Books

Young inventor Tyler Washburn was always getting into trouble due to his numerous failed projects. Early one morning when testing his newest invention, the Automatic Locker Organizer v.2.0, Tyler could not help but be drawn into a closet with a strange blue glow where the touch of one star whisked him across the galaxy to join aliens at the STAR academy. Tyler finds acceptance for his creativity, talents and different beat at The Society of TechnologicallyAdvanced Races where he joins students from all over the universe to promote intergalactic peace.

Dylan Cole is a concept artist, matte painter, and production designer for the entertainment industry. Since graduating from UCLA in 2001, he has contributed art to over 50 films. Notable credits include Senior Matte Painter on Return of the King, Concept Art Director on Avatar, and Production Designer for Maleficent. The Southern California native grew up drawing spaceships and alien worlds and this passion led to the creation of this book, his first. Dylan lives in Playa del Rey, CA with his wife, Bethany.

Nuthin' But Mech is the brainchild of Lorin Wood of Gearbox Software. He wanted a place to harbor his passion for robots so he put together a blog and corralled some of his friends and professional acquaintances to populate this nook of cyberspace. A collaborative effort from over 40 artists, this title will showcase various styles of mecha design that the artists create while they are not working on block buster movies, tv shows and video games.

Bonjour! Join Chris Ayers and his menagerie as they make their Parisian debut on the walls of Galerie Daniel Maghen. Fifty-eight pieces were created especially for the gallery show in year six of The Daily Zoo and they are all captured in this book in their full glory. Do not miss meeting Le Chic Sheep, Le Penseur (The Thinker), Alien Accountant and Rosie On Skates, to name only a few, as they are certain to become close cartoon friends.

Following in the successful tracks of DRIVE, vehicle sketches and renderings, BLAST takes the readers on a visual exploration of spaceships. The team from DRIVE, Scott Robertson, Annis Naeem, and Danny Gardner are together again for BLAST, with each of the three artists exploring spaceships and sci-fi environments with concept sketches executed in wide range of mediums through to final full color Photoshop and 3D digital renderings.

BLAST also features a guest artist section with spaceship art from Harald Belker, Ian McQue, Thom Tenery, David Hobbins, Darren Bacon and Joon Ahn.

Take off with these visionaries as they launch us out of this world with their captivating spaceship creations.

Following his previous books, Quantum Dreams and Quantumscapes, Velocity is a stunning new visionary collection of sci-fi book cover paintings, commercial and film art, video game designs, and never before-seen artwork from the fantastic imagination of acclaimed artist Stephan Martiniere.

Limited Editions may be purchased here: Velocity Limited Edition by StephanMartiniere.com

Kallamity (Luca Zampriolo) creates an imaginary future world dominated by dark undertones where protagonist robots (Hard Doll Machines a.k.a. H.D.M.s) mass-produced from recycled metal are needed in a failing society to secure resources for mankind in order to progress its technology.

Kallamity poses the question, “As oil and gas are depleted in the future and inhabitants of Planet Earth continue to grow exponentially, how will a world based on the exploitation of these two natural resources maintain its current technological growth?” and then he precedes to present amazing visuals for the answer in the form of ABAKAN 2288.

In this Sci-fi tale, with oil resources tapped out and the ensuing crash of the world economy, the Weingart family holds a dictatorial monarchy over Earth as a result of their development of WEIN technology which allows for the fabrication of H.D.M.s as well as travel to other planets for more natural resources.

ABAKAN 2288 not only focuses on the images for the world that is yet to be but also on the creation of the Hard Doll Machine mecha designs. Kallamity designs the master patterns that are cast, assembles and creates machine dolls from these pieces of various sizes; ranging from a volleyball to the head of a pin. Being a worldwide success as a collectible sculptor of machine warrior dolls, readers will learn from one of the best in the industry how to conceptualize, fabricate and finish machine robots.

Kallamity combines mecha designs with the steampunk aesthetic to create the stunning yet depleted Sci-fi world of ABAKAN that we hope to not have to occupy someday, as visually captivating as it is!

In the future, a new land on the edges of the universe, Kolonie, has been found with untapped sources of oil. Colonization follows immediately. Watch the story and the stunning visuals unfold for this new world through the expert eyes, hands and minds of artists Patrick Hanenberger and Christian Schellewald.

The Kolonie was a fairly unimportant world at the fringes of the known universe. Although its climate and living conditions make it a habitable environment, the immense distance to the central worlds left it provincial and there were no serious plans for any form of colonization.

When the first oilfields were discovered, an enormous rush to the Kolonie started immediately. At that time space travel, and any other form of transportation was still completely dependent upon oil. Millions of colonists left their worlds to find their fortunes on the Kolonie. A new class of spaceships was constructed to ferry settlers and supplies to the distant world and bring back oil and oil products in vast quantities.

Kapitol, the main city on the Kolonie grew into a huge metropole and for more than a decade its spaceport was one of the busiest of the entire universe. When oil was finally replaced by other more efficient energy sources, importing it from the Kolonie to the main planet ceased to be profitable.

The large oil corporations pulled out and shipping to the Kolonie stopped entirely within a short amount of time. Occasionally a government ship from the central world lands on the Kolonie to bring new government troops and officials, spare parts and new technology and sometimes a few passengers.

Leaving the Kolonie is difficult and very costly and far too many people are stranded and long to go back to their less remote home planets. But there are still a few adventurers and fortune seekers who manage to travel to the Kolonie, which still offers many opportunities.

This book is the first chapter in introducing the visually rich world of the Kolonie as well as its inhabitants and technology.

Sean Hargreaves believes that for artists and designers, images are born from the experiences one observes during the first 10-15 years of their lives. Those images are subconsciously refined over and over in one’s life. They may consist of shapes, or places, or films…but they always stay present in the back of the memory and now and then they make an appearance in an image or design that is created. Two important images that stand out for Hargreaves from his youth are the modern house in the green countryside of Northern England that his father built and furnished with prominent mid-century pieces and the machines that he saw when he accompanied his father on business visits to factories; both are extremely prevalent in the artwork throughout these captivating pages.

Hargreaves states that designers are taught that sketching is an important part of the design process. The final image is the presentation of the refinement of all the sketches. When the final image is presented, it is usually presented with all the sketches that led up to the final design. Though Hargreaves agrees with this approach to a certain degree, he also questions it, feeling that there are “filtering” issues when sketching; the sketches that follow the initial idea may be refining it but it also “waters down” the initial design. As a result, the final design may end up being a mere long lost relative of the initial idea. The designs in this book started out as an exercise Hargreaves laid out for himself to counter what he learned, he wanted to create designs without any preconceived sketches, he wanted to design as he was designing.

The results of his exercise are contained within the pages of this amazing book. Covering every aspect from the vase in the corner of a room, to the cityscape that contains the building that contains the room with the vase that holds the flower, Hargreaves has created places beyond our imaginations yet firmly rooted them in reality. Unbelievable to most, no photographs were used when making these stunning places, space was designed digitally and directly.

Inspired by The Daily Zoo, Keeping the Doctor at Bay with a Drawing a Day and The Daily Zoo, Year 2, Chris Ayers has created MY Daily Zoo to get the creativity of the young and old alike brewing! This activity book will provide page upon page of exercises that will provide YOU with ample opportunities to create your own personal zoo of characters. Some examples of what you will find within the cover – an octopus with the ends of his tentacles missing, you get to add what you would like to see held in the eight spaces, scribbles that get turned into characters with scribbles drawn to inspire your own characters, design a tortoise shell, a hippo tattoo, a bowling team's missing members, the dog show's competition line up, animal splicing (parts of different animals are provided for you to create your own). Have no fear, this book of artistic challenges will be started off with a step-by-step drawing follow-a-long: showing a line by line (shape by shape) progression of drawing a Daily Zoo character – provided with blank spaces next to each step for one to follow along.

Animals Real and Imagined: A fantastic visual voyage into the world of animals, both real and imagined. There is no end to the diverse and unique creatures that Terryl Whitlatch creates for us with her solid knowledge of anatomy and boundless imagination. Especially intriguing are the 100s of anatomical notes that are dispersed among her sketches, educating and enlightening us to the foundation of living bodies and their mechanics.

Terryl Whitlatch is an accomplished, scientific, and academically trained illustrator who extensively studied vertebrate zoology and animal anatomy. She has worked for various zoos and museums in the US and The World Wildlife Fund as Senior consultant for Wildlife Art and Animal Anatomy. She is considered to be one of the top creature designers and animal anatomists working in the field today. In a career spanning over 25 years, Terryl has many projects to her credit, including Star Wards: The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: The Special Edition, Jumanji 1 and 2, Men in Black, Brother Bear, Dragonheart, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Curious George, The Polar Express, and Beowulf. For over seven years, Terryl worked for Lucasfilm Ltd., Industrial Light & Magic and George Lucas’ JAK Films. Her unique combination of illustration skills are comprehensive knowledge of animal anatomy and movement are essential components in the design, anatomy and physical animations aspects of believable creature creation.

The Colony – The story, taking place in 1875 traces the epic journey of Gabriel Duban in an era before space‑travel when worlds of mystery, danger and enchantment were still found on Earth. Adventure and horror take on dizzying new dimensions as Duban pursues the truth of A LOST CITY in an empire defying space and time…

Viktor Antonov was born and grew up in Sofia, Bulgaria then immigrated to Paris, France at 17. He is renowned for creating compelling fictional worlds that combine beauty with striking realism. Viktor is a winner of the Visual Effects Society and a BAFTA award. In his 11 years in the entertainment industry he has designed and art directed projects such as the blockbuster Half Life 2. He’s currently a production designer and co‑author of the French animated feature The Prodigies.

Framed Ink – The ultimate guide to visual storytelling! How to make the audience “feel” the story while they are “reading” the story. Using his experiences from working in the comic book industry, movie studios and teaching, Marcos introduces the reader to a step‑by‑step system that will create the most successful storyboards and graphics for the best visual communication. After a brief discussion on narrative art, Marcos introduces us to drawing and composing a single image, to composing steady shots to drawing to compose for continuity between all the shots. These lessons are then applied to three diverse story lines ‑ a train accident, a cowboy tale and bikers approaching a mysterious house. In addition to setting up the shots, he also explains and illustrates visual character development, emotive stances and expressions along with development of the environmental setting to fully develop the visual narrative.

Spanish born Marcos Mateu Mestre is a visual concept, traditional animation layout, and graphic novel artist whose film credits include titles such as ‘Balto’, ‘The Prince of Egypt’, ‘Asterix and the Vikings’ and ‘Surf’s Up’ amongst others. With an extensive experience of twenty years in feature animation, working mainly for Dreamworks and Sony Pictures, he has also been teaching drawing, illustration and visual storytelling techniques for twelve years. His works as a film maker have mostly included both the design and cinematic aspects of film, taking care of frame composition, lighting and visual continuity of many key sequences in some major productions.

BATTLE MiLK 2 is the latest collection from several San Francisco based animation professionals featuring personal works and original concept designs. Inside are over 120 pages of full color imagery incorporating a wide variety of approaches, styles and subject matter. Everything from traditional pen and ink to miniature photography to cutting edge digital painting can be found as new worlds and ideas are explored. Each artist provides a step by step guide to their creative process, from inspiration to techniques for realizing their ideas. Fans of all styles of imaginative design and illustration will find plenty to enjoy in this eclectic volume.

Wayne Lo was born on the East Coast, raised in California, saved in Cupertino, nurtured in Berkeley, rewired in Beijing, rebooted in Taiwan, shrunken-headed at San Jose State, discombobulated on Kerner Blvd. and jury-rigged into a VFX concept artist. There he cursed pirates, skinned werewolves, skewered vampires, thawed Neverland and got cluster-f*@ked on Iwo Jima. After about six years with the Industrial Light and Magic art department, he moved on to art direct Factor 5’s PS3 title Lair. Since then he has been creating artwork for Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

David Le Merrer was born in Paris where he grew up and later studied graphic design at ESAG met de Penninghen. After getting his degree he spent a few years in the UK creating art for video games. But after a while he grew tired of the rain and in 2005 the road took him to Northern California where he ended up in another video game company. Now he is working at Lucasfilm on the Star Wars: Clone Wars animated television show where he met all these crazy folks and decided to join the Battle Milk team.

Thang Le was born and raised in Southern California. The youngest boy of seven children, he spent his childhood reading comics, watching movies, and playing video games. After high school, he moved to Pasadena where he attended the Art Center College of Design, majoring in transportation design. Prior to graduating, he decided to switch his focus to entertainment design. After receiving his degree, he began working in commercials, video games, and film. This eventually led to an opportunity to relocate and work on the Star Wars: The Clone Warsanimated television show and film. After several years at Lucasfilm, he decided to move back to Southern California to pursue other creative endeavors.

It’s hard for Kilian Plunkett to believe that, growing up in Dublin, Ireland, he would one day end up gainfully employed drawing and painting the kind of robots, monsters, spaceships, heroes and villains that occupied so many of his waking hours as a pale young geek. He moved to the US in the early ‘nineties when the chance to work as a professional comic artist came along. Comics taught him the value of learning to draw as broad a range of subjects and settings as he could. He worked almost exclusively as a comic artist until 2005, when an opportunity arose to be part of the team at Lucasfilm’s new Animation division. He’s been there ever since, learning everything all over again.

Le Tang has spent most of his years in Southern California, but woke up from a stupor one day to find himself living in the Bay Area. He studied animation and studio arts in Southern California, but on the job is where the real education started. His career so far has been short-lived, ranging from being an animator on small traditional animation projects to a story artist on the 3-D television show Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Be it short, it has still been sweet. Now he’s gonna cross his fingers, knock on wood, and hope his good fortune keeps up.

Jackson Sze has always liked to draw and paint. His passion grew as he was exposed to video games, cartoons, and movies. Creating worlds is infinitely exciting. Thankfully his parents were always supportive of his passions. He studied illustration at Art Center College of Design with an emphasis in entertainment arts. Since leaving school, he has worked in advertising, video games, television, and film. With luck, he was brought into Lucasfilm Animation where he eventually worked on Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Now he is back in Los Angeles, teaching and freelancing for games and films.

DRIVE features Scott Robertson’s very latest vehicle designs intended for the video game space communicated through skillfully drawn sketches and renderings. DRIVE builds upon the success of his prior two vehicle design books, Start Your Engines and Lift Off. Featuring four chapters, each representing a different aesthetic theme, Aerospace, Military, Pro Sports and Salvage, conceptual sports cars, big-rigs and off-road vehicle designs are beautifully represented through traditional and digital media sketches, and renderings.

DRIVE features Scott Robertson’s very latest vehicle designs intended for the video game space communicated through skillfully drawn sketches and renderings. DRIVE builds upon the success of his prior two vehicle design brooks, Start Your Engines and Lift Off.

Soon, you will be imagining yourself as one of the riders—flying, running, jumping, bumping and blocking your way to the finish line!

The alien bio-lab has appeared at the United Nations building in New York City. We, the human race, have been invited to compete in the most popular Alien Race in the universe. As they develop the visuals for the great competition, let this gifted team of concept designers carry you away with their brilliant imagination, transport you to unique off-world racing environments and introduce you to never-before-seen genetically engineered racing creatures. Created from the best D.N.A. available in the universe, each racing animal will amaze you more than the last and each treacherous environment will seem like a walk in the park compared to the next one.

For all science fiction enthusiasts, entertainment industry artists, illustration and design students worldwide!

Steambot Studios presents its first original visual “art of” book, Exodyssey. A new alien race has been discovered that adorns themselves like humans celebrating Halloween. A group of unlikely heroes from Earth, consisting of prisoners, pilots and scientists, must travel light years away to confront this new race that they feel threatened by. Steambot Studios takes us on a fantastic visual journey to tell this science fiction tale.

Steambot Studios, a collective of six digital artists working in the world of entertainment – Sebastien Larroude, Thierry Doizon, Joel Dos Reis Viegas, David Levy, Nicolas Ferrand and Patrick Desgreniers, takes us aboard an epic science fiction ride in Exodyssey. Created in parallel with a series of art education DVDs and lectures, the group demonstrates their creative production art techniques developed through many years of experience in the field working for such companies as Electronic Arts, Activision, Ubisoft, Epic, Digital Dimension, Canal+.. Follow the Steambot crew through an original but also realistic point of view on futuristic civilizations, space transportation and society as they visually develop the characters, vehicles, environments and props needed to tell the tale. Various educational lectures and tools are thoroughly documented in this visually stunning book.