the character with the FEWEST amount of animations has about 1500 then you start to get an idea of how just one step of the process works.

THEN we look at Squigly. What a lot of you aren’t realizing is that she has MULTIPLE STANCES. What does that mean? TWICE THE ANIMATIONS.

Can you start to see how the hours pile up and have NOTHING to do with proper managing? A fighting game is unlike any other game. A character in a fighting game is the equivalent of a character + level design + the game design of any other game.

But hey yeah, lazy devs, right?

Been practicing a bit more with the Frenden brush presets and...



Been practicing a bit more with the Frenden brush presets and was also trying out Monks brush set, it's really good!

The old Raging Spaniard icon art had been around for a loong...



The old Raging Spaniard icon art had been around for a loong time, here is a much needed update :)

inki-jinx: NEW SHIRT DESIGN! "Octo-pie" featuring Sweetoof....





inki-jinx:

NEW SHIRT DESIGN! "Octo-pie" featuring Sweetoof. Hehe get it? ;3

Sorry, couldn't help myself… ^^;

Be the coolest kid on the block AND save yourself some dough by buying this new inki-Jinx tee before anyone else does.

XS-XL are $20 vs the normal price of $22

2XL-3XL are $22 vs the normal price of $24 

Preorders are open til March 2nd! Buy yours here: http://inkijinx.bigcartel.com/product/sweetoof-desserts-tee

Just a quick test of the Frenden brush presets, these are...



Just a quick test of the Frenden brush presets, these are awesome!

fuckyeahillustrativeart: Kim Jung Gi







fuckyeahillustrativeart:

Kim Jung Gi

Lets kill breast cancer and get Skullgirls into EVO! Go here to...



Lets kill breast cancer and get Skullgirls into EVO! Go here to donate!

This would work well for a fighting game pose! Im pretty happy...



This would work well for a fighting game pose! Im pretty happy with her design, shows lots of movement but also a calm demeanor.

Has it really been a month? The big housekeeping post and what lies in 2013

Let me be the last person on the internet to wish you a happy 2013! Last we saw each other it was just over a month ago … and a lot has changed!

Back in early December I was supposed to return to Brothersport for a full time job. However, at the very last second (and I mean that literally) there was a change of heart and I was on the job hunt again. Fortunately for me, I had 3 interviews lined up and as of the 7th of January I’ve been a Lead Artist at Kiwi!

So yeah, for me, that is a big deal. So far the experience has been incredibly positive and I have been very focused on making the most of it. Dealing with multiple interviews, Christmas Break and then trying your best at a new job are all big undertakings and are a reason of why this blog had been neglected … but I also engaged in one more activity.

Professional soccer?

Well, um, yes. The San Jose Earthquakes (an MLS team) had an open tryout this last weekend and I signed up for it early last month, so any free time I had for the last 30 days was spent running, stretching, shooting and playing soccer. Unfortunately, today I got the news that I wasn’t chosen for the next round of tryouts, but the experience was really good and I will write about it soon.

As far as personal art goes. Things have been slow, but I have a plan in place to get a table at the next APE con, and by then I plan to have a couple of books available. One will be a collection of sketches, and the other one will hopefully have something to do with Lucha Town. I have also come up with a good name for a company that isn’t Raging Spaniard related. I love the name as a nickname, but its not something I want for an actual production company. I’ll share more news on that front when I have something more concrete.

Did this small ass tutorial for a friend of mine who was...



Did this small ass tutorial for a friend of mine who was struggling with her color making decisions.

Thought this would also be useful for the general artist. Short version: Instead of just going darker with your color selections, change the hue of the color as well!

saveroomminibar: Super Mario Galaxy. Rarely seen concept...











saveroomminibar:

Super Mario Galaxy. Rarely seen concept paintings.

!!!!!!

roseaposey: "Judgments"I took this last year, but in...



roseaposey:

"Judgments"

I took this last year, but in retrospect, I think it's my strongest piece from high school.

Working on this project really made me examine my own opinions, preconceptions and prejudices about "slutty" women and women who choose to cover all of their skin alike. I used to assume that all women who wore Hijabs were being oppressed, slut-shame, and look down on and judge any woman who didn't express her sexuality in a way that found appropriate.

I'd like to think I'm more open now.

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