Hello and welcome to this Citizen Course on Creating an Animated Character Splash Screen!

Hello everyone and welcome to this Citizen Course on creating an animated character splash screen in Photoshop and After Effects. In this course Tim Von Rueden and Daniel Goslin take you through the steps on creating a animated splash screen from the initial sketches to adding in dust particles in the final render.

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This has been a new and up-n-coming trend seen in a lot of video games lately, especially during the login screens. Being a LoL player myself, I’ve been wanting to create one of my own and after confirming with Dan, I wanted to show you guys how to go about creating your very own screens as well! Since this course is focused on the creation of setting up a splash screen on the concept side, the character that is used has a full 6 part series on how to fully draw her and can be found here: Red Character Series.

As a Citizen member you get access to the complete streaming course, including all project files and the ability to download each individual video. To make this series more accessible you now choose to either stream or download any of the videos. To stream the videos, simply click on the thumbnail for that portion and it will automatically load at the top of the page.

The resources in this course include the following: The final .PSD with all the named layers, the Sketches .PSD, and the Course After Effects file. Citizen members can also download each part’s HD video.

What you’ll learn in this course

During the first half of this course, I will take you through creating a Photoshop file ready for animating in After Effects. This will include explaining both the character and environment being used for this course and how to treat the different layers you will be created to work properly. When creating this scene, always be thinking about what you want animated and how you should be separating the layers from each other.

From there, I will hand the Photoshop file with all the layers properly named over to Dan. He will then give an introduction to using After Effects and then get started on integrating Character motions such as breathing, blinking etc. and then work towards the effects of the character like flowing hair and holding the box at different angles. After the character is finished, then he takes a look at adding different background elements like the leaves falling, glowing lights, fog, and dust particles.

With this course you will have the basics to go out and complete your very own animated character splash screen!

Note: the first three videos including the final splash screen are freely available for anyone to view to help give you a better preview of the course, Enjoy!

Hello Everyone and welcome to this shape and light brush tutorial with Sander Mosk.

Below are some of the steps taken during the tutorial in which Sander will explain the process of creating a light brush and how working with different layer modes can create some cool effects that will give off a 3-Dimensional feel to the piece.

Thanks for checking out this Shape and Light Brush tutorial, if you have any comments or questions leave them in the section below!

Hello and Great Entries Everyone! The contest is over and the results are in!

This has been a fun contest for us here and seeing the entries come in with different interpretations of using a color to inspire your character piece. With almost 100 entries, this was one of our biggest contests yet! We wanted a contest that was left more open for interpretation for the artists, and we were certainly not let down. Thanks again to everyone that entered and I hope you learned something new with your piece!

If you’re wondering what this is all about, check back to the contest announcement page HERE!

• The first, second, and third place winners were based on overall technique, quality, and originality. For this contest, the judges included Jonathan, Wes, Kent, and myself (Tim).
• The Community Cookie was based on having the most “likes” on our Concept Cookie facebook page. You can view all of the entries on our facebook page here: Spring 2013 Contest Entries
• For the winners: Expect us to contact you sometime within the next few days for the details on the prizes you have won!

There were some great entries and the four of us had different opinions on which were our favorites and which ones we felt were the winners. So here are some of the entries that gathered some favorites but just came up short among the official top 3.

Without further delay, here are the standing results:

Community Choice and Third Place

The Community Favorite Award  happened to also win Third Place in the standings and will receive two free months of citizen. This goes to corviday with the depiction of Teal.

This entry had a lot of initial standout presence. It was bold and really made it clear what color they were highlighting. The color harmony was highlighted by an interesting character and design and stood out among the others. I would have liked to see more of that polished detail throughout the piece but it is a well done piece that I can’t stop seeing the smiley face below her feet =].

Second Place

In second place receiving the Second Place Award along with three months of citizen and a 50$ amazon gift card goes to galit and the depiction of Red.

This one literally jumps out at you. It is playful, energetic, and full of vibrant hues to bring the color that they focused on, which was red (as if I needed to point that out) Well done rendering of a character I could easily see in a Dreamworks movie and had a character personality to it in just a single image. Great job!

First Place

In first place receiving the First Place Award along with receiving a full year of citizen, a 100$ gift card to amazon, and being featured across the sites for the month of May goes to Hieu Nguyen with the depiction of Blue.

 It was close but in the end, this submission won over the most votes and is our Spring 2013 Winner! It is a strong concept which has many different elements working in it’s favor. The different shards around her upper half and the spinning ring give the impression that she is a sorcerer of high status and power, this helped tell the story of who she is. The rendering quality of the silky dress and gold belt showed off the technique of the artist. Great balance of colors throughout and a great depiction of the color blue. But there’s nothing to be blue for this winner. Congratulations!

Thanks for checking out our Spring 2013 Contest! Check back sometime in summer for the next contest!

Hello and welcome to this 13HD Cintiq Unpacking and First Impressions video!

For more information on ordering your very own, click the link here: Wacom Cintiq 13HD

When wacom announed their latest Cintiq with a price tag of $999, I knew I had to get my hands on it. I’ve been considering getting one for some time now but since the price was so high, I couldn’t convince myself to take the plunge. With the lowered price and convenient size, I was sold.

Unpacking

The new pen comes with different color rings that you can add to your pen along with a variety of different nubs for you to try out, including the spring-loaded one.

If you have an apple computer there is a strong possibility that you do NOT have an HDMI port, so then you will need to purchase a Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter. I was disappointed at both Wacom and Apple for not partnering up more for this and packaging one in the set.

 ↓ Here is the adapter you may need  ↓

All in all, there is a lot that comes in the cintiq bundled package. The new 3 in 1 cord did make for less clutter and the cord is surprisingly long, enough so that I am able to lay on my couch at my apartment and work on the cintiq in my lap.

First Impressions

Overall I am satisfied with the capabilities the cintiq offers. It works very well with pressure sensitivity and accuracy. I feel as though I can improve my line art skills digitally now, where with just a tablet it wasn’t the same. I ran into a few problems, and was initially very disappointed in the lack of adapter inclusion but besides that, I am very glad I went through with the purchase and look forward to using it!

 Pros

• Great Pressure Sensitivitiy, makes for clean lineart
• Easy to set up to get started right away
• Blending was really smooth
• More cost efficient (compared to other cintiqs)

Cons

• No adapter included (for HDMI port)
• Screen brightness needs to be brighter
• Cord seems to be loose that plugs into cintiq
• Still costly (unless compared to other cintiqs)

 Thanks for checking out this 13HD Cintiq Unpacking and First Impressions video. If you have any comments or questions, leave them in the section below!

The Art of Dead Space

By: Jennifer Lee and Maggie Malone

Titan Books Hardcover

February 2013

224 pages

Hello and Welcome to the review of “The Art of Dead Space“

All images are from The Art of Dead Space by Martin Robinson, published by Titan Books.

Overall Review – ★★★☆☆

Focused Areas: Intricate hard surface designs and grotesque humanoid creatures.

Dead Space is terrifying. For me, the game was a mixture of sweat and mental exhaustion. My best friend took more pleasure watching me as I panicked and battled my way through the Ishimura, than what was happening on the screen. This level of immersion and intensity can be found in the roots of the game, the concept work. As one can expect from a survival horror game, there is plenty of grotesque, distorted concepts that have to display a level of twisted uneasiness.

The book is divided into three prominent sections. Isaac Clark, the Necromorphs, and the Environments.

Isaac Clark and Weaponry Designs

This section blew me away and stands as my favorite of the entire book. A lot of the initial designs done by Chi Wai Lao beautifully demonstrates the “ribbing” repeating pattern that compliments the Ishimura ship design. The sketches use clean, highly intricate line work rather than chicken scratching that can sometimes be associated with early sketches. Very clean and beautifully thought out details. These pages are incredible and the structures are well thought out and truly give off an engineering design feel to them.

The suit has become iconic especially down to the helmet design. Was really glad to see what they kept going with re-designs until they reached the final suit because initially the engineer had a generic main character look to him.

The character design and ribbing lead to the creative detailing of the weaponry that is included throughout the game. The exposed mechanics set a unique flair to the guns, they felt unique in a subject matter that often feels all too unoriginal and cookie cutter. Easily the most rememberable and creative weapon designs I have seen in concept art.

The Necromorphs

As you might expect, this section is filled with distorted, grotesque, creature, humanoid designs. A lot of work around the softness and vulnerability of flesh, with the ripping sections of gore and the tenderness of the meat underneath. Great mixture of colors with the subtle toned down hues of gray, blue, and brown against the lush, rich scarlets and oranges.

While working with abstract creature designs, they took the focus to distortion of the proportions. Make the viewer uneasy with the images they are presented with. As well with the ribbing on the suit and ship designs, the creatures display the ribbing effect throughout as well.

Limbs. Limbs are the focus of the Necromorphs. Whether adding limbs or extending them, the team focused on these designs and succeeded at creating some twisted concepts. 

The Environments and Ship Designs

Early on in the book, it is explained that the idea of “ribbing” and that repeating pattern was one of the initial ideas that they based and revolved much of the concept work off of from there on. The Ishimura is the ship that you are aboard and it takes on a life of it’s own and sets the scenes and mood for the rest of the game to be played in.

Hard edges with straight lines in a repeating pattern. Almost every page in this section beautifully demonstrated these focal points. Considering this was a mining ship in it’s conception, the team had to also convey the practicality and functionality. So in designing the ship they talk about working with these thoughts and how the ship would mine different particles/asteroids/whatever it may be.

The interiors were a reflection of the exterior design. A lot of the concept work kept up with the repeating patterns and also had to display a ship that was worked in, and had some wear and tear to it. And then from there they had to design the ship after the necromorphs have scavenged through the ship, leaving a mess of blood trails and wreckage behind.

The standout concept artists:

I was disappointed by the lack of individual artist recognition. It was not easy to find out what artist did what, and for me this was a bit irritating. I love looking through an art book and finding artists that inspire me and do some research on the other work they have done.

So although it’s hard to tell who did what on each page, the artists displayed some great work through these pages. A big shout out of appreciation to the art team at Visceral Games Studio and all the hard work they put into these games. Working at a big studio requires deadlines, and a lot of work due in a short amount of time. This art team seemed to collaborate well and the images flush together in cohesion, which can often be a problem for big game companies.

Overall Review – ★★★☆☆

The art book for Dead Space has some great individual pieces and I was especially intrigued by the intricacies in the hard surface detailing on not only Isaac’s suit but in the weaponry as well. The ribbing concept was done really well throughout and was a standout idea that I’m glad to see integrated into so many of the different areas of the game. I would have liked to see more done in terms of environment sketches and individual recognition on the pieces and their commentary behind their work. This book is great for artists looking for inspiration with intricate manufactured pieces or a grotesque creature design. Dead Space the game was quite the unforgettable experience for me, cold sweats and all, but I wanted more from the book than what was included. I recommend this book if you’re interested in the specific concept subject matter.

Check out the other art book we did last month with Wreck it Ralph HERE

Thanks for checking out another art book review here with “The Art of Dead Space“. Any comments or questions, leave them in the section below!

Welcome to the interview of Ryan Lang

Concept Cookie recently did an Art Book review of Wreck-It-Ralph. The artist that stood out to me was a guy named Ryan Lang. His lighting, color, and rendering work was gorgeous and simply could not be ignored.

From there I wanted to find out more about this artist and the more I found, the more I was impressed. Ryan has become one of my personal favorite artists and I am so appreciative that he did this interview with us and gave such insightful feedback. He is an artist that inspires me and I hope he will inspire you as well!

His Official Site: SITE

His Blogspot: BLOGSPOT

Wreck-It-Ralph Art Book: REVIEW

1. You are one of my top favorite digital artists, but for those who don’t know you, how would you describe yourself and what you currently do?

I love video games and cartoons, and have for a long time. My parents used to have a Farside comic strip up on the fridge where two parents were dreaming of a future where there were positions for video game testers/artists in the want adds. I think the caption was “Tim and Rhonda could only dream of a bright future for their son”. At the time I thought that there was no paying job for art and video games, but I kept playing video games and watching cartoons, and drawing my own versions of them. I guess it kind of worked out. I’m currently a visual development artist at Walt Disney Feature Animation in Burbank, California. My job is to flesh out ideas from the story, visually, and present them. Basically, I work in a team that helps define the visuals of a film.

Thanks for the kind words. I will try to find reference if I can of environments and lighting situations. I don’t pull colors from photos or anything, and that’s a personal preference, not some moral thing. If I pull colors from another image, I’m not learning anything. I like to see how close I can get just using observation, because sometimes there is no reference for sugar cane forests, or chocolate volcanoes with mentos in the ceiling. By making observations and studying light and how a particular light affects the local color of an object, I can extrapolate those observations to different scenarios. If I know what happens to green mountains receding in space with a blue atmosphere, I can kind of guess what would happen if those mountains were brown and the atmosphere were pink.

I try to go out and paint from life. Mainly landscapes. I find that making those observations helps immensely with how I view colors and directly impacts the decisions I make when I’m painting invented environments.

Free time? Ha! Actually, I like going out to paint (digitally) or exercise or play video games. I just bought the new Tomb Raider, but it’s still in the plastic because I have more work to do. Maybe I’ll play for just a little bit……

It depends. On Ralph, I made a ton of brushes to help get general textures. There was a push to see a lot of the candy, so that was a way to keep me sane. Normally I use the basic round, airbrush, a couple of bristle brushes, and the chalk brush. Sometimes I play with textural brushes. It just depends.

Observation. Find reference and look at stuff. It’s all about understanding what a light source is doing and how the environment is effected by it. I actually find it SUPER helpful to watch 3D lighting demonstrations. 3D lighters have to think in such practical and specific terms, because they have to explicitly enter values for lights, whether it’s intensity, color, direction, but they think about it in a very “matter of fact” way. If you can under stand what a light is doing technically, all you have to do is paint it. I find most people, myself included, get stuck when they don’t understand what’s happening with the light. It’s like knowing how to drive, but not knowing the directions to where you have to go.

I love ALIEN. There’s something about the non pristine nature of the film. The air is smokey, not everything is digitally touched up. There’s a realness to it. On the opposite end, I love Transformers (1 and 3). Robots smashing robots. A couple others are X-Men: First Class, The Croods, 13 Assassins, Heat… I could keep going. I’m super excited for Man of Steel. I think I teared up after I saw the newest trailer.

8. What were the big breakthroughs for you during your process of learning digital art? Any recommendations of what sources you learned from the most??

That’s a tough one. I think the biggest thing was realizing how the computer handles color. If you mix blue and yellow in photoshop, you don’t get green. Colors don’t mix exactly like you think they would. Realizing what values lie in what region of the color picker was another. As far as resources, I used to go onto conceptart.org for a while, but I’ve been more into cghub for a while now. It seems like a wider range of styles, and I’m always looking at cool stuff and trying to figure out how they got a certain effect or whatever.

9. As an incredible digital and concept artist, what are some mistakes you see younger digital artists making when just starting out?

The biggest mistake I see, is trying to run before you can walk. I see a lot of artists relying on custom brushes to get cool and weird shapes, but no structure underneath it. I think it’s a lack of wanting to take the time to observe, and to use those observations to your benefit. Go out and figure draw, or draw images on the internet. If you’re going to paint, use some reference, or at least look at some images that have the general feel you’re looking for, put them away, and then paint. Pick up an art book on basics. Every time I’m at the bookstore, I stop by the art section and look through the books to see if there’s an observation or way of thinking I haven’t seen before.

Do what you love to do. Don’t try and think that you can trick yourself into being happy doing something you don’t like. If you’re not able to do it at work, do it at home. If you like painting monsters, and you have to paint cute houses at work, paint monsters at home. Try and find things that you can learn from painting those little houses, that you can later apply to the monsters you paint at home. Is it the composition? Maybe you can improve on your perspective and structural drawing. Find a way to make some aspect of what you do something that you love. It’ll push you to get better, it gives you goals, and makes for an overall more fulfilling experience. Then, one day, someone will hire you to paint monsters. I guess, in short, find a way to be happy, because that helps you improve the most.

So go paint already.

Thanks for checking out this Digital Artist interview with Ryan Lang. If you have a question or comment, leave them in the section below!

Hello Everyone and Welcome to this step by step tutorial on creating an Urban Warrior with Ivelin Trifonov.

He is a fantastic artist that works some great stuff with lighting and interesting characters. He was generous enough to show us his process in creating a modern style character. Below is a .gif of the finished step step tutorial.

Ivelin Trofonov:

1. I always start with a fast sketch of the character, trying to capture his posture and movement.

2. Here I start marking the main volumes, lighting and making sure the character is standing solid on the ground plane. I work with broad brush strokes, defining the main shapes and masses.

3. I continue defining the shapes of the figure with broad brush strokes, and establish a basic background. Still working in black and white.

4. It is important to constantly flip the picture – like that we ensure a fresh look over the painting. I put on the hero’s clothing.

5. In this phase, I start working in details over the ”warrior”, and bring forth the enemies  he is fighting with – old TV’s

6. Coloring time – I create a new layer with blending mode set to Color. Doing this I keep the values of the painting, while adding colors to it.

7. Adding textures – usually I put them over the whole painting on multiply or overlay layer mode and play around with the opacity. I start developing the main focus of the painting – the face of the hero and a part of his shoulder, illuminated by the TV screen.

8. I make some color corrections and in the same time continue polishing the painting.

9. I start adding some elements in the background – a few silhouettes of buildings, trying to establish a depth in the picture.

10. I add some life in the TV screens by adding a blurred image over them.

11.Final touches – adding last details, final color corrections and voila! – my “Urban Hero” is done!

Thanks for checking out this step by step tutorial with Ivelin Trifonov.

Hello and Welcome to this Written Tutorial on the process of Creating a Sci-Fi Weapon for Kent’s new sculpting series HERE

For Citizen Members: You can download the high res version of the gun along with the brushes I used for the creation of the gun!

Not too long ago, Kent asked me to help him create a sci-fi weapon concept for a new series he was thinking about doing. My comfort zone is working with organic and fantasy, so to work on a sci-fi weapon concept was a challenge for me. To start off, I knew I needed some reference and the team was also chipping in their own references for me to use. After we had a pretty great collection together, then it was my turn to whip up some initial sketches.

Kent wanted a two handed weapon that shot something other than a bullet. I wanted to play with different shape patterns and functionality. Below were the first takes at some weapon sketches.

Just like the first written gun tutorial on Creating a Rugged Revolver, Kent provided a base 3d sculpt for me to work on top of. This is the advantage of incorporating 3d into your 2d concepts. This allows me to not worry about getting values all placed correctly but rather focus on the design of the weapon and work up the details from there. I also tried to keep in mind the weight of the gun and tried imagine using the weapon in real life and how it would handle.

The model was a bit shiny so I gave the overall piece a slightly muted gray to the piece as well as some texture brush work. I was also able to add different lines and cuts into the weapon based on the overall flow of the gun.

After some back and fourths, orange was the color we decided to incorporate into the design flow of the weapon. We decided the orange designs would also add to the way it shoots. Whether it was plasma, energy, or electricity, it was going to be unconventional. So I tried to keep that in mind as we moved forward with the concept.

Kent then went ahead and choose the pieces from each concept that he liked best and mashed them all together in one weapon concept for me to continue with. It is always good to continue to keep updating your client, and in this case I was able to skype with Kent about what direction he wanted to take and if he liked where I was heading with my ideas.

At this point, we wanted to see some color additions to the weapon. I went ahead and masked out the weapon and added an overlay layer with a bunch of different color options to choose from. I wanted to show the difference between a more vibrant color palette and muted color palette.

To keep that nice sci-fi sheen look to the weapon, we stuck with the cool (blue and purple) hues to also compliment the orange we integrated into the designs. To add a glow effect to the orange designs of the weapon, just add an overlay layer and use a soft edge brush to increase the glow.

Even though we started nearing the end of the concept, I wasn’t happy with the results. The lighter colors made it look a bit too much like plastic. so in the final pass I added some more grudge and darker values to lessen the look of the gun looking like cheap plastic and more like a heavy set sci-fi weapon.

Once the concept is finished, a simple lineart turnaround is done as modeling sheets to further help Kent along in his initial modeling stages. I normally use a simple circle hard edge brush with transfer turned off. Keep it simple and clean!

Then i handed everything over to Kent, and from there he worked his Blender sculpting magic. You can check out his full sculpting tutorial series HERE!

Thanks for checking out this written tutorial on creating a sci-fi weapon. If you have any comments or questions, feel free to leave them in the section below!

Concept Cookie Spring 2013 Contest: A Character Concept

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

• The contest will begin today, April 4 2013
• I will post the entries on our facebook page
  
• The contest will end on April 30, 2013 (-6 GMT time)
• The contest results will be posted on May 2nd!

 SUBJECT: A Character Concept

Spring is finally here and we decided to let this contest be more open-ended than our previous ones. We want to see where you take a character concept with little direction.

For the latest Character Series, I took the approach of wanting the color RED to be highlight of the piece. I ended up giving her scarlet locks to be the main focus of the character. For your character, let a color guide your concept thinking. Whether it be for the hair, an accessory, clothing or something as simple as the eye color, let that color set a path for you to follow. The rest is up to you!

So here is your chance to really have fun with the contest and create a character that shows off your creativity and skill!

RULES

• Submit your entry by 6pm on April 30 2013 (-6 GMT time)
• The winners will be announced on May 2nd 2013.
• Has to be your own work, concept, or line-art
• Submit your entry correctly by following the guidelines below and correctly represent the topic
• Explore your creativity and treat this as if you were a concept artist receiving the task. You want to express your originality in these guidelines to the best of your ability
• Have fun with it!

HOW TO SUBMIT ENTRIES

• Submit your .jpg image entry through Concept Cookie’s Gallery with a “finished” status directly on this page.
• Make it clear what color you based your concept off of.
• Have it be easily recognized as a contest entry, putting the word “contest” in the title would be more than helpful
• I will take these submissions and post them on the facebook page for the community to vote on their favorites by clicking “like” on their favorites.

JUDGING

The judging will take place by the in house CGCookie Crew.

We will be judging the submissions based on the following material

• Did the submission follow the rules that were set?
• The overall quality, creativity and execution.
• What we believe was the best take on the contest subject.

The COMMUNITY Choice award can be voting on here: https://www.facebook.com/conceptcookie

CONTEST PRIZES

The contest prizes will also include the badges on that artist’s page. The cash prizes can be send via Paypal or may be used as a donation to the winners favorite online charity.

1. First Place

• One Year Citizen Membership
• $100 Gift Card to Amazon.com
• Featured across the concept cookie network and the banner for the facebook page throughout May

2. Second Place

• 3 months of citizen
• $50 Gift Card to Amazon.com

3. Third Place

• 1 month of citizen

4. The Community Choice Award:

• 1 month Citizen

WHAT ABOUT THE LOOT

Amazon is not affiliated with this contest, does not endorse this contest in anyway.

 Thanks for checking out our latest Contest Announcement! Can’t wait to see what you guys come up with!

Hello and Welcome to Drawing a Female Character Series Part 6 – Final Polish

*** The source files includes the .PSD with each of the layers, a .abr containing the color palette, the textures brushes and a HD version of the tutorial video. ***

I use the following two textures in this tutorial. Citizen members can download both of them to use in their own work here: TEXTURES

Here is the final result of the female character series, “Red“.

1. Background

We have been working on a neutral gray background for this entire process so now I work with a combo of gradiants and texture brushes to create a nice background effect.

2. DoF (Depth of Field)

To add some atmospheric perspective, I add some DoF by erasing some of the elements that are further back or behind the character. The further away it is, the more I would erase. For the hair I created a nice gradiant from full opacity to about a 40% opacity.

3. Textures and Overlays

I bring in textures and set the layer mode as either overlay or multiply depending on the situation after masking the character. For this character I wanted a sunny disposition so I added a  yellow/orange glow to the character on a separate overlay layer.

4. Texture Brushes

This is a great way to add more final details onto the character and for the magenta color addition, a nice layer mask helped keep within the silhouette of the character.

5. Signing off!

After all the work you put into your character, now is the time to sign your work. You are putting your signature stamp on this piece saying that this is your work and you are proud of it. Every time I sign a piece I think about how great it feels to be done and I get excited to get started on the next!

Thanks for checking out the final part of this female character tutorial series. If you have any comments or questions leave them in the section below!