Working with our 3rd party studio DDI - Korea, I was the art director / creative lead for the game A.I. Wars - Heroes.
I was responsible for the design of the ai wars logo. I worked with several artists, teaming up to create the final image. I art directed the process through figjam, a virtual white board and honed in on the final look of the logo.
Concept A credit: Andy McCulloch
Refined Concept credit: Marv Riley
Character Development
This is a walkthrough for just one of the over 20 characters that I art directed for A.I. Wars - The Heroes. #1 I began each character by researching, gathering reference and influences for the artists. #2 Initial thumbnails. I always asked the artists to create many thumbnails. I might choose pieces from several thumbnails to create the final thumb. #3 Start to refine the image front, side and back. #4 Constant art direction feedback from me throughout the process. #5 Finalizing the turn drawings. #6 Color. #7 Pose for final painting thumbnail ideas. #8 Final Painting. #9 Storyboard to show off the character's unique skill in the game. Credits: Kristen Maslanka, Sue Anderson, Justin Williams
A.I. Wars Heroes and Personas
This is a look at some of the heroes and personas together. Credits: Justin Williams, Ashley Lindsey, Sue Anderson, Lyndon Asuncion, Kris Maslanka
UI Art Direction for DDI Korea
I was often asked for my expertise from our Korean partners about the look of the assets being developed overseas. This is typically how I interacted with them. I would use Photoshop and Snagit to grab stuff that I liked or didn't like and talked them through the thinking from my perspective.
The characters that I Art Directed in Seattle were utilized in the game UI. Khardor turned out looking great. Credit: Lyndon Asuncion
I art directed over 20 Heroes and Personas for A.I. Wars. Here's a look at how they were displayed in the UI. Credits: Sue Anderson, Lyndon Asuncion, Kris Maslanka, Justin Williams
Storyboard Concept for the game premise
I art directed the storyboard for the animatic with Lyndon Asuncion and Tyler Thompson. These storyboard drawings were created by Lyndon Asuncion.
A.I. Wars - The Heroes Animatic story and example UX
A concept video of The Heroes, a AAA fighting game to be developed for the Western Audience with our partner studios in Korea. As the Art Director, it was my job to create this animated video with a strike team of audio, UX, motion graphics, 2D and 3D artists within our studio. We built the video as an animatic from the story boards. Credits: Ben Kersten - audio, Tyler Thompson - motion graphics, Lyndon Asuncion -2D art, Andy McCulloch - UI, Jason Robinson - UI and Video production, Toby Normoyle - Story, Chris Chamberlain -Story, Jeremy Jones - Story, 2D art and art direction.
It was my job to create a world for A.I. Wars. I created a lot of influence maps from film reference and sci-fi illustrations to help the team understand what we were building.
Art Direction: Film research influence map to guide the team on the look of the spaceship and it's interior. The idea was that the main spaceship "home" in the game was a scientific craft but was taken over by the soldiers from the year 2146.
Art Direction: Influence maps for the team. I thought that the technology in the distant future would be more organic that what we see today. Here I was showing the flow of the spaceship and elements like the helmet design. Credits: Lyndon Asuncion
Art Direction: I researched films like King Kong, Avatar and Oblivion to find character references for the team. The illustrations in this slide with the white backgrounds are my own drawings. The gray background illustration of the female warrior was created by Lyndon Asuncion.
Art Direction: I created influence maps to guide the team in the look and feel of the game.
Art Direction: Influence maps for special effect ideas.
Art Direction: Influence maps for monster concepts. My direction wasn't to literally riff off of these ideas but to create monsters that FEEL like this. Make an Egyptian god feel like an over the top muscular dude that would be scary to face as a level boss. Lots of energy and power.
Market Analysis
A.I Wars Gameplay Screen Shot
A shot of the gameplay from our partner studio in Korea with the Heroes developed in Seattle under my Art Direction. Credits: Lyndon Asuncion, Sue Anderson, Kristen Maslanka, Justin Williams.
