Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Vectorman question

Does anyone know who did this drawing?  I know I didn't do it... I'm thinking it was either Marty or Jeff Remmer.  Any ideas?

13 comments:

Surly Bird said...

Still one of the best video game characters ever!

MrGoodson2 said...

I wonder if that isn't Brian Belfield art. Looks kinda like it. Some of those programmers were good artists. Ron being the best.

Rickart said...

Hmmm... I hadn't considered that possibility. Anyone else care to chime in? There's a guy writing a book on Genesis games who is looking to label this image properly.

Davis Chino said...

I thought it was you, Ellis!

I doubt it was Brian...maybe Jeff Remer? I doubt I'd have had the patience to make such perfect circles.

Davis Chino said...

Oh wait a minute--I just looked a little closer and that's definitely my writing on the top image. That's weird!! Like seeing myself twenty years younger! All the numbers up top...I'm notating pixel diameter for each orb, something that I kept track of for our "parts inventory"...I guess I must have done this?? (I do remember doing lots of drawings)...maybe it's the reproduction that makes the shading style look funny to me.

I am reluctant to take credit for this...over the years so many people have waved their hands in the air claiming "authorship" for the little lime dude (the apex of this being Matt McDonald taking credit--as if!! All he did was suck resources from the team and complain to George that WE were crowding out his pet-projects)....

All I remember is Mark Lorenzen, Karl Robbrillard and Rich Karp(p?) came up with the general character, and Chris (Kris?) Kriedel took a pass on a design that was more child-like...I was finishing Road Runner and they handed it to me...we agreed Vector Man should be a "man"--more of an action-hero type--and I redid him. I started with some orbs that Liz had "rendered" using the $70,000 SGI unit of Matt's (they were something that took me ten minutes to make by hand in Deluxe Animator, but took a few weeks in Alias, such was the state of things--a complete waste and a lot of bunkum from Matt, the a-hole). Once I'd redone the orbs, I designed the feet and hands--all with invaluable input from Mark--slapped 'em all together and animating them. We fine-tuned the look as we went.

Everything model-sheet-wise was done after the fact. We just needed to get a character on screen....

Davis Chino said...

...yeah, that's definitely my writing. The memory of making a model sheet is vaguely floating in the cellar of my brain. Esp'ly with the orb sizes on it.

...I wouldn't be surprised if somebody else took a pass on "shading" the final image...but then, I would be less surprised if that was me, too. I had a different style back then. I got it from watching Ellis!

Tom Moon said...

Is the guy writing the book Ken Horowitz of the Sega-16 website?
You had him contact me months ago about the history of the Aladdin game.

http://www.sega-16.com/author/melf/

MrGoodson2 said...

Are you helping the Vector Man fan guy with the history, Rick?

MrGoodson2 said...

I didn't see Tom's post before I posted

MrGoodson2 said...

Make sure he includes all that Matt McDonald as disturbing co-worker detail.

Rickart said...

I'm going to call this Marty's handiwork.

Darren Wall is the guy I've been exchanging emails with. He had contacted me a while back concerning some Vman art. He may be working with Ken.

Tell us how you really feel about Matt, Marty! Totally agree about how Matt's endeavors were derailing the rest of the company. 3D was just a bit too cutting edge to make sense at the time and it dragged the company down to a place where it never really recovered from.

weezie said...

I'd love to write a history of BlueSky some day and get all of these juicy stories together in one place. Of course, no names used unless you're like me and don't mind blowing up bridges! I was contacted by a writer for a magazine in England who's supposedly doing a BlueSky writeup for a retro magazine, but he was a very flaky individual, so I ended up not helping him.

MrGoodson2 said...

Coming back to this I laughed at this comment.

"I thought it was you, Ellis!

I doubt it was Brian...maybe Jeff Remer? I doubt I'd have had the patience to make such perfect circles. "