Merry Christmas

From Mark Button Design

The Dark Knight Trilogy

Just some fun poster designs for the TDK movies. Could work nice as a 3 piece:

Yeeee-Hawwwwww!

Hey cowboys and cowgirls. SO a few news trailers dropped recently. One being the the Man of Steel which I am very very excited for. The other was The Lone Ranger. The initial trailer that came out didlittle for me but this two and a half minute exploration in to the film looked much more entertaining and what really got me going was the colour scheme used. Loving that desaturated feel to alot of those open plain views. Got me wanting to try a few out so below are some practices. I used screenshots from the trailer as my colour palette.

im turning japanese

Not really but Ive been trying to get this image right and its still not feeling good. Probably because I walked away from it so often I never really got fully inviolved in it. Learning experience though...

terrain truck

Next step in the terrain truck design. I took it down to two designs. I liked the windscreen from a previous thumbnail and added it to two other thumbnails. I wanted that large heavy duty utility vehicle so the second one feels better suited. It has a more front leaning form that gives the look of a forward moving juggernaught :)

moon trucking

developing a design for a logistics terrain truck. maybe moon based would be fun? here's the initial sketches on a sketch up wheel base. Going for the heavy large style. reinforced and tough etc. Any here people like? Next step a tighter render, then model then final renders. fingers crossed

Car further rendered

Currently trying a free render package which Im very tempted to purchase as this render below came out of its most basic settings (plus a little photoshop touch up). Below that are some of the render layers I used/practiced with.

Doodle day

Had ago at some colour studies today. Kept them really quick to see what I could produce from a reference photo. I think the day shots are nice but my night time pics need work. Creating a quick artificial light is tricky. Also a nice render of a car that can be seen with an additional view in the vehicle section on this blog and at my site.

warm up car sketches again

warm up

monday warm up. it is cold now so i best do some exercises...

Pen tool vehicool

Just a bit of fun to mess with some ideas and creativity. Below is the step by steps.

WIP Memorium

Currently working up a location shot. Inspired by John Carter I'll admit. Seems to be the yer of let downs at the cinema whereas I like most of them lol anyway... WIP below. The plan is to have lots of people entering the structure and maybe ceremony smoke coming out the top of each spire

Car sketch

Concept car... part 2

Here is the final render that can also be found on my wesite new car up on my site. HERE

Concept car part 1...

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrmmmmmm!!!!!!!

You hear that? Thats the sound of a new design coming at you from yours truely.

Umm, anyway... here's the first look at my first 3D concept car!. Ive modelled the skin and in the pic below just blocked in the windscreens and lights. Next step; render it up. Would be nice, if time affords me, to get 2 or 3 done including an action shot of it speeding down a road. But lets not get ahead of ourselves...

Matte matte matt mate...

So Ive not messaged in recent times. Projects and other commitments (sitting on my ass...) Im currently trying out matte paintings. Here is a WIP. Rearly not sure on the buildings at the moment. Just blocked them in. Thoughts...

another gun. boom

weapon wawiations

hewwo, ive drawn some weapons. May be getting to take these further soon

Randomo stuff

OK friday the 13th and Im just going to litter the page with random pieces I put digital pen to paper that I completed this week.

Boom.

Cold location

Todays pic which again can be viewed larger at my site is of an old industrial area. Enforced by security and not too noticable in the snowy wilderness.

A secret meeting

Todays blog is a little diddy I did this morning. The large view can be seen at my site. I originally did this at about 3000 pixels wide.Enjoy...

A New Metropolis part2

Part 2 of my Metro scene...

As you can see I added the sky from a photo I had. It was a lovely evening shot with the red of the sun and the blue of the sky blending. It also helped me with lighting. As the sun was originally in the photo, it meant everything had to be backlit. This worked because with darkened buildings I could pump up the brightness of all the light effects i.e. signage, billboards, ambient lights etc.

Not totally sure on whether to add more yet. I added the car as a foreground element to hopefully give context and further define the low camera angle.

A New Metropolis part1

So with this post I have started with a photo plate. As the image below shows I started with a photo that didnt have a particularly strong light direction. This is often a favoured type of shot for Matte Artists as it allows for a lot more adjustment rather than if there was an obvious light source that you would have to stick to.

So my next step was to broaden the canvas I liked the height and layers to the buildings so by widening the view it would have a more cinematic appearance. I knew I wanted to go with a future city and use a photo I had of an evening sky which mixes orange and blue tones. Anywho, the only other stages at this point was to set up a perspective grid line so I would be able to add any additional buildings/props correctly. Some foreground buildings from other photos are used to border the shot and strengthens the low cam angle.

Stay tuned for part 2 :)

A change of scenery

So as I mentioned previously, I aim to take a small brake from over doing the sci-fi scenery so the first fresh piece I bring is of a japanese home. For this one I took the colour scheme and reference from a photo I took while over in Tokyo.

The first image shows the general arrangement I went for followed by the final piece with details.

A larger view can be seen at my website in the environment dsection on the Personal Work page here.

The last landing (for a little while)

OK so this will be the last space ship or even space based design for a while (I promise) I have some fun stuff lined up instead. Below though was a fun experiment with a small bit of 3D modelling.

The first pic shows the front end of a (very) basic ship. For the colour scheme I took a picture off google of a snowy night shot. I knew I wanted it to have cold dark blue tones.

Then I layed down some ground textures and away I went lol

The finished piece is below and can be seen larger at my site here in the Vehicle section.

Character Quicky

So here to break up the location designs and props Ive been working on I thought I'd put down some character work; something I rarely do (and should practice a lot more to be honest).

It started with some shilhoette forms that I xhose 3 to take futher. From there I started buiding up the details starting with a colour scheme. These were going to be bluse skinned aliens with red war paint.

What the design evolved into was an alien war suits that were linked by a similar motiff but differed by the structure of who was in charge. SO central we have a smaller guy who is the General type. He looks more regal and important with his head piece etc. Then there is the soldier types and the scout troopers :) nice little exercise...

The larger finished image can be viewed at my site.

A New Beginning... part2

So although its only a brief update the final design is below. It can be view larger on my site.

A new beginning...

Well Isaw Prometheus and did really enjoy thank goodness! A lot of mixed reviews showing up. Maybe I'll post a proper blog about it soon. As the intention always was with this blog; partly show off work and also discuss film.

Below though for now, is the start of a new environment design. probably close to an hours worth od doodling stuff. At this stage its a case of just topping up the details and fixing things but Im always willing to consider a major addition or change to the image. Thoughts as always?...

Also been playing with a great free drawing tool on the mobile (yes Im one of those 'annoying app guys' now!) Hopefully post the random little scribbles Ive done from time to time. Its great for quick greyscale tonal sketches. Would be a good exercise to take a drawing from the smallest of devices and turn it into a large image on a proper device (i.e. photoshop)

An alien world out there...PART 3

So I think I have come to a final look.. for now. I played with multiple ideas of having a much larger ship take the centre stage but for now this will do. With the additional cuved forms and characters in the foreground, I felt 2 small ships may help the scale of things. Well its done for now just in time for 31stMay/1stJune and Prometheus!!!

Lets hope its a cracker!!!

EDIT: because this silly blog thing has changed yet again I cant seem to get the large version of this image to open. Either right click the image and view in a new window or go to www.markbuttondesign.co.uk and look in the Environment Design section. Thanks

An alien world out there...PART 2

So as promised, I have continued (aka found 30 spare mins) on this location shot inspired by my cravings for Prometheus (7 days!!!!!!)

Basically the initial environment existed and now needed beefing up. I was liking the atmospheric sky of smoke but genererally I wanted to bring the lighting as a whole, down a bit. For a more 'other worldly' quality I added a (very) near moon/planet and slight stars in space.

*as a side note I love making random planets and just saving the raw psd files. You never know when you may need a groups of planets or moons for a location or for a space ship to pass by. I may include a quick PShop tutorial on doing this as its quick and easy :)

Next was a tad more lighting to keep the interest. Using a dodge layer I added a haze of northern-light-type streaks through the sky...

So whats next on the agenda. I need to populate it with something and that is likely to be a vehicle. Anyone who wants to suggest ideas let me know

An alien world out there...

A start up piece from today. Anyone who knows me and my enthusiasm for sci-fi will be aware of a little film called Prometheus that I want to see. So to strive off the wait I started a lil Alien inspired piece. So far it just started as a 20min warm up but I want to keep this one going so lets call this part1. Any suggestions as to what to add would be cool.

Quick piece

This was a very quick bit of sketch practice and working from a texture layer. Not much else to say really...

Sketch build up

Hello people.

Just a quick pic for a morning warm up exercise. Im not sure if the floating shape will stay in the shot but this is the fairly low res version of it so far. Maybe I'll come back to it, maybe I won't. Who knows...
Any thoughts?

Hi 2012

So as always Ive become crap at posting. Along with many plans I intend to post more work and ideas this year. Recently watched Cowboys vs Aliens which planted a visual in my head and actually an idea for an art book but thats just an idea at the moment. So here for your enjoyment is a warm up exercise inspired by Prototype and the sequel to the game (cleverly titled Prototype 2...) that comes out later this year. Here is some form of military official who is possibly infected. Done in 25mins. Going to do more of these as warm ups. Gives me more practice at characters too...

Something is coming...

Thanks to the guys at Turneshoe Productions I can show this teaser pic for a project Im working on with them which will be completed and entered into a competition in the next few months. Stay tuned...

Top 5 of 2011

A late post recently yet again but here is my Top 5 film of 2011;

5. I Saw the Devil
- a strong, strong movie from the director of my favourite Korean movie A Bittersweet Life.

4. TT3D: Closer to the Edge
- inspiring and down right crazy documentary on the Isle of Mann TT race.

3. Red State
- great to see Kevin Smith right back on track with a very cool film.

2. Drive
- blogged about it before and can't wait for its DVD release.

1. Super 8
- Goonies meets Close Encounters. Nostalgia trip to the max. LOVE IT.

Special honourary mention:
I thought of having this as a joint 5 but I'll add it here. Anyone who hasn't seen this must check it out immediately. Mel Gibson's The Beaver was just great. Dissregard anything he's done. He knows this character.

Enjoyos!