D_Rogue Game Art Project

W hile w orking on numerous projects over the summer, I began re-shaping my king crab model to form a different species that will be in D_ROGUE; that is also caught in the Bering Sea. A Chionoecetes Opilio. This crab is a species of Snow crab, otherwise known as Opilio crab or Opies. It is a very abundant commercial species and is often caught by pots and trawlers as seen on the tv show Deadliest Catch. Jason Bartlett © What sets this  crustacean  apart from a King crab, is they're shells are less rough, are   overall a lot smaller,  and have eight legs and two claws; not six legs and two claws, like King crabs. Above, is the Opilio model close to completion in Maya. The poly count was high enough on my King crab model to sculpt and re-work the legs into the Opilio form. Having the previous model to work from, helped speed up the modelling stage dramatically. Additionally, I had not modelled organic objects in 3D, since my second year of University (five years ago!);...

A s a kid, I frequently visited both my Grandparents houses. In their hallways, was a strange wooden clock, with letters instead of numbers on the face and a brass dial you could turn and set yourself. It wasn't until I was much older (old enough to reach it!) that I came to question what exactly it did. It turns out, what I thought was a peculiar clock was a barometer. A device used to measure atmospheric air pressure and indicate how likely the weather will change in the day. In the 20th century, before mobiles and the internet, fishermen out at sea for weeks relied on instruments such as this to get a heads up on the ever-changing weather. Since I had this connection, a first-hand real-world memory of it, I found creating a model of the device for D_ROGUE lots of fun. A s it is something I am so familiar with, I could visualise the steps in order to recreate it digitally in 3D. As I wanted to create the whole thing anew (including a clock), it took a bit more time than I anticip...

U pdated my Alaskan king crab texture in Substance Painter and rendered the image below in Marmoset Toolbag 3. Jason Bartlett © Upon reviewing the crab texture for my model in my previous post (see here ), I found the colours of the exoskeleton popped a little too much which I wasn't happy with. So instead of moving on to the next thing, I decided to update the shell texture in Substance. I studied some more into the crab species and what the crabs look like both underwater and out.  What I found was, red king crabs are just a member of a superfamily of decapod crustaceans, living in the Bering Sea. Of many shapes and shades. Who knew! With t he majority of species having a dark 'muddier' shell, I opted to go for this red-brown  colour on the final model. Not a shiny orange shell, ready to be served in  a five-star restaurant. Thankfully, Substance Painter has a largely non-destructive workflow. I was able to simply pick out the hues in the images I found, and implement t...

F isheye view of the F/V Scully Galley. This digital line art is an early concept of what the galley (kitchen/cooking area) could look like onboard the fishing boat. It also acts as a glimpse at what the first-person view could look like for the player in the game. Jason Bartlett © I decided to create the fisheye effect because it adds an immersive view of being inside the confines of the boat. Additionally, it creates a sense of scale for the viewer; that you otherwise would not get in a traditional perspective sketch. I was inspired by the American artist Paul Heaston who sketches fisheye point-of-view perspectives. I really enjoyed figuring out where distortion takes place, imitating a really wide-angle lens. Thanks for reading :)

E arly renders of my complete game-ready R ed King Crab model.                                                                                                                                           Jason Bartlett © Overall, I am really happy with how the model turned out. Seeing as this is the first actual organic sculpt I have done since Uni, I am rather pleased with the turnaround time.                                                                   ...

I n  between working on multiple pieces of art for D_ROGUE, I have been sculpting this Alaskan king crab model.                                                                                                                                           Jason Bartlett © As this model won't be seen up close too often, I haven't spent all that long on the finer details in the modelling stage.                                                                       ...

H appy Blogiversary! On this day one year ago, I announced the start of this project! I know a lot of bloggers say this but I  cannot quite believe how far I've come and how much I have learnt since March 2019. Now 365 days later, I'm quite proud of the consistency of my posts. Something like 80% of blogs don't make it past the first few months. I think I can put my dedication down to two things. One, being that I started blogging when I was at University. It was a part of our course to document our work and so I got into the  rhythm  of regularly posting. And two, being determined to see this project through to some kind of outcome. I once heard someone say "Don't lose sight of why you did it in the first place". I set a goal with my blog to make a post at least once a month and have achieved this through my persistence to achieve something along the way. It also acts as a detailed portfolio of what I am capable of to future employers! ...

A t the start of the new year, I downloaded the latest update for Adobe Photoshop CC,  Photoshop 2020 . Unfortunately, due to Quixel Suite (a texturing plug-in for Photoshop) now being discontinued, the software is no longer supported in this latest version of  Photoshop. In addition to this,  Quixel Suite  wasn't running well at the best of times within Photoshop. A long with numerous other problems that kept arising, this forced me to look into new software options. I checked out the latest tools for texturing and eventually decided on the Substance  Suite . What is great about  Substance , is it is now an Adobe product, and so the tools will be kept up to date as well as the huge benefit of software bridging (transferring files from one and opening them in another; for example, Substance Painter over to Photoshop). So, one door closes, another one opens. The positives increase with this change of gear, as is it allows me to learn new softw...

O n the night of October 25th 1977, the Aleutian Islands in the Bering Sea, witnessed one of the most powerful storms ever to hit Alaska. With a low pressure of 926, wind speeds reached up to 130mph, ocean waves averaged a height of 30 to 48 feet, and  swells lasted  12 consecutive hours.  This  record  colossal extra-tropical category 4 storm, 43 years ago, was only  recently surpassed by the 2014 Bering Sea bomb cyclone. Upon learning about this storm, my questions (let alone my imagination) went into overdrive. What would it feel like to be out at sea in those conditions? What would horrendous gales, giant waves, combined with temperatures below -10 °C feel like? Well, hell I imagine. Mother nature unleashing the impossible, fascinates me to the core. As a kid, I had a book called 100 Disasters That Shook The World by Nigel Cawthorne. There was a section on the Indonesian volcano Krakatoa.  I must have read that part over a doze...

H appy  New Year! For my first blog post of 2020, I thought I'd briefly start with a recap of the last year; to see how far I've come with D_ROGUE. I created   concept art to technical drawings, visual dev to illustrations. I even made animations, to reveal the projects name! 2019, for me, was full of building, learning and improving my 2D and 3D skill set. I learnt so much and overcome so many challenging...challenges. Taking the notes I had from my head and actually creating artwork (shaping the project to where I am now), has been one of the most rewarding things creatively. In 2020, I hope to take what I've built on and take it to new depths. I'm sure that with learning new software, tools and techniques, will come with its own set of challenges. But as Rikki Rogers once said " Strength doesn't come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn't.".                 ...