Johnny Perkins

New Job!

Johnny — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 21:59:42 +0000

I have just started a new job as a member of the content creation team at Playdom-South, a studio within the Disney Interactive Media Group. I will be involved in a number of tasks, such as level design, UI creation & 3D Modeling. I am very excited about the career path that this position has put me on.

Due to this turn of events, my portfolio work will be slowing down. I do plan on creating art in my free time, but it will be at a leisurely pace.

Architectural Studies

Johnny — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 19:17:55 +0000

I was recently in a hobby store that sold model train supplies. I found myself immediately interested in the various models of different buildings that were available for purchase. I was struck by the modeling bug and decided I should create a few buildings in various styles just like the models I saw in the store.

My first two models are underway. I have chosen a Tudor style house and a Spanish style horse stable.

Here are two early stage renders created in 3DSMAX. These models are about 60% complete, and do not have any texture maps yet. Click the thumbnails for a larger image.

I will be posting the completed models in a new gallery section very soon.

Site Re-Design

Johnny — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 20:47:25 +0000

If you have been to this site in the past you may have noticed a slight change to the layout. I have never liked the home page, It always looked too empty. I decided to move the gallery page contents to the front page. This should save visitors to the site a couple clicks when they are trying to access my content.

Hopefully this will streamline the review process of my work.

In other news I have begun tinkering with the newly released Unity3D 3.0 game engine. My father and I are planning on teaming up for a small father/son project using Unity. I’m looking forward to the collaboration. My old man has been a computer engineer for longer than I have been alive so the programming side of the project is in the bag.

Ready for Action!

Johnny — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 18:09:45 +0000

The move to my new place in San Diego is finally done! I have my workspace all setup and an active internet connection!

The next step is to fire up UDK, MAX and Photoshop and get back to work! My current projects have been on the back burner for far too long.

Relocation Purgatory

Johnny — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 16:22:23 +0000

I am currently semi homeless… or in a mid-move purgatory if you will. As I patiently wait for my new condo to be ready, I am living in a state of disconnection. I currently only have access to an out-of-date laptop and my iPhone, so creating digital art is on the back burner for at least another 10 days.

On the bright side this mini hiatus has given me a chance to refuel, and I am really looking forward to getting back on the ball and crunching polygons in the near future!

Art Tests and Personal Projects

Johnny — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 21:02:37 +0000

Things have been very busy for me as of late. The 2010 Game Developers Fair was a success, and I was offered an Art Test by a major studio for an Environment Artist position. If possible I will post the results of the test on this website in the future.

I have also been working on another portfolio piece. With the completion of the ‘Space Station Living Quarters’, I have set my sights on a medieval piece. I am creating a tavern scene based on concept art by Jarkko Naas, the same artist that created the concept art for my previous project.

SoCal Game Developers Job Fair 2010

Johnny — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 18:34:51 +0000

Tomorrow is the 2010 Southern California Game Developers job fair. In preperation for this event I have updated the layout of the gallery section. The individual projects are now separated into individual sections.

In art related news, I have been burning the midnight oil on a new environment that I plan to show off at the job fair. I will be posting renders of the scene later today.

Project No.1 has begun!

Johnny — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 08:53:18 +0000

After recently receiving a very helpful and much needed critique of my portfolio I have been hard at work on new projects. What’s lacking in my portfolio are full environments and variety. I plan to change this over the next month with three projects.

The first of the projects is a garden variety public restroom. I will be modeling and texturing two versions of the scene. One that is clean, or as clean as a public restroom can be. The second will be a destroyed version, the restroom will look like a bomb went off inside.

Below are two progress renders of the scene, both the clean and destroyed versions.

I am nearly finished with the modeling phase. I have a few sculpts to do in Mudbox, and then it’s texture time.

Finally, I plan to import the entire scene into UDK.

A defined direction…

Johnny — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 18:21:12 +0000

I just received a very helpful review on my portfolio from a person in a position to hire artists for a major game studio. I now feel that I have a road map to success in the near future.

I will be taking the comments and critiques I received and updating my portfolio a lot over the next few weeks. It feels really great to have a defined direction to take. Knowing what needs to be taken out, what there is not enough of, and what is already working is more helpful than I can express.

GoPlay some Games!

Johnny — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 17:35:25 +0000

I am excited to report that there are a lot of things coming together for me right now!

Project: Death Race continues to come together. The newest version of UDK has included Scaleform, which has opened up a lot of UI and menu options for the project. The team is busy brainstorming new features to add to the project.

I have been talking with GoPlay Games about coming on board as an artist / designer for some upcoming FaceBook games and potentially a few Unity3D projects. The crew at GoPlay are really excited about the opportunities that are coming up. I pitched an idea to bring the VictoryPoint board game, Forlorn : Hope, to iPad & iPhone. For the pitch I created a few 3D assets. One of which, an Alien Xeno Warrior, can be currently seen in my gallery.

And finally in non-game design news I have started a blog called NerdNightmare.com It is a place for me to post about various topics that interest me.

-Johnny