• ICONIC EARS •

No prizes for guessing who I did this small job for recently. I was tasked by Forrest Pruzan in Seattle to take their raw 3d scan artwork and 'juicify' the shiny sheen on these plastic game ears. So keep an eye out for it appearing on the shelves in a toystore near you!

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• A LITTLE BIT OF BLING FOR CARS •

About 6 months ago I worked on a small, but significant, portion of this new game box for Disney Pixar's 'Cars' franchise. Again, another great commission from Forrest Pruzan in Seattle. Thanks guys.
I made use of some of the chrome filters available via Photoshop and blended a few results together as well as working over th top of these to get a softer silver/chrome effect.

Firstly here's the version that I was sent. It needed 'beefing up' but in a style that would match the 'Cars' franchise logo.

And here's a small selection of the versions I submitted. Getting feedback from the client as we honed in on just the right look. Some were too dark, some had too much reflected colour. The chrome filters in Eye Candy for Photoshop are excellent but often need a little tweaking.

My minimal notes accompanied each visual and version K was the chosen logo.

Can't wait to try out the actual game when I manage to spot a copy.

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• DISNEY PRINCESS •

• DISNEY PRINCESS •

This was a smallish but satisfying job involving adding these smart Tiaras to the heads of the dancing girls. Though I wasn't sent a Tiara, just a photo of the product and the girls dancing. Forrest Pruzan in Seattle are also excellent at sending finished product samples over and this one arrived just in time for my niece's fourth birthday, just perfect!

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• PHOTOSHOPPED TEXT - DISNEY PIXAR • 

• PHOTOSHOPPED TEXT - DISNEY PIXAR • 

Earlier this year I was commissioned by Forest Pruzan in the States to illustrate some elements of a new game for the innovative toy creators - Wonder Forge. 

Amongst their other exciting new releases were a couple of pre-school science based activity games. This one explored slime, ice, heat, bubbles etc and so the name of the game box needed to reflect this in the eye catching typography title.

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• FINDING DORY •

• FINDING DORY •

Last month I had the pleasure of working on a spin-off of one of my favouritist films ever. 

Wouldn't it be great to post how I'd actually worked on the new Disney Finding Dory?!!? 

But I'm afraid this is as near as I'll ever get to that dream, but it's still very satisfying to be illustrating such well loved characters.

(film trailer here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JNLwlcPBPI)

The commission came from Forrest Pruzan once again - they DO get some fantastic jobs - and called for some colouring skills to create a science-based boxed game spin off to the new film. I was supplied with the raw 3D renders and some cmyk breakdowns, and of course there was plenty of excellent reference on the internet.

Having coloured up Dory using paths for the various patterns and shapes, and added some nicely realistic CG eyes and bubble, I illustrated a seabed background of my own (using Photoshop brushes for the seaweeds).

Here's how the busy full box cover looked at the final stage. The other plastic elements in the science kit all needed cleaning and smartening up.

I thought all was well until the AD got back to me to say that a new, slightly different pose was favoured, so could I re-illustrate Dory! So I had to go through the whole process again to illustrate Dory at this new angle. 

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• DISNEY ANIMATION GAME SET •

• DISNEY ANIMATION GAME SET •

Another fun game that I worked on recently was this animation kit from Disney. It featured around a dozen or so Disney film-themed characters and game boards. Hopefully youngsters would have enough patience (or enough rainy days), to start the process of modelling the characters in air drying dough. This was greatly helped by super accurate snap together moulds.

Once the characters are ready they become the game playing pieces and can be place on the boards.

The game above shows Donald and Mickey's Hedge Maze. Created by judicious use of Photoshop custom brushes.

 This Mickey Merry go Round (above) whilst being fun to play helps with Maths too. It was quite a challenge for me as it required realistic rendering of a playground merry-go-round, with all it's associated highlights and shadows.

My 3D software of choice is Form Z. It resides on an older Mac which was in for repair.

So what to do!? I decided that I would have to make an actual scale model of the ride and found some nicely pliant plastic coated wire in my workshop. By printing off the base artwork and mounting it on foamecore I was then able to attach the 9 shaped rails in position and take reference photographs with real shadows. Then it was a matter of simply taking the resulting photograph into Photoshop and lifting the shadows. In the end the shadows had to be downplayed quite a bit anyway, but I'm still happy with the result.

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• More Miles from Tomorrowland •

• More Miles from Tomorrowland •

More samples of the games I'd helped produce arrived just before christmas.

Here's another from the Miles' series. There was an incredible amount of detail (and therefore time) invested in this artwork. The biosphere 'egg-shaped room, for example, took 2 or 3 days to illustrate. I had loads of fun experimenting with foliage brushes in Photoshop though and learnt quite a bit.

You can read and learn more about customising Photoshop brushes in these two articles in Words and Pictures magazine ...

http://www.wordsandpics.org/2014/03/photoshop-brushes.html

http://www.wordsandpics.org/2014/05/photoshop-brushes-part-two-lets-make.html

Forrest Pruzan in Seattle commissioned half a dozen spin-off games and when I get around to photographing them all I shall be featuring them here.

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• MILES FROM TOMORROWLAND •

• MILES FROM TOMORROWLAND •

 I'm very pleased and proud to have worked on a few exciting toy spin-offs from this super new space character series. 
Space adventurer Miles Callisto is always ready for action, traveling through the universe with his family and his best friend, a robo-ostrich named Merc. The family includes mom Phoebe, the ship's captain who sets a good example and encourages her family on every mission; dad Leo, a laid-back pilot and inventor who isn't afraid to try new things; and big sister Loretta, who is a brilliant computer coder and always has her brother's back. Together, they use teamwork and problem solving as they encounter obstacles while completing missions throughout outer space for the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. The Callistos' home base is a floating space station called the Stellosphere, and the StarJetter is the vehicle they use to go to other planets and galaxies. Each episode features a fact related to space or science that inspires the storyline.
Here's the first product - finally out in time for christmas.
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• FAMOUS NAMES •

• FAMOUS NAMES •
Recently I finished work on some exciting spin-off products for some rather famous movie titles.

I had the pleasure of producing supporting illustration work for some of my all time favourite characters, so you can imagine just how satisfying that was. Some are old-time classics and a couple of them are set to become modern classics - all in all, a great set of jobs.

Unfortunately I cannot show this work until the products are launched later in the year, but of course I can't wait until then. So here's a teasing taster ....

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• DISNEY PICTOPIA BOARDGAME •

it was almost a year ago that I worked on this game and I can now post it up here for all to see.

I was asked by Forrest Pruzan (those excellent game developers and designers in Seattle), to help out with the high end artwork for Disney's "trivial pursuit" - type game.

They needed some really seductive shiny blue glass for the actual play area of the board as well as the cards, counters and 'Mickey Dials'.

Well I've done plenty of glass in my time so was very pleased to lend a hand on this.

I've still not experienced the game, but it might be an idea as a christmas present for someone, then I can!

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