RE-ENTRY (News, news, art)

Good grief. It’s been three months since my last post. Time really flies by when you’re...super busy. Really, though, a lot has happened in the past few months. Here’s a quick rundown.


So this is what I was working on at Sledgehammer Games. No, it wasn’t Dead Space 3, Call of Duty: Civil Warfare, or Call of Duty: Isaac Clarke like some of my nerdy friends hypothesized. :p I’m really excited to finally see some of the media come out for this game! It was a really fun project to be a part of and I can’t wait to play it! It’s only been about two months since my departure from SHG and I am really impressed with how much more prettier the game’s looking (it was already quite the looker before I left). I’m hoping we’ll be getting some more media from SHG and IW next week at E3!

Back in March, I made the decision to join Kabam in Redwood City. Kabam’s been great so far! It’s probably the biggest change I’ve gone through professionally. It marks the first time I’ve worked on a social game and it’s also the first time I’m working on a game set in a fantasy world. It’s also a really big company (especially since it’s only a few years old), which is quite a big change-up for me. But I’m having a fun time and learning quite a bit from the talented art teams! I’m looking forward to sharing some work soon!


In other news, some of my more recent work can be found in two new publications. One of my pieces will be published in “Spectrum 18” later this year and some select pieces can be seen in CFSL Ink’s “Gorilla Artbook, Vol.1” (it’s the first art book for the crazy monkeys who post at Gorilla Artfare).

Some more news. You might be wondering why my logo’s different all of a sudden. Well I recently discovered (via Gray Gary) that my logo is nearly identical to the symbol used by a Greek Neo-Fascist political organization. So I kind of wanted to distance myself from that, since…it’s not me. Haha! But I also wanted to use this opportunity to rebrand myself. The new logo follows the same format as the old. My initials combined together into one shape. But this time I wanted it to be less rigid and to have a bit of a color to it. I’m pretty happy with how this one turned out. Now I’ve got a napkin full of chicken-scratched failures that I need to throw out.

Art-wise, I only have one thing to share today. Hopefully I’ll have more to share soon (I’ve got a lot of work-in-progress pieces sitting in my hard-drive waiting to be worked on!). This was a fun poster illustration I did for my friend, Emma Coat’s upcoming film, “HORiZON”. I really wish I had more time to spend on it. It’s a fun little world that Emma’s created!

the art of robin chyo (book)

This month I’ll be heading out to San Diego Comic-Con, so I wanted to be able to bring something with me in hopes of landing some freelance work. I didn’t want to go with the same old Itoya portfolio with plastic sleeves. So I decided on creating an artbook. Not just as a portfolio, but for something people can actually buy (if they wanted to). There isn’t really any new work in here that isn’t already on my blog/site, but for me it’s all about presentation (even though I really rushed editing this book!). Here’s a preview:

the art of robin chyo by robin chyo | Make Your Own Book

Also, save 20% until July 31st by entering in the promotion code: LIBERATION

If there’s anyone that wants to meet up at Comic-Con or take a look at the book in person, feel free to send me an e-mail!

Fly By + Site Renovated

Hello,  all.

So first off, I wanted to let those of you who haven't been to my main site in the past week know that I've recently changed the look and feel of the site. I was mainly inspired by my buddy, Kevin Dalton's new fancy site. Plus I was looking to get a non-Flash site up soon, seeing as how not many cell phones can access Flash-based sites, yet. So I hope you'll all take a moment to check it out when you get the chance!



And here's a new speedpainting-ish piece I just wrapped up. I had quite a bit of fun with this one. I think I'll be moving onto a character design + illustration combo next. Till next time..poop!

Review: 2009

My summary of 2009:

2009 was pretty much the year where I felt like I was really starting to become a real professional concept artist. Making the bold move to quit my job (and during the recession!) with no opportunity waiting for me was something I can't imagine myself doing a few years back. I got to work with a lot more companies this year and in doing so, I feel like I gained a lot more insight on the industry and what makes a good company and what makes a really bad one. All in all, I learned a lot. Even with the bad experiences.

Many thanks to all my family, friends and colleagues who stuck by me and gave me good advice and feedback. This decade marks the very beginning of my career and I'm excited, scared, and anxious to see what the next decade will have in store for me. :]

====

Best of ....2009

This year there were a lot of things that I got to see and experience that really inspired and influenced myself and my art and so I thought I'd share some of them with all of you. Hopefully you'll get to check out some of these someday! Please keep in mind that I obviously haven't seen or played everything that's come out in 2009, so this list is just based off what I've seen and done (which really isn't that much!) Lots of nerdy stuff, but I wouldn't recommend something that I can't enjoy.

Video Game:
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3), Amazon, Wiki
This game was definitely the game of the year for me. It was just as much as a movie as it was a game. The characters and their dialogue were very natural and fun. The gameplay itself was paced extremely well and at times very nerve-racking. The multiplayer component is one that I even enjoyed (I usually hate playing multiplayer. Especially on consoles). For decades, developers have been trying to make games feel more like movies. With Naughty Dog's Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, developers will now be trying to make games feel more like Uncharted 2.

--Runner's Up
God of War Collection (PS3), Amazon, Wiki
This was actually the first time I played the first God of War, and I'm honestly amazed that a game from 2005 can be just as fun or enjoyable as most other games from the past year. Even with visuals from the previous generation, God of War holds up extremely well and proves that art direction weighs a whole lot more than pure polycount and normal maps. The level of epicness from both games leads me to believe that nobody is going to be prepared for what Sony Santa Monica is about to unleash upon the world with it's follow up, God of War 3 in March. Also, everyone should keep an eye-out on their favorite video game news site in January, as there's supposed to be some new footage from GOW 3 released and I hear it's pretty phenomenal!

Movie/Animation:
District 9 (Blu-Ray, DVD, VOD), Amazon, Wiki
Neill Blomkamp was a filmmaker who I had my eye on for the past few years. I had seen all his shorts prior to the announcement of the now-cancelled Halo movie and the recently released District 9. It's really impressive watching his shorts from years ago. He really does have a nack for blending his CG characters with his environments and at the same time the twist that he puts on his subject matter in his shorts are really intriguing. Before I heard he was going to be doing the Halo film, I was a bit disappointed because I thought he'd make a really good director for a CG/live-action Ghost in the Shell film (especially if you've seen his short, "Yellow" ). But I'm really glad that he got to do District 9. I enjoyed pretty much everything about the movie. The character development of Witkus, the brutality and non-shyness of the violence and gore, the aliens, and the exo-suit. What Blomkamp and company did with $30 million is create something most can't do with $200 million. Along with JJ Abrams, I think Blomkamp will be creating some really interesting work in the near future that will appeal to hardcore and non-hardcore fans of the genres they end up working with. Also, I really enjoyed Blomkamp's humble commentary on the Blu-ray.

--Runner's Up
UP (Blu-Ray, DVD, VOD), Amazon, Wiki
I love Pixar movies. I know you do, too! And UP is no exception to the people like us who love Pixar. Now, I don't love every Pixar movie, but I sure do love the ones that show a hint of darkness to them. The ones that take themselves a bit seriously at times. The Incredibles had quite a bit of this as did Wall-E (although it was a bit more shy about it). UP, on the other hand has a great deal of this. The entire story is based on a man getting over his recently diseased wife! Props to Pixar for taking a bit of a risk on this one. But of course, the movie has a bunch of laughs, really amazing visuals and characters. To me, it's the perfect family movie. My only nit-pick is that the Blu-Ray didn't come with a 3D version of the movie.

TV Show:
Damages (Wiki) + Sons of Anarchy (Wiki)
Big time tie for these two awesome shows. FX has been doing a great job the past few years with their original series. Damages was a show I didn't think I'd be interested in. I guess I usually don't really care for legal dramas, but the story and the cast really do an excellent job. The way they the plot unfolds is really something special and keeps you involved and curious throughout it all. Also, Rose Byrne's one crazy cute girl! :p Now for Sons of Anarchy. Like Damages, I didn't think I'd care for a show centered on a biker gang. And again, like Damages, the cast and story really draw you in. The conflicts built between the different groups in the show is always suspenseful and you always end up wondering how one conflict will affect the other characters. It's pretty much Grand Theft Auto: The TV Series. The recent season finale for SoA really makes me wonder what I should be expecting for season 3.

Music:
M83 (Wiki)
I honestly don't know much about M83, but I love their music. For those who aren't in the know, it's like Sigur Ros, but weirder, and for aliens. Simply put, this music can sometimes make me feel full of energy and wonder, scared, sad, and happy. M83 really knows how to make their audience emote. I first found out about M83 by watching this Youtube video that featured one of my favorite songs by them, "Lower Your Eyelids to Die with the Sun".

--Runner's Up
Muse (Wiki)
Muse's new album this year was quite excellent, but the reason why it's not number one is because it lost a bit of it's charm from the previous albums. It's not as bombastic and potent with energy and rock as their preceding albums. But any Muse album is an amazing album. I'm actually going to be watching their show in April at the Oracle arena!

--Runner's Up
God of War II OST (Amazon)
Yes, a second runner's up and yes, another God of War mention. The music is just really awesome. I used to listen to this on my way to work in order to get my adrenaline pumping. You really feel like you can take on the entire world when you listen to these tracks. I think I had this playing in my car for about 4 months, straight! The reason why it's the second runner's up is because this album was released back in 2007. Still worth checking out, though!

Take Cover +

So for those who don't already know, I'm currently fulfilling a contract position at Activision's new studio, Sledgehammer Games. The studio is mostly made up of the core team that made last year's Dead Space (360, PS3, PC). It's been a really fun time so far. Everyone seems extremely talented and knowledgeable there. :]

I've also spent the past few weeks working on some stuff for Fantasy Flight Games. And finally, I've volunteered to create an original piece for the Beautiful/Grim art group/show.

As you all can see, I've been pretty tied down. But with the holidays right around the corner, I'm hoping I'll be able to spend some time working on some new ideas I've been thinking about.

Until then, here's a new one from me. I really took my time with this piece. I've been on and off it for a month, I think. I know I could have taken it a lot further, but I'm ready to move on.

Busy

Sorry about the lack of updates recently. I've been pretty busy recently. Expect a bit of a blurb about what I've been up to in the next few days.

I hope everyone had a nice and pleasant Thanksgiving! It's getting to be incredibly cold out here in the Bay Area. Maybe it's because I'm still fresh from coming back from Florida, but I don't ever remember it ever getting this cold in San Jose/Santa Clara, but still, I really enjoy the winter-time and especially the holidays. But one thing about the holidays that bugs me a bit is that I never get around to making Christmas cards. I either get too lazy or busy, but regardless I never get around to doing it. I've had the pleasure of receiving cards from fellow art comrades/friends for Christmas and I always feel bad that I never get around to returning the favor. At the very least, I'll try to post a Christmas card-ish image here sometime soon.

Expect some art soon! :]

Book

The book I made a few weeks back arrived a while ago. I was a bit busy unpacking, so I couldn't really find the time to take some pics of it till now. A lot of the dark images came out WAY too dark and some of the small text is TOO small. Definitely going to have to make some changes before I print my next set. It was still really cool being able to see a collection of my work in print form!

Book Preview

[stream flv=x:/robin-chyo.com/blog2/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/bookpreviewflv.flv width=475 height=246 img=x:/robin-chyo.com/blog2/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/bookpreview.jpg bandwidth=high hd=x:/robin-chyo.com/blog2/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/bookpreviewflv.flv logo=x:/www.robin-chyo.com/images/r.png /]

Summer: 21 (+)

Yesterday, I asked myself  (out of boredom, mind you) "how much work have I done during summer/since I left Ignition?", so I thought it'd be fun to provide some statistics. All speedpaintings and scans of drawings are excluded from the final count.

Total Individual Pieces of Art: 21
Sci-Fi Related Pieces of Art: 11
Fantasy Related Pieces of Art:  10

Environments: 7 (6 Fantasy, 1 Sci-Fi)
Characters: 4 (1 Fantasy, 3 Sci-Fi)
Tech: 7 (2 Mechs/Robots, 2 Vehicles, 3 Guns)
Illos: 2 (2 Fantasy)
Creatures: 1 (currently working on another one right now)
NDA Related: 8 (not factored into the final count)

It's definitely been a productive season for me and I've got a good batch of ideas for this coming fall. Hopefully I'll be able to balance out all the categories as it seems like it's often either heavy on the sci-fi or heavy on the fantasy. I am itching to work on some fantasy weapons. Maybe a crossbow of sorts or something steampunk-ish. Same goes with vehicles. Here's to the fall! :)

Concept Art World-Feature

Thanks Louis, from Concept Art World! Loving the site! :)

Article: http://conceptartworld.com/?p=1915

MT --> WP (again)

Movable type was just too difficult for me to work with. I've gone back to Wordpress. There might be some broken links here and there. Perhaps some oddities or poorly scaled images.. I'll fix them soon enough. WOOPS!

To-do list:
-Match the colors of the site
-Fix broken jpg links
-Change any abnormal jpg scaling glitches seen in Google Chrome

Music

Recently I've been spoiling my ears with some really cool music. Some I've just ignored until now, some I've been introduced to.

The 99 Most Essential Beethoven Masterpieces - I found out a few months ago that this album was only 99 cents or a dollar on amazon. I picked it up, added it to my playlist, but for the past few months I've been stuck on the God of War II soundtrack, so I never really got the chance to listen to it until two weeks ago. It's especially soothing to listen to while driving. I feel like a symphony conductor when I'm painting with this on. Be sure to check out "Grosse Fuge in B Major, Op 133".

Weezer: Red Album - I've had this for a while, too, but I just never really dug it. But once again, I just let my playlist go and I came upon this album and I really like some of the songs. I've always enjoyed Weezer's past albums and this is no exception. I'm not sure if it's their best, but there's definitely some keepers in there! I really liked the track, "Heart Songs". It's an interesting concept for a song and really well performed.

Two Steps From Hell - My co-worker Josh Kao introduced me to this group after he did some digging to find out who did the music for the latest Star Trek trailer. I'm really enjoying these guys. It's basically all trailer music. So if you like ES Posthumus, Hans Zimmer, and just trailers in general, then you should check these guys out. It's epic throughout and it's funny hearing some of the songs because every so often you'll hear a tid-bit that was used in a trailer you might've seen recently.

As far as art news goes, I'm going to be posting some stuff from my sci-fi concept art package soon. It's such a huge undertaking this time around, and I felt like maybe I should post some stuff, just to assure everyone that it's not something that I've given up on. It's been slow, though, unfortunately. I'm about 50% through at this point. I've still got some things I want to flesh out and I know that there's at least one more illo around the corner (I'm visualizing it all out while I'm driving to and from work) and I'm very close to finishing my first illo. Expect some stuff this week!

check, check, check, check, check...

char 1- silhouettes, iso, portrait, tech closeup, illo
char 2- silhouettes, iso, portrait, illo
veh- silhouettes, iso
aln - silhouettes, iso, portrait, illo
veh2- silhouettes, iso
combo- thumbs, illo1, illo2

PS- I hate that for the second year in a row, I didn't send any work out for Spectrum 16. It was worse when I had skipped out on Spectrum 15's entry submissions because it would've been cool to have possibly had my art in 3 consecutive Spectrums. With all this stuff I'm creating, I don't/won't have a legitimate excuse to skip S17. :p

Prep

Ever since I wrapped up the concept art package, I've been in a brainstorming frenzy for my next one. I've done a few miscellaneous stuff to pass time, but I haven't laid a brushstroke down for the next concept art package. As I mentioned in my previous post, I'll be tackling the sci-fi genre this time around.

There's a couple things I've decided on:

-I want to really try to use the colors I use the least a bit more (green and yellow come to mind). I've tried this before, so I guess I'll just be trying again.

-I've found my influences. This time around, it's going to be Ghost in the Shell, Children of Men, The Terminator series, and in a subtle way- Shadow of the Colossus. I'm sure I'll pick up some more on the way, but I have a good idea of what I want for the most part. As far as the setting goes, I'm thinking of a place that isn't just land. (The vagueness is intentional!)

-Two main "human" characters will be the focus of the main illustrations. There will be an opposing force or two.

-I love using swords in everything I do, but this will not be the case this time.

-More settings/environments. Some interiors, some exteriors.

If everything goes according to plan, this should be about 2-3 times more content heavy than the Fantasy one. I'm really excited about this one. :)

Pause

EDIT: I actually meant to post this yesterday, but I was having problems with my blog.

It's really a shame, since I felt really good about posting this many consecutive updates..but I'm going to have to take a brief break from producing/updating artwork for the blog. Right now I'm trying to complete an image for Sijun's Challege and at the same time I'm going to be flying out to California this Sunday for my friend's wedding and to visit my friends and family. Hopefully I'll get the chance to update during the trip, but don't hold your breath! I'll be returning on September 8th. I'll do my best to have something prepared by then!