Project Review: Cyan Worlds URU- PART VI

The Harvester "Concept Model- 3D sketch" for the Cyan Worlds Online URU Myst extension done back in 2001.

Here is a main 3D Conceptual Design Image I created for Cyan with a description of some main functions of the apparatus.

A Multi-view showing the concept model at various angles.

Here is a close up showing the low poly geometry model near the paddle balls all made from heavy iron.

Here is the base model design for the "Hourglass Harvester" I designed for Cyan.

Here we see the unit with the bulb out of the hoops as it would be when it picks one up floating on the water to process for ink creation for the game.

Cyan Worlds URU: Part VI
Venalem Age:Ink Harvester Conceptual Designs

Client: Cyan Worlds Inc.
Direction: Rand Miller
Project Date: Winter 2000

In this sixth Post on the Production Design work I did in the Winter of 2000 up in Spokane WA for Cyan Worlds, the makers of the popular Myst Video Game, I have posted the 3D mock up of the Harvester from the world Venalem that I designed.

Venalem was a world caught in a floating Iceberg and you can review the design here. The Harvester would process the material to make the ink for URU, the online Myst counterpart, the huge water bulbs had this inside and required a process in this apparatus. The bulbs once used were not discarded as they made into housing in the Icebergs for the 'miners'

As a conceptual Designer for Cyan, I helped develop the concept that the growing bulbs as the source for the ink, as well as the process of diving down to cut them off and tipping this harvester over to pick one up.

The machine was a joy to design and build this mock up in 3D for the project. A very enjoyable time in my design career from over a decade back.

You can view PART I here.

You can view PART II here

You can view PART III here.

You can view PART IV here.

You can view PART V here.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: Cyan Worlds "Venalem Age"

"Ink-Bulb" after Harvesting used for living quarters in Arctic Venalem World

Entry 3rd Person view as one enters the "Venalem" Age.

Surface of water P.O.V. of Bay.

Ink Pods growing under the Ice.

A cut-Off Bulb for Harvesting.

A Cutaway of inside a "Ink-Bulb" showing use of space.

PLAN VIEW of Venalem Age.

SIDE VIEW of Venalem World.

Cyan URU: The World of Venalem

Client: Cyan Worlds Rand Miller
Creative Director: Myself
Project Date: Winter 2000

After being laid-off from Launch Media Inc. after the "Dot.Com" boom in Y2K, I was recruited to go up to beautiful Spokane WA. and work for Rand Miller at Cyan Worlds. I have a previous post with some creatures I designed as well if you seach "Project Review" tagged to the right>>>.

At Cyan as a freelance Creative Director, I was responsible for coming up with worlds from scratch as possible locations to "jump" to from within the URU online game. Usually I am handed a treatment or outline of a concept already created by a writer or producer, but at Cyan I designed the entire world myself.

Venalem as a concept was in offering a wide variety of locations to "jump" to, and we had dessert planets, planets on fire, and flooded ones. Venalem was a frozen planet where you arrive in an enclosed iceberg "bay" and must figure out what to to and where to go.

Within this world, natural giant "Pods" were used to create the special "ink" that was used to write in the books for the various worlds. The age had the pods themselves, the harvesting machines, and ink production, as well as the re-use of the hollow pods for arctic living quarters.

I was responsible for the creatures and basic back story of the "Age" or world.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review CYAN Worlds URU-Part I

Client: Cyan Worlds Inc.
Direction: Rand Miller
Project Date: Winter 2000

Cyan Worlds URU: Part I

In Y2K, I had the pleasure of going up to Spokane WA and working with one of the most talented conceptual thinkers I have ever worked with, the wonderful Rand Miller. I was brought up to Cyan from California by a great Executive Producer I worked with at WDI in Glendale, Susan Bonds. I initially came up to help with conceptual ideas, and it eventually grew to Creative Direction in creating new worlds for the Cyan universe. These posts are the first in a series and this focuses on the wildlife.

For the many worlds I worked on creating the look and feel for, the world itself, was the base to start with, but next was to populate these virtual worlds with creatures. You will notice some of the quick sketches don't show any details, just proportions, that was intentional. Since this was a real-time 3D world the creature design was tailored to the technology so the creatures were low poly in design. I have seen many an illustrator design a Real-Time character that is so complex once it is executed in real time it looses all details, so I work from the end and more forward designing specifically for low poly.

These proportional studies were done so that will all skin and fine detail removed what was the visual "signature" that was left from each creature. Some creature design ends up being identical proportions to existing animals or people, and is designed very subtle in a surface treatment. I went from the opposite end on most, so that the long shot view of these would be recognizable as something "alien" or otherworldly.

Project Review: Cyan Worlds URU- PART V

An early concept sketch with a giant belly fin and back stinger.

This concept had a balloon like body with a fluttering fin running all the way around the fish.

This concept was a turtle like creature with "Schrooms" on the back.

A stumpy fish with huge side fins and a small line dorsal on top.

This cupped fin concept design was based off another design I did for another creature.

This is the refined version I presented of the cup finned creature with a new Manta head.

Once direction changed this is the 3D shrimp version I built.

Cyan Worlds URU: Part V

Client: Cyan Worlds Inc.
Direction: Rand Miller
Project Date: Winter 2000

In this fifth Post on the Production Design work I did in the Winter of 2000 up in Spokane WA for Cyan Worlds, the makers of the popular Myst Video Game, I have posted above the development of the "Schroomie" character I did for a world in URU, the online version of the Myst worlds.

What you will see are the quick proportional sketches that give the overall form of the creature. These are done with little details and mainly block out the "first-read" shapes you would see with the creature. Also, since this is a real time 3D world I consider that when I design, so the creatures can be made to fit the medium as you are limited in details that translate over to the limits of the game engine.

As with many projects you can get far into it and then you are told to change direction, this started out in a very open direction and eventually narrowed to a "Shrimp" like creature as you see in the 3D mock up I ended up with. A fun exploration in both 2D and 3D.

You can view PART I here.

You can view PART II here

You can view PART III here.

You can view PART IV here.

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: CYAN Kahlo World

A "Rock Bonsai" carved by the high winds on Kahlo.

A powerful dust is produced from the sand pillars as the are carved.

The Creature that the Player rides on Kahlo.

A huge ribcage embedded into the rock.

A Meteor slammed into the rock.

I SIDE VIEW of the hollow Meteor.

A floating Meteor over the sand.

A Player in a Miner outfit.

Project Review: Cyan Worlds Inc.
The Age of Kahlo

Client: Cyan Worlds Inc.
Art Director: Myself.
Project Date: Winter 2000

In the continuing series of posts on Cyan, I now focus on the Age of Kahlo. This is a windswept world with 100+ MPH winds all the time, so the landscape is carved out like the canyon of the Escalante.
There was some form of beast that is fossilized into the sandstone seen in the huge ribs in the above image. THere also was some sort of resource in the form of meteors imbedded in the rock as well.
Artistically the wind carved rock created some beautiful pillars that I called "Rock BOnsai" that would be all through the Age, kind of replacing the trees which could not exist to break up the surface landscape.

Cheers, THOM


I also did a single creature that flys using the wind for lift that the player can "ride" like a horse.

Cheers, THOM

Click the Post Title or paste this text into your browser to view the Canyon as Photographed by Marc Adamus: http://www.marcadamus.com/photo.php?id=74&gallery=canyon

Project Review: Cyan Worlds URU PART VII Submarine

 The Online version of MYST's URU had a Bubble-Sub I designed for the Venalem Age that was proposed.

 The mini sub was a one man craft all heavy iron and riveted with a Steampunk Industrial flavor.

 The "Tail" has a rotating and adjustable vane on the huge prop so it pushed pulled and steered the Personal Transport I designed back in 2000.

 An overhead render of the Ball shaped mini-sub surfaced on the ocean.

 A ocean level shot of the surfaced Bubble-Submarine Personal vessel in the open sea.

 Here is a geometry shot showing the 3D model as built for the concept art presentation.
 

Cyan Worlds URU: Part VII
Venalem Age:Ink Harvesting Submarine

Client: Cyan Worlds Inc.
Direction: Rand Miller
Project Date: Winter 2000

In this seventh Post on the Production Design work I did in the Winter of 2000 up in Spokane WA for Cyan Worlds, the makers of the popular Myst Video Game, I have posted the 3D renders I did for the Personal Submarine or "Bubble Sub", for the world Venalem that I designed.

Venalem was a world caught in a floating Iceberg and you can review the design here. The Bubble Sub was used to dive deep into the icy waters and cut the bulbs off at the base in order to create the ink needed to write the story.

I did the concept design a bit steampunk in theme, built out of heavy iron., with lots of bolts and rivets exposed. I added in some features like the variable vane propeller ball, that was ball joint hinged at a knuckle joint near the base, so it operated like a "Tail" to help steer the little personal watercraft design.


I always love submarine designs, as I did a few in 3D, and I also did a whole bunch of research in the Library way before the internet back in the early 90's to understand  "Neutral Buoyancy", since I wanted to build one someday, and since this one is a Bubble too, it follows that a bubble car and submarine are really a matched pair.

You can view PART I here.

You can view PART II here

You can view PART III here.

You can view PART IV here.

You can view PART V here.

You can view PART VI here. 

Cheers, THOM

Project Review: CYAN's URU Scorched Earth

Scorched Earth!

Client: Cyan Worlds Inc.
Art Director: Myself
Project Date: Winter 2000

While working up in Spokane WA at Cyan Inc, famous for the Myst video-game sensation, I was working in the capacity of Production Design on the URU online form of the Myst world. In creating worlds for Rand Miller the founder, some worlds were very spelled out for me and others were very open.

Case in point, This image was generated by me when Rand gave me two words,"Scorched Earth". I begin there to conceptualize: Why is it scorched, how big is the planet, who lives there, what has the scorched provided for game-play, etc.

Apart from merely doing a fun drawing, what is behind this is that the molten core holds these "mushroom" shaped spires of land together, but each one is moving on the molten ball of lava in the center, which means the terrain is constantly moving like icebergs, bumping into one another. The scale is smaller sized for game-play reasons to see across the equator. The hotter air between land masses from the core provides lift for balloons, and zeppelins for transportation.

This world never got off the ground, as I moved on from Cyan and this was my last sketch I did for URU.

Cheers, THOM

Personal Project Review: 3D Robotic Crab Character Development 2014

Here is my final Image produced for my little Robotic Crab 3D Character I designed this Past Holiday.

 

 A Screen Capture from 3DSmax 2013 shows the subdivided scene set-up[ about 2 Hrs to complete with renders]

 

This is my little one minute sketch I did to start this all off.

 The base model is a full Subdivision model, and here is the main camera view in that Low Resolution form.

 The above shot of my 3D Crab Robot  subdivided and smoothed for final use.

 This side view shows the tripod like stance with the tail out back that is actually the propeller.

 The same shot of my 3D Character subdivided as the final 3D asset.

 An alternate shot similar to the final with the camera raised up slightly off the Kelp Bed.

 The Subdivided shot of the 3D Robot Character Design I developed out.

 Overhead looking down] from the boat!]

 Same view from above the 3D Crab. 

I did the propeller shaft as a twisted cable you can see that in this shot a bit.

Personal Project Review

3D Robotic Crab Character Development 2014

Client: Myself: Personal Work.
Art Direction: Myself.
Project Date: Winter Break 2013-14.

Welcome Back! This is my first post for 2014, and my fifith year as a full-time freelancer.

During this past winter break I did a little personal project and designed out a 3D Robotic character of a small underwater Crab.

I worked on a very large robot project a few years ago, and I was inspired to do my own take on an underwater 3D Character. As a 3D Designer I did a micro sketch that took about a minute to get the basic feel of what was in my head, and blocked out the basic proportions,and then I go directly into 3D to design.

I built this little character out in the Tee-Pose so it is ready to animate in 3D, with some basic linking for posing, but what you see above is it posed. 

A few design features I put into the little guy is that first and foremost, he is sphere based, not a surprise as I am infatuated with this basic shape as seen in my Bubble Car concept.

I love submarines as well, so underwater creatures are fun and so I added the propeller out back insipired by a early design I did at Cyan Worlds back in 2000 here. 

I made the question-mark leg with a fully rotating little dualie wheel set to scoot along the ocean kelp beds.

Though I sketched two eye-pods, I went with a Cyclops instead that retracts back into the head via the iris up top as with a reuse of the the teeth on the circular mouth out front on the design.

Also, one arm was made much bigger as found in nature on various crabs, to change it up a bit I modified it in 3D.

About a 4 Hr build, with 2 Hrs to set up and render it out in the scene. A fun little personal 3D Design project for me to pass some time this Holiday season.

Cheers, THOM