LEGO Universe
I had the privilage of concepting, designing and building the first playable prototype of LUPS Station. The Lego LUPS team had spent a year plus trying to figure out what "it" was.
My 3rd week at work I pitched to the CEO & supervising teams and they selected my direction to build from. It was fantastic to see evelotion of a level design.
We rode scooters to meetings, played basketball in the gym & played with endless supplies of Lego Bricks. Great fun!
LEGO LUPS Station aka Starbase 3001
Quick roughs to plan out LUP station
I imagined part of the station looking like a mix between an airport terminal & basketball stadium. Large screen TVs, destinations on display, a cafe to meet others from around the galaxy and a giant showcase display in the center of the station.
I unfortunately didn't save images from the playable demo, however I do have some progress screen shots of the station as I was modeling it in Maya.
The cafe idea and the monetization aspect was a bit ahead of our time. We knew we wanted to offer something to the players, just not sure where. LUPs Station was a perfect opportunity.
Even though a lot of the design was changed (for the better) you can still see a lot of the influences my original design had on the final station. It was so cool to see my first level come to life!
This was a test I worked on with the FX artists to see if our game engine could handle a shader allowing see-through 3D objects.
Exterior of the station. Players would land outside & make their way inside for mini challenges or explore new worlds.
In my original pitch I had blue holograms displayed that would show different characters or set pieces on display from each world.
Robot City on display inside the Starbase. Due to shader issues, we dropped the hologram look. Still turned out great!
the biggest visual improved upon from my pitch was the large screen TV's showing off the other worlds.
I animated & rigged that pink dragon the players would talk to.
Character & Creature Animator
3D Animator
During my time working on LEGO Universe I would rig and animate tons of unique characters. I worked specifically with the LUP team working with players bringing their creations to life.
LEGO Balloon Animal
This was technically challenging as the rig for the balloon animals and hand constratints wouldn't work with the game engine. One of the last animations I created while working on Lego Universe.
LEGO REEL
Not intended to be a demo reel, just a compilation of all the work I've done while working on Lego Universe. I rigged & animated unique creatures & characters.