Raising A Rukus
Mission: To design the environments and props of the world of Rukus.
Raising A Rukus tells the story of Jonas and Amy, a pair of bickering twins who are swept away into a wild adventure with a mix of kid-friendly action, dinosaurs, loving parents and an adorable, charismatic dog named Ruckus.
VR Game (2017)
Executive Producer | Steven Spielberg
Directors | Robert Stromberg & Josh Wassung
Art Direction & Illustration | Me
Development | The Third Floor & VRC
Youtuber’s Playthrough
You can find different playthroughs from different people online. It’s rewarding to hear everyone’s reactions.
The Home Neighborhood
The story begins on a peaceful, snowy morning in surburbia. The shot starts with the camera moving slowly towards the little yellow house amongst all the grand mansions.
Opening Scene The camera slowly zooms into the top floor of the little yellow house.
Designing Home & Surroundings To make it easier on the teams when building assets, I create detailed sketches to help reduce ambiguity.
Cel-Animation No.1 At times, I’ll make cel-animations to explain moments more clearly.
Cel-Animation No.2 I find this method to be extremely helpful when conveying more elaborate scenes.
3D Animation
Other times, I’ll create rough 3D animations to further supplement the cel-animations.
Crystal Caves
Covering the walls are colonies of bioluminescent life—giving the cave a calming, blue-green glow. The flora and fauna here resemble those from the deep sea as no sunlight reaches these caves.
Crystal Caves The walls pulse with an eerie yet alluring glow.
Leaf From Above
Feather Dusters
Aurora Crystals
Moon Pools
Ground Debris
Cotton Crystals
Pixie Wands
Plate Shroom
Crystal Falls
Years and years of mineral deposits pouring from the cave entrance has created this wondrous cascading waterfall.
Crystal Falls The kids are washed out from inside the mountain and exit through the mouth of the skull.
Check For Harmony To see if the assets visually work together, I’ll sometimes paint little vignettes of them to test if they harmonize.
Dingleberries
Curled Fern
Ancient Bayan
Stinkhorn Shroom
Spoon Plant
Star Palm
Drummer's Mallet
White Dwarves
Fire Weed
Common Palm
Sweet Wheats
Strawberry Evergreen
Giant's Club
Seuss Palm
Crown Of Thorns
Potato Lily
Water Pineapple
Lake Shoreline
Plants here show off their vibrant colors due to the types of minerals from the lake water. Lake minerals intensify the plants' colors, enhancing their survival by increasing their toxicity.
Shoreline
Sunset Dish
Almond Bush
Arcangel
Armored Bush
Nitty Kitty
Onion Worms
The Ravine
Long ago, this area was carved out by water erosion. What remains now is a dry, deep river bed littered with remains of animals and footprints.
The Ravine
The Stegosaurus Arch
Lit by a path of fireflies, this area begins the graveyard of the dinosaurs as we descend deeper down the world.
Stegosaurus Arch It doesn't look friendly up ahead for the kids.
Design Process Working with the 3D team to layout the space before I sketch over it.
Blood Grass
Dead Man's Arm
Dead Man's Arm
Lava Toilet & Dead Forest
Rivers of magma underneath the surface has caused the ground to collapse, revealing a swirling lake of lava below. The air above shimmers with heat.
Lava Toilet Super hot magma with an attitude.
Dead Forest Everything in this area has been scorched by the heat, if not the lava itself, leaving only the skeletal remains of life.
Blue Grass
Wild Dandelion
Blue Palm
The Finale
One of the most dangerous and aggressive areas of the world due its highly active and volatile geothermal activities.
Home Of The Brontosaurus A towering beast amongst steam awaits.
Sinking Island The kids run up a dangerous path that's splitting apart with every second.
Plant Index To Establish Scale
Rukus’s world is filled with prehistoric plants of all varieties. For me, understanding the formation of each area is crucial, as it reveals the living conditions and evolutionary history of the plants. Often, I’ll create a diagram like the one below to help me see a line-up of the world’s plants and their scale relative to one another.
All Plants The two white specs you see at either ends are the kids! Just imagine the size of these plants!