Facebook

I am moving to Facebook with my artworks, inspirations, project insights and art tutorials. This is my last post here. Thank you and see you there.

https://www.facebook.com/wojtala/

Few last artworks, mood concept art for Flying Wild Hog:

and few concept art from Shadow Warrior 2 (Flying Wild Hog)

 

Art direction: Paweł Libiszewski, Łukasz Zdunowski, Michał Szustak

Revolver Concept - SW2

The early revolver concept is one of a few weapon concept I created for Shadow Warrior 2.

We start with the Triad, “a mighty hand-cannon with three barrels.” Every great shooter needs a satisfying pistol, right? “This here is one of many iterations for that weapon,” says FWH. “Currently, it looks way more ancient.”

Here are a few examples of weapon concept designs that were created by my collegues from FWH.

Ruins with history

Gears of War style castle concept. Art test. Good times (c) 2012

Book covers

Sci-fi novels with my covers <3

Books by Kenneth Buff

Phidelphius Is Here

Phidelphius is here.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1534760601

Cover process:
http://wojtala.blogspot.com/2016/06/phidelphius.html

Phidelphius unboxing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pzctlhh2FnY

Space Station Exploration

Today's Daily Deviation on DeviantArt:

http://m-wojtala.deviantart.com/art/Space-Station-Exploration-537019528

Marching off | steps

Since most of my work now is still NDA I wanted to share one of my older personal artworks (2012). Animated GIF should tell something about my creation process back then.

Phidelphius

Cover for "Phidelphius" - a sci-fi novel by Kenneth Buff.  www.kennethbuff.com/

Small work in progress steps tutorial:

1) Final sketch in sync with the script. I tend to be fast and bold here with opaque brushes. At this point I work with a few layers and in black and white. I add colors on adjustment layers few add/darken/lighten layer options and this time it is the best way to be able to easily change form and colors fast. Composition, size of elements and mood is most important here.

2) I separate the layers, create precise silhouettes and forms. I have the coloring layers available at any time. I decided to work on this in black and white for a longer time then usual.

3) Rendering, effects and post process. Some smaller changes, few iterations and you can see final artwork above.

Fortress Defense - step by step

Since most of my work now is NDA I wanted to share one of my older artworks (2014). I wanted to create an oldschool illustration, inspired by tech dwarfs idea. At that time I was mostly developing my workflow, let me tell you about it.

During one of short polish interviews after Gears of War: Judgment I was asked to draw a speed paint of a dwarf. The idea of tech dwarfs, interstellar miners stuck with me and I painted this quick artwork.

After some time I decided to develop the tech dwarf idea a little bit further. I did a round of sketches. I wanted it to be some kind of troop drop at first, but after a while I decided to make it a defense of a dwarf mining colony. Defense against bug's invasion. I can sketches in color but I do prefer black and white, I do love to work in grayscale.

After setting up composition I like to develop a basic color palette. I use adjustment layers and simply go where I feel is right. Also from time to time I do use a palette from (I recommend that - helps me to go out from my comfort zone): http://moviesincolor.com/

Also I remember I did a lot of sketches as a child. I found a few and one had a fortress defense with lasers piercing flying enemies. I was happy to use the idea after many years.

At that point I was learning Modo, and wanted to use it for base geometry. It was not very useful to be honest. I told you I was working on workflow?

It was time for rendering. I worked on design of the tank and dwarfs. I decided to make it a litlle bit cartoony and over the top. This one was for me so why not? I was not perfectly happy with but I wanted to end make it work. Main idea behind this was to develop tech dwarfs idea and workflow.

Fortress Defense -Tech Dwarfs, many hours later. At some point it is time to stop working one piece and start something new. Not super happy with this one but I have learned few things here.

If you have any feedback regarding this artwork or this small small tutorial please write here or directly to me.

Thanks, hope you like this.

MW

Need some inspiration for upcoming weekend? Here are a few photos from Louvre Museum.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/662gonj78n28ued/Louvre%20Museum_Wojtala.zip?dl=0

Recently I went to beautiful city of Paris and spent some time in Louvre for the first time. I will be coming back there for sure. Here are some photos, far from perfection, but you can
find few gems in this pack, small part of what you can witness there by yourself.

http://www.louvre.fr/en

Pinterest

Where do you go for references and inspiration? I do like to use Pinterest a lot. Some Pinterest boards are just precious. Here are mine:

https://pl.pinterest.com/mwojtala/

Merging with Shadow Realm | Shadow Warrior 2

Shadow Warrior 2 early production mood concept art. Japanese culture tweaked to represent changes occured by merging Earth with the Shadow Realm.

Shadow Warrior 2 is coming in 2016.

https://www.facebook.com/ShadowWarriorGame/
https://www.facebook.com/FlyingWildHog/

Flying Wild Hog Cracow

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT! 

WE'RE OPENING A STUDIO IN CRACOW! 

Read more below:
The Flying Wild Hog family grows! Our Warsaw studio, known for such titles as Shadow Warrior, Hard Reset and Juju, recently exceeded size of 100 people. But we don’t want to stop there and we are happy to announce that this December Cracow’s map will be updated with a new place - Flying Wild Hog Cracow! In our new studio, located close to the historical centre of the city, we will take on new challenges and create completely new action games.

Why Cracow you may ask? Because this city is becoming an important place on Polish gamedev map and we want to be a part of it. We are starting with a focused and experienced team of industry veterans but we are open for new faces - recruitment starts now and we hope to see lots of new blood that will fill us with creativity and energy!

https://www.facebook.com/FlyingWildHog/

FIM Speedway Grand Prix 15 cover art

I was one of the artist creating FIM Speedway Grand Prix 15 cover art.

http://sgp15.com/   (game site)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9DxMlU1zrk   (trailer)

http://store.steampowered.com/app/348820/   (game on Steam Store)

FIM Speedway Grand Prix 15
Tremendous power and no brakes! Experience the thrill of speedway! FIM Speedway Grand Prix 15 is the ultimate speedway simulator of all time. Produced under license by BSI Speedway Limited it brings real sport into video game. Show your skill and tactics in the fight for the title of World Champion in all events and stadiums of the Grand Prix 2015 season!

Tai Woffinden, Nicki Pedersen, Jaroslaw Hampel, Chris Holder… In FIM Speedway Grand Prix 15 you will find all the speedway stars from the current season and real Grand Prix stadiums with different surface types. Powerful, loud engines, high speed, tight shoulder-to-shoulder racing, cheering crowds, clouds of shale and dirt will accompany your road to victory in Grand Prix events - from Melbourne, through Cardiff, to Målilla in Sweden.

Buy and repair motorcycle parts, change settings, on the track search for paths with better grip to gain an advantage over your opponents. Dynamic real time commentary by Nigel Pearson and online multiplayer for up to 4 players!

Shadow Warrior 2 | Castle variants

Bellow you can see a few of my Shadow Warrior 2 production concept art. It is a development of variants of one setting.

Shadow Warrior 2 is coming in 2016.

https://www.facebook.com/ShadowWarriorGame/
https://www.facebook.com/FlyingWildHog/

Evil Fortress - Tutorial

A few words more about Evil Fortress.

I wanted to paint a snowy environment. At that point I was doing a lot of 20-50 minutes sketches. The majestic fortress sketch was my favorite. You can see some arrows and lines - I was thinking about focal points and path leading your eye, I had a plan.

At this early phase I still add elements and modify composition when I see fit. I used a lot of custom brushes and photo textures. It was something I was training at that point in time. I liked the environment getting more dark and moody.

I did like composition and overall feeling but I felt I can put more love in colors. I did a few color balance iterations, but the brightest idea was painting quickly the changing snowy evening outside my window. It helped me a lot to get the colors right. Plain air can be very useful.

After that it was just simple rendering. I used few new custom brushes, just to learn something new. Also I ended up with overpainting most of photo textures but I did like that. At some point I just stopped painting this Evil Fortress and decided to show it to the world.
I hope you liked this step by step. More to come soon.
Peace!

Art for The John Doe's Burial

Do you like Death Metal? My collegues from The John Doe's Burial used one of my artworks as a music video art. It is one of my older artworks after few modifications.

Check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9nbwkIN2Ss

The John Doe's Burial Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tjdburial

Check the interesting way it was used. Artwork was cut into 3 layers (the foreground warrior, crowd and background) and animated by Andrzej Uszakow.  (https://www.facebook.com/andrzej.uszakow)

Painting techniques - First steps - Fast Photoshop Setup (Brushes, Actions, Keys)

From time to time I will share my art knowledge and experience. I will divide it into sections - Technique / Mindset / Insight. Let us start with the technique. Follow me for more www.facebook.com/wojtala

I decided to start with my very beginnings, a Photoshop setup.
I used to paint with classical techniques, but at some point in late 2001 I started to paint with computer tablet. It had so many useful tools and options I was amazed. It reminded me of a Starcraft game, where learning keyboard shortcuts made you faster and helped a lot.  I created a Photoshop setup I still use and develop. It helps to get all I want from Photoshop very fast.

Keyboard - try to set it up so you can have a good flow and you don't need to click on any icon or menu. Try to remember all useful shortcuts. After a while it will be natural and fast. When needed, record and use Photoshop's actions. Here is my setting:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/obey17vhm3b4ceu/Wojtala%20Keyboard.kys?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/x46jpp8krw8nor5/Wojtala%20Actions.atn?dl=0

(install it in Photoshop's Keyboard Shortcuts Menu and Actions Window)

Brushes - I have a lot of brushes, some of them I do use a lot, some of them are for special occasions, most of them I still try to get to know better.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x15r6mgnonrzt87/Wojtala%20Brushes.zip?dl=0

My pack of brushes is strongly based on what other concept artist have shared (thank you guys!):
Maciej Kuciara brushes (http://maciejkuciara.deviantart.com/art/Free-Brushes-2015-534474486)
Jonas De Ro brushes (http://jonasdero.deviantart.com/art/FREE-PHOTOSHOP-GIMP-BRUSHES-Explanation-348274576)
Shaddy Saffadi brushes (http://www.shaddyconceptart.com/download)
Dan Lu Visi brushes (http://danluvisiart.deviantart.com/art/My-Brush-Pack-2-0-370697141)
Paweł Świeżak brushes (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003494336952)
Darek Zabrocki brushes (http://daroz.deviantart.com/art/FREE-PHOTOSHOP-BRUSHES-DAREK-ZABROCKI-BRUSH-SET-431393487)

Hope you like this few words, if something is unclear or wrong, feel
free to post me a message. Follow me for more www.facebook.com/wojtala

Cheers,

Maciej Wojtala | Facebook

Hello,

On my Facebook page you will find my artworks, art lessons, inspirations, project insights and work in progress steps. I will share and promote art, knowledge and experience here. Please don't hesitate to contact me, I do love to talk about projects and art, among other things. Peace!

https://www.facebook.com/wojtala/

Flying Wild Hog | All Saints' Day

Flying Wild Hog is creative, hard working and open minded company. We currently develop 2 titles. One of them is Shadow Warrior 2.

Shadow Warrior 2 is the evolution of our previous offbeat first-person shooter following the further misadventures of former corporate shogun Lo Wang. Now surviving as a reclusive mercenary on the edge of a corrupted world, the formidable warrior must again wield a devastating combination of guns, blades, magic and wit to strike down the demonic legions overwhelming the world. Battle alongside allies online in four-player co-op or go it alone in spectacular procedurally-generated landscapes to complete daring missions and collect powerful new weapons, armor, and arcane relics of legend.

Watch what we already have:

Shadow Warrior 2 - Announcement Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-PfKun0R70

Shadow Warrior 2 - 15 Glorious Minutes of Gameplay [E3 2015]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ45LTOwiwg

http://flyingwildhog.com/work