Hi all, first of all we would like to show CG cinematic we did for “Pirates Mysteries” Hidden Object game:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS2DQNB70ig

Now let’s proceed to a bit more detailed “Making of“. We would like to use minimal amount of words and let illustrations speak for themselves.

At the middle of last year Kristanix Games contacted us and proposed to do test job for a couple of tasks one of which was connected with interface creation for pirates-themed HOG (hidden object game).

We were provided with task description, temporal art and some mock ups.

Usually we begin work with big number of rough concepts which can quickly help to define art direction, demonstrate our ides to client and get further approval.

So “Kristanix” had chosen a series of HOG Panel, Dialogs window and Options ideas. We polished them further.

Here you can see more examples of drawn game interface elements done for “Pirate Mysteries” and a couple of miscellaneous projects.

After 2D GUI production we proceed to Mini-games creation. Again, we were provided with detailed instructions for most of the games and even working prototypes.

Incas Gems mini game

Land of Dead mini game

Pirates Map mini game

Sand Clock mini game

Sun Tower mini game

Witch house mini game

On final stages we were asked to produce pre-rendered intro CG Cinematic, game logo, title screen and a couple of misc. elements.

Originally “Kristanix” team wanted to use story-board like intro animation, consisted of cut out 2D elements with simple game-engine animation. We did some concepts and started to discuss possible ways of improving that direction.

Among new ideas were — bringing more life using After Effects animation or creation whole intro in pre-rendered 3D.
After checking “Aurum CG Short” we did awhile ago “Kristanix” decided to give us more freedom doing intro in 3D.

Additionally, we were provided with some 3D sources done by other studio and used in production of hidden object scenes. We used some of them (for example crushed ship base) to build our own 3D models, but most of the stuff was heavily re-done.
Along with CG Animation production we were asked to improve Hidden Object intro level.

When all 3D models were ready we proceed to creation of CG animatic which helped us to feel the tempo, atmosphere and duration of the intro short.

As last touches we produced title screen, game’s logo, icon, cursor and also loop-able clip of Storm Sea.

It was a pleasure to work on that game with “Kristanix Games”. Looking forward to cooperate on new projects with them!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZpbjEA7TeQ

“Pirate Mysteries” hidden object game is available on Kristanix homepage:
http://www.kristanix.com/piratemysteries/ also at Appstore, BigFish Games and couple of other game portals.

Thank you for you interest, don’t forget to share/like this page.
Check out more examples of our Art Production services:
http://www.retrostylegames.com/index.php?action=artwork

RetroStyleGames congratulates Razor scooter’s company with 10th anniversary and release of AWESOME and FREE “Ultra Pro Rider” iPhone game: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/razor-ultra-pro-rider/id392353099?mt=8

It was a pleasure to take part in creation of that game. We were asked to create pre-rendered game sprites: 3 Main characters, Scooters, various Environment Props and some misc elements.  In final we have created more than 150 pre-rendered sprite sequences and around 16 unique animations.

Some progress can be seen under cut…

We have started our work for Razor’s “Ultra Pro Rider” game with rough character concepts and test 3D character:

3 characters were chosen from over 20 variants by Razor’s producer.
We have provided slightly developed illustrations of couple of game characters for modeling and other purposes:

It was time to do 3D sculpting, modeling and texturing for main characters and some props:

Meanwhile our 2D artists did some graffiti to decorate environment:

To handle big amount of pre-rendered sprites that were sharing same 3D rig and animations we have built pretty interesting and effective work-flow  It allowed to save a lot of time and costs using animation re-projection and clever layer management. This way it was possible to re-use animation of one scooter rider on second character with minimal polishing.
As we mentioned it before, in final there was around 16 approved animations multiplied by 3 characters and 3 different scooters.

You can download Razor Ultra Pro Rider for iPhone for FREE from AppStore:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/razor-ultra-pro-rider/id392353099?mt=8

Also you can find out more information and examples on 3D and 2D Art Outsourcing here:
http://retrostylegames.com/index.php?action=artwork

A little more than week ago I with my friends from FDMPro.com have taken part in Seedcamp.

It was really nice, filled with great experience two days in our native Kiev town. We had a chance to meet a lot of interesting teams from all over the world and masters of their own business, which were our mentors for that period.
Here is video presentation of FDream online football manager I have done for Seedcamp. We had really tight deadline, but I like final result:

BTW, we have won it (in Ukraine it was a selection part) and our team should show polished FDream project again in September in London.

Some miscellaneous icons I have done for FDMPro:

Forum badges:

Hi everyone.

At last I have some free time to prepare and upload my animation online.
It’s CG music video for song “He is Hacker” of Ukrainian music band “Bottle Green”. Leader of the band is the friend of mine so I created this animation almost for free in my spare time.

You can download Medium-resolution DivX video here:

http://retrostylegames.com/temp/clip/Hacker_clip_fin_en.avi

Almost everything was done by me during last year and rendered in December. Final cut with some post-fx was done in January of 2008 with help of my friend Vadim.

Update: my video was mentioned at 3DTotal.com which is really popular 3D resource.

Some additional details and Low-resolution YouTube variant of the video are under cut…

The story of the video is based on the comics by band’s drummer and connected with song’s lyrics. Main hero is hacker which has exchanged his real life with computer world. And now he is starting to see various kinds of illusions.

We have discussed first stages of creation process with band’s leader more than 1.5 year ago and first models and animations were created then. After that I had a break and back to the video only in a half year.
That’s why and also because it was really hard to do everything from concepts, modeling and rigging to animation, rendering and direction by myself – video can look a bit outdated in some places.

But the main thing I have set oneself as an object – was bringing everything I have done to the final, understandable and complete look.
It was really great experience for me.

I’m a big fan of Tyson Ibele’s artworks. Just look at his site – there are plenty of really inspiring animations!

A week ago I have suddenly noticed a new tutorial on his site.

It’s – Animation workshop #1: roboBall

Tutorial consist of four parts: Animation, Shading, Rendering and Compositing. But the most interesting is the first part. I was stunned when I saw his straight workflow and his animating speed! Especially compared to pose-to-pose technique I am trying to use in my animations.
It was really great experience watching how Tyson is animating his robo. If you have missed this guy – hurry up to his site.