RIFT Animation Highlights 2014

Here are some of my animation work on the mmorpg game RIFT. These represent a very small percent of the amount of work I've done so far for this game. I excelled in combat animations and characters that required a bit more "personality" than your typical mob, such as dungeon bosses, oversized creatures and special mounts.

Click here to watch on YouTube in HD

Character Designs

Here's a compilation of some of my character designs - some made for specific projects and others just personal work.

Some design work for a project based on the Chinese legend of the Monkey King,

Journey to the West.

These are facial tattoo designs called sefir that I came up with at the last minute for Trion's mmorpg RIFT. The sefir are the signature tattoos of the Bahmi race, which contain magical properties. I worked primarily as a character animator on RIFT, but I lent a hand at doing some concept work when this particular character's final look languished for months, all the way until final art lock.

 

 Some cartoon dinosaur and sea creatures I designed for a Taiwanese client.

Some concepts I did for a Chinese director, who wanted to see how I would design a deranged Lama with tremendous magical powers - I imagine a buddhist monk who dabbled into witchcraft and sorcery.

Some personal work.

Animating a Two Handed Sword Attack - The Vertical Slash

I thought I'd do a little write-up of the process of animating something as simple as a sword attack. First off, I'm proud to say all the animation work we did on Rift are all  keyframe and it's been a while since I got to do animation like this, straight up. The image below shows the breakdown of each key pose.

Two Handed Sword Vertical Attack

Key Poses

As you can see from the key poses above, the basic principles of animation still applies. However, it's up to you (the animator) to find a creative way of applying the principles or to break the rules as you see fit to produce the effect you want out of your animation.

So what's my process for animating something like this? Well, I usually start by drawing a series of thumbnails and doodles on paper before I even begin any work in front of the computer. This is the planning stage, where I work out different ideas on poses and how I think my character will be moving. Since this particular animation is about combat, of course I also look at video references (thanks YouTube) on the subject of weaponry and body mechanics - and it's all about body mechanics. Then I begin a bunch of pose tests (key poses) and see how the movement will "flow." The rest is simply tweaking until the animation feels right (and test and make sure it works in game... very important).

Here's The Actual Animation

As It Appears In The Game

In the fantasy world of RIFT, the Bahmi are a race of large, hulking humanoids from the Plane of Air who arrived during a time of war and became stranded when the portal to their realm closed, trapping them on Telara forever. They average around 7 feet tall, with the smallest male Bahmi being like the size of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson... yup.

Trion Figure Drawing May 2012

It's been forever since I last posted anything on this site. So here's my first offering for 2012.

We basically did a figure drawing workshop every week for the month of May. Finding an art model isn't easy, so we're fortunately these ladies were all available this month.

Diamond

(5-10 minute poses)

Juliet

(5-10 minute pose)

Lauren

(5-10 minute pose)

Latest Trion Figure Drawings

Here are some sketches from Trion's latest figure drawing workshops. Our model for July was Devon Jones, a sexy roller derby performer. The August model was Anastacia Armstrong, fashion designer and artist.

Devon Jones

2 -5 minute poses

Anastacia Armstrong

5 - 10 minute poses

Finding good models is really difficult, so I count myself very fortunate to be able to work with these wonderful ladies.

My Bahmi animation

Here's my male Bahmi mage animation being featured on Rift's mage class trailer.

Bahmi Mage animation from Ferd on Vimeo.

Though... I dunno why the people who put this together have him using his arcane powers on a poor helpless fluffy bunny.

Trion Figure Drawing - July 6, 2011

I'm pleased to be putting up some new drawings this month (finally). For this 2 hour session our model was Brooke Milos.

2 minute poses.

5 minute poses.

10 minute pose.

I have taken over organizing our studio's bi-weekly figure drawing sessions. It was a bit nerve wracking at first, since I had no experience organizing any kind of event and have never hired art models before.

It's literally been months and months since I last posted anything. With the release of our game and a bunch of other stuff I got going on outside of work, I just got too overwhelmed with all these things happening at once. I guess I'm not as adept at multi-tasking as I thought. But all in all, this has been a great learning experience.


^_^

Rift goes live for headstart 02.24.2011

RIFT has gone live this thursday! Everyone who preordered the game can now log in and play online! It's a historic day for Trion Worlds, with the release of our first flagship title and already the number of players playing our game is through the roof!

Here's a clip of my Bahmi celebrating our release. ^_^

Rift will be out in stored March 1st, and in Europe March 4th.

Bahmi Tattoo Concepts/Game Screens

With the lifting of the NDA weeks ago and permission from Trion Worlds, I thought I'd do a little write up on some tattoo designs I recently did for the Bahmi charcters in "Rift."

The Bahmi is one of the playable races in Rift. Aligned with the Defiant faction, they are descended from the half-giant Shalastiri from the plane of Air, whose bodies and especially their faces are adorned with very distinct magical tattoos called sefir.

I've been primarily animating the male Bahmi, but this would be the first time I've contributed some concept art for it... and actually got it in the game (woo!!). Fortunately, one of the character artists working on refining the textures and model of the Bahmi shared my ideas on the character as far as (tattoo) designs were concerned - so after a few discussions I presented him with these sefir concepts;

 

Bahmi facial "sefir"

(tattoo) designs

Time was short (shocker). I submitted the designs and out of these they were able to create multiple variations of the base patterns, quickly doubling the number of choices for character creation. I'm quite happy with the results, considering the constraints we had;

Male Bahmi "sefir" patterns

applied to game model

Side to side comparison

of the female Bahmi "sefir" in-game

with the sketch

I was only able to design two patterns for the female version... pretty much ran out of time, but it still made it into the game.

The other races in the game also have tattoo options, but I designed the sefir patterns with the Bahmi specifically in mind. Hopefully, the patterns remain unique to this race.

Big thanks to the character artist Shawn Shain and our art director Darren Pattenden for letting me contribute these defining characteristics for the Bahmi race.

Rift will be available for the PC on March 1st, 2011.

Merritt College Drawing Marathon 12.05.2010

Another set of short poses from this past sunday's Bay Area Models Guild drawing marathon, this time held at The Merritt College in Oakland, CA.

Once again, the models they had were top knotch - there were quite a few that were really challenging to draw. Several stages were set up for particular pose lengths; 1-2 minutes, 5-10 minutes, 20 minutes and 25 minutes. I stayed with the short poses. I got me tons of drawings that took several hours to sift through and pick the ones that I'm quite happy with.

1-2 minute poses of Leah

1-2 minute poses of Carrie

1-2 minute poses of various

male and female models

This was the final drawing marathon held by BAMG (Bay Area Models Guild) for 2010 and so far, the largest crowd of artists I've ever drawn with in a single (full day) session. There were artists of all types ranging from simple sketchers like me, to painters and sculptors. Good energy overall and fun environment.

Next one's in February 27th, 2011... See you there!

It's been a while

 (Random warm-up sketches)

(Various "Soldier" poses from Trion's
figure drawing workshop)



July was the last time I posted anything from figure drawing workshops. There simply isn't enough time in a day to do everything. Between my martial arts training and work schedule, drawing kinda took a back seat for the time being.

Our game "Rift: Planes Of Telara" is due for release sometime next year. So everyone including myself are really hammering down to deliver the most kick-ass and polished assets ever seen in an mmorpg. Since everyone is now busier than usual, Trion's figure drawing sessions have also been put on temporary hold until we ship. The "soldier" was the last model I've drawn and the last session I attended.

I still try to make it out to Dr. Sketchy's each month just to keep my drawing muscles in check and I actually attended last month. I'm just bummed that I wasn't able to draw anything worth putting up from the last workshop.

Dr. Sketchy's 07.20.2010

3-5 minute poses

Another really fun workshop at Dr. Sketchy's at the Minna Gallery. The models were the burlesque trio called Sister Kate. So far, these ladies have the best costumes I think. The sketching part though was rather disappointing... 'cause I was torn between drawing and taking pictures. They just looked so good on stage! The dance routine they did balancing a sword on their heads was tops! Check out the video below.

Trion Figure Drawing 07.14.2010

3-5 minute poses

Select short poses of Katherine from our latest drawing session. Our group's favorite model, she's always a lot of fun and a challenge to draw. I'm lucky to get out a couple of decent sketches of her each time she models for us.

Rift: Planes Of Telara

(The playable Bahmi warrior that I'm currently animating for the game)

Trion Worlds has finally unveiled our flagship mmo title to the public, "Rift: Planes Of Telara." Formerly titled "Heroes Of Telara," it's been getting a lot of great press these past few days. We still got plenty of work to do to make it look and play awesome (even though many people already think so). In the meantime, here are some links announcing the game.

Game site - http://www.riftgame.com/en/index.php

massively.com - http://www.massively.com/2010/04/26/massivelys-hands-on-look-at-rift-planes-of-telara/

MMORPG - http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/431/feature/4191/Trion-Worlds-Event-Rift-Planes-of-Telara-Preview.html

Ten Ton Hammer - http://www.tentonhammer.com/rift/first_look

It's been an exciting week!

Trion Figure Drawing February 2010

Well, the figure drawing sessions at work are certainly off to a good start this year - finally got myself a portable easel, so I'll be drawing upright again. This month we're introduced DeCoy Gallerina, a professional dancer and a fantastic costumed model.

DeCoy Gallerina,3-5 min poses

DeCoy Gallerina, 20 min pose

You can check out DeCoy Gallerina's video on Youtube.

I haz returned... with figger drawings!!

Well, it's been a crazy year 2009. Lots of milestones to hit at Trion (and still no mandatory unpaid overtime, unlike some game development studios). As busy as I was with work, I somehow managed to squeeze in extra curricular activities which include my return to training in martial arts and attending drawing workshops. Tough year, but rewarding.

So, here's a few of those drawings, some from the workshops and others from work. I'll post more later from upcoming drawing workshops.

The Minna Gallery regularly hosts live model drawing workshops once every month. The models range from burlesque dancers, stage performers and in this case, Roller Derby girls. It's a pretty casual setting, with a bar where you can get alcoholic beverages and nice music playing in the background. Though it can be a bit loud with the music and all the chatter going on, it's still a nice venue to mingle with fellow artists and meet new people.

I have to admit, the Roller Derby girls were rather "cute" - they've never posed for a drawing class before and standing still for 3-5 minutes on roller skates is mad hard, but I thought they did a good job in maintaining dynamic poses for us.

Next are from Metamorphica, a drawing workshop hosted by the performance troupe Bad Unkl Sista. These models wear amazing costumes and their movements are pretty out of this world, almost like creatures from another planet. I hope to attend the next one.
These selections are from the after hours drawing class at work. These are drawings from "good" models. This past session,we had a particularly fantastic nude model by the name of Katherine Burness. She became an instant favorite and we hope she'll return for more drawing sessions. Hands down, THE best live model I've gotten to draw since moving out here in the Bay area.But first, we have to try out a few more models and compile a list of favorites, which now includes Katherine and another gentleman we had prior to her.

3-5 minute poses, with Katherin Burness.

3-5 minute poses with various female models.

20 minute pose with Katherine Burness. She really liked this one so I gave her a scanned copy, which she put up on her website.

10 minute pose with a 50 year old male nude.

Well, that's all I've got for now. I hope to post more from upcoming drawing classes in the coming weeks.

- Ciao.

Ferd TV

I've recently added samples of my animation work in Vimeo, now that their compression quality seems to be much better. Plus I'm quite disappointed with YouTube's quality so I figured, why the hell not?

http://vimeo.com/channels/ferd please feel free to check it out and subscribe to the channel.

Heroes Of Telara

Finally announced at this year's E3 is Heroes Of Telara, the upcoming MMO that I've been animating on. Currently being developed and to be published by Trion World Network Inc.

There's quite a lot of haters out there since our game was unveiled, mainly 'cause the majority who have seen our first trailer don't really understand that this game isn't and does not intend to be like World Of Warcraft.

Heroes Of Telara does offer highly social and dynamic online gaming that is different than the usual mmorpg experience - not many understand what the hell that means or how the gameplay works, resulting in some pretty harsh first impression reviews. However, this reviewer seems to understand better than most of the press that showed up at our private demo - http://vgtribune.com/100-million-question-is-heroes-of-telara-the-world-of-warcraft-killer/ (this guy does exaggerate a bit - our goal is not to be a WoW killer, but rather to put out good game that is drastically different from your usual run-of-the-mill MMO game, which hopefully players will enjoy immensely).

This is the first trailer, so nothing is really polished as of yet.

Joker/Batman Face-off

Here's a scene from Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe that I worked on at Midway Games. Joker has some newfound abilities and decides to "call out" the Batman.

I did the facial animation for Joker and Batman. I also had to go in and heavily handkey Joker's motion, exaggerate his timing, poses and add a lot of flourishing movements to his hands and fingers (which were non-existent in the mocap data).

Variety magazine even gave props to Joker's performance. Click here for the article.

Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe is available now for the PS3, X360 and Wii. Do check it out. If anything, it is a fun game to play.

Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

I just recently completed cinematics work for Midway's upcoming fighter "Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe." I mostly did keyframed facial animation on The Joker, as well as motion editing for several characters. Definitely not my best work, but some of the latest screens I saw showed promise.

The game is definitely fun to play, so hopefully it does well when it comes out for the PS3 and X360. Supposed to be due out in November 2008, but I was told just recently that it's been postponed to be released after christmas... yes, people will be crunching until it ships.