One of the ships from my 80-page sketchbook from Design Studio Press. Woosh: Spaceship Sketches from the Couch

One of my illustrations for the first book. 

"Oblivious"

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Nuthin' But Mech

Second illustration. Based on a drive through Ojai, CA. I passed a small hotel tucked away off the main drag. I thought it would be a fun dichotomy to see an unassuming robot hanging out in the sleepy town.

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Nuthin' But Mech

I created these architectural vignettes as a means to flesh out the design language for the environment, and allow the game designers and modelers to pick and choose which pieces they wanted to create to build the environment.

Borderlands 2: Pre-Sequel

My third illustration from the first book. The primary inspiration for the environment was based on a repeated dream I have of a vast, bleak landscape with a  minimalist collection of semi-futuristic structures. Very reminiscent of an generic science fiction film from the 1980s.

(Best to look at while listening to Boards of Canada, Hi Scores)

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Nuthin' But Mech

My only illustration for the second volume. I decided upon a more abstract approach and focus on a random detail of something mechanic. More of a freeing exercise. To mimic the look of a traditional gouache painting, I used Photoshop brushes by Kyle T. Webster and painted it all on a single layer. 

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Nuthin' But Mech

Original concept design.

Borderlands 2

Final design for Hyperion orbiting platform.

Borderlands 2

Conceptual illustration for an interior space of the orbiting platform.

Borderlands 2: Pre-Sequel

Concept design for the space gun situated in the "eye" of Helios.

Borderlands 2: Pre-Sequel

Earliest sketches of the robot that would be come Claptrap.

Borderlands

More refined version of Claptrap.

Borderlands

The final design with real-world reference. Final model was created by Brent Hollon who took my design and refined it into the celebrated/hated character that he is today.

Borderlands

Early concept for the primary antagonists in the game: the Crimson Lance paramilitary group. The idea is that they drop these troop pods straight into the ground from orbit. This design was less "pod" so it was "dropped."

Borderlands

The final concept.

Borderlands

The pod is launched towards a planet, then slowed by retro-boosters and airbrakes until it's airspeed decreases to a relatively safe speed where it slams into the surface.

Borderlands

A cross betwixt a Lamborghini and a Hummer. 

Borderlands

More refined concepts. We decided to bring in a menacing grim reaper design language to really make him intimidating. 

Borderlands 2

The final concept. 

Borderlands 2

One of the final enemies to fight is a "bunker" that when activates turns out to be a flying, taunting robot. 

Starting with nature is important. For this design it was a horseshoe crab. 

Borderlands 2

The primary canon would be able extend above and below the hull and robot 360 degrees.

Borderlands 2

Rear view detail of the robot vehicle. 

Borderlands 2

For a downloadable content (DLC) game, the add-on takes place in a high fantasy world. I designed the primary locale for the game that the player has to quest towards.

Borderlands 2

The backwater bandits of the Borderlands worlds create new machines from whatever is available. The ground vehicles were covered in the first game, so it was decided to take them to the air. The initial shape for the gyrocopter came from a new technical jeep design by Danny Gardner. I kit-bashed various aircraft pieces and added some duct-tape to come to the final vehicle design.

Borderlands 2

The new enemy for the game are wave after wave of these automatons. I blatantly referenced a variety of films and cartoons form my youth.

Borderlands 2

This was a push towards a more tradition western flare with a sci-fi twist.

Borderlands 2

We decided the an Eastern Bloc diesel engine configuration would be fun and more appropriate to the Borderlands universe. Instead of straight anti-gravity we opted to have a visual reminder that this technology is science fiction, but not completely foreign to reality.

Borderlands 2

This was a sketch depicting a monster casino complex under construction at one end of the island-city. 

Borderlands 2

For another subsequent DLC it was decided upon to make it pirate-themed. Naturally, everything would be flying. My primary reference was the flying skiffs from Return of the Jedi. I lifted from it liberally.

Borderlands 2

Initially there was to be a place where the players could escape the brutal world of the game (it did not work out that way in the end). This concept depicts this strangely idealistic community in the mountains. The art director and I liked the idea of pulling in some inspiration from renowned filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki.

Borderlands 2

Over the course of the game, the city eventually lifts off (it flies). From a design standpoint, I needed some logic to reverse engineer the design from. So, my idea was that one of the other game factions launches these giant mobile drilling platforms, which are all-inclusive factories. For whatever reason, this one was abandoned and was reclaimed by nature. Over the centuries various peoples built up on top, unaware of what was underneath. 

Borderlands 2

Another detail built into the Sanctuary city was an impressive front gate. I thought it would be cool to have a giant abandoned tank-like vehicle that was simply assimilated into the city wall.

Borderlands 2

This was a final concept for a standard building found within the city. The intent was for every piece to be modular so it could be rearranged and spread throughout the city to create original structures.

Borderlands 2

One of the shots I animated of Woody Harrelson's character.

A Scanner Darkly

The first stage in the rotoscoping of the film. We each received a segment of the film and imported it into the proprietary software. 

A Scanner Darkly

In the second stage we drew line art (and subsequently flat colors, shadows, and highlights) at each keyframe and the software would interpolate the art in between creating the nausea-inducing effect the film was known for.

A Scanner Darkly

The final frame (prior to the compositing of the background plates).

A Scanner Darkly

The final head design (on the head and upper neck would be seen in the final spot).

Toyota Tacoma "Nessie"

I was tasked to create the textures for the environments in this tv spot which was a re-branding of the film noir movies that the channel is known for. 

I was given simple geometry by commercial studio Exopolis and created some digital paint layers in Photoshop and Art Rage which were then wrapped back onto the geometry and animated. The affect was a fly-through of a moody world inspired by painter Edward Hopper.

Turner Classic Movies

For the animated film, there's a massive complex beneath Camp David housing a time machine. This was one of the designs for the control room that overlooks the time chamber.

Freebirds

Freebirds

This design helped in the development of the design language for the complex.

Freebirds

Freebirds

Freebirds

Freebirds

Freebirds

Freebirds

I was asked to help design the new version of the robotic eye for the Verizon phones. First round of ideation.

Verizon

Verizon