Everything Else

Now, this explains a lot!

2011-12-24T15:11:00.001-08:00

I am fascinated by what might influence an artist's work. Sometimes little things haunt creative people, be they writers, directors, choreographers, painters, etc. Their work becomes recognizable and sometimes easily imitated purely by including a few repeating themes. This made me contemplate innocent, but potentially life changing, moments in the lives of more famous artists.

Puff Paint Tiles

2011-11-27T14:38:00.001-08:00

Playing with applying porcelain paint via a squeeze bottle, aka "puff paint". I have mixed emotions about it, but still having a good time. Looking forward to seeing what happens when fired.

Here We Go!

2011-11-27T12:27:00.001-08:00

Time to jump start the holiday mood. Need a little help to get in the zone... snow might help.

Art All Over the House

2011-11-18T16:58:00.001-08:00

Several years back we moved into a tiny house with low ceilings and limited wall space. We decided that one rule for the decor was that everything had to be art created by ourselves or artist friends. We also had to become creative about what art could be, and where it could go. Here are a few examples of hand painted art tiles I have scattered around the house.

Working on This Year's Christmas Card

2011-11-05T09:56:00.001-07:00

Doing final touches, then comes the process of getting it into envelopes... which is always the more time consuming part.

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T12:20:00.001-07:00

Hunting a Better Printing Method

2011-10-28T14:32:00.001-07:00

I did a test run for turning my little Proper Cup of Coffee broadside into a poster. I used a service called Zazzle (they let me custom cut the paper size), you can fine them here.

The quality is good, but it looks like a giant photo blow-up of a Photoshop file. Looks like I need to find someone local who will give me a range of printing paper to choose from and is willing to hold my hand through the process. Although off-set printing would be nice, I would like to find some happy medium. Something archival, cost effective, and the ability to do very limited runs.

What I Have Been Up To

2011-10-28T12:48:00.000-07:00

In a recent Blog post, CarCus asked if I might elaborate a bit on what I have been working on recently. I have to say that these past few years have been the busiest in my career, but sadly most of that work is on projects that I am unable to show or talk about publicly. Still, I have been filling drawers with art and producing work for clients in an variety of diverse industries. I can however roughly describe all I have been up to.

I am still working as an Art Director for IMVU.com, my day job, which I have held since 2006 and one that the company allows me to do from my remote studio in Oregon. Roughly, my job description is to use the 3D tools that we offer our members to continually push what is possible to produce with them. Inspiration by example is my job, followed with assignments to write tutorials, create videos, and review products. IMVU has been a wonderful place to work, and has allowed me the luxury of growing my 3D skills, which are directly enhancing my weekend freelance work.

Although it means I have a seven day work week, Saturday morning starts my other job as a freelance concept designer. I continue to work actively on projects for Walt Disney Imagineering, as well as other theme park companies, producing projects all over the world. I have had the honor of working briefly on The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and most recently on major area development projects for Walt Disney World. I am most often brought into a project at the very beginning of the brainstorming or blue sky process. All this 3D experience has led me to produce very large and complex area development concepts models, often as the very first step of the conceptual process. The end result will most often be a full color bird’s eye sketch, but before that happens I might develop several iterations of 3D concepts before I finally commit it to ink.

3D environment design is ultimately my passion, and as a concept designer my job is to work towards the goal of producing images that communicate to the largest audience of often diverse disciplines. If I can get architects, engineers, and show ride designers excited by an early design then there is a greater likelihood that the final result will most resemble my initial concept. When producing concepts early in the life-cycle of a project, it is too easy to get flashy... communicating energy and excitement but not always working to nail down scale and scope. Having even a rough 3D model allows for me to be honest about just how big a finished design will be and how it will work in relation to the audience and surrounding environment.

As a remote freelance designer you hope that your work will communicate all aspects of your design intent. Since once your contracted time is used up you are not often invited to fight for your design, so it better do a good job of communicating your concept without you being in the room to fight for it. Ultimately, the more information you can instill in your design, the more likely the people responsible for making it a reality will adopt your early goals as your own. More often then not the next time I see a project, after my early concepting efforts, is when the attraction finally opens. This was certainly true of my work on the Toy Story Mania project, which I worked on extensively during its blue sky phase. Although years passed between my early drawing and the final attraction, I can definitely see the influence of the first sketches, despite the many hands which had touched it once it left my drawing table.

Probably the most fulfilling work that I am doing now has been to create elaborate attractions designed specifically to help communicate the potential of a ride system in early development. Although these attractions are unlikely to every be built, I am handed a very rough concept for a ride vehicle system and I am asked to wrap a story around it. It is jobs like these that allow me to pull from every aspect of my eclectic skills and knowledge. Ultimately, once I have delivered a bird’s eye ride concept model or sketch, my client will know that I have thought out every inch of the attraction and its details, virtually riding it in 3D and on paper. Whether it gets built is purely icing on the cake, because I got to experience it first, and with luck that is communicated in the designs I hand over to my clients.

I promise to post any images I can, but more often then not, they are destined for the draws of the archives of the companies I work for.

Proper Cup of Coffee

2011-10-23T09:45:00.001-07:00

Here's another favorite British Music Hall tune turned into a Broadside advert. I have heard the chorus for "What I Want is a Proper Cup of Coffee" sung many ways, so I picked my favorite. I couldn't find a definitive video version on the web to share with you, so you are on your own if you don't already know the song.

Broadside Lyrics

2011-10-17T21:53:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about playing with song lyrics as a retro Victorian Broadside advertisement, this one is from a favorite song:

To hear it in action, listen to Brass Farthing sing it at the 2009 Dickens Christmas Fair: Eat Bertha's Mussels

They're Making My Bloody Pen Again!

2011-10-05T15:00:00.000-07:00

One of the dangers of falling in love with a specific drawing implement is that there is always the chance that one day they will stop making them. This is what happened with my beloved Pentel Fountain Pens, which Pentel stopped making nearly ten years ago. I bought as many boxes as I could, but I have come to my very last box and a lot of my drawing time has been haunted by the reality that these are my last few pens and I better get on the ball and fall in love with something else... and fast.

Well, I am happy to say the "Pen of Damocles" has been snatched from over my head! I just discovered that Pentel has re-released my old standby, under the new name "Pentel Stylo - jm20". I can't express how relieved I am, and I promise you I will be buying a crate of these as well. Now I am freed up to worry about more important things.

Whomping Willow

2011-09-03T19:33:00.001-07:00

Here is one more, now I have to get back to work.

Severus Snape Tattoo

2011-09-03T14:29:00.001-07:00

Here is another Harry Potter themed tattoo sketch, the line work was done in 2009 and I just got the chance to add some color today.

Harry Potter Tattoo

2011-09-02T16:18:00.000-07:00

Ages ago I did some rough doodles in my sketchbook of potential Harry Potter themed tattoos. I always intended to draw them up more formally, and while cleaning off my desk I discovered I already had. Here is one of them.
It is fun to imagine what it might look like applied to an actual person:

Line & Crosshatching

2011-08-25T11:57:00.001-07:00

I have a little sketchbook that I keep near the couch. This is my doodling sketchbook and I use it mainly to help practice my pen line weight. There are no rules for the sketchbook, just draw whatever pops into my head and try out different pens. Recently I realized that for the past 40+ years I have using the same crosshatching style, so I decided to experiment. The above samples are some of those experiments, which led to the following images:

The idea for these few doodles was to play with the idea of what "other" (less attractive) mermaids might look like.

Bookstores

2011-08-09T17:18:00.001-07:00

Our local Borders bookstore is closing and although it went through a few years of retail identity crisis, selling everything from music, stationary, and kids games, it was unable to survive a painful fact... bookstores are going away, no really. It is hard to imagine that we are the last generation to really remember what it was like to browse through a building filled with books we could buy. It is also ironic that we can still remember when Borders and similar mega bookstores were the villains that put our charming independent bookshops out of business. The truth is we put them out of business. Why buy a book for $36. at an independent bookshop when Borders has it for $30. Now, why buy it at Borders for $30. when we can get it at Amazon for $13. Lastly, why buy a physical book at all, when we can download its contents to our digital readers and tablets. The contents of books aren’t going away, but the ability to spend time in a physical shop where we can explore and leaf through tomes before we purchase them are.

Like it or not, now is the time to head to whatever local bookshop you have left to visit and take a good hard nostalgic look. Buy something, even if it costs you a little more, but be aware that the opportunity to purchase a book is going the way of vinyl recordings and stores like Tower Records that used to sell them. You say, Don you pessimistic bastard? Well, Powell’s Books of Portland Oregon, arguably the best bookshop on the west coast, has reported dropping sales. Go buy a book, and really soak up the experience, we can tell our grand kids what it was like and show them the proof on our bookshelves.

Traveling Artist Essentials

2011-05-24T16:29:00.000-07:00

After years of lugging around a computer and shoulder bag filled with much too much stuff, I finally whittled down my traveling paraphernalia to just the bare essentials. Whether I am getting on a plane or just heading to meet a friend at a local coffee shop, this is all I need. The bag is a small Fossil brand leather case that really only holds the iPad and Sketchbook, making me less likely to fill it up with un-necessaries. The new Wacom Stylus for the iPad is the nicest one to date and actually make it possible to draw on the iPad without feeling like you are either finger painting or using an eye liner brush. As for pens, it is guaranteed that the moment I fall in love with a pen the company that produces it will discontinue it. This is true of both the Berol Felt Pen and the Pentel Fountain, both of which I am nearly hitting the bottom of my hoard supply. I live in the desperate hope that something I like better will come along, but so far nothing has. Technically the coffee doesn’t actually fit in the bag, but since it is usually part of any destination, and I very likely will have one in my hand, it qualifies as a Traveling Essential as well.

I am happy to say that this is pretty much all I need to be fully functional, whether the trip is business or pleasure, and I am near gleeful when I march onto a plane will little more then this as my carry-on.

Cleaning Off My Desk

2011-05-21T13:28:00.000-07:00

This is a bi-decade process, but the effort did uncover this sketch... not sure why I drew it, or what for?

A Disneyland Birthday

2011-05-16T15:11:00.000-07:00

It was my birthday this last weekend and partially to celebrate we made a trip down to Disneyland. Unfortunately we did so a couple of weeks too early to be able to experience the new Star Tours and The Little Mermaid attractions, which officially open this June 3rd. To commemorate this minor tragedy my friend Andy Sinclair-Harris did me the following birthday card, by far my favorite this year:

What Andy didn't realize was that my desperation to ride Star Tours was shadowed by my lame attempts to get a soft opening preview of The Little Mermaid. Here is my sketch in reply:

iPad Concept Journal App

2011-05-09T14:19:00.001-07:00

I love my iPad, but there is something I really wish it did that it currently does not. More than anything I want to use my iPad as a device for collecting images and information as part of the visual research for many of my various jobs. The internet is a treasure trove of inspiring visuals but there isn't a simple way to gather, annotate, and collect this information and save it by subject or research type. The iPad seems the perfect tool for doing just that but for some reason none of the current 150K + developers have decided to create such an App. Out of creative frustration I finally took it upon myself to at least Photoshop a mock-up of my idea and send it out into the world.

Anyone know a software engineer who might be interested in collaborating on such a project?

The iPad Concept Journal
The iPad Concept Journal App allows you to quickly grab inspiring images, quotes, and maps from the Internet and freely arrange them within an infinite library of virtual Journals, custom designed by you. You can accompany your found information and images with typed text, freehand drawings, and photos taken with your iPad internal camera* or iPhone. Best of all you can share the pages of your Journals as image rich PDF documents.

The following mock-ups include a description of some of the features to be available in the proposed iPad Concept Journal App.

Create your own unique Journals
Starting with a basic black journal you can easily customize the appearance of it's cover by clicking on "Create Custom Cover" button and importing your own image. These can come from your own iPad photos, the Internet, or photos you take with you iPad's camera*

Your imported images can be resized and cropped to fit your own sense of style.
Once created your new iPad Concept Journal will live in an expanding Journal Library where you can easily access and arrange your journals.

Simple Straightforward Tools
The goal of the iPad Concept Journal App is to make the creation of media rich notes and documents as intuitive as possible. When in the middle of research, or just pulling together reference, you don't want the tools to get in your way. The iPad Journal App has only what you need to quickly and conveniently gather and save those words and images that inspire you.

Drag & Drop Directly from the Browser
Turning your iPad on it's side accesses Gather Mode. Select the Web Browser icon and a Browser Window will appear on the left side of the screen. Drag images directly from the Browser window onto your journal pages. Images can be Cropped, Scaled, and have borders added to them here or in vertical Edit Mode.

Map Browser
Bring Maps into your Journal by selecting the Map Browser, searching for a location and dragging the visual portion of the Map onto your Journal page. Once there you can crop and scale your Map, applying any of the border effects you like, just as you can with the imported Photos.

Grab Text from the Browser
You can enter Text onto any Journal page in Edit Mode, or Select text within a web page and Drag & Drop it directly onto your page. Once there the text is completely editable.

Sketch Directly onto Your Journal Page
Using the Pen tool you can Draw and Write into you Journal page, or on top of you gathered images. You can choose from a pallet of colors and pen sizes.

Pages can then be saved or eMailed as PDF documents.

If you know of anyone with Apple development skills who might be interested in such a project I would love to talk with them. :)

Studio on the Move

2011-04-21T17:57:00.001-07:00

I stumbled on this portable studio perched on a bicycle and I couldn't help but be reminded of another famous mobile studio...

Claude Monet had a fabulous floating studio that was the vantage point of many of his painting featuring water, and several include the boat itself.

Doodle

2011-01-25T14:47:00.000-08:00

It Seemed Funny at the Time

2011-01-24T12:53:00.000-08:00

During the week I have morning coffee with various friends and the conversations invariably get silly. Sometimes so silly that an image pops into our collective heads that has me reaching for my sketchbook or a scrap of paper to somehow capture the nonsense before it slips away. Below are two such images, which were ridiculous enough to add a little color to.

The first came from a relatively serious conversation about Corporate Executives and their inevitable “Golden Parachute” clauses allowing them financial security even if their performance is poor, or down right destructive. During the conversation I kept incorrectly calling them “Golden Safety Blankets” until my companion gently corrected me. My embarrassment was quickly replaced by wheezing mirth as we envisioned the poor sap that signed such a contract, not knowing his mistake until it was too late.

The second was derived from the notion of camping while still remaining connected via all our state of the art gadgets. The question arose; “Do you think it is too dark to text from the inside of a bear?”

Dickens Fair Map in Color

2010-10-06T09:15:00.000-07:00

Finished up the color on the Dickens Fair Map. The goal was to create the feel of the event for both guests and participants, rather then slavishly keeping to the specific design of any one booth or venue. If you live in the Bay Area I hope you get a chance to go, it is a great way to highlight the season... and there is just something special about being in a building that is cooking Fish & Chips, Onion Soup, and Mulled Cider all at the same time. Advanced seasons greetings to all.

Designing the Dickens Fair Map

2010-09-26T10:51:00.000-07:00

I am frequently asked to create elaborate “birds eye” aerial concept sketches for various projects, but seldom am I allowed to share them outside of the assignment. These sketches can be of attraction interiors or entire lands and parks. The advantage of these types of images is that they speak to a wide range of disciplines, including architects, engineers, and even bankers. Like looking at the Disneyland map it is easy for the observer to dive in and imagine what it might be like to visit or ride this attraction. I am currently working on the map for the Dickens Christmas Fair, which is held annually in San Francisco California. To create the map I use the very same steps I go through to create a large birds eye concept for a theme park company.

First, I start with the plan drawing. In this case the event’s layout has been completely decided for me, so my job is to realize what will be there from the information given me. For most assignments I design this plan myself, but it is sometimes nice to have that work all planed out for me, then my job is to do the best work I can to add depth and interest to the final sketch.

From the plan drawing I will build a 3D version of the layout. This allows me to work out the relationship of the various parts and feel confident that everything is roughly to scale. The other benefit is that all of my perspective lines will be worked out for me in advance and I can move my camera to find the perfect angle in which to base my final drawing.

Using the 3D model as my under drawing, I will first do a red line pencil version of the sketch, which I will then draw over with a fine tip pen. I will leave the red pencil on the drawing and remove it from the scan in Photoshop. Once the line art is done I will move on to coloring the sketch in the computer… but that will happen next weekend.

Concepts in Porcelain

2010-09-09T18:58:00.000-07:00

When my son was very young I held to the philosophy that there was no reason to march off to Toys R Us to try and find a plastic version of something in your imagination when you could make it yourself. My favorite medium was cardboard, and I was requested to build jet packs, swords, robots, and an entire western towns for a Lionel train to chug through. I still have a lot of those old cardboard buildings and thought I would try playing with creating porcelain versions of the same. The little half-timber building above has yet to be fired, but you can see what it looks like next to one of my cardboard, hot glue, and Sharpie versions from the past. I love the idea of turning rough concept images into something slightly more permanent, so I will most likely do a few more of these in time.

Designing Faerieworlds New Layout

2010-08-24T17:24:00.000-07:00

One of the perks of living in a small-ish town, is that you can experience first hand the effects of your local work. Although most of my clients are out of state, and frequently out of the country, doing work for local arts organizations allows me to see the effects of my designs much closer to home. Since arriving in Eugene Oregon 15 years ago, I have had the pleasure of designing for both the Eugene Ballet and Eugene Opera companies. Best of all, I get to sit in the audience and watch all of that hard work presented to the people who live in my wider community. Since my freelance work often includes designing environments and attractions in countries I may never get a chance to visit, it is rare that I can participate from the beginning to the end of an artistic assignment. Taking on local work also allows me to show off all the work that went into a project, while most of my theme park work, may forever remain top secret.

Last year I had the opportunity to visit my first Faerieworlds festival, an event that has been held near Eugene for several years. Last year the festival moved to a new location, and the fair site was feeling the initial growing plans of relocating from its previous treed vineyard to a flat and open field. Although we had a good time, I couldn’t help notice a few missed opportunities in the layout. With my mixed experience laying out both Renaissance Faires and theme park attractions, I asked mutual friend Mark Lewis to introduce me to the event’s creators. This started a fast friendship with Robert Gould, the head of Imaginosis, the folks responsible for presenting the festival. He graciously allowed me to suggest changes and introduce a few philosophical notions that could potentially add to the already popular event.

This came together as the layout for this year’s festival which was held the weekend of July 30th, 2010. The goal was to create a meandering “village” that allowed a little more exploration and discovery then the previous layout. The second goal was to set a precedent for future events, confirming to each year’s visitors that Faerieworlds is committed to growing and improving, and that the promoters are doing their best to give their audience the Brigadoon-like community that they had grown to look forward to each year.

Above is one of the early concept models for the new layout, with several more iterations coming afterward. Here you can see the seeds of our idea, and our desire to create a sense of neighborhoods connecting larger gathering spaces. We are already talking about next year’s event, but best of all this year I got to experience, “on the ground”, how these few new ideas and layout changes can effect and grow an already popular festival.

To see some great photos of the event, visit the Faerieworlds Gallery site for 2010 here.

Toontown in Stereo

2010-08-14T23:03:00.000-07:00

During the summer of 1992 we were in the middle of construction of Mickey's Toontown for Disneyland CA. While on the building site I decided to try my hand at taking a few low tech stereo pictures of the work in progress. I took two Kodak disposable cameras and duct taped them together. Although not stunning examples of 3D photography, they do give you a glimpse at the land taking shape. If you have a Stereoscope viewer, or are good at crossing your eyes, see if you can put yourself in the middle of all the construction.Here is the front of the Roger Rabbit Cartoon Spin facade. We found it a necessity to bring the show model to the field as an art direction tool. With buildings that don't follow any architectural rules, a lot of the final surface sculpting was accomplished by eye rather then slavishly following the project blueprints.
Here is a view of the skeleton of the "Safe Company" facade to the left of the Roger Rabbit entry.This is what Minnie's house looked like before her concrete sculpted walls and purple shingles were added. Minnie's house is a great example of a final architecture looking identical to the designer's artwork. Hani El-Masri was the designer responsible for this iconic design.
This is a view of Minnie's house from inside Mickey's living room looking out through the unfinished walls. While under construction we spent a lot of time walking the site trying to visualize what all of this would look like when it was finished. Since we were attempting the construction of then never before attempted "toon" buildings, each step of the way was an experiment to see what was actually possible with lath and concrete.

Adventures in Digital Publishing

2010-06-16T10:44:00.001-07:00

With the emergence of multiple eBook and digital reading devices, I wanted to experiment with the available fledgling (and free) publishing tools to see how my work might display on a variety of platforms. As far as both Amazon.com and Lulu.com are concerned the process of taking a PDF to a published eBook was quick and painless, I can't say the same for Apple's iBook work flow, which includes a few technical hoops of fire that need to be jumped through before they will accept a submission. What is most surprising is the variety of ways artwork is displayed on each device. The eBook industry is currently very novel centric and can't seem to wrap its head around the unique needs of anything involving art or page layout. This is probably the reason magazine and children's book publishers have decided to create stand-alone Apps rather then wrestle with the limitations found in the eBook format. This will all change in time, but for now we have to be content with limited control over the display of images and art.

My experience has been that the original art is compressed to make it a manageable download size, but the quality is sufficient for display on both the iPhone and iPad, although the way a layout is displayed varies. On the iPhone the artwork fills the screen while on the iPad, and the computer desktop, the artwork is displayed as an image floating above center against a slightly off-white page. If you would like to see the results you can find the various versions here:

You can find the traditionally physical version of the book available via LuLu.com for $24.

Available as a PDF document for $5.95

The Digital version of the book is available via Amazon.com as a Kindle book, which actually looks quite lovely on both the iPhone and iPad for $5.95, via the free Kindle App

The subject of the book is concept sketches created in the early 2000's for the virtual world There.com. Now defunct, There was a massive multi-player social network that allowed you to create your own 3D avatar and explore the same globe with people logged in from all over the world. Although it had promise, technical challenges and interesting management choices hastened its eventual demise.

3D Theme Park Guests

2010-06-15T11:23:00.000-07:00

One of the necessary evils of designing for theme parks is the need to populate your sketches with "happy guests" wandering around and interacting with your conceptual attractions. I will include people for scale, and to help indicate how a vehicle, prop, or environment is experienced, but I do tend to assume that if my design doesn't appear fun to begin with then no amount of virtual happy people will help it. Still, I have been proven wrong on many occasions by some very talented Imagineers that really have a knack for drawing people having a good time. As I keep working on these skills, I have noticed that one environment completely absent of happy guests are 3D concept models. Grabbing the typically default 3D businessmen just doesn't cut it when it comes to filling a themed space with a happy virtual audience, so I wanted to see if I could change that a little.

I have been playing around with Rigging simple people models to allow me to pose them in a variety of theme park guest specific poses. Although I need to create more variety in my virtual guests there is a lot of promise in being able to pose 3D guests in positions specific to the projects I am working on. This way I can place them throughout a conceptual landscape, in mock-up vehicles, and interactive display that they are playing with. Here are a few of my first attempts to try out my theory.

Update: I have uploaded these models to the SketchUp 3D Warehouse for your downloading pleasure. I have also created a group of female guests as well.

Virtual Shaky Cam

2010-05-19T15:52:00.000-07:00

I have been playing with the 3D camera to try and find a way to render virtual products and environments that make them feel more approachable and less cold and static.

This is one of my test renders of props and a room created for IMVU.com

Virtual Tilt Shift

2010-04-15T12:53:00.000-07:00

You can’t seem to go anywhere without seeing the very trendy Tilt Shift technique applied to photographs and video. Got me to thinking about what it would be like to apply this same principle to images taken of virtual environments. My personal jury is still out as to whether this is a new way of seeing or an annoying popular technique that will be quickly seen as overused and gimmicky.

Here are a couple of tests using IMVU environments I created recently.

Nutcracker Ornaments!

2010-04-08T21:52:00.001-07:00

You just never know what the day will bring. In 1997 I had the pleasure of designing a new Nutcracker set for the Eugene Opera Company, and although it has shown a lot of wear these past 13 years, it is still in use today. This morning I found out that gift ornaments were being made for sale this next holiday season, and I got to see the initial prototypes.

These two ornaments are based on conceptual costume sketches I had created for the two main characters. I have to say that it is always a pleasure to see your work live beyond its original purpose.

My New Office

2010-04-06T09:34:00.000-07:00

There has been a major shift in the way my morning progresses since the introduction of the iPad into our home. I take my son to school, get home by about 7:45 am, brew a cup of coffee and then get to work in my new office, here:

I have started up my two work computers over on my desk and will get to them shortly, but not until I have sat back, read my emails, visited a few favorite sites, read the news, and check the weather, all while sipping my coffee. Until you do it there is no describing how incredibly civilized this is, especially in contrast to my previous hunkering over a mouse and launching into my browser’s bookmarks. Now my morning winds up to my workload, and makes the comparatively barbaric “workstation” where my job is, and the over-sized wing back chair where my life is lived. This is no laptop replacement, and it can’t do any of the heavy lifting my Mac and PC need to do all day long, and boy I sure do like that about it.

iTablet to iPad

2010-04-04T11:17:00.000-07:00

Over the years my work has become more multimedia centric and it has become harder to causally show people what I am currently working on. It is a little embarrassing now, but back in April 2007 I got fed up with the lack of some decent means for transporting and presenting my images, 3D models, and movies and so I 'Photoshop-ed' together my ideal portable digital device in hopes that the 'powers-that-be' (Apple) would get off their seats and build the thing for me. Here are those images from 2007:

It took three years, but as of April 3rd 2010 I finally got that device:

Phone Doodles

2010-03-16T15:29:00.000-07:00

On the phone... idle hands, yellow pad, Eberhard Faber Felt Tip #38011

Artifacts from Ragelia

2010-03-11T09:27:00.000-08:00

My friend, and poet, Jim Bradford has a private and vast Dr. Seussian landscape from which he mines for stories, poems, and plays. Ragelia is a patchwork of people, creatures, and places all made of found objects and word plays. Here are a few sketches inspired by my fleeting glimpses into Jim's private universe, where his Muse is made of rags.

School Crosswalk for the 21st Century

2010-03-09T15:42:00.000-08:00

Waiting to pick up my son from High School, I realized that the traffic safety signs are in sore need of updating. This is my suggestion, to help us better distinguish which ones are actually the students.

IMVU Outfit Challenge Videos

2010-02-19T12:54:00.000-08:00

One of my secret passions is playing with Adobe's After Effects... so many things I could do, so little time. These videos were created for IMVU as a way to showcase the diversity of their avatars and the inspiring ingenuity of their members.

Nadya's Faust Poster

2010-02-15T18:25:00.000-08:00

Nadya Carson (my wife) finally got to see her Faust poster for the Eugene Opera printed. I think it came out beautifully! Hats off to her and Asbury Designs for a job well done!

Brush Pen Holiday

2010-01-06T15:35:00.000-08:00

Over the holiday break I actually took some time off, and spent the time playing with a set of brush pens I had been gifted years ago. I had a ball, here are some of the results.

This Year's Christmas Card

2009-12-27T12:57:00.000-08:00

Mailed just under the wire, with luck most folks got it before the day.

Mr. Blobby is Watching

2009-11-20T18:36:00.000-08:00

You have been warned

Never a Dull Moment

2009-08-21T19:24:00.001-07:00

One of the nicest things about working as one of the art directors at imvu.com is I never know what I am going to be asked to design next. From one week to another I might be asked to build a time machine, an iron maiden, a space ship, or cotton candy stand. It reminds me of advice we got in art school when we were studying to become commercial illustrators.

“Learn to draw everything, because you never know what you will be ask to illustrate from one job to the next.”

That certainly turned out to be true, but in this case I have to design, build, and texture each element rather then merely draw it. I certainly keeps things fresh and interesting. My most recent assignment was to design and build a “Carnival in the Clouds” ... go figure.

You can seem more examples of my every growing list of places on my Flickr page, here

Practical Augmented Reality

2009-07-15T10:04:00.000-07:00

With Augmented Reality becoming a burgeoning method for reviewing and distributing 3D information in a quick an intuitive way, it is hard not to see its potential uses in many aspects of design. With the technology existing today, three dimensional prototypes can be displayed and manipulated in an instant. Although this may come as a financial blow to the makers of Xacto blades and fome core, it is easy to imagine a day when participants in a meeting would only have to hold up their phone screens to view a 3D model appearing on the top of their presentation packet.

Like any new technology, it is only as truly effective as there are device standards that allow anyone and everyone to view your 3D content. It is easy to imagine that an iPhone will someday soon (like next week) be able to accommodate this feature, but getting everyone to download an App and show up to a meeting with it installed is slim. Still, we can dream, and with easy to use applications like SketchUp available for free, it won't be long for the CPUs in standard hand held devices to not only be able to smoothly render such virtual models, but do it without the user needing any technical skills other then to point and view.

Thunder Chunky Interview

2009-07-08T09:33:00.001-07:00

I recently had the privilege of being interviewed by the UK Design Blog "Thunder Chunky". Although most of the interview centered around past theme park work, I did get to talk a little about my more recent virtual projects. You can find the interview on here.

IMVU 2.0

2009-06-30T17:45:00.001-07:00

It's June 30th and IMVU just released IMVU 2.0, the first major enhancement to its UI since it started as a tiny start-up 5 years ago. This is my third year working with IMVU and I continue to fill their catalog with virtual themed environments.

Disney & More

2009-06-30T17:30:00.001-07:00

Back in April I had the pleasure of being the subject of a two part article on my contributions to Disney, on the Disney & More Blog. Having to go back through those old sketches I learned two things. One, the quality of those old reproductions are pretty bad, and Two, I don't have all that many prints from those days. Although I have a lot more Disney work I have done since, I am unable to show any of it. I really need to work on more public projects. You can find the articles here: Part One and Part Two

Donut

2009-05-28T20:50:00.001-07:00

Not a whole lot more to say about that.

Robot Sketchbook

2009-05-15T23:50:00.001-07:00

I have sketchbooks sitting all over the house. I have one in the living room that I only draw robots in. It is a mixed bag of images, the only rule is it must be a robot. It is amazing how quickly you can run out of ideas, this is when you desperately push past more obvious concepts and come up with some pretty off the wall stuff. I think this one is my favorite so far.

Virtual Coffeehouse

2009-05-15T19:10:00.000-07:00

Working away on virtual environments, I just finished a low poly, funky coffeehouse. I was shooting for the sort of neighborhood place I would love to have near my house, a place where I could meet friends. I think the atmosphere is rather nice, not I just need to manifest this in the real world.

Best of all, I built a little gallery space in the front of the shop to display the work of local artists. Our friend Gemma graciously volunteered her work for the virtual gallery. I like the idea of an artist having a show open in cyberspace that allows you to purchase original paintings and prints in the real world.

You can see and purchase Gemma's paintings at RedBubble.

Northern Faire Tiles

2009-05-13T16:58:00.001-07:00

I have been playing with painting tiles off and on for the past few years. I like the idea of transferring something as loose as a pen & ink sketch to a surface as permanent as a tile. This is a series of tiles inspired by some of the buildings found at the now departed Northern Renaissance Pleasure Faire, when it was located in the Blackpoint Forest in Novato, CA. I have fond memories of my years working for the Faire and can easily recall many of the structures that were icons of that yearly event. Sadly, the property is now home to a handful of Mac-mansions and a private golf course, but the ghosts of many of these buildings are still there.

I intend the tiles to be viewed in one linear row, so the eye can follow the Faire from the front ticket gate back to the Ale Stand at the “End of the World”. I have many more to do, but thought I would preview a few of the ones I have completed so far.

The Jumblies

2009-04-04T19:34:00.000-07:00

The Jumblies by Edward Lear

I love this poem and could not help but imagine that the Jumblies look a lot like their author:

They went to sea in a Sieve, they did,
In a Sieve they went to sea:
In spite of all their friends could say,
On a winter's morn, on a stormy day,
In a Sieve they went to sea!
And when the Sieve turned round and round,
And every one cried, 'You'll all be drowned!'
They called aloud, 'Our Sieve ain't big,
But we don't care a button! we don't care a fig!
In a Sieve we'll go to sea!'
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

They sailed away in a Sieve, they did,
In a Sieve they sailed so fast,
With only a beautiful pea-green veil
Tied with a ribbon by way of a sail,
To a small tobacco-pipe mast;
And every one said, who saw them go,
'O won't they be soon upset, you know!
For the sky is dark, and the voyage is long,
And happen what may, it's extremely wrong
In a Sieve to sail so fast!'
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

The water it soon came in, it did,
The water it soon came in;
So to keep them dry, they wrapped their feet
In a pinky paper all folded neat,
And they fastened it down with a pin.
And they passed the night in a crockery-jar,
And each of them said, 'How wise we are!
Though the sky be dark, and the voyage be long,
Yet we never can think we were rash or wrong,
While round in our Sieve we spin!'
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

And all night long they sailed away;
And when the sun went down,
They whistled and warbled a moony song
To the echoing sound of a coppery gong,
In the shade of the mountains brown.
'O Timballo! How happy we are,
When we live in a Sieve and a crockery-jar,
And all night long in the moonlight pale,
We sail away with a pea-green sail,
In the shade of the mountains brown!'
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

They sailed to the Western Sea, they did,
To a land all covered with trees,
And they bought an Owl, and a useful Cart,
And a pound of Rice, and a Cranberry Tart,
And a hive of silvery Bees.
And they bought a Pig, and some green Jack-daws,
And a lovely Monkey with lollipop paws,
And forty bottles of Ring-Bo-Ree,
And no end of Stilton Cheese.
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

And in twenty years they all came back,
In twenty years or more,
And every one said, 'How tall they've grown!
For they've been to the Lakes, and the Torrible Zone,
And the hills of the Chankly Bore!'
And they drank their health, and gave them a feast
Of dumplings made of beautiful yeast;
And every one said, 'If we only live,
We too will go to sea in a Sieve,---
To the hills of the Chankly Bore!'
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

Finding a Happy Medium

2009-02-24T07:41:00.001-08:00

After having worked in watercolor for years I have struggled to find a way to marry the loose quality of watercolor with the convenience of the computer. I even purchased a Wacom Cintq years back to help solve this but found myself hunkered over it uncomfortably and I have felt guilty for not liking to use it more. Recently I picked up an ancient Tablet PC off eBay, mainly inspired by the pioneering efforts of another artist, and I have to say I see promise. The Tablet allows me to work away from my desk and retains a freehand quality that my previous computer colored images just couldn't achieve. I know many artists that have had luck with Photoshop for doing this, but I really needed to see at least the illusion of paint on a surface. I am currently experimenting with ArtRage and I have to say I am really happy with the results.

The Anthropomorphizer

2009-01-06T09:10:00.001-08:00

For Christmas I was given a package containing sticker cartoon eyes and mouths that I can apply to the inanimate objects in my life. Although there are few objects I would consider doing this to, I did adhere a pair of glaring eyeballs to the slide scanner that sits on my desk. I have to admit that this slight alteration has completely transformed a rather unremarkable gadget into something that I am forced to acknowledge each time I sit at my work computer. Some part of my cave man brain refuses to allow me to ignore my new companion, forcing me to wonder, “Okay, what do you want from me?” I haven’t named him yet, but I am resigned to the fact that I am going to have to if I ever hope to get any rest.

Concepts from the Past

2008-06-10T17:44:00.001-07:00

One of the hazards of doing concept work is that 90% of the art you create can never be seen by the public because it is confidential or downright top secret. On some rare occasions a project does get built and your initial images can finally see the light of day. Going into a new project you never know whether your first ideas will make it to the final product, but sometimes you get lucky and those very first sparks can be seen in the end result.
Nearly three years ago I was asked to do some concepts for a Pixar themed ride for Disney’s California Adventure. This later turned into the Toy Story Midway Mania attraction that opens this month in both California and Florida. We had the concept of a ride vehicle traveling through a midway filled with virtual 3D arcade screens, and a rough idea of a ride system but that was it.
Over the course of a few weeks I did several concepts, both sketches and 3D models, of a proposed vehicle and set piece. We took a field trip to the LA County Fair for inspiration, and later developed images for the interactive cannons mounted in front of each guest as well as how the vehicles would move and orient themselves though the attraction.
In the end the concept evolved into a back-to-back seating plan that allowed for more guests to ride in the vehicle at a time, and it focused their attention on screens at either side of the attraction cars. Over the years these concepts grew and helped inspire the attraction evolution, culminating in the ride as you see it today. Be sure to check out the video at the below link to see how it all turned out.
To check out video, go to the Toy Story Mania episode at the Official Disneyland Podcast here

The Kindle

2008-06-04T17:02:00.001-07:00

I decided to jump with both feet into the world of digital books and purchased a Kindle. I have to admit that I really, really like it. Although there are a few minor things I would like to see improved, that seems inevitable as this technology evolves. The Kindle is perfect for reading a linear novel, but not as well suited for books that one would customarily flip through. This got me thinking. In these early years of paper replacing digital gadgetry, we have to acknowledge that we are forcing a physical media into a completely new environment. Now is the time to start re-thinking our relationship with linear storytelling, and whether formatting choices we once made based on the limitations of the printed page might be expanded to better suit this new way of interacting with the printed word? For the moment my wheels are turning, and as an initial experiment I uploaded a small book of my virtual world sketches to the Amazon site, you can find it via the link below. It is proof that a pure port isn't enough to make something that works on paper as successful in this digital format :

SKETCHBOOK – Concepts from the Virtual World

3D Concept Design

2008-05-28T12:56:00.000-07:00

The more I work with 3D graphics the more I see its potential as a vehicle for generating concept designs. Working on this recent product submission for IMVU.com, I was able to achieve a nice balance between realism and illustration. When working in concept design, the designer's role is to communicate an idea to his/her client. To do this they have a lot of tools at their disposal, including most recently applications like Photoshop, SketchUp, and 3D applications like 3D Max and Maya (to name a few). The biggest challenge is to educate the clients about what it is they are looking at. 3D concepts can be built in scale, textured, lighted, and even animated for use in various types of presentations. The drawback is that a client can assume a 3D rendering is closer to reality than it actually is. Because of this I have been playing with ways to loosen up my 3D work, while retaining a sense of reality. In the end, 3D concepts allow me to deliver to a client the closest approximation to what is in my head. Additional contractors hired to bring this concept into the physical world inevitably have less questions to ask, and both architects and engineers have something in their hand early in the project that they can play with. I encourage clients to explore the use of 3D as an early concept tool, and help usher in a new way for artist to communicate their ideas. You can see more of my work for IMVU on my avatar homepage, here.

Art Book with Murphy

2008-05-19T09:59:00.000-07:00

When our son was in elementary school, my wife Nadya decided to start an Art Club, after classes, to teach kids some of the fundamentals of art. What she quickly realized was… 1) Although there is curriculum and rules available to help children with creative writing and mathematic principles, there is absolutely nothing to teach them about the basics of good design. 2) She discovered that children between Kindergarten and 5th grade are open to any and all concepts and can grasp even complex ideas relatively easily. Whether she was discussing composition, value, or perspective, her tiny students had a willingness to learn that would make any college professor green with envy.

Once our son moved onto Middle School, Nadya decided to move the Art Club along with him. What she discovered was that the summer between 5th and 6th grades turned these very same kids into sullen, grumpy, and bored students. The chemical change to pheromone-steeped teenager completely wiped out that desire to learn and so she quickly abandoned the Art Club. What we learned is that there is a small window of opportunity for the very young to be introduced to these ideas. A chance to introduce them to concepts they will not normally be exposed to until college age.

For the past few months Nadya and I have been collaborating on an Art Book for kids. This one based on what we learned from those years in the Art Club, and one that could just as easily be introduced to college level students. We chose Murphy the Rabbit as our spokes… er… rabbit, but don’t be fooled by the comic book appearance; we are talking about topics like Hierarchy of Size, The Golden Rectangle, and Negative Space. These are the fundamental concepts behind the creation of art, and although basic, no artist can begin their work without some knowledge of all of these principles.

We have no immediate plans to publish, this is just a pet project of ours, one we may get side tracked away from due to other projects. Still, it is a nice chance for the two of us to work on something together.

Waiting Moments

2008-05-01T09:53:00.000-07:00

In a recent newsletter by the founder of lynda.com, Lynda described a colleague’s habit of using the camera in his mobile phone to take pictures of easily forgotten locations, like where he parked his car, or his hotel room number. It is a clever use of this frill of technology and caused me to give myself a vigorous dope slap. I carry a camera with me everywhere. Granted, since it is in my iPhone it isn’t a fabulous camera, but it does the trick and really can capture little non-Kodak moments. In my case I use it to take pictures when I am waiting for something. Usually I am sitting in the car in front of the Bank, in a coffee shop, in the doctor’s office, at the public library. It causes me to look around and take in the moment, no matter how brief, and see if there isn’t something worthy of a little reverence. Our busy lives have so few quiet moments in them, especially if we forget to make time to be idle once in a while. It is worth at least documenting them when they do come… even if in the act of waiting for some other bit of business to drag us away.

My Daily Sketchbook

2008-04-23T12:46:00.000-07:00

About two years ago I started drawing a calendar grid in my sketchbook and doodling the events of each month as they happened. This became an evening ritual as I recounted the daily events and tried to visualize them in the small space I had given myself.

It was a fun project but only one I kept up for a year and a half before stopping. Over the following months I started to feel nostalgic, not so much for the act if sketching but being able to revisit past calendars and relive those daily events. I decided in March of this year to start this project up again, but this time using an easily portable Moleskin sketchbook. The Moleskin is nice and small and it frees me from the grid, allowing some days to take up an entire page, while others only a fraction of a page. Two things have come from this….

1. Some days just don’t have anything at all interesting in them, so it is a challenge to come up with something to draw. Other days I don’t seem to have enough paper.

2. The act of drawing each day’s events really slows down time. We have all experienced months passing right by when we feel we have very little to show for it… not any more, every day now has a character of its own and is a gift for my future self to relive in the coming years.

If you are interested I recommend you try it yourself. If you want more examples of folks that really do this right, check out Dan Price’s Moonlight Chronicles

Painting Tiles

2008-04-23T09:55:00.000-07:00

A lot of my recent work has been virtual, and although I enjoy creating things in the computer I still pine for the opportunity to make tactile things as well. As I get older my need to “make things that matter” is thankfully fading away and I allow myself to make things just because it is fun to do so. I recently started playing with ceramic tiles as a medium. I wanted to see if I could create more tangible art that still had the fresh quality found in a sketchbook drawing. Without much planning I just launched into creating freehand sketches using ceramic paint and no goal or under drawing. I created 25 tiles and have posted them on Etsy.com for sale, purely as an experiment. You can find them here: Tiles on Etsy

Note: As of August 5th 2008 the tiles have been pulled from my Etsy story. Although I did sell a few, the cost of keeping the store outweighed the sales. Still, it was fun and has given me ideas for other items for the future.

Virtual Still Life

2008-04-19T23:17:00.001-07:00

I have been playing with some of the 3D models I have been building these past two years. This time I am working with various ways to arrange, light, and “photograph” the models to create additional mood and atmosphere. Really, there is no reason these virtual places can't at least attempt to capture some of the drama typically found in more real world environments, or forms of entertainment like movies and photography. I will be posting my various attempts on my Flickr page.

My Latest 3D Work

2008-04-12T21:52:00.000-07:00

After working for the past few years creating 3D objects and environments, the work tends to pile up. Since there really isn't much room on my portfolio site to display them all, I have created a Flickr page to do the displaying for me. If you want to see what I have been up to for the past two years, have a look here:

3D Work Flickr Page

Art in the Mail

2008-04-12T19:45:00.001-07:00

Over the Christmas holidays I received a gift of a tin box filled with blank postcards, and a request from a friend to share correspondence in the coming year. I have to say I am having a wonderful time, and here is one of my recent cards, thankfully scanned by its recipient... thanks Craig!

Thinking Outside of the Game Box

2007-05-19T18:42:00.000-07:00

Originally posted on "Women in Games" Blog - April 2nd 2007

Before 1994 I can’t say I had ever played a video game. My professional career was focused on a combination of illustration, theatrical, and theme park design projects, for the Walt Disney Company, and the computer gaming industry was pretty much outside my radar. Over the next 13 years that was all to change and my experiences have given me a unique perspective that has allowed me to work in the physical and gaming worlds, and yet retain an outsider’s view of both industries. These experiences lead me to see that although we are currently living in what is arguably a digital renaissance, on the whole we are trapped in some fairly old ways of doing business.

My Introduction to the World of Gaming
In January of 1995 my family decided to leave the Los Angeles area and my job at Disney to seek a part of the world that would enhance our quality of life. Leaving southern California meant that I was going to have to find work in an industry other than theme park design, which insisted I remain local to the area. At that time I purchased my first computer with a CD-Rom drive, and a copy of the game Myst. I quickly realized that all of the skills used to create the virtual worlds in Myst were the same as those I used in creating theme park attractions. This lead me to begin courting various game companies, and eventually got me an interview with a small developer located in Eugene Oregon.

When I arrived and was toured through the small office of a dozen or so employees, I knew I would have to adjust to the culture shock of leaving a company of over a 1000 people, but there was one thing that was going to be hardest of all to adjust to…

“Where are the female employees?” I asked the head of the studio.

“Oh, it isn’t like we wouldn’t like to have women working here,” prospective boss replied, “but we just haven’t found any that have any interest in working on our games.”

The true impact of this statement didn’t fully sink in until later, but I will talk more about that later. Another surprise came when I mentioned my interest in working on games like Myst. I was quickly informed that the studio head hated Myst and couldn’t imagine why it had become so popular. He assured me we would not be working on anything even remotely like Myst. Still, I was offered and took the job, which was to become the lead art director for a series of kid’s educational titles, something not that far off from my experience as a Disney artist.

Learning to Become a Gamer, but with an Outsider’s Perspective
Between the time I took the job, returned home to pack and move north, the educational titles I was to work on were unceremoniously cut from the line-up, and I was relegated to designing a side-scrolling shooter, and a virtual fighting game. Over the next year I did my best to immerse myself in the world of computer game design, and inadvertently discovered the joys of the 5pm LAN games of Doom 2 with my co-workers, and became addicted to 3-D shooters. I made some very good friends, and was introduced to a whole new world of design. When I left my job I began an 11-year freelance career working for everyone from my past Disney employers to various computer game, toy, and theater design clients. I had become a hybrid artist, with enough knowledge of each industry to nimbly dip in and out of several disciplines. I was also able to return to Disney with a gamer’s eye, and with new knowledge of what is possible with the use of computers.

Dragging Horses to Water
Over the years I have become an evangelist for both industries, preaching the benefits of both design principles to aid in the creating of both physical and virtual entertainment. Theme parks have the advantage of entertaining people using a medium we all inherently understand… mainly what it is to live and interact with the physical world. The Gaming world of design is building an ever-increasing army of computer and consol savvy consumers. Each brings with them desires and expectations for how they wish to experience their entertainment. Unfortunately both disciplines are different enough to return my enthusiastic rants of design friendliness with blank stares. In many ways I have come to the conclusion that these two leviathans may never be nimble enough to change course and consider another way of doing business.

Gaming’s One Flavored Meal
Wanting to keep up with what is happening in the computer gaming world, I pour through the gaming magazines and websites in search of the “next big thing”. Unfortunately I have come to the conclusion that much that is being offered consists of ever more technologically sophisticated remakes of a hand full of genres. It is like going to a video rental store that only offers Action-Adventure films. The truth is that the gaming industry knows what sells, and I have had to come to the realization that these companies are not going to be risking their bottom lines on producing games that depart from this narrow demographic. Just as our movie and television offerings are catering to the bottom line, computer games will not become any more diverse as long as there is money to make in these tried and true crowd pleasers. The question is, whom are they leaving out?

The Tools are Plentiful, the Audience Diverse
Several years ago it could be argued that to remain in the game industry you needed to either have a developer investing millions in your project, or you worked inside one of the few gaming giants or their affiliates. These are all options, although the opportunities are few, and the competition great. Still, we live in a time when alternatives are inventing themselves all the time.

Blogs, and YouTube are proving that we each have a desire to creating content, and if we invest in the time we will find an audience, even if a small one, to consume our thoughts and ideas. Andy Warhol’s prediction of “15 minutes of fame” has skewed, just as our idea of fame is evolving. We aren’t as personally concerned about reaching an audience of millions, when dozens to hundreds of active consumers of our creations could conceivably give us enough feedback and income to fulfill our initial goals to create games for the computer. The other benefit comes from the fact that if our demographic goals are not being pushed by a bottom line, we are free to create content that appeals to a much more niche audience, ones that companies like EA or Viacom don’t dare limit themselves to. While these mega corporations fight for the wallet of males from age 12 to 24, we can dare to create entertainment that appeals to something more radical… games we would like to play ourselves.

We are in the midst of a shift that is offering powerful tools which are getting cheaper all the time, and inexpensive to free venues to help distribute our products. As companies like Adobe begin to create free, online versions of their applications, we are given a unique chance to get our hands on these tools without the customary investment of hundreds to thousands of dollars. This has allowed for independent developers to start small, frequently from their own homes, and by-pass the dependence on an employer to supplement the cost of your tools, or force them into a cubical to use them.

Rise of the Independent Virtual Entrepreneur
Another side effect of this shift is that no longer are we necessarily shackled to the tastes of such a specific demographic of male consumers, so we are less dependent on the need to know what these guys want in their games. Although I have worked with many women in the gaming industry, only a rare few actually play the games they create, but this is changing as well.

One of the new hopes on the horizon come from online social networks like Second Life and IMVU.com. These companies are braving a new idea regarding the relationship between the developer and his/her audience. Both projects are built on the philosophy that by giving their members the very tools they use to create their own products, often for free, they tap into a huge reservoir of talent. This has created thousands of micro industries, many fulfilling the needs of relatively small, but until recently invisible demographics and sub-groups. Companies like Electronic Arts could never focus their energies on purely Goth, Anime, Furry, or Faeries communities, but a small independent developer is beginning to see the potential of making a living catering exclusively to any one of these categories. By giving away the tools, and offering the venue for these independent developers to sell their creations, a new partnership is beginning to grow. It is now conceivable that an individual artist or engineer could create content for an engine they do not own or operate, but that allows them the venue to sell their products while retaining their ownership of the products copyright.

Another side effect of this relationship is the broadening of the tool offerings to this growing army of independent developers. While beginning as an opportunity to create virtual clothing, furniture, and environments, companies are now contemplating offering the tools to create mini-games. These may begin as simple Java or Flash based games, but could grow into the creation of 3D games within existing 3D environments. Independent developers could soon see, not only profits from the creation of the game itself, but from the revenue generated by people playing their games.

Looking for Niches in All the Right Places
It is now possible to imaging making a living solely creating clothing for the Goth/Blood community, or by building a brand of trendy tropical accessories, or a collection of contemporary virtual condo furnishings. It is also possible to envision creating virtual venues for arts festivals, film debuts, and competitive games. The more we allow everyone to create virtual content, the more doors of potential creativity are opened. One fundamental rule of business is to “Find a need and fulfill it”, well now that need can be very specialized. If there is something that specifically turns you on, there is without a doubt an audience numbering in the hundreds to thousands that are waiting to partake in your creation… and with luck, pay you for the privilege.

Making Games Should be Fun!
In the end, we all wish to be doing good work, making products that engage us. We all feel rewarded by a job well done, which makes us no different than anyone else. Still, we might find ourselves in the middle of a career creating textures for characters that we don’t respect, and building games we would never play, and in the end have to ask ourselves “why”? I encourage everyone with a passion to express themselves via the world of digital entertainment to start beating the bushes of these fledgling industries and challenge yourself to imagine that you could actually make a living doing what you want and having an audience eager to consume what you offer them.

A Fascination with Tactile Fantasy

2007-04-24T07:24:00.000-07:00

Ever since I was little I have had a fondness for those places that not only attempt to immerse me in their physical story, but actually allowed me to touch it as well. If I had to try and describe what a place like Fantasyland in Disneyland California meant for me as a child, it would be a fantasy I could touch. Not only could I see Cinderella’s castle, I could reach out and touch its brick walls, walk its halls, and if I was lucky, meet Cinderella herself. I think at a deeper level I was also responding to the fact that all of this tangible fantasy had been orchestrated for my own pleasure. These places, these people, were performing for me, each instilled with the goal of making my experience special, and my visit unique. As I grew older I began to notice that these niceties extended well beyond merely an employer’s desire to serve an audience of amusement park visitors. Attention had been paid to every single detail, from the color on the buildings and the choice of light fixtures, to how buildings were laid out, and how employee uniforms blended into their themed environments.

I think the first of many “Aha” moments came when I was 12 years old. My eight-year-old sister and I were visiting Disneyland early one summer morning. As we walked through Adventureland and made our way past New Orleans Square, I pointed out the perfect patina on the area light fixtures, and in some cases the subtle rust marks that trickled down the walls below them. These tiny details added a sense of depth and believability to the landscape. Shortly after having pointed this out we turned the corner into Frontierland and walked past a western adobe themed restaurant closed for refurbishment. A paint crew was adding final touches to the newly painted façade, and we were just in time to see a man on a ladder pour a coffee can filled with brown liquid down the surface of a wall directly underneath a themed light fixture. At that very moment I had a realization, this was like nothing I had experienced in the world outside. This was Theatre, and that western building was doing its job, just as a performer on a stage might, to help transport me into a story. That painter was part of the story as well. He was there for the purpose of adding those details that were going to make my experience all the more successful. At that point I knew what I wanted to do when I grew up… I wanted to tell stories too, and in just this way!

As if a veil had been lifted from my eyes, I began to see these minute attentions to detail throughout the theme park. Astonishing effort and expense had been paid to every part of the park. Nothing was by accident, and nothing was left to chance. My experience was being orchestrated, as was every Disney park visitor, and for the purpose of making our visit an enjoyable one. This was the beginning of a growing desire to be a part of this world, and would eventually include my working as a designer for the Walt Disney company, and ultimately move on to other venues of environmental self expression.

NATURE - THE ULTIMATE DESIGNER

2007-04-23T08:03:00.000-07:00

While working on the scale model for Walt Disney World’s Splash Mountain attraction, I had the opportunity to work closely with Production Designer John Gauld. John had a passion for rocks, and was ultimately responsible for the design of the entire exterior of the attraction. Disney is famous for their creation of naturalistic environments, and with many of their man-made landmarks being “mountains” there is need for a full-time staff of artisans specifically dedicated to the recreation of the natural world in uniquely un-naturalistic mediums such as concrete and fiberglass.

While working on the 1/8” scale model, John pointed out a fundamental rule when it came to designing nature. He told me that a human beings ability to reproduce natural surfaces pale in comparison to nature itself. While carving the foam model he pointed out that our innate desire for order and symmetry limits our ability to capture the marvelously “fractal” quality of nature itself. Sure, we can interpret the beautiful curve of a tree, or the arch of a rock formation, but in the end we risk our creation looking too thought out, and ultimately artificial. He then took his carving knife, dug deep into the foam and quickly twisted his wrist to “pop” a portion of the foam away leaving a jagged break in the surface. He pointed out that the rugged surface created by that wrist twist did a better job of creating a naturalistic rock formation than hours of careful carving and observation.

John is an enthusiastic naturalist and has spent years exploring the deserts of California and the Southwest looking for inspiring geologic specimens. It is not unheard of for John to spend an entire day waiting for an applied coat of latex to dry over a specifically interesting rock so he can use it later to make an impression on a concrete wall on the exterior of a Disney attraction. Using a combination of pre-cast rocks, latex “stamp” impressions, and an artist’s skills; Disney rockwork designers do an amazing job of recreating the natural world. Still, John points out that serendipity created by the blasting of water at the surface of the wet concrete and throwing gravel at it, often achieves the best final results.

Working on 3D virtual environments I have found that these rules apply as well. Often limited by the amount of detail, or polygons that can be used to create a 3D model for a game, we ask a lot of the textures we use to simulate naturalistic materials. Purely painting a rock texture can often create noticeably artificial surfaces, while leaning too heavily on photo reference can create overly complex and obviously photographic surfaces. Like Disney rockwork, recreating natural surfaces in virtual environments needs to consist of a balance between real world reference and artistic interpretation. Photoshop does a marvelous job a offering tools and filters to help simulate natural textures, but in the end it will only be through the symbolic hurling of gravel and water that will give you a surface that reads as naturalistic.

LET ME TELL YOU A STORY

2007-04-22T13:27:00.000-07:00

We have all experienced that moment when a storyteller tells her audience, “I’m going to tell you a story”. We can’t help ourselves, we collectively settle down, all anticipating that we are about to be taken on a journey. We don’t know where we are going to go; we really don’t care… just the promise of adventure is enough. This is true of all mediums. Whether it was a “Dark and stormy night” or “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” we crave escape in the entertainment we choose. We settle down into a comfortable chair, a movie, or theater seat and we ready ourselves for the ride ahead. Our definition of a story well told are those that most successfully pull us into them, and when done, give us something to take away with us. Something that will enhance our lives, and will help us see our world in a slightly different way.

The next evolution of that desire for escape has created a new form of entertainment. Stories are no longer relegated to the page, screen, or locked within a theatre proscenium. Themed environments, like those found in a Disney theme park, and increasingly more realistic video games, are working to pull us into the stories they are telling. These outlets for us to explore fantastic environments are growing every year, and are all are working to feed our inherent need for escape.

INTRODUCTION

2007-04-22T12:52:00.000-07:00

Take me somewhere I have never been,
Let me do things I could never do,
Let me be someone I could never be.

These words do a fairly good job of describing our human desire to escape from our daily lives and explore places, both external and within our imaginations that we have not visited before. Whether through the movies we watch, the books we read, or the games we play, we are looking for the same thing. We want to be able to escape for a time and adventure in a place that helps us better understand what it is to be alive.

Over the past 20 years I have been working as a designer of themed spaces, both physical and virtual, and my goal has been to continually play with this idea of how we relate to the places we visit and the stories that they tell within our everyday lives. Starting with a career in illustration, then theme park design for the Walt Disney Company, and finally working in the 3D game industry, I have found each of these have the same goal. Each is attempting to fulfill this need for escape, and with few exceptions they use the same basic design principles to reach that goal.

Within this forum I will work to map out the various design principles that are universal to these seemingly diverse disciplines. I will explore the unique challenges of each medium, and tell you some of the lessons I have learned along the way. Whether the medium is concrete or polygons, a budget of millions or no budget at all, the tools for storytelling remain the same, our opportunity as artists and designers is to use what we have to tell the best story we can.