Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I stumbled upon some files I thought were lost to time. These files are all twenty-six to twenty-eight years old and are from my time in college in the late 1990s. I was working nearly constantly and making a ton of art across multiple disciplines and mediums. From printmaking, photography, drawing, painting, fabricating, sculpting, and making full monster suits and masks to computer graphics and animation, I was super busy experimenting and exploring avenues for my creativity. It was an amazing time, and I so wish I had the freedom and time to pursue art like that again.

Today, I want to share some of the 3D models and animations that I worked on. Most of the files I found are inert. The software to access them has been gone for over twenty years, and I do not think there is much hope for them. That said, there were some still images, renders, and a handful of (VERY DARK) video files. It is not much, but it is something to show for my work and time.

I was creating a small spaceport on a barren planet that involved a series of environments, clues, and puzzles that you had to overcome to move through the complex. The most fleshed-out area was the starting room, where you have just entered. You could look around the room and interact with some of the items, like a holo display and two doors. To start things off, here is a look at that first room.

I did mention that everything was very, very, very, very dark. At the time when these were made, they were not this dark. Well, likely they were, but all of our equipment at the time was extremely bright and thus gave a false impression of how these actually looked. To be honest, I was playing with light a lot with these, where the light, sound, and effects did a lot of the heavy lifting.

As I have said many times now, these are all very dark, but I hope you can look past that and see what I was working towards. I wish more of the files were recoverable; I did so much work on this. I was really happy with my cargo ship designs. It was like a massive frog and had a working cargo door, cargo bay with detail, working stabilizer legs, and more. It wasn't going to win any design awards, but it was the early stages of my design aesthetic taking form. And I think it looked cool. If I am ever able to access the inert files, I will be sure to share them here.

That's all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog. See you back here on Friday! Until then... 

 For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability, head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com

Something a little different today on the blog, I have mentioned that I possess an extensive Star Wars collection. The collection has been used as a reference during my work on the Star Wars game properties. Beyond that, it was enjoyable to collect, and I have a small part of it on permeate display at my day job office and in our library at the house. I no longer collect, but from time to time, a piece crosses my path that I can not say no to. Today, I am sharing such a piece that I was able to be at the right place at the right time to acquire. 

This is an model animation cell from the 1985 Droids Animated Series. It consists of a sheet of paper with photocopied line work and notes, a hand painted aniamtion cell that is stapled to the paper, and various production notes in pen and sharpie. While this is, in and of itself, a very unique item, for me, it has a connection to the Mandolorian series. 

While it would be hard to prove, either way, I am reasonably confident that this idea and the initial design was the starting point for the ferry droid seen in the final episode of the first season of Mandolorian. It is known that Dave Filoni had a long history of pulling from the long history of obscure creations and unused concepts in the Star Wars universe. I am sure Filoni is more than versed with the original Star Wars animated series, and when the time came, he pulled this concept into modern productions.  

No matter the history and current life of this idea, I am pleased to own it and will be framing it for display once the pandemic has ebbed. Here is a selection of images of the model cell.

That's all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog. See you back here on Friday! Until then...

My coworker at the day job who supervises the audio/video department was doing some tests with Crazy Talk to see what options it could offer us to quickly create animated characters. He asked if I had any monster drawings available to test on and I was all too happy to provide some. A very short time later this was happening...


In a couple of clicks the program added the eyes and teeth and after rigging the mouth it handles all the lip sync on the fly. These two segments of audio are built into the program but I understand it will sync to your own recordings. The program creates the 3D illusion and I have to say that for an off the shelf program I am impressed. Unfortunately, at the day job we will not be doing any animated demons anytime soon, but it could be a resource to have. If only we had this eight years ago...

If you were wondering what this drawing is from, it is my Cyvus Vail redesign from 2011. Vail was originally created for the Angel TV show 10 years ago...


That is all for another exciting week on the blog, see you back here on Monday for... DRAGONS! Until then...

Last week's posting schedule was off so if you missed anything make sure you check out the ceiling tile, Ankheg wallpaper, and Oso de la Fez.

Last week marked some endings and beginnings. Some of you may know I finished a project I have been working on for the last 6 months. I have been talking about this project off and on for a while now, I call it "my other work" and have featured some of the graphics I have created for it. Well, 1145 graphics and copious revisions later, the project is done and will be going live for use today (just between you and me I would not be surprised if I get some more revisions any moment now).

As this project ends other begin. I have some card art and black and white book illustrations gearing up in the sketch phase. There is also a dragon I am planning on having finished for Friday that some of you might be working on as well *cough* ArtOrder *cough*. Lastly... there is Comic Con. I will be attending the San Diego Comic Con July 22 - 26 and I am way behind in getting ready. If you will be attending SDCC try to find me and say 'hi', I will be free roaming so it might be hard. There will be more details on that as we get closer.

Here are some graphics from the project I just finished, they dealt with exterior threats to child care homes and facilities:

I am on the last big push to complete the child safety course I have been working on for several months. This last section deals with non-fire natural and man made disasters and emergencies. Here are several graphics dealing with tornadoes and heavy storms. I really enjoyed the tornado section, it allowed me a small bit of destructive fun.





That's all for now. I have been super busy on gaming projects, but unfortunately I can't show that work off until it is published.

I have to deal with some sensitive subject matter with my graphics from time to time and it can be a fine line between what is appropriate and what is over the line. I am currently working on a course dealing with child safety with an emphasis on fire safety and that has led to some graphical problem solving. How best to depict the real threat of the fire is smoke which can be very deadly? Should I actually show a child on fire?



I have also had to address the abuse of children in the courses I create graphics for. This subject matter by far trumps anything dealing with fire or safety.

I couldn't make up my mind with what to post today. I had first thought to post some more designs and variations from my work on Dreamblade, but that work is now several years old. I have new gaming related work, but most of that can't be shown, and what I can show will be out of context, so that didn't feel right. Then it hit me, it is right in front of me, literally!

How about some selections from that OTHER stuff I work on. You might remember I posted some of this work back in March. I am currently illustrating and animating an online instructional course that addresses the issues and concerns of child safety in child care homes and facilities. You might think this is a far cry from things that come from... Dungeons... or live near... Dragons, but you might be surprised.






In all seriousness, I create hundreds of images for this client and I take the work I do for them extremely seriously. But if we can't laugh at ourselves...

When I answer people's questions about my job with, "I make monsters", I sometimes get some blank stares. I have to then follow up with, "I make monsters and I do a lot of instructional animations". When that does not work I ask if they ever watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the conversation can continue. My instructional animations are pretty straight forward. They are targeted to the operators of Child Care Homes and Facilities and cover topics and idea relevant to those setting.