Books

The field of design combines the talent of an artist, the intuition and awareness of what the future could be, curiosity, and a drive to create and adapt new technologies. RIDE shares the process of complexity of design development. The young and old alike will be inspired by viewing the steps towards creating an object of beauty and innovation.

With this first book in a series of five, Belker introduces his dream of an electric motorcycle with drawings, renderings and 3D models.

Also discussed in RIDE is evolution of transporation: two wheel active hub drive system, 24kwh at 80nm torque, li-ion smart power, two axis adjustable handle bar and fly by wire steering.

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.

Author/Artist Marcos Mateu-Mestre applies all of the rules of visual communication that he outlined in his bestseller Framed Ink to create a graphic novel that will have you on the edge of your seat. Follow along with Condottiero Martin and his son Sancho during their dark journey through Spain in 1441 A.D. on a mission that will change their lives forever.

Born on the Spanish island of Mallorca, Marcos Mateu was passionate about drawing and storytelling at an early age. This led him to work in the fields of illustration and animation for nearly thirty years. He is currently working at Dreamworks Animation as well as developing his own projects, such as graphic novels and books, including his recent bestseller, Framed Ink, drawing and composition for visual storytellers.

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.

MetamorFX offers insight into Constantine Sekeris' aesthetic of creature design, makeup design, robot design, and costume design for film. As you flip through the pages, you will see it's a book about process from a rough, loose Post-it sketch, to a more refined, tighter rendering, into Photoshop, with photocollaging and detailing, to a rough ZBrush sculpture model. Chapter one on creatures will showcase examples of practical creatures with digital removal that allow the director and studio the option of having a creature that is designed as a practical suit or to be built completely digitally. The makeup chapter gives some tips as to what to think about when designing a practical makeup over an actor's face. Chapter three showcases robot design from the sci-fi look to the fantasy; covering the range of hard, sharp shapes to the soft and organic. The last chapter on costume design gives tips on what to think about when starting a costume over an actor and designing a complete digital suit.

This book is also a look into what designing in the film industry is like. It's not only coming up with pretty images, but problem solving as well. Constantine has been fortunate to have worked with and learned from the best in the business and in this magnificent book, he is able to share tips from his artistic journey with you.

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

Nicolas “Sparth” Bouvier, has been an active Artistic Director and Concept Designer for the gaming industry for over 15 years. In Structura 2, he delights us with what he has been imagining for the last three years since the release of his first best selling book, Structura. This visually stunning book includes images from video games DUNE, Assassin’s Creed, Rage, and Halo, over fifteen new gorgeous books covers and never before published personal science fiction pieces that will have your imagination running to the future!

Not to ignore the past, Sparth also shares his world of fantasy art pieces influenced by medieval times.

In addition to the amazing images that you will want to devour over and over, Sparth shares his expertise with several step by step tutorials focusing on specific Photoshop techniques using custom brushes, custom shapes, clone stamping and the smudge tool, to name only a few.

Be swept away into the imaginative and gorgeous world of Sparth’s imagination and then pick up a few tips to assist you in improving your digital artistic knowledge and visual communication skills.

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.

PULSE features Harald Belker's vision of the future of racing. There was a time when the fastest means of travel was a jet, but in 2035, private conglomerates have harnessed magnetic levitation (Mag-Lev) to create trains that get people from place to place in a fraction of the time.

To advertise the cutting-edge technology and sheer speed of Mag-Lev, events were held with a handful of machines and fearless racers. Within a few years, PULSE Racing Grand Prix were hosted in major metropolitan areas with the funding of the cities. The world of Pulse racing is introduced and illustrated via elaborate drawings and digitally rendered futuristic vehicles while telling the story of an adventurous young man thrown into the whirlpool of an all encompassing and physically grueling sport. Through captivatingly sleek and futuristic images, the audience follows the racers to the limits of speed and power while they are barely on the ground. The sleds force their drivers to the edge of human endurance while keeping the racing fans on their feet in excitement and enthusiam. Tactics and rules make the outcome of the race a nail bitter until the end as you never know who will emerge victorious in this incredible world of futuristic racing.

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.

Syd Mead's Sentury II: The long awaited next book from legendary Syd Mead has finally arrived after nine years. Loyal fans and art enthusiasts will rejoice in being able to view what Syd Mead has been imagining for nearly the past decade. Having illustrated the future for us for the past 40 years, Syd Mead continues to amaze and surprise us with his stunning pieces no matter how much of the future we have seen from the start of his career to the present day. Looking through his unrivaled artwork, we still find ourselves continuously waiting for his future to be in our present.

Images from countless conceptual projects as well as realized ones will be included in this fantastic visual voyage into the future with the only and only Visual Futurist, Syd Mead.

Syd Mead (b. 1933 in St. Paul, Minnesota) is widely celebrated industrial designer, illustrator and “visual futurist,” known as the designer of cityscapes and vehicles for motion pictures including Blade Runner, Tron, Star Trek – The Motion Picture and Mission to Mars. After graduation from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Mead worked briefly as an auto stylist for Ford Motor Company. For US Steel, he designed and illustrated books that envision the use of steel in the future societies.

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.

Moonshine features artwork that is made during the precious little time of day when the contributors are not working on stunning movies such as Puss in Boots, The Croods, Kung Fu Panda: The Kaboom of Doom, Megamind, Guardians, Scared Shrekless and Kung Fu Panda Holiday; these artists amaze us with their individualistically styled images that they create after dark at DreamWorks Studios.

DreamWorks Animation artists featured in this book have worked on blockbuster movies Monsters vs Aliens, Surfs Up, Coraline, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, PowerPuff Girls, Lord of the Rings Two Towers, Bee Movie, Astro Boy, Kung Fu Panda, Prince of Egypt, Monsters Inc., Iron Giant, The Incredibles, Nemo, Ratatouille, Shark Tale, Flushed Away and Monster House – to name only a few. Many of the contributing artists have been nominated for an Annie Award, the highest honor given for excellence in animation chosen by a nominating committee appointed by the Board of Directors of ASIDFA-Hollywood (ASIFA is a French acronym “Association Internationale du Film D’Animation). Each year, Annie Award trophies are awarded within 23 categories including Best Animated Features, Best Animated Home Entertainment Production, Best Animated Short Subject, Best Animated Television Production, and Best Video Game, as well as individual excellence in areas ranging from production design, character animation, character design, and effects animation to storyboarding, writing, directing, music, and voice acting.

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.

Following in the successful paw and hoof prints of The Daily Zoo: Volume One comes another exotic menagerie of creative fauna from Hollywood artist Chris Ayers. The Daily Zoo 2 offers more furry and feathered friends along with continuing reflections on his life as an artist and cancer survivor. And, as with Volume 1 and perhaps more so, regardless of your artistic experience, this book will leave you inspired to grab the nearest pencil, pen, brush or crayon and start drawing … for fun and perhaps as a way to bring healing!

A portion of the proceeds from this book will support cancer-related charities and research; the current recipient is The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

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.