Leith B&W Series-4
Originally uploaded by Rick Stirling.
Whilst off, I took the camera to Leith docks again, even though I felt that I had totally exhausted that area. I used a neutral density filter to add some darkness into the scene and shot in black and white all afternoon.
I wish that Adobe Lightroom had a good facility to add film grain to images, at the moment I have to export them to Photoshop to add that.
How do you manage to find time to keep up to date with modeling techniques, new programs, etc?
This was a question from Game Artist Forums - since the technology is constantly changing, and software is always evolving, how do you stay up to date?
Just reading various sites on the net can keep you to date with new games and their engines, tools and other other tech, and hanging around forums (such as Polycount) will keep you fairly up to date with what is new out there. Looking at other peoples posted artwork will point you towards techniques that may not always be new, but perhaps cover something you’ve never considered.
As for actually sitting down and learning new techniques, or trying to put into practice something that you have spotted online, I occasionally do this at home, but to be honest a lot of this happens at work. When we got Zbrush at work a few years ago we all just sat down and played with it - looked at tutorials on the net and simply got tore in. We learned off one another, someone would ask “Does anyone know a good way to this?”. More often than not my home learning is down to seeing interesting art on the internet.
You don’t need to know a package inside out to use it - I don’t know Maya these days, I’ve never used XSI, but if I got a job where I had to use either of those packages I’d probably be up and running within a few days. The only major difference is the interface, the rest is pretty much the same from package to package. When we got a trial of Mudbox, we were creating things in minutes because we knew Zbrush.
Learning on the job is something that just happens as a matter of fact.
Now, if you are making (for example) Playstation 2 or Nintendo DS assets day to day, then you most likely wont be learning highpoly sculpting and DirectX shaders on the job, and you’ll have to put in the effort to learn it outside your normal daily tasks - though you can easily hack away 30 minutes over a lunchbreak.
Technorati Tags: games industry, software
A common question on many internet forums every few weeks is “I want to get started game modelling, and I’m wondering what modelling program I should get? Which one is the best? Which ones are used to make games?”
I could bypass the entire post by simply directing you to a thread on the Polycount forums, Suggestions For Programs, but I’m going to give a concise overview of what is used in the games industry and what your realistic choices are.
The second question is easiest - there is no best. There are a few packages out there, then all have pros and cons, zealots and detractors. Most of them are expensive, but several offer 30 day demos or even free learning editions.
Which ones are used to make games? Lots of them, so I’ll combine questions 1 and 3.
Since you are just looking to dip your toes into the water of modelling, you don’t want to spend money, so the best thing to do is to download either a free package, one of the 30 day trial packages, or one of the free learning editions, so I”l leave links to the demo versions of the big 3:
Technorati Tags: software, games industry
Previously, I’ve explained that it is very difficult to answer the question “How many polygons should I be using in a character/vehicle/environment?” This doesn’t stop the question being asked however, so I thought I’d approach it in a different way - how many polygons have other games used?
By listing the game, the hardware it runs on, and any art information I could find, I hope that this will be a good starting point as to suitable polygon counts and texture sizes. Ideally I’d like to list as many games as possible, from different genres and platforms.
This is very much a work in progress, and if you haven’t read my previous thoughts on the “How many polygons?”, I suggest you do check it out.
So, I’ll warn casual readers again - the number of polygons used don’t matter if they are not used well. This is simply a technical markerpost to try and identify what certain games used on certain hardware at a certain time. Supposedly Halo 2 used less polygons for Masterchief than Halo 1, and I’ve heard that Call of Duty 4 used less polygons for the character models that CoD2 did - I suspect this will due to relying more heavily on normal mapping to create the details.
Please feel free to add QUALIFIED information in the comments, or drop me an email with information that you think deserves to be here..
Technorati Tags: polycount, how many polygons
A year ago, Polycount and CGChat had a game art competition to build a futuristic War General - The Dominance War. One year on, and the sequel is here.
I’ve not decided if I’ll enter yet. Hmm.
Inspired by a thread on Polycount about being an organised artist, I decided to post my tips there and here.
If you have any other suggestions on how I could become more organized and efficient in producing cg work, I would be much obliged.
Some general art tips:
A few other computer workflow tips:
Whilst browsing Polycount, dishing out advice with my uncalibrated moral compass, I stumbled upon a link to 3dCreature. You should pop along to it for a good look.
This website is aimed at being a quick stop-over for digital artists to check out cool art and update themselves on news that matter. The content on this site is mostly tailored towards character art. You can also find news about the games and film industry. Let’s just say that the content has been filtered and streamlined so you can surf more in less time.