Introduction:
I am proud to be a part of the group of talented individuals known as The Rift Artisans. The Rift Artisans are a small multi-cultural group of prople from around the world, dedicated to creating high quality fan-made
content for the popular online game League of Legends. Comprised of people whose skills range from Voice acting, to 3D model design, to illustration and much more, we select a project and develop it to a stage that we belive matches the existing content of the game, and then release it, not only as a suggestion to Riot Games (the company that creates League of Legends), but as a source of inspiration to the community.
Click images to view projects.
Character Design:
Led by myself and Quinn Boyce-Bacon, some of the members of the Rift Artisans decided to try their hand at creating a whole champion from scratch, seperate from the main group (who focuses mainly on skin design). In this project, I took the role of: joint Creative Director, Art Director (but not illustrator), ability concepting, lore designer and writer. Along with Quinn, I came up with the core idea for 'Shepherd' and worked alongside Shafiq Cromwell (the illustrator) to bring him to life in image form. This champion features all the components of a real champion including a full rigged 3D model and particle effects.
Shepherd (released soon)
Rift Artisans:
Demon Teemo
One of the most prolific champions in League of Legends is the small furry creature ‘Teemo’. Teemo is well regarded as one of the most hellish champions to play against in the game, often reffered to as ‘Satan’ by the gamer community. The Rift Artisans decided to re-skin Teemo, to show off his true, demonic nature. The project resulted in a fully rigged and animated 3D model of Demon Teemo,
with industry quality ability VFX, voice, written backstory/lore, custom ability sounds, a highly detailed and animated splash artwork, and a champion-reveal website, including promotional artworks, music, and examples detailing the whole process.
In this project, I played the role of lore writer, designing and constructing the themed back-story and reveal text of Demon Teemo as well as writing the majority of his in-game voice lines.
Star Tyrant Syndra (released soon)
The Rift Artisans decided to put a spin on an existing popular skin-line, the 'Star Guardians'. We decided our skin would be the adversary to these guardians, the Yin to their Yang. We selected the champion Syndra for this theme, and began work designing a skin that resembles the existing line, but with something darker and more corrupted deep within. Like Demon Teemo, Star Tyrant Syndra features all the workings of a real League Skin, but has been made from scratch by the Rift Artisans group.
In this project, I was responsible for the lore writing and underlying theme of the skin. Giving the 3D designers and illustrators a direction in which to take their work. I, like other members, also had design input in many stages of development. I also was in charge of writing her in-game voice lines.
University Thesis:
The Alchemy of Acting Animation
For my postgraduate university thesis, I looked at the success (or often lack thereof) of live-action movies inspired by Japanese anime. I made it my task to research in depth why these films were not performing well in western cinema, and explore ways to improve the reception of them in both fan and normal circles.
I then using my research, findings and theories, created several movie posters featuring anime characters I have adapted into live-action, and presented them to the community to test if they were any more or less receptive to this new take on live-action anime.
I designed full costumes, sets, makeup, and selected appropriate models in order to photograph them. I also used photomanipulation to develop and collage them.