-NEW YORK TIMES BEST...YEAH, NOT YET -
W. ERIC MYERS
TRADITIONAL ARTWORK
My goal is to master the Art Nouveau style and portraiture. I can see myself sitting on the Charles Bridge in Prague, painting portraits for passersby. For now, I create these as gifts for people.
Wedding gift for a friend. This was my first attempt at Art Nouveau, a technique I strive to perfect.
My first grayscale portraiture mimicking Alphonse Mucha's style. The younger girl inspired "Ama" in the Galendor novels.
An 8th grade graduation gift. This is the girl who inspired "Rini" in the Galendor novels.
Another 8th grade graduation portrait. She is Riley's sister.
A Christmas present requested by a co-worker during a tough year. His wife loved it.
A birthday gift for my niece. The busy border symbolizes our trip to Florida.
Amanda's sister and the inspiration for Seirra in the Galendor novels.
Gift for a friend at work. Developed my own style of representing the zodiac signs through triangles.
Adi's portrait. The third and final 8th grade gift for the Betz family.
COVER DESIGN
I negotiated with my publisher to allow me to create the cover art for my novels. It was an uphill battle, but I was able to see my vision in print. The font used for the word "Galendor" is a proprietary typeface I'm developing. I call it Galendor Nouveau.
TATTOO DESIGN
A friend asked for a tattoo design for her and her mother. The concept was a mother with a child, "I carried you when you were young." Then the child grown and an elderly mother, "I'll carry you when you're old." She is a Studio Ghibli fan, so this is what I came up with. Colored pencil on paper, large enough to frame.
STUDENT GRAPHIC DESIGN
As of 2019, I've finished all of the electives and am halfway through the core competency of a Bachelor's Degree in graphic design. When all is said and done, I pray I'm not a walking cliche—jack of all trades, master of none.
This is a mock magazine I designed and wrote for Arts 340: Publication Design.
Click the magazine to open the full .PDF file. It is meant to be seen as a 2-page spread, feel free to save it if you wish.
STUDENT COMPUTER WORK
I obtained an Associate of Science in video game design from Full Sail University, and an equivalent in Multimedia and Digital Communications specializing in MAYA. It was quite a while ago, and technology has changed, but the principles of the art remain the same.
MAYA DEMO REEL
I excelled at modeling with conservative polygon counts and textures. Video games at the time required strict adherence to size constraints. Learning how to place geometry so the model can be rigged with "bones" became a highlight of the course.
TOMBFALL!
For some reason, after 13 years, YouTube has decided to crack down on my student project video. I'm disputing it.
Tombfall! was the first complete game from the Full Sail game design program. Our team of four had three months to conceptualize and execute a program from the ground up. We wanted English and Spanish spoken dialogue, endings based on language choice, bosses that changed the view to an "Atari 2600-style 3D view" and plug-n-play controller support.
Our teachers said we couldn't do it and to scale back...we blew them away! I haven't recorded the video of the Spanish run through yet.
PROFESSIONAL GAME DESIGN
After NOC, a friend of mine asked for my help in creating a design company. Over a decade before Kickstarter, or Gofundme, we had to scrap money together and search for angel money or investors. To attract them, we tried to crank out as much content in a few very financially trying months as we could. I got the coder who worked on Tombfall! and we learned how to develop cellphone games for the Nokia 40 and 60 in less than 5 months. We had several agents and Disney Interactive looking at us, but they wanted to see a little more content before giving us a license. Unfortunately, we just couldn't pay for life and continue the dream, so Slingstone Digital folded.
SPUN UP!
Actual gameplay footage cut into .gif format.
Showing the size difference between the two Nokia phones for which we were developing.
Another size comparison.
Our company name, "Slingstone Digital" was a reference to David and Goliath. We created a "Tetris/Columns" game with imagery from that Biblical story. The hook was the ability to rotate the playing field, causing really unique chain reactions. There were five background changes and three pieces of music to round out a very addictive game!
RIVER RIDER
Actual gameplay footage cut into .gif format.
Clean line, anime-style character design.
What the characters look like in game. (Enlarged to show texture)
There are all sorts of hidden goodies to collect in the game.
We only created the boy's animation for the prototype.
This is the in-game sprite sheet for the boy. With only 64kb of space, we had to be efficient.
This game was a prototype. Cell phone games at the time were around 64kb and the phones themselves couldn't handle fast or "twitch" input. We wanted to show what graphics and physics we could produce in such a small space. This was a scavenger hunt game with depth of field not common in those days. There were river currents and items that could be moved in the world via the character's squirt gun, which was drawn by the phone, saving space. Given proper time and support, this would have been an AMAZING title.
GUNSLINGER (TENTATIVE TITLE)
Potential threats may just be having a bad allergy day.
Once threatened, if players don't react in time, they will be shot down.
Once threatened, it is OK to make an arrest.
Passersby would develop the story and give clues to points of interest.
Players could choose N,S,E, or W and move to new scenes.
This idea never made it into production. These movies are just frame by frame animations created in Photoshop as a proof of concept. Based on how the phone drew content in River Rider, we were going to see how far we could take it and have the phone draw most of the content you see. There would be less space used by .png's or other graphics formats. To do this, we planned static screens where characters would come on screen and interact or threaten you. Much like Konami's laserdisc title "Badlands" there would just be a 1-button push to fire your weapon and make an arrest. Once a scene was completed, there would be a call for north, south, east, or west to move to the next screen. The game would have played out like a novella.
GAME DESIGN FOR FUN
I'm writing humorous Sci-fi novels that honor everything I love about classic cartoons, anime, video games and movies. One such title is Captain Rad Bud. These helmeted beings are nomads who travel their universe in a giant spacestation looking for a new planet to colonize. An opposing force are the Blockonians, robots who can recombinate junk matter to build their war machine. Some friends of mine wanted to develop a sidescrolling shooter, so I used my characters and came up with some animations. The project never got off the ground, but I think someday I can get it developed in one form or another.
Animated on the Sega Dreamcast's VMU device. I later took it into Photoshop to color.
The Goose, Captain Rad Bud's ship.
The 2D shooter would have a "Z" direction creating a fore, middle, and background in which to fight.
The Collector gathers debris for raw material in upgrade creation.
Blockonian Battle Skiff. These act as feet when the ships gestalt (like Devastator from the Transformers)
Blockonian Spinner. These are joints in the gestalt.
Blockonian Claw. Clearly would be hands when the ships merge.
Blockonian Gunner. These are the arms and legs.
Geomenisis Ball
Geomenisis Cube
Geomenisis Pyramid
Geomenisis Diamond
CONTEST DESIGNS
Creating for oneself is difficult without validation. Contests are a fun way to get the creative juices flowing with the assurance that someone will be looking at your work. Win or lose, it gets
Concept art for a 2d pixel game entitled, "Blasphemous." The game is dark, with twisted religious themes and incredible pixel work.
I envisioned a wooden golem skin for Kameo: Elements of Power. My design was chosen by Rareware and implemented into the game.