The Art of SketchUp - part 1: Fantasy

ken28875

@ CoreMaster110: Thanks for your kind "comment, Karl.

Hi guys,

I have not posted some Simcity concepts for a while.

So here they are.

For those who play Simcity, you know you have many options for one building style.

As an example, below I have 3 different designs for the "Chicago Style" buildings.

And here is a strip mall.

Have a great weekend!

_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/

ken28875

Hi guys,

I have posted this one a few months ago, but the image was really low rez due to Non-Disclosure-Agreement when Simcity was not shipped yet.

So here's a larger size.

Have a great day!

_KN

ken28875

Hello everyone,

I hope you had a great weekend.

I forgot to mention that I have started another contract with Electronic Arts/Maxis, the people behind Simcity.

Indeed, a few weeks ago I got an email from the Development Director with whom I worked on Simcity 5, who said they needed my help with concepting architecture for their next project and offered the job.

It is an unannounced game, and due to Non-Disclosure-Agreement, I cannot say anything yet. But I have been working on it for the past two weeks and I am quite excited about it.

I hope to show some Sketchup models/Renders in the near future.

_KN

Adorno

Sounds exciting. Looking forward to it.

cotty

@ken28875 said:

... and offered the job.

great news! Congrats

ken28875

@adorno said:

Sounds exciting. Looking forward to it.

>> Thanks, Adorno.

@cotty said:

great news! Congrats

**>> Thanks, Carsten.

Here's another concept for luxury apartments.

Have a good 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/

ken28875

Hello there,

Here are some of the first concepts I did for Simcity 5 during my first week on the job at Electronic Arts/Maxis office.

Just some simple townhouse designs.

Have a good week!

_KN

ken28875

Hi there,

After 3 different design of buildings (e.g. the ones above) are approved, I am assigned to generate a dozen of new quick concepts.

The ones below were examples of new townhouse concepts generated based on the footprints from the 3 initial approved detailed concepts.

Have a great day!

_KN

Daniel

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

pbacot

Great buildings.

heavengreen2000

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 !

ken28875

@daniel said:

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

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

@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

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

Babylonian City_skp.jpg

Bryan K

Incredible as always.

pilou

Lara Croft revival!

Adorno

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

ken28875

@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