I’ll get around to installing a load of rubbish on it, swearing at Linux, then reverting it back to a base install with 1 week*.

*Edit: 2 days.

• Gametrailers.com – Grand Theft Auto IV – Review
  (tags: gta games review)

Do we re-invent the wheel? No, but we might refine it.

You wouldn’t build a pair of hands if you had built a perfectly good set with nice UV co-ordinates a week before, would you? No, that would be waste of time. If you had build a chunky pair of male hands and wanted a more slender pair for an elegant female model you’d simply slim them down or elongate the fingers.

Re-use, re-work and recycle.

As you build models you are essentially building your own library of resuable assets which you should recycle over multiple models and even multiple projects (legal issues aside). If you picked up the excellent D’Artiste Character Book 2, (the Gears of War one), you’ll see how they reuse not only vast chunks of models – legs, heads etc, but smaller parts like fingers, noses, teeth, buckles, buttons, insignia. When you are in a production environment it is much better use of your time to grab existing elements and integrate them into your newest work, and spend the time you saved on polishing it instead.

Technorati Tags: games industry, model parts, recycle, reuse

Praha Skyline at dawn

Originally uploaded by Rick Stirling.

A view of Prague from the Karlov Most (Charles Bridge), Prague, Czech Republic at about 7am.

I used a Neutral Density filter (ND4) shooting almost staring into the sun.

Cropped twice now, I’m much happier with it.

Kikizo, GamesRadar, IGN, VideoGamer, and ComputerAndVideoGames have just unveiled their latest previews of Grand Theft Auto 4, the first major collection of online GTA IV previews since July of last year.

The previews are based on a 90 minute preview session granted to them by Rockstar Games last week, and come with 10 never-before-seen screenshots of GTA4.

I ripped this from GTA4.net

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

After reading a post on Brenda Brathwaites blog about facebook games and application spam, I had a few thoughts of my own.

As to the development of games, Facebook has an incredibly enviable position of owning a massive multiplayer userbase. Games like Tetris or Mario or Space Invaders or whatever are pointless in such an environment, but Scrabulous is massive because it is:

• A Casual game
• A Multiplayer game
• A Game everyone already knows how to play.

Unfortunately Scrabulous may not be around for much longer due to Intellectual Property issues.

What I expect to see soon is more turnbased multiplayer games hitting Facebook, and with the online capabilities of the current consoles, more interaction between the big league companies and Facebook. Xbox Live has recently proved with Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan that some board games can translate well to the electronic medium.

As an aside, I’m still surprised that there is not a full Xbox Live Friends management app in existence yet, something that mimics the dashboard.