Merry Christmas!

My Christmas gift to any/all of you who drop on by... My bespoke chariot for the fat man!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

It's time for celebration with family and friends. And more importantly, it's time for a bit of rest.

My contract is winding down, and I can now officially comment... I've been the vehicle designer/concept artist for United Front Games/Activision's "True Crime" franchise reboot.

Whether there will be any additional work for me in the new year... It's hard to tell. But if this year brings a close to my time working at UFG, I'll know that I was part of one hell of a great game! (And I can't wait for them to finish it, so that I can play it!)

Now for that R&R, and some additional contract work over the holidays!
May you get all that you need, and enjoy winding down 2009!

Much love to you and yours this holiday season, and a Merry Christmas (And a happy new year!)

-Mike

Website nice and tidy now.

The website has been tidied up a bit (www.hayes3d.com), and I'll be adding links to this blog, and my facebook page, shortly.

I'm looking for work again (though I'm still with UFG, but I don't know how long my contract will run). Kids are in bed... time for something artistic!

Black (Box) Friday 2.0

My heart and wishes go out to those who lost their jobs over the past week, and to those who are slated to lose their jobs on Monday.

On a slightly higher note, I've received some interest in my skills, and that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Now I'm tweaking the website, and getting the portfolio section back online. (I REALLY wish I could put some of my latest stuff on there. It's SOOOOO good compared to my old stuff. But every artist hates their old work!)

Cheers gang,

-mike

Busy days ahead!

Well we are truly in the home stretch. Not much left to do for UFG, just some minor design work. It's been a blast. Once I finish there, and the game is announced, I should be able to do a massive art dump.

On a more personal note, my twins are getting huge, and the first little one has rolled over!

Cheers,

-mike

Winding down.

The end of the year is rapidly approaching, and my 2 month contract with United Front Games has become a wonderful 10 month relationship.  That said, all of the content that I am to design for them looks to be winding down by Christmas.  So it is with a bit of trepidation that I am again dusting off resumes and cover letters, preparing for the unknown.

I have a large body of work from this gig, but it is currently all under an NDA, so I cannot show any of it publicly.  I can probably show off some of the design stuff that has been shown in the “ModNation Racers” videos (Did some graphic design for the cars shown in the trailers).

If you are in need of an artist, producer, designer, hit me up.  ;)
I’ve heard that there are some openings out there, outside of the games industry as well…  While I will always love games, I’d love to try my hand in advertising or actual transportation design.  (Virtual is fun and all, but after seeing my designs on the Shelby Terlingua Mustang (NFS edition), and a couple of cars used in TV commercials, I’m itching for that opportunity.

Site is live.

Hey gang,

Site is now live. Portfolio/gallery will be coming online shortly, but I just can't manage to sneak enough time at the moment.

www.hayes3d.com !!! Try it, you'll like it!

Cheers,

-mike

Updates.

Hello again gang...

My prolonged absense is aprehensible, I know... However, I am mere days away from becoming the father to my soon to be born twin boys, and am also pulling six days a week at my wonderful place of work (United Front Games).

I've redesigned my site, and am in the finishing stages of debugging it, before it goes live. There's an "under construction" preview of the layout, currently online.
http://www.hayes3d.com/

I have SOOOOO much new artwork, but it's all under NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement)...
Arrrrgh!!! But don't fret! I'm working with another artist at UFG to get a bit of an internal painting challenge, up and running!

Cheers for now,

-mike

(Oh, and go and watch the "Oz and James" series of shows on wine and beer. I laughed until I cried. Go on and google it!)

Relaunch coming soon!

Hayes3d.com is finally getting a full overhaul... Because I've gotten my business name approved, and am moving to get registered, and my tax #'s etc.

I've formed a partnership/proprietership as "Mike Hayes Design".

Stay tuned for further updates.

(My current contracts are keeping me completely slammed against the wall!)

Congratulations to my other clients for getting their business up an off the ground!

Cheers,

-mike

Snaggle in the works.

Well I was excited about my new contract with an un-named company, but now I'm waiting for the HR department and legal to determine whether or not working for multiple games companies is a conflict. I wish they'd just let me do some work for them. My other employer seems to be cool with me working for other companies, as long as the titles are not in competition in the market place.

:)

Ciao.

New contract.

Hey gang,

Just thought I'd throw it out there, that I'm just inking another deal. 2 jobs at the same time and what not. :)

With that will come some additional funding, which I'll use to create my own company, and purchase some newer software.

Cheers!

(Oh, and if I can fit it into my schedule, I'd love to compete in the "Dominance War IV" which is an art competition between several different art community forums!)

-mike

More fuel on the fire.

Hey gang,

Sorry for the drought. I can't post up any art at the moment, but I thought I'd post up an update. I'm still sluggin away at UFG (Best workplace on earf!), and now have another offer of contract work on the line. Just waiting for clearance from work.

Oh and there's that indie game that my friend and I have been kicking around in the background! :)

Busy busy. (And my twins have been confirmed to be boys!!!)

Cheers all,

-mike

Hayes3d.com got a make over this morning!

Go check it out!

(Oh, and for some reason... FireFox by Mozilla utterly screws up my layout... But Internet Explorer is A-OK!)

www.hayes3d.com !!!

:)

Projects Past... Back to haunt... And fill!

Hey everyone,

I dusted off a copy of NFS: Most Wanted today. Found that I had the "Black Edition" with a schweeeet making of DVD in it! So I fire it up. Oooo... It has the promo video that was shot during the Actors' Guild strike... You know what that means? That means that people throughout the studio did the voice work and stood in as characters at that point!

Now for the early promo, my friend Carlo did the gravel voice over of the bottom ranked "Black List" racer... They should have kept Carlo instead of going with a much less menacing "Professional". (If anyone knows Carlo... Well he projects "Professional" in a hitman sort of way. ;)

Anyways, on that disc was a collection of some of my designs for that game... so snap snap snap... I capped some images, and cleaned em up a bit in PS.

Here they be:

Some new old art...

Hello hello hello!!!

I've decided to post up some left overs from old art tests I've had in recent months...

Here's round 1. Redesign a Ford Torino into a super deformed toy. The client for this will go un-named.

But needless to say, I fullfilled the brief. And was offered the job. However, at that point I had already begun looking elsewhere, and had hooked up with UFG. ;)

The brief also required the design of a hood scoop and a rear wing. I got bored near the end and added a second wing design... And then went Starsky and Hutch with the graphics. :)

Cheers!!!

Sooooooooooooo busy. Sooooooooooo fun!

Hey hey hey!!!

Well again... I've been working like nutz over at UFG, making new arts! HAHAHAHA.
But as is the nature of working on un-announced titles... I can't disclose any of it! :P

ARRRRGH. But no worries. The assets are AAA the game looks tight. And when this thing is announced and out there, I can release some designs... So look for that in the future.

For now, I've got to reclaim some time to work on a portfolio piece.

Cheers,

-mike

UFG is AWESOME.

Hidey ho!

I've been cranking away on new stuff at my new gig. Though I think it'll be a while before I can reveal anything... The dev cycle on this thing is "a while"... heheheh.

When it goes public, I'll have a nice chunk of portfolio work to floss. ;)

I'm gonna try keeping up fresh stuff (non-work) for when the contract runs dry.

Ciao!

-mike

Officially official.

I can now spill the beans.

As of Monday morning, I'll be hanging my shingle at United Front Games, as a contractor (Concept Artist on a temporary contract).

I'm very excited at the opportunity to work on an, as yet, unannounced title. And this should allow me to broaden the spectrum of work that is in my current portfolio (Which has, up until now, just been cars).

Cheers gang, (And happy Friday!)

-mike

Employment rides again!

Hey gang!

Well all of the art delays have been for good reason. I am once again gainfully employed!

Boo Yaaaaaa!

Cheers, and all that!

-mike

Another interview today!

Another interview today and it went hella good! (The particular region of vancouver, in which this studio is located, makes me rethink not living in the city! Gorgeous... And the surroundings too!) Another offer should be here shortly, and looking at the facts, I think it should be the most solid offer currently before me.

I'll spent tonight doodling/drawing/otherwise being creative.

Oh, and good luck to Gabe who is one of the most amazingly talented artists I've ever seen. (Stopped by his neck of the woods today to check out his new 'folio... WOW... Just WOW.
:) The film wold doesn't know what's about to jump up and smack 'em in the face!

Cheers,

-mike