The Art of SketchUp - part 1: Fantasy

ken28875 · 13 Sept 2013, 10:04

Ken, your work is fantastic. It would be nice to see all these buildings assembled in a scene.

>> Thank you, Daniel. Actually, you can see some of these buildings in a scene by searching images for Simcity 5. You should see lots screen grabs from the game and might recognize some of my buildings.

@pbacot said:

Great buildings.

>> Thanks for your many . Glad you like them.

@heavengreen2000 said:

hello mr.Ken . I stumbled across this topic of yours tonight and couldn't help myself writing this reply . Basically , I'm amazed by your works , I read them all from the beginning and I just want to let you know that you just gave me a lot of thoughts and inspirations . I also noticed that this topic is made 3 years ago and the newest post was just 3-4 days ago . Isn't that cool that a topic could live this long ? This fantastic topic have been going strong for 3 years and i wish your work is going well and you can keep inspiring more people like me by showing more of your beautiful works and keeping this topic alive forever

little question : are you Vietnamese ? cause that would make you super awesome in my book of inspiration !

**>> Thank you very much, Green. Please call me Ken. I really appreciate your kind words. I am always happy to see that other people are inspired by my work and learn and enjoy my models as much as I learn from other's wonderful models and renders.
To answer your question: Yes, I am originally from Vietnam. With a last name like Nguyen, it's not hard to guess. However, I left the country when I was 4 back in the late 70s. I actually grew up in Paris/France, then moved to the USA. I am therefore a dual French/US citizen.

Alright, here are some more concepts I did for Simcity 5.

This one if one of my favorites. This is actually my future house whenever Electronic Arts pays me $$$$$ in royalties for helping them designing tons buildings for their game...j/k **

Below are some luxury boutiques. I did post them before, but they were the wrong images (older versions). These are the final approved concepts.

I also have added the different designs. I usually do 15 different concepts for each category.

**Hope you like them.

Have a great day!

_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/
My interview with Nomer:
http://sketchupvrayresources.blogspot.com/2012/05/q-and-with-our-featured-artist-ken.html
Texturing Tutorials:
http://www.sketchupartists.org/tutorials/sketchup-and-photoshop/art-of-sketchup-texture-workflow/

pbacot · 15 Sept 2013, 07:01

Just wow on those buildings! You could definitely be an architect, but I think you will be happier if you don't and stick to what you are doing. Would love to see large pictures of the house. This and the fantasy work is re-inspiring me to model more (outside of work).

ken28875 · 22 Sept 2013, 02:57

@pbacot said:

Just wow on those buildings! You could definitely be an architect, but I think you will be happier if you don't and stick to what you are doing. Would love to see large pictures of the house. This and the fantasy work is re-inspiring me to model more (outside of work).

Thanks for your kind comments, Peter.

I actually graduated from architecture school and worked as an architectural designer for about 5 years. I was in charge of conceptual and schematic designs and design development of projects; presentations and meetings with clients; and design boards for competitions.

I loved to draw and wanted to work as an artist for video games and movies ever since I was a little kid. That's why I quit my architecture job to make the dream of my childhood come true.

Here are some more hotel concepts for Simcity.

Have a great weekend!

_KN

ken28875 · 5 Oct 2013, 07:45

Hi there,

Here's something a little bit different.

I used the Sumerian City by LordGood from Google warehouse.

Sketchup + Lumion3D + Photoshop.

Have a great weekend!

_KN

Bryan K · 6 Oct 2013, 22:24

Incredible as always.

pilou · 7 Oct 2013, 08:04

Lara Croft revival!

Adorno · 15 Oct 2013, 11:17

Wow
Nice lighting. What's with the Lara Croft character?

ken28875 · 23 Oct 2013, 08:56

@bryan k said:

Incredible as always.

Thanks, Bryan.

@unknownuser said:

Lara Croft revival!

Merci, Pilou.

@adorno said:

Wow
Nice lighting. What's with the Lara Croft character?

Thanks for your comment, Adorno.

Well, about the Lara Croft character, the game was release on April 2013. I was quite impressed by the art and hope to have the chance to work on this game in the future. So I decided to to a bunch of Tomb Raider inspired art.

Here are some more. I got the Hikone Castle by Noboru from the wareshouse. It is a simple model, but it has the proportions figured out. So I used it as a template to do my high rez model.

As for the Tempio_di_Venere_e_Roma_Cella, the original model is by Saikindi from the Warehouse.

Sketchup + Lumion3D + Photoshop

Have a great day!

_KN

ken28875 · 31 Dec 2013, 07:33

Hi guys,

Sorry for not posting anything for a while. I have been quite busy with work and personal stuff.

I hope you all had a great holiday season so far.

It's been a long time since I have posted concepts for Simcity. So here are a few of factories that I designed.

Have a wonderful new year 2014 filled with success, love, joy, prosperity, good health, friendship and everything you wish for.

All the Best,

_KN

ken28875 · 15 Jan 2014, 17:58

Hi there,

I noticed that there were no comments on my posts for weeks sometimes. I don't know if you have problems with viewing this thread (or sci-fi one).

I am aware that people brought in the issue of slow loading and Photobucket.

I have uploaded the images directly instead of pasting Photobucket links for the past few months. I hope that will solve the problem of my threads taking too much time to load or not loading at all.

If you manage to get in without problem, please let me know.

Thanks!

_KN

tadema · 15 Jan 2014, 22:25

Hello Ken, your images are loading up ok

I think the lack of replies to your threads id down to them being a "WIP", people tend to hold off with their comments until the end, I know I'm certainly guilty in this respect. I have followed these two threads (and with almost 80,000 views) so have a few others.

The attention and effort that goes into your models always shines through and anyone new to Sketchup should look at your work and try to emulate it in the future.

Keep it coming

ken28875 · 1 Feb 2014, 04:25

@tadema said:

Hello Ken, your images are loading up ok

I think the lack of replies to your threads id down to them being a "WIP", people tend to hold off with their comments until the end, I know I'm certainly guilty in this respect. I have followed these two threads (and with almost 80,000 views) so have a few others.

The attention and effort that goes into your models always shines through and anyone new to Sketchup should look at your work and try to emulate it in the future.

Keep it coming

Thanks fro your kind words, John.

Hi everyone,

Here are some more images of the Caer Mathos fortress from the game Rift that I posted a few months ago.

Have a good weekend!

_KN

boofredlay · 1 Feb 2014, 05:54

WOW!

pbacot · 1 Feb 2014, 06:06

Always love checking what you have to post. All such advanced and imaginative work!

In a project like this keep, are the interiors a part of the exterior model or a separate construction? Is that the way it needs to be for games (all one piece inside and out)?

oh and I really am enthralled with the Hikone Castle work. Just shows what you can do with real or imaginary places.

pilou · 1 Feb 2014, 10:25

Notre-Dame (Paris) revival!
An incredible site made by a frenchy! (explore anywhere that is gorgeous! Fullscreen Quicktime VR / Flash view )

cotty · 1 Feb 2014, 12:16

@boofredlay said:

WOW!
+1

pbacot · 1 Feb 2014, 19:31

Thanks for the link Pilou. SketchUp? Yes, the "Keep" architecture is wild cathedral extrapolation!

Bryan K · 2 Feb 2014, 03:46

Yes. Wow!

ken28875 · 17 Feb 2014, 07:46

@pbacot said:

Always love checking what you have to post. All such advanced and imaginative work!

In a project like this keep, are the interiors a part of the exterior model or a separate construction? Is that the way it needs to be for games (all one piece inside and out)?

oh and I really am enthralled with the Hikone Castle work. Just shows what you can do with real or imaginary places.

**>> Thanks for you kind words, Peter.

To answer your question, the interiors and the exteriors are parts of the same model in this case. But keep in mind that all of my models are not the real in-game assets, therefore it does not really matter whether they are separate or part of one same model. They are conceptual models for 3D modelers to use as reference to build the real in-game assets, which sometimes have exteriors and interiors as part of one model, or sometimes they are separate pieces.

I am glad you like the Hikone Castle images. I had lots of fun working on them.**

@boofredlay said:

WOW!

>> Thanks, Eric!

@unknownuser said:

Notre-Dame (Paris) revival!
An incredible site made by a frenchy! (explore anywhere that is gorgeous! Fullscreen Quicktime VR / Flash view )

**Thanks for sharing the link, Pilou. I was indeed inspired by Notre Dame when designing Care Mathos.

Did you know that I used to walk by the Seine and doing sketches of Notre Dame for assignments when I studied architecture in Paris a long time ago? Good times and good memories.**

@cotty said:

+1

>> Thanks, Carsten!

@bryan k said:

Yes. Wow!

**>> Thank you, Bryan!

Speaking of architecture, here are some more concepts I did for Simcity. A couple of bank designs and some more apartment concepts similar to the ones I posted a while ago.

Have a good week!

_KN**

Gubermensch · 22 Feb 2014, 03:18

Ken, could I trouble you for a screenshot of your plugin libraries? I know you model for the gaming industry, but I'm not sure if you're familiar with the vernacular. These images make me want to call hax.