ENDER'S GAME

 "On their home worlds, do the buggers put on human masks, and play?"
-Orson Scott Card

Just having some fun on the weekend after re-reading one of my favorite Sci-Fi novels. Initially i was starting to do some sort of Nirasawa looking creature, but then changed it into something more fitting to the book....this one being some sort of larger warrior class of Bugger. It's still not pushed far enough in my opinion (or scary enough), i will try to do a more alien version.....possibly with multiple eyes/limbs and more insect inspired forms pushing it away from its current anthropomorphic proportions as another direction.

One thing i wanted to capture with the Buggers was something that could initially seem scary, but by the end you could sympathize with them (as Ender does by the end of the book). It could go either way really.....as some scary completely unrelatable creature that even the audience has a hard time understanding visually (which would probably be the most interesting) or something that is easier to understand and can quickly get sympathy from a larger audience (but not nearly as interesting). Anyway.... here were a few ideas, if i have time i might do some spaceships or some concepts of Ender at Battle School.

Bugger Brute

ALTERED CARBON

"Zao's body was too old to cope with advanced augmentations, the hand-me-down neural implant from a few decades back was decent enough though. This body was old, frail.....but he could blend-in and stay hidden from the Envoys in the slums of Neo-Shanghai. It would have to do until he could afford a proper download into his combat sleeve and get the hell out of this city. For now, he waits."

Just some fun from this weekend, inspired by Masamune Shirow and the book 'Altered Carbon' by Richard K Morgan, one of my favorite cyberpunk novels to come out in recent years. Maybe i will flesh out some other ideas if i have time. ZBrush + Photoshop + Modo.

(click for high res image)
Exposed brain case, these main plates would close then some sort of skin cap would fit over top of it to hide internals. (click for high res image)
Functionality of eye plate and old neural-link device that connects user directly into cyberspace. I imagine modern versions of this tech to be far less invasive.

Here were a couple images done in 2010 for a feature film called 'QUALIA' being directed by Michael Reisinger. At the moment the project is on hold and was told it would be ok if i shared these. You can see more of Michael's work here LINK

Pencil + Photoshop + Google
A couple illustrated scenes.Surgical device.

Spring Update...

Feel bad for taking so long to update but finally have something to share. In my downtime i have been starting to learn Zbrush and am finding it to be a really useful tool in a film production environment. This is an early experiment from the weekend created from a simple basemesh. It was fun sculpting all the little details in the face, i really learned a lot. Seems like most of my co-workers have a "Primate with Horns" design in their portfolio so i thought i would give it a try......(even though it doesn't make a ton of sense from an evolutionary standpoint) it was still fun to do. :)
An early test while learning the tools in ZBrush, rendered in Keyshot.Thanks a ton to Andrew Baker for putting up with all my questions while learning the program over the past month or so, and to the Eat3D guys for making such informative tutorial DVD's. Will hopefully have something more interesting to show soon!