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

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

While we are clearing bugs and tidying up at work, I’ve been taking the time to review some pipeline stuff and consider the changes required for future projects.

A good deal of time over the last few days has been spent in maxscript again - ripping old scripts apart, tidying them up, collection functions together etc. I’ve also spent hours learning new scripting so that I can automate our rigs even more. This includes experimenting with the roll/twist/helper bones and seeing how then can be made better. As well as changing them, I’ve written a bunch of usfu functions:

• Get the start and end points of bones
• Calculate midpoints
• Creating bones with names, custom tags, fins and colours

And of course building up a collection of useful commands, like wiring and lookat constraints.

thanks go to all those kinds folks at the CGTalk maxscript forums for helping me with syntax and also with other ways of approaching a problem.

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

“Should I got to university, or take the time to teach myself game art?”

Self teaching is great - it shows a company that you had the skills to pick up something by yourself, showing initiative. You’ll be able to learn exactly what you want in a timeframe that suits you.

Having a degree is superb because as well helping to protect your future, it will show a prospective company that you were able to complete a series of tasks and deadlines set by others - and to an ability level good enough to get awarded a degree. These days however there are very few courses that teach you exactly what you need to know to get a job. The courses are becoming more relevant, but university courses have to cater for a wide range of possible career choices, so they don’t seem to offer a direct path to a job making games.

So you could do both - go to university, get a degree in SOMETHING, and teach yourself art at the same time.