And one more...

A project I did for West Studio a few weeks ago.  Tyler West contacted me requesting a zbrush sculpt to use for his studio's portfolio.  The subject matter and art direction were pretty much up to me.

Here's what I came up with:

Lacking the size, fire-breathing, and predatory abilities that it will develop later in life, camouflage is a dragon's only defense early on in its life cycle.  Here we see an infantile dragon attempting to blend into it's surroundings by mimicking the leaves on nearby foliage, concealing it from larger predators.  Eventually -- in it's adolescence -- it will grow dramatically in size and take on a more "traditional" dragon-like appearance.

And here's some super-quick sketches during development:

Some experiments getting a more "product shot" looking render out of Modo early on in the development:

Thanks for looking!

Old Work

Digging through my harddrives, I found some stuff lying around from various freelance projects that I think are okay to show on here now. Unfortunately, I have hundreds of images of some of my best work that I can't show for many years, so in the meantime, little tidbits like this will have to do.

This was for a cancelled film project that I worked on several years ago that shall remain nameless:

And a mascot for an ad I worked on while over at Rhythm & Hues:

A graphic novel cover I did for commission last year (title and text not included).  The composition and designs were already decided by the client, I just had to bring up the level of finish and make it look more epic :

And a creature that I designed for a film pitch for Sony Pictures earlier in the year (it didn't go anywhere). This was a little over a one day turnaround time:

Thanks for looking!  More coming soon!

New Years Update

Well, it's been a little while, hasn't it?  I swear I'm not dead.

The last year has been good to me -- after working at Legendary for a little while, I was lucky enough to get invited into the Local 800 Art Director's guild as a senior illustrator.  Basically this opens up a lot of doors and lets me take jobs on all of the big film productions as a concept artist.  I am extremely flattered and humbled to be considered eligible to work among some of the most talented artists in the entire world.

I would like to extend a big thanks especially to Tim Flattery for recommending me and my production designer Tom Meyer for making this all happen.  It would not have been possible without them and my life has changed tremendously for the better because of it.

The year has definitely had its share of ups and downs. Transferring from my cushy studio job to the lifestyle of a full-time freelancer has been scary to say the least, but I think I'm definitely better for it...  I think I've worked the hardest this year since leaving school.  I've made a lot of new friends, burned a bridge or two, and generally had some of the worst and best days of my career this year.

The future looks to be both intensely scary and amazingly exciting.  I'm hopeful and confident that the best is yet to come.

Thanks, as always, for stopping by.

Legendary Pictures

It is with a little bit of a heavy heart that I leave my second family over at Sony Santa Monica, but I have recently started a new gig over at Legendary Pictures / Warner Brothers features.

The job may or may not be long term, but either way my future is looking exciting.  Thank you all very much for the support you have given me, it really does mean a lot.

New work on the way (when I have time to breathe).

Revisiting an Old Friend

People really seem to like this character I developed for my Legend redesign project from a while ago, so I decided to take him further...

I may tweak the final paintover a little more, but its far enough along to show.  Thanks again to Bryan for some major anatomical help, and some great suggestions.  The sculpt wouldn't have come out as well as it did without his help...

Turntable coming soon!

Thanks again for looking!

Yeti Round II

Playing with some new rendering techniques in zbrush:

Detail:

Turnaround:

Wendigo Round II

So a Wendigo is a spirit from Algonquian Native American mythology.  It possesses humans transforming them into disgusting flesh-hungry giants.  Those possessed have an insatiable cannibalistic appetite.

Thanks so much again to Bryan who gave me a bunch of tips (more planar!  exaggerate!) on how to improve this guy, and even did a quick sculpt-over when I was stuck.

More on the way!

Keeping that momentum going

Here's what I did with my superbowl weekend:

A Yeti and a Wendigo, respectively.  Both in progress -- I'll post the finishes when they're done.

... and some more finished stuff

See, I told you I'd have some new stuff up!  This is a character I have been developing for my second independent study with my good friend Bryan Wynia.  An "Atlantian Prince": basically an undiscovered race of fishlike people that lives deep in the ocean.

I tried to actually sculpt out the transparent brain cavity (and brain -- went through several iterations of that) instead of just painting it.  Here's the color turnaround without all of the flashy materials and paintover:

Since this process is still kind of new to me, I thought I'd share some development.  Here's an earlier sculpt of the still unposed character:

And some early pose/expression testing:

Some paintovers to figure out some more subtle aspects of my design:

Thanks for looking!  New(er) work on the way!

The Work in Progress Post

Been having a little bit of difficulty balancing my time between a full-time job and part time school, but it has been waaaay too long since I put anything up here.  No, I'm not dead.  While I have a bunch of stuff laying around on my hard drive, none of its really finished to my satisfaction (or good enough for my standards...) .

Since it has been so long -- and I have been doing newer stuff -- here are a few things from the relatively recent past that I feel comfortable enough to show.  Please consider everything in this post a major WIP:

A "world map" environment from my Odyssey project.  Damn, this thing is old--

Some character sketches for Odysseus--

Some "key scene" studies for a couple of illustrations--

One of the illustrations from said key scene studies: the Cyclops encounter!--

I've been trying to get better at these "pitch illustration" type things: characters interacting in environments and whatnot, but man do I have a long way to go.

Oh, and I guess I was in ImagineFX relatively recently, too!  I'll have to scan that and get it up.  Thanks for everyone who bought my issue and read my little spread.  Hopefully more of that type of thing to come in the future.

New work (for reals) up very soon.  Thanks for looking!

Finally!

I got a job!  I am humbled and flattered to join the world-class concept art team over at Sony Santa Monica!!

I love my job, and can honestly say that there is no place I would rather be.  It is an honor and a privilege to work with such a talented, passionate group of people.  Being asked to work here makes all of the years of blood, sweat, and tears (and all-nighters!) worth it!

Getting to this point has not been easy.  Without trying to sound too corny: I would like to give a hearty thank you to everyone who gave me support and believed in me through some of the most difficult years of my life.  I could not have done this without the help of all of my incredible friends and family.  Thanks everyone!

I will still be finishing up school, so expect some art-related updates from my remaining school-work in the months to come, but unfortunately I will not be able to show most of what I do at work for several years.  I'll have to do some personal work now and then to try and keep from falling off the face of the earth!

2011 Intern Show Postmortem

Wow!  It sure has been a while since I put anything up here.  Bad Zach!  I'll try and be better about that in the future!

So another intern show at Art Center has come and gone, and once again the bar has definitely been raised.  The turnout was great this year, and the student work was spectacular!  I had a great time and got to meet a lot of very cool and interesting people.  Here are a couple of pieces I worked on for the show...

A new piece for my senior project -- the goddess Athena from my Greek/Steampunk/Fantasy version of "The Odyssey":

(She's sitting on her "steamthrone" :] -- I'm such a nerd!)

Here's a piece I reworked a little bit from my "Dead Space" redesign -- I think it makes for a more interesting narrative:

A 6-headed sea monster I'm designing for my "Odyssey" project:

Some more work on my cyclops zbrush maquette that I'm doing with Bryan Wynia.  Still a work in progress, but its certainly coming along:

Oh, and I got published!  Kevin Chen over at Concept Design Academy submitted my work -- as well as that of a few other students --to an article that 3D Artist Magazine was doing on the Zbrush character creation class that Bryan teaches:

I would definitely like to thank Kevin Chen, Bryan Wynia, Josh Herman and everyone else at CDA -- it was an honor to be selected and represent the school!

I have a lot more stuff in the works that I will be sure to post up here soon!  Thanks, as always, for taking a look.

One Hour Zbrush Sketches

I'm taking an independent study with the amazing Bryan Wynia, whose class you should take if you haven't already.  We're developing a "cyclops" character for a project I'm working on.

Did a bunch of Zbrush head sketches yesterday, each one was timed for an hour:

I apologize for the corny names -- I was tired and it seemed hilarious at the time. ;)

***

*EDIT: So I did one today at school for the open house we were having in front of a bunch of people on the projector!  It was super intimidating!  Here's what I came up with:

***

*EDIT: Took one of the more successful designs further, and toned down the "pornographic" nature of it, as per the request of one of my instructors:

Thanks for looking!