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.

• The big three modelling packages are 3D Studio Max, Maya and XSI. I love to use Silo, many people swear by Modo. Lightwave has a big following too.
• For high polygon sculpting, Zbrush is currently the most used, and Mudbox is well loved.
• For 2D texture work, Photoshop is the industry standard, but in certain cases artists could be using Illustrator or Freehand for Vector work, or Pro Motion for pixel work.

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:

• Gmax – 3DS Max Learning Edition
• Maya Personal Learning Edition
• Softimage|XSI EXP

Technorati Tags: software, games industry

A small post to say that I managed to write some fairy nice code that links my joysticks to bones, allowing me to specify angle limits. It all works as planned in my tests at home, but breaks on certain real world hierarchies.

This is something I need to figure out before I post a breakdown of it, but for those interested, the code is available here:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=98&t=563367

There are many ways to construct a mesh, but if you want it to deform well, there are certain topologies that will give you better results.

Just go and read what Ancient-Pig has written in his Ancient-Pig’s basic deformation tutorial. He’s nailed it.

I can’t remember how I found out about this book – I’m sure it was recommended to me. Anyway, I’ve had this book for 4 or 5 years now (first edition), and it is easily my most borrowed book at work. Jeremy Birn is currently a Lighting Technical Director at Pixar Animation Studios, (he’s worked on Cars and The Incredibles), so you can be assured he knows his stuff.

The book itself is non-application specific, but deals with light theory (did you know that red things appear closer than blue things, so you can add artificial depth to a scene just by the choice of your lighting colours?), and it’s worth the money if you simply want to learn how to use a simple 3 point light setup for your portfolio.

Anyway, the book is now in its second edition, with a massive amount of new content, so there really is no excuse for me not buying it.

“Digital Lighting and Rendering” (Jeremy Birn)

Technorati Tags: game industry, lighting, Jeremy Birn, rendering

Asked of me on Game-artists forums a few weeks ago (it seems to have gone kaput).

How long does it take to build and texture a model? 1 Week? 1 month?

Some models take a long time, some don’t. Some come together quickly, and others are a struggle to get right.

The time taken depends on the models importance in the game, and I don’t think I have ever worked on a game where you sat down, built and textured a model in a few days and had it be final. Most of the time your model will have to be altered (for artistic, animation or technial reasons), and in almost all cases you’ll need to have the assets approved, often by several people. You always revisit to adjust and polish geometry (often for deformation), texture maps, shader values, rigging, skinning.

I could build a game ready 5k model then unwrap it, texture it with diffuse, specular and normal maps, then rig its body and face in a week. If I was building it by reusing and changing a head from one model, a torso from another, legs from another I could probably construct two a week. These would be good enough to go into a game, but would still require more work – but spending a month on a model isn’t necessarily the best option. Spending 4 weeks on it would be a better use of time.

But 4 weeks and a month are the same thing, are they not?

Spending a month on one asset is quite boring. How about spending a block of 2 weeks on it, then another week a few months later adjusting it, then a few months later going back for a week of polishing? That’s a much more likely scenario – and in my opinion it’s also a more effective method that a solid 30 days non-stop.

Technorati Tags: game industry, how long does it take to build a model?

SKU – Stock Keeping Unit

I few years ago when working at another company, we got emails from management telling us how well we were doing – “And we will be releasing XXX on 4 SKUs”. I had no idea what a SKU was, I asked, and was told it was Stock Keeping Unit. Right, but what does that really mean?

It’s basically a barcode – something that makes it easy for shops to track different versions of the same product.

SKU – Games: game, per platform, per packaging.

If you were to release a game on the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, that would be 2 SKUs. If you were to release it on the PC as a standard
edition and a deluxe edition, that would be 2 SKUs. It’s the same product (more or less), but just gets tracked differently.

Now, I’m also assuming that region releases get their own SKUs too, so an NTSC and a PAL release count as 2 SKUs, but I can’t confirm that. However it works, I’ll still be buying Skate next week.

A common question asked of me, and of many others on various game art websites from people considering or wanting a career making games is “How much should I be earning?”

The answer is rarely directly given – for one thing it is such a subjective area (experience and location are just two factors), and secondly it’s never been considered polite to disclose how much you make – this is true in many vocations.

So why is it so hard to give a figure? It depends on too many factors – your experience, your age and your previous salary all matter (as well as how well you do in the interview, and how much you ask for), the location of the company (a higher cost of living generally means a compensatory increase in salary), and how well the company is doing (if they have limited cashflow, they don’t want to spend it on you). You also have to take into account other benefits you may or may not get – will you get bonuses? Are they one off completion bonuses, or linked to sales? Will you get health insurance? Life insurance? A pension?

So again you ask, how much will you make? Game Developer Research might be a good place to start – they do a yearly census to try and get as much information as possible. Gamasutra also published the results of the 2006 survery online.

The 2006 average for artists was $65,107, again basically flat on 2005, though average salaries of experienced lead artists and animators rose the most. The game designers’ average was $61,538, with salaries scaling within a $5,000 range over the last 3 years over all experience levels.

In other categories, production personnel in America had an average salary of $77,131 in 2006, Q/A’s average decreased to $37,861, the average audio employee was paid $69,935, and business & legal personnel came out on top with an average $95,596 salary last year.

As for the regional variations for the survey, which polled 5,600 readers of Game Developer magazine and Gamasutra.com and attendees of Game Developers Conference, California had the top worldwide average salary for game professionals in 2006, followed by Washington, Oregon, and Georgia, with Texas rounding out the top 5.

Of course, those are AVERAGE salaries, and are therefore not as meaningful as they could be to someone seeking an entry level position. Those figures also all in $US, and I live in the UK which currently has a very strong currency compared to the currently weaker $US.

So again you ask, how much will you make? This is where I got out on a limb and use REAL figures for two currencies, for entry level positions. You’ll have read all the above and know that there are myriad factors which alter these figures:

• UK entry level salary, 2007 : £18-21k
• US entry level salary, 2007 : $33-40k

Don’t shoot me if you don’t get paid that.

Now, another factor is how much your salary would increase, but that also depends on many factors, such the games you release, company growth, personal growth and negotiation skills – and this is a discussion perhaps best left for another time.

Update from Game Career Guide, September 2008: The paycheck: How much to expect

As an entry-level game developer, how much money can you really expect to make?

Game Developer magazine has been collecting data annually from professional game-makers for seven years, and the editors (myself among them) have shared much of that information exclusively with GameCareerGuide.com for the past three years.