Author: Jacob Halton

  • Coheed and Cambria

    I was brought on to design some 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!

  • Background Design & Layout

    Y2K Cafe

    Kamino

    I was the Background Design team lead for this upcoming short film called ‘Kamino’. See the full project here.


    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

  • 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

    Y2K Cafe

    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

  • Hello Pupstruction!

    Hello Pupstruction!

    Hello to the team at Pupstruction!

    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.

    Background Design

  • 3D Design

    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

  • Manga in Motion

    Manga in Motion

    I’m always exploring new ways to give digital and animated work a traditional feel.

    Line & Tone Illustration

    Comic Pages

    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

  • Mecha & Retro Anime Style!

    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 โœŒ๏ธ

  • Comic Books

    Comic Books

    I love exploring interesting stories and I find comics to be the fastest way to visualize my ideas quickly. I’ve written, drawn, colored, lettered, and published books myself to get unique stories out into the world.

    My work is available directly from me at comic conventions, and also through Emerald Comics Distro at comic shops around the Pacific Northwest.

    I love exploring interesting stories and I find comics to be the fastest way to visualize my ideas quickly. I’ve written, drawn, colored, lettered, and published books myself to get unique stories out into the world.

    My work is available directly from me at comic conventions, and also through Emerald Comics Distro at comic shops around the Pacific Northwest.


    Bokรฉ 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 Iโ€™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 onesโ€™ citizenship.

    Iโ€™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

  • Manga Art!

    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.


    Note: The moire I mentioned happens when using halftone dots on a digital screen, and shows up more or less depending on the different sizes of the screen (as in your phone or TV screen), or it is noticeable when resizing an image with a tone.

    I believe it’s because they’re meant for printing at a specific resolution, and not for digital output where they can be viewed at different sizes or zoomed into, SO I used several ways in these illustrations to avoid that and make it more convincingly analog.

    I’d love to help you with the style you’re going for along with designing the backgrounds themselves! Please send me an email to chat: jacobhalton@gmail.com โ€” Looking forward to hearing from you!

    Check out the rest of my work here โœŒ๏ธ

  • Illustration

    Illustration

    Mecha Art

    Future Fashion Poster Design

    Mecha Posters

  • Kamino

    Kamino

    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 to make continuity much easier.

    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.