Gub Village 2

This here is three layers of a composite for some animation using Anime Studio. Drawn using Flash, colored in Photoshop and then brought into Anime Studio for animating the layers and eventually adding some Gubs… still debating whether to work on this in After Effects or not. Since this process takes such a long time and I never have lots of time, I might go take the faster route and use Anime Studio. The only problem there is losing some of the finer control that After Effects offers (I’m a big fan of using the blurring effects to fake depth of field, for example).

I’ve been studying the works of Jeff Smith in the complete collection of BONE comics. I love the artwork so much, and since Gubs take place in the wild I get some great benefit by studying Jeff Smith’s amazing woodland drawings. The perspective, the leaves and branches, the grass are all so great.

Gub Village

This image may be used as part of an upcoming animation project. I am pretty excited to be learning a new program which deals with animation called Anime Studio. Anyone interested in creating animations should check it out. I’m sure you could replicate Anime Studio’s features in Flash, but with Anime Studio you can work SO much faster. Bone rigging and camera controls are really a time saver. I’m working with an artist/animator at the moment who has been creating some pretty cool stuff in Flash. Hopefully by figuring out Anime Studio a bit more we can really kick out some more cool stuff.

I drew this little village in Flash then colored in Photoshop.

GUB ADVENTURES

So, this is a project I’ve been working on for some time now…

Shown Above: Mock-up hand made Gub pawns, gem markers, and custom dice

GUB ADVENTURES has gone through several iterations, which I feel is a very normal thing if you’re trying to create something. This is to be an adventure board game set in the world of the GUBS. It has under gone three major revisions and seen endless experimentation. My good friend and fellow game designer Matt Griffin has helped me a great deal, and at the moment I am preparing a playable prototype so we can get to the fun part : endless hours of play-testing!

I’m pretty excited about this project. It will be a major jump for GUBS and give the fans of GUBS something new to play with, plus flesh out so much of the world that is only hinted at in the card game.

The Life Cycle of the Surge

I’ve always been really interested in life cycles, especially insects. All creatures grow and change, but insects go through drastic transformations… an egg, to a larva, to pupa or chrysalis and then adult. I find this especially interesting in science fiction, too, some of my favorite movies being the “Alien” films.

SURGE is an homage to “Aliens” no doubt about that, but I try not to rehash the same thing. Giant bug looking things in space are nothing new, but coupled with some of the ideas currently under development I might touch on some original ideas, or so I hope. At least the game will be fun.

Random Robot

GUBS Flier

This is a flier I made for GUBS. The idea is that this could go on the counter of a game store that was carrying GUBS to help promote it.

Surge!

Concept artwork for another board game. This is a classic theme of space soldiers vs. aliens, with a bit of a twist. I halted this once I found out about Space Hulk and went out and bought a copy. Since Surge is very different from Space Hulk, I plan to pick this design up again and complete it. Has a lot of potential.

Concept Sketch

I’ve had this idea (a whole series of ideas actually) about an epic board game which I’ve been piecing together in my head for a while. This is a sketch of an under water vessel that functions as an important part of the game. It is called the DR 01, or “Darwin” as a nickname.