The Art of SketchUp - part 1: Fantasy

Cyberdactyl · 4 Dec 2012, 14:03

Hey Ken, in celebration of the Mayan calender, your image below reminds me of this video, most especially this point in the video?

ken28875 · 15 Dec 2012, 10:26

@pbacot said:

Good to see you here and all this new work. Love your work! wonderful little Moss Houses and Kilns.

Thanks! Will visit the interviews too. Peter

>> Thanks, Peter. Glad you like the Moss houses and kilns. It was fun building them as they are more organic than the usual architecture buildings.

@ely862me said:

Duude ! Wonderful job ! Love it all the way ! Keep it going !!

>> Thank you, Elisei. I will keep them coming.

[quote="Cyberdactyl"]Hey Ken, in celebration of the Mayan calender, your image below reminds me of this video, most especially this point in the video? /quote]

>> Thanks for sharing the video, Cyberdactyl. Very interesting.

Some more old sketchup concepts for Rift.

**Have a great weekend!

_KN**

Interview with Sketchupartists.org
http://www.sketchupartists.org/spotlight/artists/sketchup-art-in-the-online-game-industry/
Interview on Nomer's blogspot.
http://sketchupvrayresources.blogspot.com/2012/05/q-and-with-our-featured-artist-ken.html
Sketchup for Sci-Fi Art:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=27030&p=337096#p337096

sh00ks · 17 Dec 2012, 08:06

Awesome work!

Cant wait to see what your input/work is in SimCity

ken28875 · 24 Dec 2012, 04:47

@sh00ks said:

Awesome work!

Cant wait to see what your input/work is in SimCity

**Thanks for your kind words, Ronald. I hope I will be able to post some of my building concepts I did for Simcity 5 soon.

Here are some fairy house concepts.**

**Please watch for my next post on my sci-fi thread in a few days. I will post some new personal sketchup models that I did during the past month after my contract ended with EA/Maxis (Simcity).

Happy holidays to you, your family and loved ones!

_KN**

Interview with Sketchupartists.org
http://www.sketchupartists.org/spotlight/artists/sketchup-art-in-the-online-game-industry/
Interview on Nomer's blogspot.
http://sketchupvrayresources.blogspot.com/2012/05/q-and-with-our-featured-artist-ken.html
Sketchup for Sci-Fi Art:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=27030&p=337096#p337096

cotty · 24 Dec 2012, 07:13

@ken28875 said:

Here are some fairy house concepts.

They might be a little bit drafty, but they are very nice!

ken28875 · 3 Jan 2013, 03:35

@cotty said:

@ken28875 said:

Here are some fairy house concepts.

They might be a little bit drafty, but they are very nice!

**>> Yes, kind of drafty indeed. Thanks for your comment, Carsten.

Here are some spider egg and wasp hive.

Have a great day!

_KN**

Sketchup for Sci-Fi Art:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=27030&p=337096#p337096
Interview with Sketchupartists.org
http://www.sketchupartists.org/spotlight/artists/sketchup-art-in-the-online-game-industry/
Interview on Nomer's blogspot.
http://sketchupvrayresources.blogspot.com/2012/05/q-and-with-our-featured-artist-ken.html

ken28875 · 9 Jan 2013, 16:47

Hello everyone,

I went to my archived files and I digged out one of my first tasks working on the MMO Rift. It was back in early 2006, almost 7 years ago.

The first image is the conceptual model that was approved by the Art Director, although I kind of like the second one which is a little bit more fantasy.

Have a great day!

_KN

The approved conceptual model from 2006 was later re-used and redesigned into a different fortress about two years later. I did post some images earlier in this thread. But this is the one I was referring to in case you have not seen it.

Sketchup for Sci-Fi Art:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=27030&p=337096#p337096
Interview with Sketchupartists.org
http://www.sketchupartists.org/spotlight/artists/sketchup-art-in-the-online-game-industry/
Interview on Nomer's blogspot.
http://sketchupvrayresources.blogspot.com/2012/05/q-and-with-our-featured-artist-ken.html

liam887 · 9 Jan 2013, 21:12

@ken28875 said:

Hello everyone,

I went to my archived files and I digged out one of my first tasks working on the MMO Rift. It was back in early 2006, almost 7 years ago.

The first image is the conceptual model that was approved by the Art Director, although I kind of like the second one which is a little bit more fantasy.

Have a great day!

_KN

The approved conceptual model from 2006 was later re-used and redesigned into a different fortress about two years later. I did post some images earlier in this thread. But this is the one I was referring to in case you have not seen it.

Sketchup for Sci-Fi Art:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=27030&p=337096#p337096
Interview with Sketchupartists.org
http://www.sketchupartists.org/spotlight/artists/sketchup-art-in-the-online-game-industry/
Interview on Nomer's blogspot.
http://sketchupvrayresources.blogspot.com/2012/05/q-and-with-our-featured-artist-ken.html

I remember this...awesome!

pilou · 9 Jan 2013, 21:46

@unknownuser said:

I hope I will be able to post some of my building concepts I did for Simcity 5 soon.

This one ?

ATLAStudio · 9 Jan 2013, 23:07

I suspect my rate of work will drop off significantly when this game comes out...looks great

Daniel · 10 Jan 2013, 13:49

impressive, inspiring work, Ken.

Bryan K · 10 Jan 2013, 19:07

Dang! I WANT that game!

And yes, impressive work Ken.

ken28875 · 11 Feb 2013, 07:01

@ Pilou, James, Daniel and Bryan K:
Thanks for your kind comments and interest in the game Simcity 5.

It is coming out on March 5th.

Check out the website:
http://www.simcity.com/

I worked on all kind of buildings : commercial (hotels, boutiques, supermarkets, etc.), residential (apartments, houses, trailers, etc.), industrial (Warehouses, Coalbreakers, etc.).

Hopefully, when the game is out and I get permission from PR, I will post lots of higher res architectural concepts I did.

Since I am still under NDA, I cannot post high resolution images to show you what I did work on. But here are some screenshots from the games (you can find the videos on youtube) as well as corresponding concept art.

We had 3 in-house concept artists in charge of doing some buildings for Paris, London and Berlin. I got the task of designing the British apartments. But at the end, I was assigned to do all of the 3 cities.

So here are the London ones for our English friends. I know we have lots of them in the Sketchucation forum.

Have a wonderful week!

_KN

Sketchup for Sci-Fi Art:
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=27030&p=337096#p337096
Interview with Sketchupartists.org
http://www.sketchupartists.org/spotlight/artists/sketchup-art-in-the-online-game-industry/
Interview on Nomer's blogspot.
http://sketchupvrayresources.blogspot.com/2012/05/q-and-with-our-featured-artist-ken.html

ken28875 · 22 Feb 2013, 21:06

Hi everyone,

I will post some more concepts for Simcity 5 later.

Back with conceptual models for the online game Rift:

Have a great weekend!

_KN

Sketchup for Sci-Fi Art:
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=27030&p=337096#p337096
Interview with Sketchupartists.org
http://www.sketchupartists.org/spotlight/artists/sketchup-art-in-the-online-game-industry/
Interview on Nomer's blogspot.
http://sketchupvrayresources.blogspot.com/2012/05/q-and-with-our-featured-artist-ken.html

pilou · 23 Feb 2013, 01:17

Modern and fantasy style!

solo · 23 Feb 2013, 01:20

Ken,you live my dream life, what I'd give for this gig.

Awesome work as always. My kids are so excited about the new Sim City, release date in May right?

pilou · 23 Feb 2013, 16:13

@unknownuser said:

release date in May right?

Seems from Ken

@unknownuser said:

It is coming out on March 5th.

ken28875 · 3 Mar 2013, 00:50

@unknownuser said:

Modern and fantasy style!

LOL....yeah well, it's either in the Fantasy thread or my other Sci-Fi thread.

@solo said:

Ken,you live my dream life, what I'd give for this gig.
Awesome work as always. My kids are so excited about the new Sim City, release date in May right?

Thanks, Pete. I really appreciate your kind words. It is quite a compliment coming from a talented artist like you.

Simcity 5 is coming March 5! http://www.simcity.com/

Here are a few more screenshots from the game and some corresponding concepts.
Good day to you all!

_KN

Sketchup for Sci-Fi Art:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=27030
My interview with Sketchupartists.org:
http://www.sketchupartists.org/spotlight/artists/sketchup-art-in-the-online-game-industry/

solo · 11 Mar 2013, 14:29

I see Simcity 5 finally released, what a disaster (not your graphics) the always online issue and the sucky servers.

EA games are shooting themselves in the foot, claiming that online play prevents piracy is just stupid as it restricts game play experience for those that buy legitimately.

What i do not get is why not just rent the damn thing then, why spend $60 for something you do not really own as 4-5 years time when the servers slow down they just axe the game to use the servers for a new title meaning your purchase is now invalid and you can no longer play the game.I still play games like C&C generals (10 years old) when I'm in the mood, heck I even play Simcity 4 (10 years old) but this will not be possible with Simcity 5.

Simcity has always been a single-player game, why change this?

I see Amazon suspended sales this weekend due to bad reviews and server issues on EA's end.

Another thing, why such small cities? 5 miles is the biggest size 1/10th the size of previous versions, this should be called Simtown.

ken28875 · 20 Mar 2013, 05:08

Hi Pete,

I apologize for the late reply. I am always busy like crazy and somehow can't find time to catch up with all my emails and replying to everyone. Although I do read people's posts regularly, it might take days for me to be able to reply.

I am sorry to hear about your bad experience with Simcity.

Some of your questions are mostly about the design, and being in the art team, I don't know much about why it is now a multi-player game instead of single-player game, or why the biggest size is 5 miles.

Actually, the past few years have seen the boom of online games (MMO) as well as Facebook games. Maybe that's why Simcity follows the trend.

As for as the server problem, one of my friends from EA/Maxis wrote to me:
*We knew server stability would be extremely important since playing the game requires you to be online, but the exact opposite happened… First there was an issue with Origin and people not being able to download the game, then the server load issues hit and lots of people couldn’t play the game for several days. The online and server teams worked feverishly last week to try to solve the problems. They added more servers towards the end of the week to handle the traffic, but by then, the internet was totally fired up about our botched launch. Amazon stopped selling our game for a time because there were so many irate people who’d bought the game and couldn’t play and wanted refunds. Words I’ve heard from gamer friends and reviewers alike characterize our launch as the “Worst Launch Ever.”

Anyway, server situation aside ( I believe it’s better now) most reviewers are really liking the game (once they can play). Hopefully this will blow over and people will see the game for what it is, rather than what the launch has been. On the bright side, I haven’t read a review yet that has mentioned anything negative about the art- all seem to praise it.*

For more information, you can read the article in Gamasutra (that's where I get all the industry news):
Opinion: SimCity launch debacle comes down to mismanaged expectations
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/188575/Opinion_SimCity_launch_debacle_comes_down_to_mismanaged_expectations.php#.UUNECxyTiKU