10 Followers
20 Following
50 Posts
Taiwan-based artist and game dev. Follow me before I'm cool, just in case~
Newgroundshttps://skoops.newgrounds.com/
Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/ben_salerno_design/
Eel on Muck's Dead Birdhttps://twitter.com/bensalerno
LanguagesEnglish, 中文

Despite the state of the art engineering facilities at HQ, Hayun was not content to sit and wait for the squadron to come limping back from the battlefield for repairs. Never a fan of doing things in an easy or straightforward way, she opted to take a fighter jet and mess with essentially every function that it was originally designed for, creating a field and combat-ready maintenance vehicle.

The addition of air brakes and VTOL wing pontoons allows for hovering and precision maneuvering at low speeds. Standard machine guns were replaced with single barrel carbines to make room for sensor arrays and what I can only think to call "grippy claws." In the back are sensor-jammers and shorter fins, allowing a better range of movement for the center-mounted cutting laser. The laser has its share of combat applications, but it's mostly intended for making quick and dirty field repairs to friendly units.

All this added kit results in a craft with low top speeds, making it a sitting duck in dogfights. Rather than make head-on engagements, her suite of tools lends itself best to sneak attacks in obstacle-dense environments.

#art #mastoart #CharacterDesign #ConceptArt

#CharacterDesign is fun, but giving a #character stuff to use is a personal favorite exercise. An ongoing series of mine involves designing space fighter pilots and their jets. Taoyi here is a very by-the-book soldier, so she doesn't mod her kit. She could, she's allowed to, she just chooses not to.

#art #vehicle #VehicleDesign #artist #mastoart

Not a secret that #Taiwanese and #Japanese convenience stores are uniquely accommodating, though I give Taiwan the edge for having more of them (the most per capita globally) and almost always having at least few places to sit, relax, and have a snack or something.

Plenty of worse places to wait out a little rain.

#art #artist #artists #artistsonmastodon #artistsofmastodon #city #catgirl #taiwan #conveniencestore

A self portrait.
I'll be on the #Newgrounds #Artist #Fundraiser #Stream November 17, 8PM EST. Be therrrrrrrrrre~

More #Taiwan themed work, "Late to Class"

This could really be any city, but I based it off photos I took in #Taichung . Why do I always put catgirls in Taiwanese settings? Dunno, it's fun.

#art #artist #artistsofmastodon #artistsonmastodon #cat #catgirl #city

Since #mastodon has a higher character limit, I'm happy I can say more about some of my pieces.

It might not look it, but this is among the more #Taiwanese #illustrations I've done. You won't see it in travel shows, but #Taiwan has more claw machines than anywhere I've ever been. I don't even think #Tokyo can compare to #Taipei in terms of machines per capita.

It's common practice to line the walls of otherwise empty business units with these machines, which are usually full of anime figures and merch, sometimes with weirder things like, jeez I dunno, laundry detergent? I've seen that. I'm sure someone can one-up me on strange finds.

Sometimes these 夾娃娃店 just pop up to generate a little passive income while a lease runs out, sometimes they pay for themselves and they stay around for years. Whatever the case, if you like collecting stuff, it's always worth peeking in to see what each place has.

Unlike the US, Asian machines typically don't cheat, they just operate on different rules. Grip strength is always the same, but the claw opens before returning to the drop point, meaning you have to figure out how to use the weight of the item and the position of the claw to fling it towards the hole. This piece is inspired by all the money I lost trying to get a rare #HatsuneMiku figure from the back corner of a machine, only to leave in defeat. Once I get my magic powers, I'll return for it.

#art #artistsofmastodon #storytime

It's not my focus, but I occasionally do #3D modelling for games or for use in my #2D #art .
In this case, I wanted an asset for a #painting, but I ended up doing the entire exterior just for giggles. Messing around with shaders put me way out of my depth, though. 😅

Made in #blender then painted in CSP.

@Curator
#blender3d #artist #artistsofmastodon #artistsonmastodon #illustration

Been having a great time on #mastodon so far! Really happy with the warm reception. At this rate, I'll have more followers after a week or so than I've ever had on Twitter; that's nuts!

Right now I'm coaxing my #artist buddies to come join me here. As soon as they do, I'll be sure to show off their #art and try to help cultivate a strong community for this kind of stuff.

Anyway, I showed some #environment #design and a bunch of #witch themed stuff, now here they both are, put together! Top floor of a witch's cabin.

@Curator
#illustration #environmentdesign #artistsofmastodon #artistsonmastodon

My original job in the #gameindustry was as a #conceptartist and #mattepainter focusing on #environmentdesign . I used my buddy's drone photos of #Taipei as a base for these personal pieces; I miss having time for this kind of stuff.

#art #artist #artists #artistsonmastodon #artistsofmastodon #city #cyberpunk #solarpunk #taiwan
@Curator