Tom Johnson

Pt1 - Shrunken head in progress.

2012-02-08T07:10:00.000-08:00

evolution

2012-01-13T06:04:00.003-08:00

kite surf

2011-10-02T15:48:00.000-07:00

terrain concept

2011-08-14T16:01:00.000-07:00

This is some concept art of terrain for a new game coming out this fall, perspective is a bit off but gets the idea across.

Eastern Sunset

2011-02-13T07:04:00.000-08:00

Characters designed for awards show

2010-09-13T00:41:00.000-07:00

Some rough sketches for colorful characters

2010-09-13T00:15:00.000-07:00

Open World Layouts and Design

2010-07-29T07:57:00.000-07:00

The images below are from prepro planning for Skate 3. The

First three are high level world maps that I presented to producers and game designers. Everyone has different pictures in their heads for what their game world could be like and sometimes is great just putting down different layouts. I also took into account having parts of the map set aside for DLC or downloadable content. This part is similar to urban planning, to make a city feel real the geography needs to tell a story, e.g if it is a ocean town vs a mining town.

The image below goes now into the maps above and is a layout of a individual district within the game world. With these gameplay flow through the district is key as well as spreading out contests or challenges. I brainstorm a lot with google earth and collage pics together this sketch is the outcome of that. And usually think of natural terrain that the city grew around first. In this case the river and mountains were there first then the city grew around the university and freeways.

The next two images go farther into the map, showing large lots or areas within a district these are now able to show actual gameplay and detailed game design. I usually bring these to area kickoff meetings. It is great to come to a meeting with ideas going, it can get people pumped up and I keep these loose so that they are not looked at as a final but as part of the brainstorming.

EA Skate 3 Concept Art for Urban Spillway and Central Plaza

2010-05-19T16:56:00.000-07:00

Above are two concepts for an urban spillway. The idea
was to create most skateboarding gameplay possible. Many real cities use drainage areas as parkways
for pedestrians. It makes the virtual downtown in
Skate 3 unique, and gives it a modern feel.Below is a screenshot of the final urban spillway in downtown Port Carverton.

Branching off of the spillway are different lots of the downtown.
Below are some rough planning sketches for the central plaza. I had about 10 days max to design each lot, it was a lot of quick sketches and on the fly meetings with producers & designers. Many of the lots in Skate 3 had specific modeling schedules, a modeler may have seven days or less to model gameplay for each lot. If the design was too elaborate it could get cut and if not elaborate enough would be a boring location so was a tight target to hit each time. Often I was working on two locations at a time. So paying attention to the clock and working close with game designers as well as constant communication made the design of Skate 3 a success.

Below are two in game screen shots.

Investigating the Crater

2010-04-14T21:26:00.001-07:00

pastel comp

2010-04-14T20:59:00.000-07:00

This is a rough comp for a cave, it is chalk pastel on black paper and some
photoshop.

modern skatepark

2010-04-14T00:57:00.000-07:00

Modern skatepark concept for EA skate2.

prison boxing arena

2010-04-14T00:48:00.000-07:00

Concept for EA Chicago for the game Fight Night.

Astro Boy

2010-04-01T17:02:00.000-07:00

This was art made for a film pitch for Astro Boy.

After Final Fantasy movie Square was looking to do other features.

It was great fun working on something as stylized as Astro Boy.
The film went through two other production companies before it was made recently by Imagi Studios.

lock up the booze...

2010-04-01T15:40:00.000-07:00

shedding skin

2010-04-01T11:35:00.000-07:00

In High School I learned how to make monster masks. And really got into Sculpting. Working in 3d is a great way to get into and flush out a idea.

New skatedeck design for EA Skate 3

2010-03-06T02:00:00.000-08:00

If you click on it you can see it closer.

Skate deck design for EA Skate 3 game

2010-03-06T01:26:00.000-08:00

Just finished this skateboard design for our marketing dept.
I sketched it much bigger (one and a half size bigger than average skateboard deck) on vellum and inked it by hand (can do this precise type work much faster
by hand than on the computer) and then colored it using Photoshop.
Start to finish two days. You can click on it to see it close up.

Gaia from Final Fantasy

2010-01-08T06:56:00.000-08:00

I did some New Years cleaning and found some older art, this was from 1998, it was for Final Fantasy Spirits Within, It is a chalk pastel on black paper drawing of Gaia, the energy of mother earth. In the film it talks about the earth as a living organism and how it controls the balance of all things on our planet.

Skate2 projects and Skate 3 mall concepts.

2009-11-18T18:17:00.000-08:00

Skate2 concept for under housing projects.

Above was a sketch for outdoor mall for Skate 2. It didn't fit into the scope of the project but the mall made it into Skate 3, concepts are below.

Above is a the final gameplay and design layout. I built the location in sketch up and was able with sketchup to workout the gameplay with designers and producers, I had a total of 8 days to design the area. From blue sky ideas to a production worthy design. It also had to be designed so that a modeler could model it in set amount of time. So was a tight target and feel proud about a lot of the work.

360 sky matte painting

2009-11-07T22:00:00.000-08:00

These are three 360 degree paintings for two EA games. The images are only 256 x 2048 pixels. At first I was painting at double resolution but once we were iterating in game I began iterating one to one. It was difficult going from film matte painting to working in games, it forced me to aim for a great image working with a low resolution image. A lot of impressionistic "down at the pixel level" painting (the contrail was made with a one pixel brush).

Above shows how I started a painting for a camera move first I took screen

grabs of entire move, you end up with a strange shaped image. Then sketched out perspective.( a tool was written later that would spit out a giant shape stitched together that was a bit quicker).Below is a different shot but shows a more finished image also with a similar camera move.

EA skate concept art

2009-11-07T21:20:00.000-08:00

These were two early concepts for EA skate, this was one of five concepts completed in a two week deadline.

world in a basement

2009-11-07T01:17:00.000-08:00

rough sketch - concept art quality

2009-11-07T01:06:00.000-08:00

This shows the process of making a realistic

image starting with markers and chalk on craft paper, and then using that as guide in photoshop to add realistic textures over a 2d image. It was used as early concept art for a game idea that became EA Skate. This entire process took a day and a half.

Pastel on Black Paper for Marvel game

2009-10-30T16:56:00.000-07:00

This was for a marvel game and wanted to get a more hand drawn feel
for the backgrounds more like comix we grew up with vs the photoshop / airbrush feel a lot of comix look like now. I scanned in the pastel drawing and
then added a few things in photoshop. a lot of the concept art was used to
create actual in game backgrounds, so saved a lot of time being able to reuse art.

matte painting / skybox for SSX 3

2009-10-30T16:51:00.000-07:00

Here is another matte painting from SSX3 snowboarding game. It is a tileable background and was repeated a few times on the inside of a cylinder that is surrounding the 3d snowboarding mountain... but you can't see that the image is tiled because you only see a small portion (1/8th) of the entire image as you snowboard in the game.

Past Work: Matte Painting for Fifth Element

2009-10-29T11:57:00.000-07:00

I worked at Digital Domain from 1995-1997. This is a screen grab from Fifth Element, I was working in thier new media dept doing concept art for game ideas and they needed help doing a 3d creature transformation. One of the producers remembered I had some experience sculpting monsters ect and asked if I could help with a shot where a guy turns into a creature in front of Gary Oldman. Was working with Mark Stetson a great supervisor and gave me the chance to try matte painting. This image is a screen grab from the movie,

The upper part is a miniture it needed realism painted back into it ,as well as some set extension work. For the lower areas of NY I built that in Alias and lit it, took a render and comped that back over the original plate in photoshop. If I was to do this shot today would just paint the entire thing, It was a great experience and thank Mark for letting a young artist at the time try something new.

The image above was a creature transformation that takes place in front of Gary Oldman...I wish we had the tools that are available now for this I put a lot of time in on this shot. I used Alias and photoshop...I also used amazon 3d paint to line up where the features were on the texture it was a back and forth workflow between photoshop and alias that taught me a lot about patience.

Plein Air Painting

2009-10-22T17:28:00.000-07:00

This was a plein air painting ( Painted on location ) it is the raymond st
hotel in pasadena a amazing old building, the painting is really small more of a quick study it is three by two and a half inches. these are really fun to do!

Matte Painting Skybox for SSX 3

2009-10-22T14:58:00.000-07:00

This was one of four matte paintings for SSX 3 game. In game you see about 1/8th of this image.

Originally I painted a full 360 but the PS2 didn't have the memory so this was the result a 180 degree repeated twice, since you only see small portions of the image while in the world, a 180 was the best way to go. the final image was very small compared to when I worked on film matte paintings and was great learning as to how to get more detail with less information It was more like impressionist painting.

SSX 3 box cover art

2009-10-22T14:50:00.000-07:00

This was a image for marketing posters and box cover art for EA SSX3.

Final Fantasy Spirits Within

2009-09-15T18:41:00.000-07:00

This was some of the first art I made on Final Fantasy Spirits Within.

I Started working for Square on it in 1997, in LA, then we moved to Honolulu, Hi. The original start of the film was going to be Jerusalem. Here are a few location drawings chalk, marker on craft paper.

EA Skate 2 Trophy Designs and Licence

2009-09-15T13:29:00.000-07:00

These were for rewards for winning skate contests in EA Skate 2.

They were supposed to be a bit wacky, we grew up with Mad Magazine... that humor was a great inspiration.

this is a certificate
that gives creative licence
to the owner.

EA Skate 1 graphic design brainstorm sketches

2009-09-15T13:19:00.000-07:00

This was for first skate game they were idea sketches for

for interface ideas. The concept for the first two sketches

are for a rotating sculpture that has dimentional elements that represent

functions the player can select.

Bat King

2009-09-15T13:11:00.000-07:00

This was a character design for a bat king he lives in a cave and

the bats are his family he keeps them inside of his cape and makes him

look very fat. If he gets angry or upset can release the bats like a wind and

he returns to his natural size, I was inspired by the old Bugs Bunny cartoon

when he meets Dracula .

Marvel game Hideout design

2009-09-15T13:05:00.000-07:00

This was for a hideout for EA Marvel Game, I created a few hideout designs this I liked the most because of mixing a old victorian house with a modernized cave near the ocean. The idea was a trailer park was directly over this cave and you enter a trailer and it looked like a normal trailer inside until you open and put your hand on a coffee table book. The inside of the trailer was a elevator and opens up inside of this cave hideout. This is marker and chalk on two 11 x 17 pieces of paper.

Design for a gypsy wagon.

A early design for lady deathstrike.
This is marker and guache on 11 x 17 copy paper.

Set Design for Cave exploring game

2009-09-07T21:05:00.000-07:00

This was a fun project had two days did one day of drawing ideas, and then

went to the model store and bought a Titanic model and put it together and painted it to look like it was darelict in a old cave, something made a nest around the ship.

Car Designs for Def Jam game.

2009-09-07T18:48:00.000-07:00

These were some low rider designs for EA's Def Jam Vendetta game.

The limo was for Snoop Dogg, his character had a crow cane and used it to beat up thugs and incorporated it into the cars suicide door handles.

Skate2 set design and Outsourcing layout

2009-09-07T18:38:00.000-07:00

This was for a location at the start of Skate 2 it is a taxidermist/tattoo artist. It's where the player pics what they want to look like. We also worked with outsourcers that were in Vietnam and learned a lot about being very specific for what is required with each design.

Skatepark

2009-09-07T18:30:00.000-07:00

Above is the final photoshop painting of the concept design for Rob Dyrdek's skatepark. In EA Skate2. Backstory on this... A tv show was also being done with Rob Dyrdek and Monster sports drinks and at the time were looking at a piece of land in LA that was going to be turned into a skatepark for pros and a living area and clubhouse...this painting was done on top of a sketch up model made from the LA lot specs...about quarter of the way in the LA lot didnt work for the tv show but we kept on with this layout for the game. Worked with Kyle at New Line Skateparks and Greg Daly building in the gameplay.Below is the initial rough gameplay layout, this is for functional purposes, working out flow through the space from many entrances ect. As well as designing challenges ect.

EA Skate2 Deck Design

2009-09-07T18:16:00.000-07:00

This was the Hall of Meat trophy skatedeck,

decks were made to promote the game.

EA Skate Deck Design

2009-09-07T18:11:00.000-07:00

This was a promotional deck for the game.

More Concept and Set designs for EA Skate and Skate2

2009-09-07T17:56:00.000-07:00

Above is a concept for the zen plaza in Skate 1.
Below are gameplay layouts and views of Soho skatepark
in Skate 2.

Concept and Set Designs for EA's Skate game.

2009-09-07T17:47:00.000-07:00

Here are a few set designs for EA's skateboarding game, Skate.

This is a example of my process from rough drawings to final design.