ARTWORK
|
Following are those concept devices, mixed in with a number of assorted Frash-related illustrations. Get out your seat
& Jump Around... ParoVadius The potential revival of ALL YOUR BASE for the 0-2, ParoVadius combined some of my favorite videogame sagas into, in this year's case, one crazy, random time. ParoVadius Box Art- Spear Lasers blazing, Slogaibon blasts off into enemy-infested darkness (or whitespace) as STAC glares in the background. This backed the title screen during later beta versions of ParoVadius, until Mike Lee volunteered his own version. The composition of this drawing is based off the Gradius III box art, in which the Vic Viper starfighter evades a HUGE sand dragon. ParoVadius Poster- STAC's spooky visage panics Gaibon and Slogra. This was an initial attempt at a poster for an art contest Texas Mafia was holding around the same time ParoVadius was about to be released. GOD \/NHOLY!!!- Later, I scrapped that idea and worked on this. Up to that point, I hadn't ever been so focused on a drawing. I think it took second place in the contest. PAROVADIUS 2: STAC no Yabou- In case you haven't figured it yet, my shelf of ideas is very long and quite dusty. In PAROVADIUS 2: STAC no Yabou (STAC's Ambition, a reference to Gradius 2's subtitle, Gofer's Ambition), STAC's remains take root in an unsuspecting Gaibon, and Slogra must join forces with ancestor Death Bat, as well as Capcom World's red demon, Firebrand, to become Death Berrima Red and undo the damage. Since this was drawn in a larger book, I settled with taking a digital picture of it. PAROVADIUS 6|20 START!!!- A true-to-the-spirit poster for the ParoVadius series of 2002, drawn quite some time after the movie was released. Everything about the story of ParoVadius is there, from the threat of STAC to Team ParoVadius and the looming shadow of the inevitable combo of Slogra, Gaibon, and Red Arima (Firebrand), Slogarimaibon. Very much one of my favorite ParoVadius drawings. Spectral Sword...Above The Earf- In keeping with the influence of Thunder Force V, Slogarimaibon flies into space to kick some suborbital ass. BASE-ARE beckons from the background as the hero passes a variety of Sword ships. Konami and licensed-to-Konami cameos abound Above The Earf. Konami VS Capcom Truly one of my favorite arcade games of all time, Marvel VS Capcom pairs favorite childhood (Marvel) superheroes with the superstars of Capcom games in a battle against evil, and each other; a definite dream game. While work on ParoVadius continued during May of 2002, an idea crossed my mind to make another gamelike movie along these lines, only this time it is the stars of the Konami and Capcom worlds crossing over for a grand battle against a common enemy in Konami VS Capcom!!! While the idea of Konami VS Capcom had brewed in my mind long before Flash (and was expressed in comic and still image form by Johnny Norris and Mike Lee @ DCTP's Humor section), I'm sure I'm not the first who's had it. The action in this movie was intended to be portrayed by sprites and vector-drawn illustrations, with the cherry of the final master, Gamma (a.k.a. Dr. Wily's Peace-Keeping Robot), completely modeled in 3DStudioMAX, which I had been working with at the time. Cirque de Soleiyu- You might've guessed it by the site I made for it in 1998; CastleVania II: Belmont's Revenge is my favorite Game Boy game of ALL TIME, so it just HAD to be included in the grand roundup. Soleiyu Belmont, the dashing son of The CastleVania Adventure hero Christopher Belmont, is once again afflicted with dark madness in Konami VS Capcom, and in a spectacular display will send his hand-picked demons to punish the antagonist with an 85-hit Hyper Combo. During his Hyper Combo attack, he strikes the infamous "You cannot destroy me. Father." pose, then sends in Dark Side to zap you with a bolt of thunder for eight hits. Next, a thick suit of armor lands on your head for one hit, and it's owner, Iron Doll, slashes you with his sword for four more hits. It's not over yet; Angel Mummy appears! The Puweyxil and Bone Dragon Queen heads and neck segments charge at you as the Medusa element fires a beam for 20 hits! Then, the overseers of Plant Castle, twin goat statues Kumulo and Nimbler, mercilessly jab with their giant tridents, sending you bouncing back and forth between the brothers for 30 devastating hits. FINALLY, the Bone Dragon King brings the final pain as he rails you through and through with his sharp spinyness for 22 beats to put you to rest. Kumulo and Nimbler- I didn't have an image reference when I was practicing the look of Kumulo and Nimbler, so I initially winged it with what I recalled from ten years of playing Belmont's Revenge. Afterward, I had an interesting idea of how to represent them. Rather than being solid statues, I would give them life...sorta. While Kumulo's head would be exposed and wooly, his brother's still-living skeletal visage would be aflame. (The notes next to Nimbler are relevant only to the conversation taking place at the time the statue version of Kumulo was drawn.) Angel Mummy- This drawing explores Angel Mummy's appearance in the Cirque de Soleiyu attack. As Soleiyu strikes his pose, his poor opponent is slit through with vertebrae like so many blades, as well as Queen Medusa's terrific third-eye beam. TxM Brawl It was all about Texas Mafia in 2002. One of the most interesting Flash games on this alternative Flash repository was TxM Brual (sic) by a user named Racky. In the game, you take arms as Mario and others and set off for a 2D battle of the franchises. The final adversary? The ultimate enemy of any Flash collection startup, Pico, the icon of Newgrounds. I enjoyed the idea and game quite a bit, and thought I'd redesign the characters in the event of an update. TxM Brawl enemies- Characters from TxM Brawl. Upper four include a Sunflower, Pepper, Broccoli, and Goomba. Lower four are another goomba, Pico, one more goomba for the road, and a Koopa Paratroopa who drops stones on your hero in the game. Goomba- The most common enemy in TxM Brawl. Shin ParoVania Some citizens of Konami World could no longer put up with the relentless sequels being filmed in their otherwise peaceful boroughs. Thus, they emigrated from Konami World to institute their own Utopia on a remote planet, eventually naming it Treasure World. Having successfully established their own happiness, the people of Treasure World grew arrogant, and so set out to claim Konami World as an extension of its empire. Thus begins the war between Konami and Treasure in Shin ParoVania. Shin ParoVania, an attempt to tell the truest and best version of the ParoVadius story, was never carried out to the finish, as a result of dissolution of the writing team and some Real Life matters on my end. At least some cool pictures and standardization of PNG-8 came of it. "LET'S DO THIS..."- This teaser-poster-ish illustration for Shin ParoVania portrays Pure & the monstrous Slog during their personal cuddletime. Pure's appearance in Shin ParoVania remains as random as it was in ParoVadius 2002. AIM FOR THE TOP!!!- The Konami Space Station FURANO, taken over by a computer virus sent by Treasure, had laser-lassoed a passing comet into The Moon, obliterating it. Konami World City falls under the relentless debris storm that follows, and many of its citizens try knocking out the moonbits before they cause furthur damage. Among them is Richter Belmont, whom uses his Whip Uppercut skills to smash them into smaller chunks. He works so many of them over, one immediately after another, he has wound up in space, himself. Here's the finished version. "PURE"- A study of one of her Marvel VS Capcom sprites, just for kicks. I included her magic wand (the visible part, anyway), as well. PURE(LY) MATURE- Pure glances at the viewer just as The Moon is about to be wrecked. Posters of Slogra and The CastleVania Adventure decorate the wall. The pose came out okay, but I really, really needed to digitally white out the guidelines on her face. I had lain them on a bit thick in this pen sketch. Location & teasers- Set design for Fresh Kills, the Konami World Wasteland. Flip it over for small thumbnail sketches of the teaser posters. INHERIT THE MOON- Another dramatic, though incomplete, poster concept. KSS FURANO guides the captured comet to the doomed Moon. In Shin ParoVania, the role of KSS FURANO is played by Metallican, the second master in Contra III: The Alien Wars (though it's probably known as something less reference-y in the original Japanese version, Contra Spirits). War- This really rough drawing depicts a skirmish between Konami and Treasure. Vic Viper and Twin Bee arrive to back up Brad Fang, Sypha Belnades, Browny, Grant DaNasty, and Alucard as they square off with Epsilon-2 and the Gunstar Heroes amidst the ruins of Konami World City. Shyna Nera Shyna- Since Shyna Nera Shyna, the heroine of Silhouette Mirage, was to take a prominent role in Shin ParoVania, I decided I'd figure out how to draw her, should it come to that. I hadn't actually played her game until the next year; Incredible Rambling Shyguy suggested her inclusion. Shin ParoVadius Poster- The definitive poster, featuring the main players on both sides of the war. In league with Konami World, from top to bottom, Pure, Slogra, Browny, Fang, Alucard, Grant and Sypha. On the right, Headdy, Shyna Nera Shyna, the Gunstar Heroes, Epsilon-2, and the main character from Rocket Knight Adventures, whom I had mistaken to be a Treasure character. In the center, the sinister STAC virus, a possessed Richter Belmont, and a Mirage preside over the ruin scape. Note that it actually says "Shin ParoVadius" in Japanese. Shyn on, Shyn on...- The Messenger of Justice rolls up her sleeves and prepares herself for the worst. Named after lyrics from the Van Halen song, Human's Being. Incomplete Pure sketch- The pose came out so well in the undersketch, I was afraid of ruining it further, as indicated by how the hand came along in the traceover. Kyrie Eleision (GR8EST OF HEROES)- "Lord have mercy...Heaven has sent us a Demon to save us all...!" As Konami World City roasts, Slogaibon takes wing FOR GREAT JUSTICE. NEVER GIVE UP It was originally a short fight scene between Pure and Slogra, but nearly a year after I had originally broken my Flash hiatus (with Skull Knight VS Trevor), I decided to extend it into a demonstration that showcased everything I had learned from the past year (the aforementioned skit preceding the montage of skills). Thus, NEVER GIVE UP was also intended as an inspirational dedication to anyone who is just familiarizing themselves with the program. Learning the secrets of Flash 4 and 5 was no party, but I stuck with it, and what you see at DYNAKYRIS stands as the result. Most of the good stuff at the time of the initial plan was raster animation like ReVival of ParoVadius, but over the years, more vector animations have made their way into the reel, as well. Though many of the clips seen in the montage originate in other Flash movies, some segments were created entirely for the showcase. Pure makes the scene (shadeless)- I made a nice little doodle of Pure, and decided to use PhotoShop to color it in. Pure makes the scene (shaded)- It became one of the first real tests of shading by use of the Dodge and Burn tools. A low-color, lower resolution version of this picture made it into earlier versions of NGU as a background, during a Pure moment towards the end of the montage. SK vs Mario vs Slogra- A scenario I devised for the montage, in which Skull Knight, Mario, and Slogra are about to clash, but are suddenly cut off by the sprit of Death from Capcom's masterpiece, Demon's Crest. Kumulo- A still from a scene in which a Game Boy screenshot of CVIIBR's Kumulo transitions to a completed drawing. Dracula X: Bodies Drowning Pool's song, Bodies, had been a very popular Flash movie soundtrack for a long time, but there was one instance in particular in which it was a perfect fit. It was a stick figure movie, of all things, that used 3D to augment the action. As a result, Bodies made its way to a MixCD during the holiday season of 2002. Following the construction of the annual tree, my mind somehow wandered to thoughts of Dracula X: Rondo of Blood (a Japanese CastleVania game never released elsewhere), and how this song would back up its events. Richter Belmont arrives in the town of Aljiba, is angered at its destruction, then lets his whip fly. Eventually, he makes it to he heights of the castle, defeating Death and Shaft, and finally squares off with the Count himself. Richter Belmont & Skeleton- In my version of Rondo, Richter is played by me, of course! Below him, one of the movie's jobbers, a recently risen skeleton. Behemoth- The corpse of a giant bull creature flattens the town as it drags amok. Shinigami- The Grim Reaper gives a greeting before his fight with Richter. Black Priest Shaft- On his way to Dracula, Richter deals with the Black Priest, Shaft. & since I make that kind of a connection, I gave him cool facial hair and shades, even though I'm not sure Shaft ever wore any... Dracula- In his human form, Dracula's eyes would be hidden in the shadow of his bangs, the fanged smile being more than enough to hint his thoughts. Maria Renard- Richter's cute little sister-in-law, Maria Renard, shows up to give Richter superpowers during his final showdown with Drac. Dracula's 2nd form- Towards the end of the song, Dracula takes to his gargantuan, Gaibonic form. The final struggle commences. TxM Brawl 2 Racky was going to do a sequel of TxM Brawl, featuring the main players in the TxM game at the time. The news excited me greatly, and I immediately volunteered to do the character designs. ULTRA- Early on, someone suggested that Ultra should be a big U with arms and legs. I took it a step further and built a whole body using the letters in his name. As the character designs progressed, I went back and came up with this alternate version, inspired by the fact that he might have been the one to use a distinctive robotic character as an avatar a year earler. Kandyman- Kandyman is the coolest guy in the history of history, and based on that, and his gangster avatar, complete with shades, I made him up into this secretive spy-ish guy who hides an arsenal within his trench coat. An idea I had for this character involved him opening both sides of this coat to obliterate his foes with a variety of ordnance. In the last of the character design works, he gives a thumbs-up. Kev Nuu- The creator and owner of Texas Mafia makes the scene as a lanky guy in ripped up shorts with curly hair, glasses, and a wooden stick to save the world. This character design is based off his self-portrait, of sorts. dynakyris- For myself, I decided to go with Red, since, at the time, One of THOSE Days... was still pretty fresh in everyone's mind. Commando- I think Commando's specialty was War Flash, so I patterned his character after a raging soldier. Or probably because his name is Commando. Wormtail- Inspired by an avatar he hasn't changed for years (one year at the time of this design), this earthworm in a space helmet is more lethal than he seems. Afira- TxM's resident Hot Asian Chick was for some reason identified with platipi, so I decided to go with that angle. Its slight similarity to Rocko from Rocko's Modern Life is purely intentional. Stickman- There are about five stick figure flash movies for every roach, rat, and fly in New York City, but nevertheless, for TxM in 2003, I had no problem introducing one more to the fray, ready to rip it up. Below are expression tests; Stickman's eyes are check marks. SzA- At one point, SzA referred to himself as Cheeto Punk, so I portrayed him as spokesman Chester, packing heat. Paratism- Paratism was really hard to figure out. I didn't know the story of the name, so I simply extracted "parasite" from it, and worked from there. I created an infested creature with 4 eyes, numerous anatomical problems, many jaws, a big eyeball in its chest, and some tentacles. Pink Spider- Pink Spider was a loose end. So much so, I considered having this feminine arachnoid represent Paratism instead. 3EC- The celebrated Three-Eyed Cat. Like Afira, I didn't know this user personally, but its disembodied head made a guest appearance in the previous game's intro, so that was good enough to start with. Being in possession of the third eye, I gave him a spiritual edge, a la 3x3 Eyes. TCerberusT- This user sported an avatar of a thick-segmented stick drummer wailing away on his kit, so I patterend this pistol-packing figure after that. Z Puppet Master- The first attempt at this character, a half-human, half-puppet, turned out pretty awfully, so I tried again. While his head and right leg remain alive, the rest of his body is composed of splintery, wooden parts. He can use his former controller (the X) as a chain whip or to temporarily control his opponent. Omnipotent Munky- By the name, I envisioned a monkey that would be hard to kill, so what better to represent him than an eternally burning mechanical primate? His body glows with an ominous, endless power, and his right hand consists of a banana blade. Rest assured, it's more potent than you might expect. Hot Sauce- A fireball with attitude, one of Kev Nuu's original creations. Broccoli- Another of Kevin's characters, returning from the original. CastleVania FUTURE Inspired by the extreme attitude expressed by a short named Rockman Neo, as well as the fact that the upcoming CastleVania: Aria of Sorrow takes place in the year 2035, resulting from a war that broke out 36 years before, I started doing character designs for a futuristic, drawn CastleVania movie. CastleVania FUTURE characters- At this point, I forget the entire story, but it seems Alucard in this instance is in possession of the legendary Vampire Killer whip, and he hooks up with young female fighter. Half of Dracula's visage is concealed by a sinister mask. Of course, we can't forget the Grim Reaper, sporting bat's wings this time around. Quetzylcoatlus- Alucard and the girl face a titanic reptilian beast, a Slogra of the Future.
ParoVadius RESET In early 200V, I returned to the long unused practice of using Flash as a drawing tool. All it took was a perfect rendition of Twinbee's Princess Meloura for me to consider a ReVival of sorts... Thus, I looked at where I last left off with STAC. I thought of alternate creature shapes suggested by the silhouette, and thought it resembled a bat with closed wings. I rendered out a giant, bat-like creature, and the rest is history. A great deal of groundwork for RESET is already presented in the movie, but here are a few bits that aren't. MAYAKAISA is THIS Bad- In case you were wondering about STAC's absence in ParoVadius these days,... Resurrection- This "educated guess sketch" of Slogaibon's skeleton was done before I set to work on the redrawing for the Slogaibon 32 bones. The lyrics "...I must remove my skin..." suggest I might've been listening to the Fear Factory song of the same title when I was sketching it. Maya- MAYAKAISA wasn't always so bad... These are some of the more charming concepts I came up with for the look of her original, innocent identity. Title Screen notes- It took quite a while to figure out a Title Screen composition I was satisfied with. Amazingly, the soundtrack that was eventually chosen for the title screen matched the existing movements perfectly. Here're all the notes for the character configuration that was chosen. MISCMIX Violence World Zer0- I took a screensnap of Violence World Zer0 to give someone an idea of how I work. These days, I'm actually much more organized than it looks here. Slogaibon Birdie for Lain spoof - One of the pterodactyloids in the Serial Experiments Lain opening spoof, Serial Experiments RED DOT. LAIN BARE!!!- I think it's hilarious that Lain dresses up in a Bear outfit when she's just chillin' around the house. Based on a still from the anime. CastleVADIUS teaser- Somewhere within the Shin ParoVania/ReVival of ParoVadius; Former Part & Latter Part convention, there was CastleVADIUS. It was to be the novelization of the story I wanted to tell in ParoVadius; that of an unknown enemy threatening Konami World. Polly Peeper (from Konami offshoot Treasure's Silhouette Mirage) and Pure would appear, just as in Shin ParoVania, and all of ParoVadius' themes would also be intact, such as mass death and the destruction of Konami's major cities. In this teaser poster-style image, the alien threat looms above as Mechanical Blimps rain upon a burning skyline, and a new Slogaibon stands ready to take on the enemy single-handedly. Within the composition lies the hidden image of a creature that appears in CastleVania III: Dracula's Curse and Contra Hard Corps, except in CHC, he doesn't have his big mallet. New- Whenever I create a new file in Flash, this is what I usually see in my mind's eye. Okay, not really. Ned- Rob Foor's succinct Zelfmoord movie inspired me to create its sequel, Zelfmoord II, in 2003. Since his Ned character was going to appear, I interpreted him into my style as shown. While Zelfmoord ][ went over very well, I had been reminded that Ned's nose had also been shot off on that fateful day in Ned history. Damn! |
Storyboards
are just one of the created visual tools put to use for my animations.
Over the course of a project, I'll also draw conceptual designs to maintain
an idea of how I want to present my story.
