Merry Christmas 2010!

Hello all, well the end of the year has been a bit busy but good things are going on. 2010 was a good year starting with working in LA with production designer Nigel Phelps, and a great crew of concept artist like Warren Manser, Ben Procter, Matt Codd, Joel Chang and many others. Finally finished my Gnomon DVDs.
My son is growing up fast and is an amazingly smart 20 month old! I met several big name Directors in person about various projects and overall had fun.
Went to Japan with the crew from Modo and had a great time exploring Tokyo and all the fun and strange things to do there. Finally finishing off the year with the adventure of buying a house in CA and Christmas in snowy PA! Thanks to all helped this be an amazing year for me and my family we wish you all the very best in the new year and hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

God Bless
-Alx

long time no post...

sorry for the lack of art lately, busy with life... but here's an odd render of the Axis I found that I thought looked cool, enjoy!

Joining the Modo Road Trip in Tokyo!

I've been invited to be a guest speaker at 3DCG conference in Tokyo by Luxology and Modo! So if you're in the neighborhood stop by and see what's up :-P

just because....

the VW Scirocco in Martini Racing!

'rod'n

Encounter with The Stig!

Just got back from Laguna Seca race track where the Rolex Monterey Motorsports reunion was held. Tons of classic race cars from 1910 - 2010. In the pack was a large group of classic Bugatti racers, a 'standard' Bugatti Veyron and the one and only Veyron Super Sport 16.4! Amidst the crowd I spotted a familiar... helmet....

Some say, that he is confused by stairs,

 and that for some reason he's allergic to the dutch....

 

...All we know is he's called, The Stig!

"the radiation from the Stig gave me a headache"

That was a good day...

ok, so this is obvisouly from many hairs ago, but back in 1994 I got the chance to meet Syd Mead at his house in Hollywood. Not only to meet him, but for him to review my portfolio! This is all pre ILM, pre graduation etc. I had bought one of his books, and inside the book was a comment card for their mailing list. At the bottom of the card was a space for comments. I asked if he reviewed portfolios and put my # on the card. 2 weeks later i got a call from Syd's assistant saying thank you for purchasing the book, and that Syd would review my portfolio, but only in person, and asked if i would like to make an appointment!
      So I did, and my Dad and I (he took this picture) set out to California from PA to visit several places for interviews. ILM in SF, then  a drive down the PCH to LA to visit Universal enterainment design, Warner Brother's, Dream Quest images and Syd Mead.
      We arrived at his house, a huge black car in the driveway with 'OBLAGON' plates. (his book publishing name) I being a 21 year old dork wore a stupid suit and tie and came with my entire  24"X36" portfolio case plus a box of some models I had made.... and my Dad. Syd was very friendly and took his time going through it all, even giving me a few pointers and compliments along the way. At the end he told me my work was "very competitive" and that I should pair it down to just a few of the best pieces. Then he signed all the books I had of his, but I was missing one of the 11x17 red/green/blue series, so he went in the back room, pulled out a brand new book from it's wrapper, signed it and gave it to me. That was a good day!

-Alx

Axiom

Here's another random car drawing, this 3 wheeled speedster was inspired by Syd Mead's speedboat sketches.
enjoy - Alx

Random Car'nage

New Tron Legacy trailer! and music....

still a bit busy, so in the mean time enjoy these. I didn't work on them, but I love the look and feel of this.
The Newest trailer is here.
and some of the new Soundtrack music from Daft Punk is here.

Video interview on CGchannel

Here's the video interview I did a while back for CGchannel.com in conjunction with the Gnomon DVD.
Watch my bald head blab about movie design :-P

Thanks to Matt McCorkell of CGchannel.com for putting it together.

Happy 30th Empire!

It's been 30 years since the Empire Stuck back against our rebel friends on the ice fields of Hoth, so in celebration, here's my tribute in the form of 'Entrenched' from Star Wars Visionaries from Darkhorse comics. Done all in markers and marker inks, old school style, for the old school king of all sci-fi films, The Empire Strikes Back!  See the rest of the story in the full comic. Also here is a drawing I did back in '82-83 in crayon and water color. If you look closely in the bottom corner you can see a little red 'OK'..... that's a stamp from George Lucas that he stamped on there while I was working on EP3. ;)

-cheers!
-Alx

'69 Stang

This is a drawing I did for a T-shirt for a friend of his dad's beautiful 1969 Mustang,

High Resolution Tank W.I.P. #2

Close up of the turret sensor pod

Top down view, here you can see the air-brakes and the offset barrel and hatch details

low angle on the barrel and the large blank spot below...

here's the rear view, still lacking the hatch and light details

nice low angle on the front 3/4

rear/ top view, again the air-brakes in their down position

Here's some more details on the high resolution tank model in Modo. Still plenty left to do, like the rear hatch, more barrel details and lots of small details like tie downs, bolts, cables and suspension parts. Also with this project I'll be doing an environment to place to the tank in a scene. All that still needs to be figured out along with all the texturing of the tank. I post some sketches of those ideas soon. For now enjoy these test renders of the gray shaded model.
thanks

the mean front end, still awaiting all the small stuff and below, the top of the turret

-Alx

Tank Subdivision Model (Work In Progress)

The front suspension arm complete with panel lines and intakes

The rear tires showing the segmented tread sections, these will be applied to the exterior later as a detail. The Drive bar for the hub-less system is in place. The center of the wheels will be open with the suspension system mounted on top of the drive bar when I'm through.

Here's the front tire with a temp tread pattern applied. I'll be making a custom texture for the tires and sidewall lettering.

Here you can see the more detailed barrel and turret in the background. I'll show more of those in the next post.

Here's some images of the Convoy tank model in progress. I've gone through most of the vehicle and added enough detail to sub divide the model now. The back half still needs to be detailed more and the rear hatch needs to be added. The barrel and turret are subdivided but need another level of detail yet. Keep checking back for further updates. If you have any questions please leave a comment or check out the DVD videos of this tank design being drawn at The Gnomon Workshops.
thanks
-Alx

Tank proxy model

Here you can see the mean 'muscle car' expression in the front end design. Going back to what I talked about in the DVDs on the aesthetic reason for this as well as the real-world function.

In this angle you can see how the turret is neatly, and safely, tucked behind the shoulders...

Here's the proxy model of the Tank. Basically it's a low resolution poly model to block in the basic shapes. I found I only had to do a few minor adjustments from the drawing, so I can say the 2D orthos turned out pretty close so far! This will serve a base to build the higher detail model which will be a subdivided model in the end. It's best to make any major alterations at this point before adding all the extra details. I've already moved onto the high res model at this point, but I'll update on that in more detail. More to come.
Enjoy!

Happy Easter 2010!

Here's a link to a talk by Denton Bible Church's Tom Nelson on

"Was Easter Really Necessary? or Is Christ the Only Way?"

Gnomon Tank 3D start!

OK, so I'm going to try and build the Convoy Gaurd tank from my Gnomon DVDs in 3D using Luxology's MODO. Since I did the whole design in 2D, I want to go through the process building the 3D to show that I was thinking in 3D while I was designing it. Sure there will be a few areas I'll need to do some rethinking on but that's all part of the process too.

I'll start with the orthographics I made that are on the supplemental materials on the DVD. Thankfully they line up pretty well, so I don't have to do any resizing.

Next up I'll block in the wheels and major shapes. I'm going to approach this by building a proxy model, or low poly count model, just to get the basic layout down. Then once I finish that, I'll start detailing the proxy geom to full sub-divided high resolution model, but I'll get to that later.

thanks

-Alx

Alex Jaeger

Alex Jaeger’s futuristic mecha tank tutorial series!

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Gnomon Dvd articles

From CGchannel.com:

"Really a lot of your job when working on productions involves interpreting a script and making something cool which will not only make the director happy but also make you proud to say I did that when it gets up on the big screen." This dvd series (or download, it really depends on your preference) will take you through the thought process of one of the leading art directors in the industry. Alex Jaeger’s fingerprint can be seen in just about every majorly cool sci-fi movie for the past 15 years. Including Star Trek: First Contact, Wild Wild West, Starship Troopers, Galaxy Quest, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi Special Edition, Star Wars: Episode 2, Star Wars: Episode 3, Transformers, Mission Impossible 3, Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, J.J. Abram’s Star Trek. So check out the dvd its definitely worth your time and it should help you improve that aching mech portfolio.

Matt McCorkell /CGchannel

Also stay tuned for a video interview on CGchannel!

Quotes from Industry professionals:

"Nobody knows how to start and finish a design like Alex Jaeger. From raw concept to final film frames, Alex makes it sing every step of the way."

Ben Proctor / Concept Designer, Lead Robot Designer for Transformers

"Alex's unmatched credit list give him a unique insight to

every step of the Concept Design production pipeline. In
these DVDs Alex shares his techniques and workflow with
a vehicle design job from thumbnailing and rough ideation
to final refined design."

Ryan Church / Senior Concept Designer

“Through hard work and dedication, Alex has gained an amazing amount of achievements in his professional career. His designs and art direction have brought life to some of the most iconic films in Hollywood. It is individuals like Alex who continue to forge the unknown roads ahead and define the industry we all call Entertainment. He is truly an inspiration for me.”

Feng Zhu

Founder, FZD School of Design

Founder, Feng Zhu Design