Bodycastlive.com by Cedric Nocon

The Yamakasi:vr Race Bike — Track-ready and with sponsors!

Here’s how this baby came to be. From its raw, clunky beginnings to what you see in full color:

Not bad so far. But then it got weird…

Yeah, the idea of an ATV or a hovercraft didn’t really work out. Therefore, I went back to the basics…

And the finished design…

Copyright Cedric Nocon

This is a vehicle concept design for a bike called the Yamakasi:vt.

Below are the initial sketches for the bike. The idea evolved from a weird alien-looking, almost bug-like shape designs into the finished product as posted in full color.

Copyright 2008

This shows the size of an Invader Bodycast suit in relation to its Chitonid pilot. Also shows an Isopod creature that attaches on the back of an Invader and acts as a flight and weapons module.

Copyright 2008

An Isopod creature developed by Chitonid aliens.

Copyright 2008

A Chitonid alien in BODYCAST.

Copyright 2008

My character design for the Chitonid Invader.

Copyright 2008

A photo of my drawing table with more character designs. 

I moved to a new studio space in the house two (or was it three) weeks ago. I’ve posted pictures for everyone to check out. I like the new spot better than the previous location. I have more natural light coming through the large glass window as opposed to how I had it before in the old room where I felt like I was in a dungeon or some dark office cubicle.

Necronids are an alien swarm of insecta-like creatures. They have travelled from deep space to inhabit earth and subjugate mankind.

The character’s name is Enso. This was my initial design for the character. I’ve made a few minor, cosmetic changes to the final design work. Overall, it still remains close to the features and details of this original concept art. A cover art is forthcoming.

The name Enso was influenced by the Japanese word Ensō (円相), meaning “circle.” It’s a profound symbol in the spiritual study of Zen that represents “enlightenment, strength, elegance, the universe, and the void.”

More design work for yesterday and today. Laying out the drawings I’ve done recently and seeing as how I seem to design things in disseminated sections rather than as a whole unit, I can’t help but feel almost like a modern-day, artistic Dr. Frankenstein here. I have before me several design pages depicting various anatomical parts just waiting to be integrated (or stitched) together as one fully finished, drawn figure. I envy artists who are able to produce concept art/design from start to finish with just one figure. They can pretty much start from the head and by the time they reach the foot, a concept character for a comic book series, animation, or video game is solidified with very minimal alterations needed. (Talented b*st*rds!)

I, on the otherhand, can easily eat through a stack of sketch paper just to design a single character. (Poor trees! However, I do recycle. So there.) My method seems to be more driven by my brief stint at studying computer & web programming. (C++, PHP, Visual Basic, etc — Circa late 1999 thru early 2001 at Cal Poly Pomona ) I tend to take a very modular approach to concept art — developing designs in multi-sections and pieces then doing a comparative test before producing the final work. Sounds tedious, I guess. The series should be called Bodyparts instead of Bodycast.

Anyway, I spent the latter aspect of the evening drawing while listening to the DVD of Kamen Rider: The First. ”Henshin A Go-Go Baby!” (Oops, I think that’s from Viewtiful Joe!) 

This whole weekend was spent working on concept art for the series. Not quite done yet, though. I still have a few more things to design and draw.

Promotional digital art for Bodycast. This particular work took about an hour to produce.

I’m using this one as the current headline art for this web site. Since I like how this one turned out, I may just make it available for download as a wallpaper. I already have it set as the desktop background for my laptop and it looks great!

I created a full topographical map of the fictional country where the series and events in Bodycast takes place. This was done through Adobe Illustrator and took me about 3 days to complete, including my research in map making (since I had no prior experience) and coming up with fictitious city names. I’ll have a high resolution version of the map available once the web site for Bodycast is finished. In case you’re wondering the original print size of the map, the actual working image in Illustrator is around 22” x 27” inches!

Here’s a 3D art incorporating the Bodycast logo. Got the idea from watching The Discovery Channel.

Below are images of my design process for the BODYCAST title logo.

[Click images to enlarge]

The final Logo below: