V-ART: LORIN WOOD

A massive drone that the player does battle with.

V-Art showcases the talents of world- wide VFX professionals as they create original illustrations, creatures, models and worlds. If you would like to contribute to V-Art, send images and captions to publisher@vfxvoice.com.

Lorin Wood has been a conceptual designer for nearly 20 years, having his imagination first sparked by the work of Syd Mead, Joe Johnston and Ralph McQuarrie. He has worked in visual effects, previsu- alization and animation, but his focus has always been in art direction and conceptual design. His most recent work has been at game development studio Gearbox Software in Dallas, Texas. He is the curator of the blog and editor of the book series Nuthin’ But Mech with Design Studio Press.

Wood does not prefer one particular toolset, so many of his projects jump between analog tools and digital. Here’s a sampling of his work.

Lorin Wood

LEFT: This was a fun commercial. Christine Schneider at Method asked me to design the Loch Ness monster for this Toyota Tacoma spot. Due to the very short turn around, I quickly created some sketches showing the monster’s scale to the pickup, some of the body shapes that might be seen above water, but in the end the main focus was on its head. If you pause it right as the camera zooms in on the scientists, you can just make out a heavily motion-blurred head that looks similar to my illustration. The spot still makes me laugh.

LEFT: A massive moon in the shape of an “H” (Hyperion Corporation, one of the major weapons manufacturers in the game universe) that orbits the planet’s moon and is ever present in the sky.