Ozimals...

While I write this blog for myself, I always want someone to read it or at least look at the pictures.  I've always had the "build it and they will come" attitude but that does not always pan out.  In the case of Ozimals Inc. it panned out and in a big way.  After my departure from my last photography position I needed time to get my head screwed on straight and pursue some art other than photography (I know that sounds all wishy-washy and so artsy of me but if you've ever been there you'd understand).  I began drawing monthly "packages" of images for my nephews in New York to color.  Some were just excuses to draw things like spaceships and dinosaurs others I attempted to have actual story lines and minor character development as each installment progressed.  Alas you can only go on unemployed so long but I did post the pictures on this blog and Someone stumbled upon them.

Ozimals gave me an opportunity I've never had - to design a character for an upcoming product.  While I cannot release any of the character sketches at this time, I had a blast just sitting down and creating for creations sake.   On top of the character design, they also asked me to create a teaser for them.  They gave me a rough concept and I took their direction and I drew a mock up on bristol board.  They said go with it.

While I have played around with digital painting, I've never completed anything to this kind of detail or scale (But I'll get to that in a moment.)  I always believed being able to paint would help my post-production skills especially when compositing different photographs.  To be honest I knew I could do it, I just didn't know how, exactly.  And  that was exciting.  Its been a while since I've had an honest challenge and had the confidence to pull it off.

With this particular image I rendered it on a 12 by 12 inch canvas 16 bit color depth at 300 dpi.  In hindsight, I'd consider that a mistake.  Photoshop only crashed on me a couple of times but the time it took to save the main file was stupidly long.  I ended up keeping a master file with all my layers and working separate group elements (Mushrooms, Sky, Creature) as different files.   16 bit color was important to me because I was working with lots of gradients.  I've found over the years that especially when working with skies and burning them down on a digital file, 16 bit is the only way to keep from getting banding.  As for 300 dpi, I'm a photographer and it was important to have a large enough file to print from, although this image was rendered primarily for web use... I can't help myself.

So whats the compromise?  I was asked to create a second teaser and I went with a smaller canvas size 8 x 8 at 300 dpi and kept the master file at 8 bit.  I created my parts separate on 16 bit canvases and then converted them to 8 bit for the master.   This kept eveything moving very fast.  In fact I finished the second teaser in half the time (I also new what the hell I was doing better.)

On a completely different plane of creation, Ozimals asked me to create textures for their breedable bunny line.  I was designing textures for their "elite" releases that only occur at special times of the year.  This year being the year of the rabbit in China they asked if I had any ideas for a Chinese New Year Style Rabbit.  I quickly drew up a couple of bunnies.  The top set reminded them of Mexican wrestling masks...  While not my intention, that's all I can see now.

So we went forward with the dragon style at the bottom.  And this is where I realized I was in way over my head.  The textures I were to create were to be rendered on a flat canvas then wrapped around certain parts of the rabbit's 3D model.  To anyone who has worked in gaming or in this 3D execution, I commend you.  Because this was next to impossible.

It required a lot of trial and error and I couldn't have chosen a more ornate texture to wrap the bunny's head with.  We ended up creating four different color sets for the rabbits.

The next texturing project was a Tin man Bunny for Valentines day.  This one required some assistance from the Ozimal guys.  My first rendition is very similar to the final product but it was flat and unexciting.  It resembled more of a dull brushed aluminum coating as opposed to a more sleek stainless steel look.  After some assistance and tweaking they were happy.  My favorite part is the inner ear.  I designed a speaker for the inside and a series of air brakes to act as the fur that would be present at the base of the ear opening.