Agents of Influence is a light novel game for students, to teach them media literacy and identifying misinformation through the story of a spy organization operating in a secret base under a high school.
Author: Jacob Halton
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Coheed and Cambria
I was brought on to design several backgrounds and moving elements for Coheed and Cambria’s latest music video, directed by Anthony Schepperd.
I modeled the gates in 3D and for some shots, rendered them as 2D with details drawn over them, while in other shots I drew directly onto the model, so it would match the hand drawn look from the 2D elements even when turning in space. I also created a shader that matched the painting style of the rest of the video in 3D.
See the full video here!
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Background Design & Layout
Y2K Cafe
Kamino Short Film
Background Design Lead — See full project ↗
Thank you for reviewing my work. I’d love to know about how I can help with upcoming productions. Feel free to reach me at: jacobhalton@gmail.com
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Prop Design
Thank you for reviewing my work. I’d love to know about how I can help with upcoming productions. Feel free to reach me at: jacobhalton@gmail.com
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Y2K Cafe
This was part of a Warrior Art Camp mentorship to design a themed cafe for 2D and 3D production.
Warrior Art Camp
Mentors/Art Directors: Linda Chung & Nikita Chan
Style Exploration
This cafe is a large, popular spot for teens to hangout after school, that could be in the recent past, or near future.
Scenes that fit the happy but dramatic teen vibe of the overall theme were sketched out to test how the interior could work with that kind of cinematography, as well as give the camera flexibility for different angles and types of moods.
Exterior & Destroyed Views
Props & Details
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Hello Pupstruction!
Hello to the team at Pupstruction!
I’d like to share samples of new and updated work I’ve done since the last time we talked back in November. Here is a mix of props, 3D design, and background layouts. — Click on any image to expand.
3D Design
Modeled and painted in 3D based on this original by Angela Sung
Props
I’m familiar with working between Blender and Maya if adjacent teams need files delivered a certain way.
Model in Blender 
Converted to Maya 
Paintover 
Background Design
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3D Design
Explorations in compositing 3D for a more painterly look, and using geometry nodes to procedurally build a city.
3D Props
Modeled and painted in 3D based on this original by Angela Sung
The grain, color correction, and other post-processing effects in this scene were entirely done using Blender’s compositor.
Motion Graphics in Blender
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Manga in Motion
I’m always exploring new ways to give digital and animated work a traditional feel.
Line & Tone Illustration
Bartkira
I was fortunate to provide pages for the Bartkira fan adaptation. These were all drawn on paper with ink and toned digitally.
Self-Published Webcomic
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Mecha & Retro Anime Style!
This is a private link for just this work, so feel free to have a look at my portfolio for more samples of background design work.
Original Mecha Illustrations
Mecha Posters
Bio-Mecha Concepts
Spaceship Designs
Cyberpunk Backgrounds
Manga Style
This is a bit different but I thought it might be relevant since I go for a retro style when drawing this way.
Older work from a comic pitch
Thank you for taking a look! You can check out the rest of my work here ✌️
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Comic Books
Boké Expressway
Vol. 1: Chasing a Song
Chasing a Song is a trippy techno fairy tale.
Mikey is fed up with the club scene and misses the old days of raves and the music that came with it. One night he hears a mysterious song that reminds him of the good old days and he becomes obsessed with finding it, but his obsessions could take him beyond the limits of reality.
70 pages, full color.
Hazard
Riso horror comic!
One-shot, fully contained story, about a group of college kids on spring break, who go too far exploring an abandoned building and find something disturbing that can consume everything around it.
24 pages, 2-color Riso.
Modifaction
Modifaction is a concept I’ve been dreaming up for a while, about the yearning to break free of high tech society, and the repercussions of disconnecting from a world that requires us to stay plugged in.
In this world, detaching from the innerconnected net is equivalent to revoking ones’ citizenship.
I’m a huge fan of sci-fi and cyberpunk, and I want to create a comic that gives you the same reasons to fall in love with it as the great stories that made me fall in love with the genre years ago.
Brian’s Brain
A ridiculous story about a kid pulling his brain out of his nose in the shower! Gross!
24 pages, black & white.
Bartkira
Pages I did for the Bartkira Fanthology
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Manga Art!
This is a private link for just the manga work, so feel free to have a look at my portfolio for more samples of background design work.
Commissions:
Personal work
These were experiments from a daily challenge (“Kaijune”) where I used 3D buildings converted to line and tone as a base for the backgrounds, and then drew over parts of them to give the background more of a hand drawn touch.
That allowed me to complete these fairly quickly, and there is a lot more that can be done with this method!
Moving Tones
This is a quick experiment I put together to test using layered screen tones in motion without leading to any moire patterns.
Check out the rest of my work here ✌️
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Kamino
I had the pleasure of being the background design lead for this amazing indie short, and worked with a team of great BG designers to create over 50 shots for the film, as well as design the background layouts, props, and guides shown here.
Insert Media Studios
Director: Eva Magaña
Art Director: Alice Jin Zhang
Mermaid design by Eunchae Lee Layout: Yaxaira McNear-Echeverria // Hallway + Props: Mel Mo 
Layout: Erin O’Connor 
With a large team, creating maps and guides were extremely helpful for BG design, as well as storyboarding and BG paint for continuity.
The visual style was different for a specific scene that used many shots, so it was critical to maintain consistency amongst all BG designers about which style they were working in for each of their shots, which was a great exercise in clear communication and teamwork.
