Croid Journals

To help tell a major chapter in the story of Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, we animated a series of illustrations through After Effects. There was a boatload of painting to get done, but the process was a fistful of fun. Here’s a peek at a few of the images.

We hope everybody had an awesome holiday — we’ve been soaking up our vacations while trying to cram in as much drawing as our fingers can muster. We’ve been posting our battles on Twitter and just started an Instagram account for some of the visuals. If that’s your cup of tea, stop on by!

So what groovy stuff did you guys get for Christmas??

CTN-x Wow.

When we headed to the conference we didn’t quite know what to expect. We heard amazing stories from previous years but nothing could have prepared us for the grandeur of this show. Our schedule was packed pretty tight and we jumped in head first.

There are lots of shows across the country throughout the year with plenty of talent and panel talks. Yet none celebrate the art of the animation industry in this way. In depth discussions and intimate creator group sessions combine with an onslaught of remarkable creative talent from wall to wall. It’s rare in life when you can talk to one of your heroes. Now imagine meeting dozens of them day after day.

And that’s where CTN-x truly shines. You literally can’t walk ten feet without bumping into engaging talks about art, design and the industry in general. We had the supreme pleasure of talking shop with countless friends both old and new: Francisco Herrera, Tony Bancroft, Florian Satzinger, John Nevarez, Jose Lopez, Leonardo Olea, Kent Melton, Jake Parker, Ty Carter, Kohl Glass, Doug TenNapel, Steve Talkowski, James Gurney, Terryl Whitlatch, William Stout, Sue Nichols, Phil Allora, Willie Real, Stuart Ng, Colin Geller, Britney Lee, Peter de Seve, Rachael Mark, Wayne Medina and the list goes on and on. And many thanks to Tina Price for inviting us to this crazy carnival of art. We’re already looking forward to next year.

We also wanted to thank all the kind folks who came out to our talks. This was a new experience for us and you all made us feel right at home. And many thanks to Tony for keeping us in check on stage. And to the students, we’re jealous that we didn’t have a show like this while in school — soak it up!

Finally, we’ll leave you with a glimpse of madness — a climactic collaboration sketch during our last dinner in Burbank. Yeah, like we said.

Wow.

To the Moon!

With All 4 One, we had the chance to explore a whole new set of locations. Here’s a peak at the initial layouts for the small moon orbiting Magnus. When in doubt, throw a big ol’ googly monster in the background.

CTNX

We’ve also been gearing up for our visit to Burbank in a couple weeks for the CTNX show. We’ll be doing some live demos, signings, and presentations – so if you’re in the area be sure to come by. It’s one of the best shows for animation professionals in the country. More info soon!

Wrath of the Octomoth

All 4 One has hit the shelves! Greg and I had the great opportunity to create the concept art for the project along with many of the character models. Octomoth is one of the crazy bosses that you’ll battle along the way – hold on tight!

Also, if you’d like to catch a look at over 30 pages of development art, the A4O Strategy Guide features a robust concept art gallery. Kudos to the folks over at Brady Games!

The Evil Beneath

We’re closing in on our October 18th release date for Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One. We can’t wait to get this adventure out to the public – it’s an awesome time to have solo or with friends! The image above was one of the first production paintings as we began to define the massive scale encounters you’ll be able to experience with your friends. The battles are epic!

If you’re the preorder type, be sure to check out the Playstation Blog for some cool bonuses. We also have an updated Fankit available with new images of all types (the pack with the monster is the most recent). Download away here!

Odds and Ends

It’s been a while since I’ve had the chance to paint for myself so I took a bit of time to finish off a couple of odds and ends that popped up in our twitter feed a couple weeks back. Our daylives have been filled to the brim lately with the final development of Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One. The team has been pushing hard to really make something special and we look forward to sharing in October.

In other news, the short story we worked on with the maniacal maestro Skottie Young hit the iPad and other IOS devices last week – for free! If you’re into cats punching pigeons in the face, you owe it to yourself to give it a click…or touch…or something. Do you prefer print comics? Not a problem! Spider-Kitty will join three other stories in the Spider-Island: I Love New York City one shot on shelves September 7th. USA Today also gave a preview of a few pages.

Last but not least, we updated our shop to include some new original sketches and prints! If you missed out on the originals, be sure to hop on the Twitter Feed – we tend to give a heads up before selling them. More to come!