Gears Tactics BlueSky concept-artwork.
Just before leaving, to join the Greats at Blizzard, I was given a golden opportunity at Splash. Work on a brand new gears tittle. A bittersweet moment for sure.
Man oh man what an honor to work on a IP with such a rich legacy, and I was totally onboard when it came to bringing some of the OG flavor back. Finally the countless hours glossing over James Hawkins art had payed off. I still struggled to make justice by it , yet I feel as I gave it my best (at the time at least).
Looking at the art blast that dropped from the Splasher's back when the game launched, I was very pleased to see with the direction they went with and how much of what I had started was preserved. Special Shout out to the character art team those guys rock! Ben Davis, Ji Ruan, David Richardson you are some real artworld B.A.M.f's.
Feels really cool to see Ukkon and Gabriel out there in the world making Gears history.
Big shoutout to all of SplashDamage I miss you guys dearly as much as I miss the blue bells in spring and that one fearless Fox lurking at Sainsburry's. Massive thanks to the peeps at Microsoft for letting me share this art, especially this really early on exploratory stuff that usually never sees the light of day. :)
And hey if someone can snag me a copy of the game I would love to play it.
Also if you want to check out more of my personal work check me out at Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/manueldm83/
I have been posting there for little over a week so their mind be something there that you might fancy?!
My original design for Ukkon, as you can see unlike the final version he had a little friend. My hopes for him at the time where that he would go through several mutations during the games final confrontation until you get to see his FINAL FORM.
So mostly I designed this guy with that final battle in mind. A nod to the endless battles you can find in the best JRPG's, a concept that still get me excited to this day. With a healthy injection of Saturday morning cartoon villain vibes.
When I joined the project there were only 3 concept artist and I was responsible for all the character related art. We where so pressed for time that originally I was only meant to design Ukkon form the waist up. My favorite is second from the right.
As far as I know we had planed Ukkon as a Kantus priest and my first draft of designs stuck perhaps too close to the source, given the story telling needs of the project.
Just shooting crap at the wall to see what sticks. Man so much fun building upon this universe, nothing but props and admiration for James Hawkins and all the artists and dev's that build this world.
This was another original character Crow. This was my second rounds of designs for her still my favorite to this day is second from the left.
The very first rounds of design for Crow, a badass civilian turned warrior. Going for a Post-Apocalyptic vibe in the tune of Gears 3. ( so good!) On of the last games I played before leaving Brazil and joining Splash, who would have known?
My final design for crow, don't remember which one they picked. Don't know if she made into the game if so I think she went through some changes.
A statement for what customization could have looked like in the game. I also built and animated a paper-doll showing bits of armor being swapped but that is lost to the sea.
My original and final design for Gabriel Diaz. Still trying to figure out why the hell did I give him that little white tuff of hair? All round classic Gears badass.
A sampler of the many Gabe's I drew. Man I struggled to get those ski boots to feel good.
Gabriel's Mug.
A paint over of Marcu's Fenix original armor from gears one. Figuring out some details and functionality so that we could build a higher fidelity version of it, that on the surface looked exactly the same.
Sid Redburn, seems like this guy remained mostly the same in the game. What can I say a no nonsense mustachio wielding one eye badass!
Early, early character class exploration. Sticking close to the source material.
Before Blue Sky there was this. Set in the future, focused on some Cog's that get left behind in the hollow. They join forces with some locust that somehow managed to survived. So as you can see very grimy, very Mad Max, this fellas were not happy!
Perma-death perma-scars = Badass Cyber Implants. This is one of those lofty ideas you have at the beginning of many projects. Wonder if any of this made into the game?
I think the images speak for themselves, a pneumatic battering ram .
The lame duck version of the battering ram before you upgrade to the cool one. I wonder what the assignment was? Come up with something is my best bet.