NFTease

 Resurrecting this blog as the recent NFT craze has inspired me to put my personal work out there again.  I'm not hoping to make a ton of money, or even really sell anything.  I'm more interested in the concept, and that digital art can finally be "ownable".

I minted my first piece on Rarible, I'm working on more but am focusing on making paintings that I want to make, and not churning out a ton of content and minor iterations of the same thing which unfortunately seems to be the norm right now.

Check it out on Rarible

I'm focusing on short animated loops of a single living image.  Though the painting is done digitally, I am still retaining a painterly look and feel.  It gets lost a bit in the tiny preview, but there is quite a bit of detail in the full res version (3840x3840)

And that's my first one!  Will post more as I complete them, but since I'm literally hand painting everything (some elements frame-by-frame) they're going to be at least a couple of months apart.

Ascension

So my neglect of this blog has turned into neglecting catching up on posts that I’ve neglected. . .

Anyway, I’m going to keep trying to post my work, even if it isn’t terribly current.

This is another glass painting, completed at the beginning of this year-  

ASCENSION

Acrylic and Gold Leaf on Glass

I’m still working out the processes of reverse glass painting, and how I can use them to accentuate (rather than hamper) my style.  I made a couple of steps forward with this piece, mostly in control over the gold leaf and incorporating more sophisticated textures, which can be very difficult on glass.  

However, I feel as though I can better describe form with more practice.

It was featured, along with a couple of my other pieces, in a show in Japan last April.

Unfinished Swan Announce Trailer

I finally have a few days off after E3 and other miscellaneous projects.   I haven’t had the time to post in months, but hopefully I can get caught up on what I’ve been up to. 

First up is an announce trailer for a  game called “The Unfinished Swan”.  It’s an artsy game that will most likely be downloadable on the PlayStation Network.

Unfinished Swan Announce Trailer from Joshua Miller on Vimeo.

I created the entire video, except for the book closing animation at the end, which was handled by Sony’s San Diego studio.  I also inherited the game models and some creature animation from the game studio, but it required a significant amount of cleanup, especially the swan.

The splatter effect was achieved mainly by using cameras to project animation created with After Effects.  I also used toon shaders to create mattes for the ink based on camera and light positions at the frame of the splatter.

Sketchbook

I really need to get better about posting, these jpegs have been on my desktop for months waiting to be uploaded. . . 

While visiting family over the holidays, my niece (8) and nephew (12) asked me to draw their favorite animals for them.-

TGS 2011 (part 2)

This is the second video that I created for the Tokyo Games Show in September-

Though it is yet another Vita video, this one is probably my favorite, and the most interesting conceptually.

It played on a loop on the show floor for the people waiting in line to try out the device.

More Catching Up. . .

I have had a painting in a gallery in Ginza (Tokyo) since early November of last year.

It is an exhibition of glass paintings, this was the first one that I completed using techniques taught to me by Michiyo Ishikawa.  I am unhappy with the way it turned out, mostly because it was my first time doing both reverse glass painting and gold leaf gilding.  I am still learning the techniques, and it is far less forgiving than painting on canvas.

However, Michiyo insisted that I include it in the show.  Though I do not feel that the work is up to my standards, it does feel good to have a piece in a gallery in Japan!

TGS 2011 (part 1)

I’ve been neglecting this blog, I have several things that I’ve been meaning to post for a long time.

Way back in September, I worked on 2 videos for the Tokyo Games Show.  Sony even shipped a computer to my hotel room in Hawaii, where I was attending a wedding, to make last minute changes before the show.

The first video opened the show, which saw record attendance last year-

On the surface it looks very similar to the video that I created for E3, but there were many changes, especially to the model.  I feel as though the most noticeable improvement in this version was the fact that I composited it myself, I felt that the E3 video was not handled as well as it could have been on that end. 

Goat Skull

 A quick pencil sketch that I felt like bringing into Painter and playing around with-

Long Live Play

I’ve been working a lot, freelancing for Sony Computer Entertainment.  I’ve made a couple more videos for the PSVita that showed at the Tokyo Game Show; I will share them when I can. 

I also had the opportunity to create the Mnemonics for the new ad campaign for Playstation.

Now my work is at the end of every broadcast commercial and trailer made for Playstation, including the popular “For Michael” spot-

That video was the #1 watched video on all of YouTube the week that it released, and in just a few weeks has been watched almost 10 million times. 

I have to admit, as disillusioned as I had become with advertising, it’s nice to see my work on TV again.  Especially when I see it almost every day on nationally broadcast spots for high quality products like Uncharted 3, which aired during the NFL kickoff game, the season premiere of The Simpsons, and just about every channel since.

E3 2011

I haven’t posted in a while, I was working long hours in preparation for E3.

I created several videos for Sony Computer Entertainment America.  Some were shown to the public, others behind closed doors, and one wasn’t shown at all.

This is my portion of the video that was shown to the public.  It is promoting Sony’s new handheld tech “Vita”.

It’s pretty straightforward product stuff, but I’m happy with how it turned out, especially the opening macro sequence.

That is the only thing that I can share right now, but more will be coming soon. . .   

New Painting

I recently finished the first painting on canvas that I’ve completed in years.

“Zool”

Oil on Canvas

24” x 48”

Overall, I’m pretty happy with it, in that I feel like I am getting some of my skills back after such a long hiatus.  I am finally painting again, seriously and for a prolonged period of time, and it feels really good.

There are always things that can use improvement though.  I’m going to focus on using a more limited color palette for my next couple of paintings.  I felt the color scheme getting a little out of control on this one, I don’t know if maybe it’s the green of the fridge, but I feel like I’m using a little too much of the color wheel.

The piece is also little saturated overall.  I like using bold color, but I think I overdid it a bit on this one.  I could get a better effect by using more muted colors to set off the bolder color.  Plus, I feel that more mutes would make the wacky subject matter a little more sophisticated.

Either way, this piece represents an important personal milestone.  I’m back baby!

Humpback Whale Part 1

I am starting a new personal project.  I recently watched the BBC series “Life”, which was made by the same people that made “Planet Earth”.  It’s just as good, it’s absolutely amazing the footage that their photographers are able to capture. 

One word of warning though, if you watch it be sure to get the British version that has David Attenborough’s narration.  Not just because he’s great, but for some reason they chose to have Oprah narrate the American version, and it’s beyond awful.

Anyway, they had a segment on humpback whales.  I’ve always thought of them as one of the ugliest animals on earth.  However, there were some really incredible shots, and I saw them as I had never seen them before.  They have an amazing variety of textures across the surface of their skin.  You couldn’t ask for a better reference for a real-world monster/creature design.

I decided that it would be a great subject for ZBrush practice.

This is a screenshot from ZBrush.  The model is about 70%-80% complete.

I want to push myself to emulate the detailed textures of the whale’s battered hide.  So rather than render her out as a standard turntable, I want to move a camera around her and get very close at times to highlight the detail. 

I also want to place the model in an underwater scene.  For me the beauty of these creatures is their contrast, the way a 40 ton creature can move with an almost unnatural grace, and I want to try to capture that feeling.

Before I finish the last details on the model, I want to get her posed in a scene, so that I can block out my shot and see which areas I want to highlight with the camera.  There is no point in spending hours detailing areas of the model that won’t even be seen.

So I began creating a scene in Maya-

I roughed out some lighting and volumetric fog to give an underwater look to the scene.  I also spent some time creating a particle system to emulate the bubbles from the air trapped underneath the whale when it returns to the water after breaching.

The next step is to bring the whale model into the Maya scene and pose it, then block out the camera move before returning to ZBrush to finish the detailing of the model.

First Reverse Glass Painting

I finished my first glass painting a few weeks ago, but I didn’t post it because I’m really not happy with the way it turned out.  The whole piece was a constant struggle, which is to be expected.  It is my first attempt at this technique. 

However, my wife really wanted me to post it, and since she’s probably the only one that ever reads this thing anyway I am obliging her.

I did learn a lot from this painting.  I tried as many different techniques of applying/removing the paint to the glass that I could think of, to varying degrees of success. 

The hardest thing for me isn’t thinking backwards because of the reversed glass.  I have the most trouble getting one area perfect before I move on.  I’m used to being able to work all areas of a painting simultaneously.  Michiyo’s technique requires masking and gilding gold one area at a time.  This means I can’t adjust the outlines, color, or shape of an area once the gold has been applied.

I am also used to being able to build up many layers of paint on canvas, something that is extremely difficult to do with glass painting, because of the backwards nature of the technique.  I can’t use washes or dry-brush techniques to influence an existing color, so it is difficult to get the same complexity of color that my canvas work has.

After actually trying out the techniques, I’ve also learned what subject matter will work well with the gold.  This whole piece I was fighting the gold because I came up with the subject before I knew the process.  Now I can plan my next image so that the process supports it, rather than getting in the way.

As the god-awful anatomy in this piece will attest to, I also learned that it is not a good idea to try to use the gold as a value within a human figure until I am much more comfortable with the technique.

Either way, I figure I need a couple more reverse glass paintings under my belt before I have one that I’m happy with.  

Valentine’s Day

This being Valentine’s Day, I thought that I would share the way that I proposed to my wife.

Her favorite game series is Mario Brothers.  I spent months working in secret to create an actual, playable Mario scene with title screens, enemies, breakable blocks, climbable vines, Moving clouds that can be ridden, even music and sound effects.  I altered Princess Peach's look to make it look more like her, and made her dress red (her favorite color).

Once a block is broken, it left a letter behind.  The letters spelled my message once all blocks were broken.

Lucky for me, she said yes!

Rigid Body Dynamics Test

I have been super busy on a project at work, but I’ve found a little time to keep moving forward on my Megaman project.  This is a test for the “death” shots of the enemies. I used Rigid Body Dynamics in Maya.

I hadn’t played with the dynamics in Maya for the last couple of releases.  It's a lot easier than I remember it being.  It’s a little buggy, but you can get some pretty cool simulations out of it.

Arcade Control Panel Restoration

I did a write-up on how I restored the control panel on my Konami Windy arcade cabinet.  It is only one small part of a major project, restoring a classic Japanese arcade machine to it's original condition and state.

READ MORE ABOUT IT HERE

Pop-up Book Animation

This is my favorite portion of a video that I created for a program to promote literacy.  It recently premiered on the largest video screen in the world.  I am in the process of repurposing it for several other major NFL and NHL stadiums.

3D Sprite Animation Progress

I’ve finally gotten around to blocking out some animation in my Megaman project-


Rough Blocking from Joshua Miller on Vimeo.

This is only the rough blocking. I’m trying to get the animation to feel accurate to the game from the side view because that is the original view (of the game). Then I will go in and find more interesting camera angles/moves and play with the timing.

I’ve been having some trouble with the background. Each “pixel” cube in my scene is only 6 polygons, but when there are billions in the scene Maya freaks out. It got to the point where it would take about 20 minutes for the project to open. Maya can do amazing things, but it’s also frustratingly buggy, especially the Mac version.

Anyway, I’m probably going to have to rebuild the background, which isn’t the end of the world. Every time I have to rebuild a part of a project it always goes twice as fast, and I have a lot of ideas on how to make it much more efficient.

So I decided to just deal with that later, after I figure out my camera angles and shot list and move on to animation. That way I can deal with the background on a shot-by-shot basis, and not have to bog down my scene files with information that might not be on screen.

Using the Tools at My Disposal

Over the long weekend, I started my first painting on canvas in about 5 years.  I had forgotten how great it is to feel the bristles of your brush on the canvas.  While you can usually achieve almost the same image with software, there is a level of tactile feeling that is lost using a Wacom tablet.

On the other hand, there are advantages to digital media.  The one that I appreciate most is ease of editing.  There is no undo key in real life.

That brings me to the point of this post.  I tried a different approach to this painting.  Almost every drawing or painting I do, I try to find some sort of visual reference of the subject matter.  I don’t try to copy the image, but usually I can get more information about shapes, textures, etc. that might not be immediately accessible in my head.

For this piece in particular, I know there would be a lot of geometric objects, seen through a very wide angle lens.  While there are ways to figure out the fish-eye effect with traditional drawn perspective, I thought that it would be just as easy to build the primitive scene in Maya, and be able to experiment with different camera angles and focal lengths until I found the right one for the piece.

So I created my own visual reference image in Maya.  It took around 2-3 hours, about the same amount of time that it would take to measure everything out in perspective. 

However, there was a huge advantage to using Maya for the reference once everything was built.  I was able to easily move things around in frame to get the composition that I wanted.  I experimented with different focal lengths and camera heights.  Seeing the scene from a different angle would only take a matter of minutes, rather than having to completely redraw a sketch.

After rendering a contour pass for a perspective reference, it was quick and easy to drop some lights in and render a rough value reference as well.

Painting Progress

I've been making the time to paint.  Reverse Glass Painting is much more difficult than I thought it would be.

You have to think of everything backwards, because you look at the finished piece through the other side of the glass than you paint on.  This means that if you paint one stroke over top of the other, it will be behind your first stroke.  (If painting on canvas, it would be in front.)

The Background is finished, and the gold leaf has been applied.  The whitish areas (hair and drapery) are still masked off.  The skin area has had one translucent layer of dark blue applied (you are seeing through the glass to the cardboard in the brown areas of skin).  

I fear that I may have gone too dark right away in the skin tones, but I have already scraped off and reworked the background, and feel as though I need to keep moving forward.  This is my first time trying this technique, and it's not going to be perfect.  I have to try out as many things as possible and let myself make mistakes in order to learn the intricacies of the style.