Godfather: Brooklyn

While updating my portfolio a few weeks ago, I discovered that I never posted any of my work for The Godfather's Brooklyn expansion. I was really dissatisfied with my work on this release when it initially launched but came to like it months later. I did the neighborhood background plate and two racket buildings (Brooklyn Bridge and Greenwood Cemetery). The lower right corner is empty because the user interface covers that area. The factory, firehouse block, and estate were done by other artists. The shoreline is plain so that waves could be animated over it.

Godfather: Chinatown

This has been sitting in my unpublished posts for 2 months. I guess it would help to publish.

I did initial concepts for Godfather's 6th estate, Chinatown, back in November of last year. However, I had to pass those concepts off to a few other artists since the project straddled my trip to India and Paris. When I returned they passed me back what they'd done while I was gone and I painted the 4th levels of all the buildings and went over everyone's work to make them all look like they were painted by the same hand.

Here's the level I painted (level 4). The buildings are 95% my own paint and the background plate was done by John Brassell.

Below: Concept sketches for Chinatown. I proposed that instead of having 10 different buildings that correspond to different functions (like we always did with our expansion estates) we instead make each floor of a building or set of buildings correspond to those functions. This way, we could maintain a more realistic, cramped, New York City feel.

Below: These are the more polished sketches I passed off to be modeled in 3D right before I left the country.

Below: Color comps for possible Chinatown moods. We picked the middle left comp and they did the final estate painting based on it. As you can see, they stuck pretty close to what I left them with.

Below: This is the breakdown guide for the modeler. He needed to know which elements were separate pieces so they could be upgraded in a modular way and rendered out separately for the artists to paint over and export.

This was a very strange release for me given that I wasn't present for a month of the production. There wasn't a single bit of artwork for this expansion that wasn't touched by my hand. I went over everything in the neighborhood view as well (not pictured), which included a background plate and 4 racket buildings. I had to adjust the background plate to fit the style better and expand the view. The racket buildings needed to be adjusted to fit the background plate again too. Overall I was pleased with the results.

Godfather: Atlantic City

Here are my contributions to the Atlantic City neighborhood expansion for Godfather: Five Families. These were done in summer 2012.

I created the look of the estate. I painted the estate background and three of the levels: 11, 10, and (I think) 7. I painted the beach barren so that waves could be animated over it. Jason Courtney designed the buildings themselves... he was switched to another team mid-project and I took over where he left off.

And here are the color comps I painted for the estate:

And here's the final color comp, which is a composite of two of the above:

The Midnight Express

I did this illustration for The Godfather: Five Families a year ago. We had a light work load between expansions so I was assigned a promotional image to do. I believe this is available as a wallpaper on Kabam.com somewhere.

I've been sorting through old work quite a bit lately. I'll have a couple posts up next month with my work on the Atlantic City and Chinatown expansions.

Private Eyes

They're watching you.

I don't often do character work at Kabam. I'm primarily an environment artist. Every so often the opportunity to paint humans comes up though and this piece was just such an occasion. This is the G-Man, a troop type in The Godfather: Five Families that can only be trained in Atlantic City.

Godfather: Park Avenue

We had a lighter-than-usual workload on the Godfather: Five Families team earlier this year and decided to take the opportunity to bust out a unique new expansion. I suggested we make this expansion take place at night, as we were all getting burnt out on using the standard warm Godfather palette. I painted two racket buildings and the background plate for the neighborhood view. It remains my favorite Godfather release to date.

The only part of the background plate above that I didn't paint was the Estate Tile, which is the bright building at the top with the lit-up roof. That was painted by my intern, Mclean, and is actually a separate tile that grows as you upgrade your Estate. 

I don't like drawing attention to shortcomings in my work but I think it's important to say that there are areas near the top and bottom of the background plate that look bare or unfinished. These are areas the user interface covers. I usually don't paint these areas much (if at all) since they won't be seen by the player. It allows me to spend my time making other areas that the player will see look better.

Godfather: Greenwich Village & Capitol

Things have been pretty quiet around here as I've been moving and settling into a new apartment. I'd forgotten how much of a time-suck moving can be. The last couple weekends I've been going out sketching with friends on Sundays and have quite a bit to show from that but for now, here are some older pieces I did for Godfather: Five Families. I'll also share some work from our Brooklyn and Park Avenue expansions in the next few weeks.

Above: This is a racket building from the first neighborhood, which we've been calling "The Capitol". Tony's Auto Body is named after our old producer, Anthony. The sign spins in the game.

Below: This is Jefferson Market Courthouse from our Greenwich Village expansion. It's also a real building in New York City. I think this is my favorite racket building I've designed and painted for Godfather.

Below: This is the train station from the first neighborhood. It's not designed after any particular station. Below it are a couple thumbnail sketches I did for it.

Below: This is the train station from out Greenwich Village expansion as well as some quick thumbnails for it.

Godfather: Five Families [First Neighborhood, Pt. 1]

Over the next few weeks I’ll be posting some of the work I did on Godfather: Five Families. My niche on our team is environment art. I did all the landmarks and almost all of the racket buildings.

I painted the front of most of our buildings facing the light, but the Fat Cat Club was an exception. The Fat Cat is a night club but our game view is late afternoon so I put the entrance and signs on the shadow side so I could exaggerate the lights and still give it that night club feeling.

I went ahead and named the theater after myself. Because how often does one get the opportunity to do something like that? Forgive me this one vanity. And for those who play the game, here's a related factoid: Capelli Steel is named after our art director, Ken Capelli.

Godfather: Five Families

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

First off, I'll have a table at this year's Alternative Press Expo (APE) in San Francisco with Traci Hui. It goes down on October 1-2 at the Concourse Exhibition Center and we'll be at table #660 (at the back of the Concourse). Do stop by! I'll be selling books, prints, and pins. Photos of my wares to come soon... once I receive the books from the printer.

Secondly...

...the game I've been working on this year has just been announced: Godfather: Five Families. I designed and painted a lot of the buildings. I'm looking forward to sharing the work I did for Godfather once the game launches.