the Valve concepts
polycounter lvl 18
Well in November I had noticed that Valve had a concept artist posting up and I had the time to spare, so I took some time out to work on portfolio with some targeted material in it. It was perhaps quite a long shot at such an early point in my career, but you've got to try, right? 
I had two main goals for these concepts/illustrations: to make them very closely matched with the established visual styles of HL2, as well as really push myself to draw complete scenes, not just isolated characters or vehicles on a minimal background.
To that end I developed three different designs, each with an in situ type illustration, and then a more detailed rundown on the second concept... since illustrations don't really make the best concepts necessarily, and vice versa. Of course looking at these now makes me want to do them all over again because of what I learned, but like I said, a great experience. Thought you kids might like to see:
edit: and here it is on my site with the other non-targeted pieces.
http://www.gausswerks.com/valve/portfolio.html
I had two main goals for these concepts/illustrations: to make them very closely matched with the established visual styles of HL2, as well as really push myself to draw complete scenes, not just isolated characters or vehicles on a minimal background.
To that end I developed three different designs, each with an in situ type illustration, and then a more detailed rundown on the second concept... since illustrations don't really make the best concepts necessarily, and vice versa. Of course looking at these now makes me want to do them all over again because of what I learned, but like I said, a great experience. Thought you kids might like to see:
edit: and here it is on my site with the other non-targeted pieces.
http://www.gausswerks.com/valve/portfolio.html
Replies
wow man, thats some killer stuff. That mobile barrier is my favorite.
These look great Gauss. As mentioned, the mobile walker is my favorate, and I can tell these would be a pleasure to work with as a 3d artist.
Crap.
Sorry not to be able to make a more useful comment, hope you got the job !
Dude, I dig. They do feel half-life 2 ish. Saweet.
The only low point would be the ground on the image second from the end. Just seams off.
Great work!
- BoBo
i like the zen and the orange one, definately badass
maybe try to sharpen up even some of the more "unimportand" edges but whatever.. looks very very tasty
!!
-R
The moving barrier would have been extremly cool ingame, just think about it, rumbling slowly onward clearing a whole street of paniced rebels.
(ps: in review that was not a nice thing to say. I love jack and I love this work. Basically, I wanna bone.)
slum: thanks, man. the barrier was the one i wasn't so sure about, but i'm happy how it came out too.
Spark: as i mentioned, drawing out "whole scenes" was a priority for me on these images, so i'm glad you found them effective.
Daz: cheers, it's a job well done if i met the goals
steady, lee, moz, weiser: thanks guys
Scoob: thank you man. i used just about every trick, dirty or otherwise, in my inventory for these pics, and 3d mock-ups were an important part of that.
Poop: i should think it would be, since i could hand over the 3d model right to the modeler! you wouldn't have to concentrate on any of the proportions, you can spend all your time on iterating the details and fine-tuning, which is what i love about this style of workflow.
kleinluka: they sure are, but that's waht i figured starting this
Matabus, Pogo, Shotgun: thanks guys
neal: thanks. i consider a holistic, consider-as-much-as-possible approach to be central to my designing, i'm glad that it comes through sometimes.
Gmanx: well the strange thing is that Viktor is no longer with Valve... and thanks, that was the first aerial type drawing i had done, i was pleased how it came out as well.
vahl: thanks man, i've never been big on ambiance so it was definitely a push.
eq, b1ll, gwot: appreciate the comments guys.
bobo: hahah yeaaah, what can i say? the ground in that piece was a massive photoshop cheeky sneak that i didn't quite pull it off.
moose: thanks man, i had fun with the Xen citadel one
rollin: yes, definitely. uniformity in presentation will be something i'll be paying better attention to next time.
PaK: good to hear, 'ppreciate it.
Illusion: thanks, i tried to focus on that sort of thing... as i mentioned, Valve really hasn't said anything back.
Eric: thanks man.
Cubik: good comments, as mentioned the consistency of presentation is definitely something to watch for next time. Alyx is essentially pasted in--i didn't really care to draw her from scratch when she's not a design element nor an intended focal point for the piece. but she could have been handled better, definitely.
Mighty Pea: thanks, and there have been one or two others that have mentioned them being too dark, so i guess there might be some creedence to that
the_bird: thanks man, it was a lot of fun to design... i basically studied every little bit of the original APC and re-created several of the elements.
stoof: you know the feeling is likewise.
aaaand thank you melkior.
maybe if i'm feeling generous i'll post some work-in-progress pics, as well as a number of the different restarts and failed attempts. definitely been a learning experience!
but else very fine