Artists

I ventured into new territory this week and experimented with creating animated game art. Made a couple of lanterns that might work in RPGs or other things. One is an old style hand-held one…the other might work for a street or attached to a tavern or inn. Both shimmer with an amber glow. You’ll find them here:

https://soundimage.org/art-glass-objects/

I also created a treasure chest (with a couple of variations) that might come in handy. They are here:

https://soundimage.org/art-gems-and-coins/

Feel free to edit as needed.

Enjoy!

I opened a new page this week that has templates for maps. They might be handy for treasure maps, game world maps, etc. Just add graphics and text.

You’ll find them here:

https://soundimage.org/art-map-templates/

Feel free to edit as needed.

Enjoy!

Happy Saturday!

I’ve created some new island backgrounds that might be nice in visual novels, games, or other things.

They are here:

https://soundimage.org/art-backgrounds-nature/

Please feel free to edit as needed.

Have a good weekend!

Happy Sunday everyone!

I’ve started experimenting with creating pixel art-style objects. You’ll find them here:

ART – Glass Objects

https://soundimage.org/art-glass-objects/

ART – Space

https://soundimage.org/art-space/

As always, feel free to edit as needed.

Cool new textures are on their way tomorrow.

Happy Saturday everyone!

More experimenting with pixel art-style objects here:

ART – Glass Objects

https://soundimage.org/art-glass-objects/

Please feel free to edit as needed.

More new music is on is on its way. For daily updates as I release new tracks, follow me here:

https://www.facebook.com/people/Eric-Matyas/100017638394276

Have a good weekend!

Hey guys,

I’ve created some new nighttime urban backgrounds that might look atmospheric in visual novels, interactive comics or other kinds of games. You’ll find them here:

ART- Backgrounds – Urban
https://soundimage.org/art-backgrounds-urban/

Feel free to edit / modify as needed.

Enjoy!

Greetings everyone,

Brand new backgrounds are ready for your projects here:

ART- Backgrounds – Nature
https://soundimage.org/art-backgrounds-nature/

ART – Backgrounds – Ruins
https://soundimage.org/art-backgrounds-ruins/

As always, feel free to edit and modify as needed.

Have a great weekend!

Greetings everyone,

Continuing my mad experiments with various game art styles, I’ve got some pixel art planets and space rocks here:

ART- SPACE
https://soundimage.org/art-space/

They live toward the bottom of the page, so make sure to scroll down.

As always, feel free to edit and modify as needed.

Enjoy!

Hey guys,

More experiments with various game art styles. I’ve got some pixel art-style map templates here:

ART- MAP TEMPLATES
https://soundimage.org/art-map-templates/

You’ll need to scroll down to the bottom of the page.

It was suggested to me that they might also be useful as backgrounds. Feel free to edit and modify as needed.

Btw, if anyone happens to have kids (or know someone who does) I’ve created a learning series that teaches them environmental stewardship in a fun way through stories and characters. It was my first try at making films with a DSLR…(they can be very challenging to work with in the field)…but I think the films came out pretty well. The organization I made them for was very happy with them and uses the films all the time…hopefully others can benefit from them as well. Please feel free to share with teachers, family, friends or anyone you know who might find them useful.
https://soundimage.org/dunes-island/

Enjoy!

Hi everyone,

I photographed a lot of cool textures last week that I'm sure could be used in all kinds of things. You'll find them here:

http://soundimage.org/txr-brick/
http://soundimage.org/txr-concrete/
http://soundimage.org/txr-ground/
http://soundimage.org/txr-metal/
http://soundimage.org/txr-rockstone/
http://soundimage.org/txr-vegetation/
http://soundimage.org/txr-wood/

If anyone has requests for certain types of images, I'll be happy to keep my eyes open for them. Just let me know. :-)

Have a good week,

Eric

Hi everyone,

A whole bunch of new seamless texture images are ready for you on the following pages:

TXR - Brick
TXR - Concrete/Pavement
TXR - Foliage
TXR - Ground
TXR - Stone
TXR - Wood

Feel free to generate maps from them (displacement, specular, etc) as needed. If you need me to create them custom for you, drop me an email...(my email address is at the bottom of my homepage.)

I hope some of them are helpful!

Eric
http://soundimage.org/

Hi everyone,

I've opened a new page of free sky images that might come in handy in your projects:
http://soundimage.org/txr-skies/

I also added a bunch of new wood images here:
http://soundimage.org/txr-wood/

I hope some of them are helpful!

This week's new free images are on my TXR - WOOD page. At the top, I've added a bunch of smooth wood images that might come in handy for interiors. Some have dents and other signs of wear.

If you scroll down (way down) to Seamless Textures, you'll find about 20 "fantasy wood" images...(I'm experimenting with creating different looks.)

Anyhow, they all live here:

http://soundimage.org/txr-wood/

I hope some of them are helpful!

Hi everyone,

I've added about 100 new texture images. You'll find them on the following pages:

TXR - BRICK - (some new seamless "fantasy" bricks)

TXR - GROUND - (stones that could be used for riverbeds, railroad beds, etc.)

TXR - METAL - (both standard and seamless)

TXR - ROCK/STONE - (lots of cool rock textures, both standard and seamless...realistic as well as fantasy creations)

TXR - VEGETATION - (some cool ground cover that has a surreal look)

Enjoy!
http://soundimage.org/

Hi everyone,

I just began a new page of cool Sci-Fi texture images. Give it a look:

http://soundimage.org/txr-sci-fi/

I'll be adding many more images, including skins for creatures, aliens, etc.

Any requests?

Btw, I've also had folks ask about how to credit me for my images. Please simply list me and my website under "Textures" in your credits section...there's no need to identify which images are mine...unless you really want to. :-)

Anyhow, I think this is going to evolve into a really cool page. Hope it's helpful!

Eric

Hi everyone,

A bunch of cool new stone images are ready. You'll find them here:

http://soundimage.org/txr-rockstone/

I hope some of them are helpful!

Hi everyone,

This week's new images are all seamless so they can be tiled.

The first group might be useful in sci-fi games. Feel free to scale them, mix with procedural textures or other images as needed.
http://soundimage.org/txr-sci-fi/

The second bunch are stone textures and could be useful for walls or other structures.
http://soundimage.org/txr-rockstone/

Please note: On all of my texture pages, the seamless images are grouped below the standard ones so make sure to scroll down...(WAY down on the rock/stone page.)

Anyhow, I hope some of them are helpful. Have a great week!

A bunch of new images are ready:

http://soundimage.org/txr-wood/

http://soundimage.org/txr-bark/

I hope some of them are helpful!

Hi everyone,

I've uploaded about 50 new metal texture images. Feel free to edit them as needed. You'll find them here:

http://soundimage.org/txr-metal/

I hope some of them are helpful!

I've just uploaded about 70 new seamless metal textures. All are 2048X2048. Some have a "camo" look and might work well for military-themed objects. Others have intriguing patterns that might look cool in fantasy-based things. And some are just plain weird looking, but what the heck...give them a look. Hopefully some of them will be helpful.

http://soundimage.org/txr-metal/

(Scroll down...they live toward the bottom of the page.)

More are on the way. :-)

Greetings!

I've uploaded about 150 new texture images, seamless and standard. As always, feel free to edit as needed. You'll find them here:

http://soundimage.org/txr-bark/
http://soundimage.org/txr-brick/
http://soundimage.org/txr-metal/
http://soundimage.org/txr-rockstone/
http://soundimage.org/txr-vegetation/
http://soundimage.org/txr-wood/

Paper textures (for maps, backgrounds, etc.) are on their way as well. Hopefully I'll have a brand new page full of them by next week. :-)

I just opened a new page of paper textures that might be useful for maps, backgrounds and other things:

http://soundimage.org/txr-paper/

As always, feel free to edit as needed.

Next week I'll begin adding distressed paper textures which should (hopefully) look really cool.

Have a great weekend! :-)

Hi everyone,

I've just uploaded about 130 seamless fabric texture images onto a brand new page:

http://soundimage.org/txr-fabric/

Hopefully some of them will be useful for clothes and other things. As always, feel free to edit as needed.

Have a great weekend! :-)

Hi everyone,

As promised, I've added about 50 distressed paper textures. They might be useful for maps, backgrounds and other things.

http://soundimage.org/txr-paper/

I hope some of them are helpful. :-)

I've uploaded a bunch of cool new metal, stone and bark texture images, both seamless and standard.

They are here:

http://soundimage.org/txr-metal/
http://soundimage.org/txr-rockstone/
http://soundimage.org/txr-bark/

I hope some of them are helpful.

Btw, my Soundimage Facebook page has been giving me trouble, so I've started a personal one:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100017638394276

Have a good week! :-)

I've just uploaded over 100 new stone and metal texture images, standard and seamless, that I took at a couple of archaeological sites over the weekend. I think a lot of the stone textures could work well for castles and other structures.

You'll find them here:

http://soundimage.org/txr-rockstone/
http://soundimage.org/txr-metal/

Have a good week! :-)

Greetings!

I've uploaded about 100 new fabric texture images on my TXR - FABRIC page. They are all seamless, 2048X2048 and ready for tiling.

New fabric types include Leather, Rayon, Metal Linens, Dyed Acrylics and various weaves.

They might be useful for clothes for characters, furniture coverings, carpets, or anything else you can think of.

You'll find them here:

http://soundimage.org/txr-fabric/

I hope some of them are useful! :-)

I've uploaded a bunch of new texture images, both seamless and standard, on the following pages:

TXR - Brick
http://soundimage.org/txr-brick/

TXR - Metal
http://soundimage.org/txr-metal/

TXR - Wood
http://soundimage.org/txr-wood/

If anyone happens to need a couple of distressed wooden door images, they are on my TXR - WOOD page as well. I think they look really cool. As always, feel free to edit as needed.

Btw, fur images on on their way...stay tuned! :-)

50 or so new metal textures are ready, both seamless and standard, on my TXR - METAL page. You can find them here:

http://soundimage.org/txr-metal/

Still working on carpet / fur / etc.

Have a good week!

I've opened a fur textures page and uploaded about 70 images, both seamless and standard, to get it started. Some of them might be useful for other things, like carpets, rugs, etc. Some also have funky weaves so I included them for fun.

You'll find them here:

http://soundimage.org/txr-fur/

I've added about 50 new paper textures derived mostly from old book covers, but there are also some distressed blank pages. They are on my TXR - Paper page:

http://soundimage.org/txr-paper/

Hope some of them are helpful!

I just uploaded about 40 new stone texture images, both standard and seamless, on my new TXR - Rock/Stone 2 page.

http://soundimage.org/txr-rockstone-2/

Enjoy!

A bunch of new wood texture images are ready, both standard and seamless, on my TXR - Wood page.

http://soundimage.org/txr-wood/

I hope some of them are helpful. :-)

I've uploaded a bunch of new texture images. They are on my TXR-WOOD page and at the bottom of my TXR-FABRIC page, under "General Textiles."

http://soundimage.org/txr-wood/
http://soundimage.org/txr-fabric/

Have a good weekend! :-)

Happy Saturday!

I've added some new fantasy textures on the following pages:

TXR - BRICK
http://soundimage.org/txr-brick/

TXR - ROCK/STONE
http://soundimage.org/txr-rockstone/

Have a good weekend! :-)

Hi everyone,

I've added new images on this page:

TXR - CONCRETE/PAVEMENT
http://soundimage.org/txr-concrete/

And started a new page:

TXR - STUCCO
http://soundimage.org/txr-stucco/

As always, feel free to edit as needed.

Have a good weekend! :-)

Hey guys,

I've added a bunch new images on this page:

TXR - WOOD
http://soundimage.org/txr-wood/

As always, feel free to edit / mash / use parts / combine with other things / etc. as needed.

Enjoy!

Hey guys,

I've added about 60 new images to the following pages:

TXR - CONCRETE / PAVEMENT
http://soundimage.org/txr-concrete/

TXR - GLASS (new page)
http://soundimage.org/txr-glass/

TXR - WOOD
http://soundimage.org/txr-wood/

I hope some of them are helpful!

Greetings!

I've added a bunch of new images to the following page:

TXR - WOOD
http://soundimage.org/txr-wood/

I hope some of them are helpful!

Love the top design, very strong shape and form....would love to see this taken into 3D for a game character - Ishpal Sandhu

Start!
Start a blog and start sharing your art. Constrain yourself to a concept, either one you come up with, or steal someone elses (take a real high level look at Halo for example, and conceptualise that in your own style) - and throw together a few pieces.
As a concept artist, it's more than just 'art' - you need to be able to express why you've taken a certain direction or made certain decisions, and you need to be able to share your vision - and that must of course fit within the vision of the creative director/whoever is doing the high level stuff. This kind of thing will give you both practice, and a portfolio, and it's that portfolio that you take to a studio when looking for paid work.
Another tip, and although not specifically game dev related, places like deviantart are amazing for getting feedback from other artists, and this kind of feedback really is invaluable.

There are some threads on tsumea from others wanting to get into Concept Art. I've found one, although I'm sure there are more. Check this particular thread out...

http://www.tsumea.com/node/11028

Can you post some examples so we can see the differences? Would be highly interested to see them! I think I sorta know what you mean by distincly digital concept art (ones that have so many straight lines and look just too perfect).

the example below is what I am talking about in part at least. I'm trying to embrace the stylised 'brush' marks that the photohshop brushes make and their lack of sophistication with how each brush stroke interacts (or doesn't to be accurate) with other brush strokes and their regularity of shape/weight/opacity etc.

I might have to revisit the topic of custom brushes in photoshop, although they often have the same issues of lack of interaction between brush strokes. I think I've been spoilt with Painters excellent brush engine :(

U can definitely do more natural style brush strokes in photoshop.. the assumption u made with that picture shows ur a little misinformed with what photoshop is capable of nowadays. I cant blame ya, its hard to keep up with software advances these days :)

I think you'll find u can adjust the Flow in ur brush settings to get rid of that jittering effect. Definitely go into ur brush presets and have a mess around, theres a multitude of different effects u can make with adjusting some settings in there.. thats the basics even before getting into any advanced custom brushes etc, which are fun to make, and there are heaps to download on the net, just do a google search. I have used painter in a while, so i cant really compare, which is more 'naturalistic', but photoshop is definitely not limited these types of brush strokes..

In terms of embracing the distinctly digital look, i think its a progressive thing that will happen over time. There is still the stigma of traditional painting somehow being better or more respected, and thus digital artists tend to often try and mimic the look of oil paint and other traditional mediums. I think this is what generally happens when new technology arrives, the technology or new practitioners tend to mimick the certain subtle nuances of the old technology, whether that be the brush strokes from a paintbrush, or with digital film makers mimicking traditional camera lenses, lens effects etc. even though these 'restrictions', or nuances, are not inherent in the new technology.

I recommend a search for a guy named Andrew Jones, he is one artist that comes to mind who is definitely embracing the distinct qualities and possibilities of digital art.

I should have probably qualifed that the example I posted was to highlight detail that is distinctly digital verses natural and not my attempt to producing a 'natural' photoshop brush. The question I'm raising is whether this obviously digital detail is more or less satisflying than detail that resembles natural media.

You sort of summed up what I was getting at: "There is still the stigma of traditional painting somehow being better or more respected". I'm a fan of the asthetics of natural brush work and until now guilty of supporting this stigma to some extent (I do enjoy uniquely digital details in other peoples works, but generally not my own! ...and I think natural blending of marks creates a richer and more subtle result for less effort). But it has occured to me that the brush textures are no more or less valid than artificial textures (neither are realistic renderings of subject matter) and i should possibly embrace this point of view to a greater extent.

...urrr does any of that make sense?

Ive found i prefer Corel Painter to Photoshop when it comes to trying to replicate traditional sort of painting (hence the name of the Corel program i guess, heh). So it might be worthwhile having a look at that if you're finding you're not liking Photoshop for that stuff.

edit: In reading your second reply it seems you might already have been using Painter previously...

Yes I have Bozza, I've been using Painter for a couple of years now as my preferred tool for digital painting. I intially tried it because of the rotate canvas feature (super handy for sketching) but kept using it because the subtley of the paint interaction is really really excellent, far more complex than Photoshop's brush/canvas interaction.

I'm (unfortunately) consolidating my software suite and looking at phasing Painter out of my tool kit. I can do illustration with Photoshop but I can't do graphics with Painter, so Adobe Suite has won. Photoshop just implemented rotate canvas too, last nail in the coffin for that decision!).

That of course means I need to reaquaint myself with Photoshop as an illustration tool and set it up for that purpose again, which brought me to ponder: are the non-natural brush marks that photoshop can make worthy for addition to my brush set?

I think I haven't expressed this question very clearly here though, people seem to have interpreted it as 'Can/how do I make Photoshop do brush marks like Painter?'. Anon did comment that it was likely artificial brush marks would become more accepted over time, which implies they are not there yet, but was at least answering my question.

...On the off chance that anyone has read this far, and to move the train of thought along, does any one have examples of artifical textures used in digital painting that they think are cool?

I don't have anything, but I'm curious as to what you're up to!

Are you looking to work in the mobile games field?

I don't have an answer for your question, but for low poly work for mobile games, it looks like the perfect question for Firemint. I've been encoding and uploading Game Connect: Asia Pacific sessions to our youtube channel, and I've just done encoding the talk that Ronald Haupt from Firemint did - near the end someone asked about artist jobs there. Ronald spoke a little about the type of CV's they receive that show high-res models and textures which just wouldn't work for mobile games.

Just a little bit of trivia for you, I remember way back in 98 or 99 when Tantalus was advertising for an artist opening on their website. You had to model a car using less than 200 polygons! Back then they had the Tantalus guy featured a bit on the site with a comic on him and his adventures. :D

It would probably be good to have some animation on it, even if it is quite simple. That would show that you know where the polys are needed.

Hmm, I think there are a couple of things. Wireframes are good. Models that look like they are going to deform properly are good (Of course rigged characters with strong poses are even better). Multiple characters in your portfolio as evidence that you can consistently perform is good too. Additionally, characters rendered in hardware with normal maps etc will sell you as a person who knows a little something about modern game assets.

Hmm, what is the 256x256 opac in that character?

I would say try not to let the low poly drive your character quality. Those hands look as though they could use some meat, while still being cheap on the triangles. It's a puzzle, all in the art of low poly modeling!

Good luck!

In case anyone is interested, I've just uploaded the Firemint presentation that Ronald Haupt, Producer at Firemint, did which I referred to in the previous message.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=EG-db54v3Ro

Question asked at the beginning was what skillsets Firemint look for in artists.

Well, I didn't think anyone was goin to reply so thanks heaps for your information. I had a brief spurt of time off and made a couple of characters some of which I've posted here, the manchu character I'm not real happy with but the others I think are ok.

I'm working on a new character at the moment that still needs a fair bit of work that I'll post in the near future. I'll keep your comments in mind.

as for the opacity map and whatnot that was for the gun and hat, the hat didn't look so good as the opacity sort of had a falloff on it and blah blah blah. But I will rig this character and and pose him up.

The only question I've asked that wasn't answered was go with the a cat-mull render or screenshot, or doesn't it matter so much, also should I show a Hi-rez versions of a character which of course will make errors more predominant or go with a render size that I'd expect the charcter to be seen in or both.... I think I just answered that last bit with both.

Anyway Thanks a heaps, as I'm sure you guys know this is means a lot, I'll get cracking.

Cheers Rubes

Go for flat shaded view in your viewport, 100% illumonation because thats how they are pretty much going to me shown in game. Good luck and keep it at.

Yes I'd second that about self illumination, avoid messy shading situations such as the one appearing on your characters hands at the finger tips.

Some character modelers like to use the old turntable animations, usually going from grey shaded, then wireframe, then textured. It makes it better if they are in an interesting pose. This should accompany front, back, side, and multiple perspective render as images as well, showing that you are not being lazy with the polys.

did you export the obj from max with quads? because i think that might be the problem

The OBJ format dosen't support UVW from what I know. You shouldn't need to export your uvw from z brush anyway. The UVW is on you base low res mesh you have made in max. the hi res mesh is then Projected onto the low res mesh with the UVW.

Cheers

nah i've been using objs for all my work and it keeps uvws fine. i'm pretty sure i helped someone earlier this year with that problem and that you exported the mesh as tris.

Now that you mention it I recall you helping me with that Tej with the last character assignment. For some reason (we still don't know) it was the opposite method than we expected to export it as. I think in my case it was assumed to export as quads, but it ended up needing to be tris? I forget the exact details all I know it was contrary to what we thought and we went through it for a couple of hours. Remember me sending those black and rainbow tri checkered maps? heh.

Tristan, try using the other option to what you've been doing. I assume you are still using x-normal? (which I tried at the time, didn't like it personally)

and yes obj's have uvw's, the modding community would have little use for it if it didn't.

ah yeah thats right, i knew it was someone. its normal odd for you to need help with anything as well.

thanks but none of that is much help sadly :'( for the mean time I'll be finishing sculpting my landscpe in zbrush almost finished that, then I'll see if unwrappign it helps to fix the problem, I have an idea what my be causing it so I guess we shale find out, I know how to export correctly I even tested it out on tris, polys and quads none worked so I think the main source of the problem comes from I think the channels, or something allong the lines and is confusing my mesh and all...now that I speak of it I seem to remember that obj's can some times be abit finiky with channels.

thanks for the help any ways ^^

What's the consensus with Mudbox vs Zbrush? Which is considered better?

tough question souri, but generally, mudbox 1.07 has a cleaner interface and is a lot easier to learn, you can get into sculpting right away with no fuss.
Zbrush3 has an overwhelming interface and when I started I found the workflow confusing, but it has many more features than mudbox and has better performance(You can get way more detail into your models), you can also paint textures, pose and render your models. I believe ZBrush is also cheaper. Zbrush also has many more sculpting tools than Mudbox.

So ZBrush3 is better in features and performance while Mudbox has a better workflow, IMO.

zbrush is a 'greater' 'more encompassing' package.... heaps of very innovative and cool features.

you really have to take the time to kinda play with them all to understand how powerful it is..

mudbox is kinda awesome as an instant sculpt package..

if i had to choose one i would definitely choose zbrush, as an all in one 3d application to compliment your major 3d package and of course photoshop..

awsome for creating textures as well

id have to agree with you on that, but I personally find that zbrush is a easier tool to use than mudbox and can do more in a fast time period, I do like the look of autodesks new release but I'm not really a huge fan of autodesk.

I regularly run into the same excuse for not uploading new content to my website. I think the ideal solution is to set up a CMS (content management system) so you can create new pages and/or upload content directly from a browser interface. It's not something that I know much about and can't recommend where to start researching it.

Another option is to use a blog and tailor it to suit your needs.

Try out Joomla. It's geared towards that kind of stuff. It's super easy to use and update, and it has tonnes of support as well as modules and templates to use. I'd recommend it for personal sites, blogs, or company websites, but if you're planning a big community site, I'd recommend something else.

http://www.joomla.org

Thanks Souri, Ill take a proper a look at that. Seems a bit technical but maybe once I get it running it will be worth it in terms of keeping my portfolio up to date :)

Yeh, to be honest I've only really checked out Joomla and Drupal since they're the two most well known php cms's to do a big site. Either is good, but they're probably a bit overkill for a blog. You might want to check out Wordpress or something like that I guess (I haven't really mucked around with that though, and I have no idea how good it's with for galleries and images, but I would imagine that they have tonnes of modules for it).

Around 80 degrees horizontal FOV is a common first person shooter lens setting. That works out to being approximately a 24mm lens (35mm film equivalent)

It's a choice for practicality and gameplay reasons... people don't look good shot with such a wide lens, but you need that FOV so you can see around you.

That's why it's important, during cutscenes or whenever, to cut to a longer lens more typically used during portrait photography 20-40* (70-135mm lens) which makes people look more heroic.

sweet - thanks for posting the link Souri.



Just had a quick look through, the book looks great. It is a very generous gesture from 2k/Irrational.

Possibly reasons:

- you turned on use all lighting (press 7) and the vertex colour is white.

- you turned on use no lights.

- I know you said the material was fine but you may have set the materials incandescence to white.



For a possible fix, look under lighting at the top left of view port and change to use default lighting.

If that doesn't work ctrl+A, find material, change incandescence to black.

Thanks for the help Malus. It appears I've found out what it was. If I change the render settings in the view port from default to highest it renders the shadows but moves a lot laggier. It seems its maya trying to compensate quality to run smoothly. No one else has ever seen this happen to them before though?

awesome artwork, very sad.

wow he's stuff is really good.

depends on what you are trying to accomplish and how often you use the product.



Yes Zbrush3 is still an unintuitive interface too those new too it but if you are too use it daily that will soon pass.



And Mudbox does have less features at this point in time but ask yourself, do you need those features?



I'd scour the MB and ZB forums, look at the features sets and if possible get some hands on experience before writing either of them off.



I find it hard to choose myself, I love just being able to get into MB and sculpt away but I do find myself drooling over some of the newer ZB3 features. Hell get em both.

Malus2007-07-24 04:25:40

i was going to post this the other day but the login and password had expired. It's working again now, not sure 4 how long. If you get a chance some of these zbrush3 tutes, may help u to evaluate zbrush3. Wacking mallet and lazy mouse FTW!



www.3dtrainer.com



login: 3dtedu

password: 3dtedu



4 some weird reason firefox hates me, when i try the login WEIRD! use IE if joo have any problamos.



4 nomral map / ambient occlusion generation check out xnormal Killa Dee2007-07-31 04:02:20

Awesome find, ta for that.

At first glance, and try out. Mudbox was much easier to pickup than zbrush. Zbrush seems to do a lot more than mudbox. I would like to know more about the 2 programs and how they differ from each other. Would like to hear more from people who use it daily. Any tips on the best way to start a model and texture it and keep the high and low poly versions. process?
Thanks

For me it's Zbrush. I spent a good while l learning how to use mudbox and then when I brought my model in it had a spaz. Sure, I know I'm a royal noob and had triangles in my model, but zbrush ran with it while mudbox lost the plot.

But I agree that Zbrush is confusing, it would be nice if pixologic got over themselves and realized that a great deal of people picking up zbrush today use it just for sculpting and not the still finishing, and therefore make an interface that reflects our 3d not 2.5d mindset.

I did a talk at GCAP09 which touched on this exact topic.

Basically, here's my thinking (as an industry employee):

Assume you speak to a driver who aims to race professionally with the Ferrari team. He's pretty damn awesome, and because of his skillset, he's been offered either a McLaren or a Ferrari to train in. What would you recommend?

Sure, they're both fast cars, and they both have 4 wheels. But it's the subtle differences that professionals are bound to master, and it's the mastery of those subtleties that make the professional.

In a nutshell: If the industry uses Zbrush, learn zbrush. Seriously, if you can learn maya, zBrush is a piece of cake.

In terms of generation: there's no right way of doing it. I use a multitude of tools to get the best result. xNormal, zbrush, crazybump, photoshop. Its all about using the strengths of each program :)

-Adam Rudd

A vote for zbrush here.

zbrush is the way to go..

heaps more under the bonnet.

mudbox is cool though

Not used Mudbox yet. I have just started using Zbrush because of its popularity. Heard that it is way to ahead Mudbox. Mudbox might me much user friendly, but my vote goes to zbrush....

Basically what it boils down to is features and cost. While Mudbox has the ease of use down pat, it is also owned by Autodesk, who's current obsession is to have a yearly subscription based model. zBrush is owned by a much smaller company pixologic, who not only love and are passionate about their product, they currently offer free upgrades to all license holders. Whether this will last forever, who knows, but for now the $500ish price point is fantastic value for money. It also has most every feature you could ask for. Advanced, customisable sculpting tools, retopology features (much better than max/maya and imo better than having to use a 3rd package like topogun). It does mesh painting, image planes, mesh project, has an optimise plugin so you aren't bringing in billion tri meshes into your 3d package of choice. Haven't really used any of the baking tools in zbrush though, I prefer a dedicated solution like xnormal to handle that.

tldr version: zBrush is well worth the money. Mudbox is too simple and is owned by Autodesk, who seem to want to monopolise the 3D industry.

you could try oFusion

This looks interesting, I will certainly give it a go. While I'm not interested in using the ogre engine, I certainly like the sound of it's realtime viewport.

Thanks

hmmm, not very useful at the moment. it doesn't want to render my textures, even when I convert them to ofusion materials

I just re-installed and had no hiccup's, there is a fairly detailed support forum maybe your bug is in there (I had a similar problem with the default openGL setting). Anyway this plug-in is border line useless for me 2.

yeah I'm still looking at their forums and stuff but it's a long winded process. Everyone else seems to be seriously using the program for game production pipelines, but all I care about is the realtime viewer. I hope I can either figure this out or somebody else has some sugesstions of plugins/programs. I mean don't you find it irritating to have to export/full scene render something your just checking up on? Others must feel the same way I hope.

Snacuum,

Im am not sure clearly what you mean about not rendering textures but is your objects turning out black?

In ofusion once you make your materials. You have to have a light on the scene and either set your ambient or Emmisive settings within the material parameters in the PASSES slot.

Ofusion is only used for a tool as a viewer for the OGRE engine. Also if you are doing high end stuff with normal mapping and stuff.. i wouldnt bother using it. I would just use the 3D studio max viewport normal shaders unless working with the ogre engine.

anyways I hope that helps. I can help you more but i dont clearly understand what is happening to your viewer.

Ninja2007-06-20 18:31:01

I'm using a multimap on one object. Even after I light the object and convert my maps to ofusion materials, as I read might be necessary in the tutorial, the maps dissappear on the model resigning back to simple guorad shading.

"Ofusion is only used for a tool as a viewer for the OGRE engine. Also if you are doing high end stuff with normal mapping and stuff.. i wouldnt bother using it. I would just use the 3D studio max viewport normal shaders unless working with the ogre engine."

in regards to that. I don't give a ratts ass about the ogre engine. I mean I'm not normal mapping at the moment, but I could be, all I want it a viewport or window that will render my model at full spec with all maps running. Not the silly low quality preview maps max puts on them. Of course if max could do this anyway out of box, then I'm being a noob and please tell me what to do.

"I'm using a multimap on one object. Even after I light the object and convert my maps to ofusion materials, as I read might be necessary in the tutorial, the maps dissappear on the model resigning back to simple guorad shading. "

This problem i have never heard off in the OFUSION viewer so im sorry i cannot help you in this situation. I know that the Community edition of OFUSION has a crap load of problems.

"in regards to that. I don't give a ratts ass about the ogre engine."

Hehe same with me but unfortunately some projects i had to use it. Ofusion is just a pain in the arse setting all the materials and everything all over the place to get the damn thing running.

"all I want it a viewport or window that will render my model at full spec with all maps running. Not the silly low quality preview maps max puts on them. Of course if max could do this anyway out of box, then I'm being a noob and please tell me what to do."

Im not sure how much experience you have with 3DSmax but in the preference settings under viewport tab and "configure driver" you can configure your viewport to have at least 1024x1024 texture resolution.

"Im not sure how much experience you have with 3DSmax but in the preference settings under viewport tab and "configure driver" you can configure your viewport to have at least 1024x1024 texture resolution."

Well that's awesome, thanks. It's not exactly what I want but certainly a step in the right direction.

As I've looked around the net, I've seen others with this problem. The stupid thing is, there's no real solution. Everybody (and I suppose developers fit into that category) use an engine for their realtime previewing. I mean we're up to version 9 of max and there's STILL no 'realtime viewer' integrated. How hard could it be to tell the program to 'render everything' I don't care if the computer crashes, I'm working on singular games models it's wont crash!!

Interview Q&A for Pandemic Animator (for reference)

1 To start off with, can you give a brief backgound on yourself? How long have you been an animator,
what made you decide to enter a career as an animator in the games industry, and how did you get your foot in the door?
2 What kind of game related work have you done and any other achievments have you made? Any side projects that you've worked on?
3 Who are your influences and what inspires you?
4 Your favourite animated movies or shorts? (Disney, Pixar, Anime etc):
5 What's most fun about being an animator and the work you do? What are the least enjoyable aspects of animation?
6 So What does it take to be an animator and how does one to become one? What technical and artistic disciplines do you need? Is formal training important?
7 Which software do you prefer to use and why?
8 Can you cover the areas of work you've done in games? What kind of work is an animator expected to do for games?
9 What would be the more challenging things to animate, and what should all animators at least be capable of for games?
10 Which area of animation are you most excited or passionate about?
11 What is your opinion on Motion Capture, Physics simulations (e.g Ragdoll), and other technologies such as automated lip synching
that have taken over some of the tasks animators previously handled by hand?
12 What further changes do you see in the future for animators in game development? Will specialising in a certain area be necessary?
13 What kind of skillsets do you like seeing in a portfolio reel and what abilities do you want to see demonstrated? What sets apart a good portfolio reel to one that you'd toss to the side?
14 What definately should not be put in a demo reel?
15 Are there any other tips you can give for aspiring game animators? Any book recommendations or resources?
16 Any comments you'd like to make to close this interview? Thanks :)

Interview for GDAA president - Tom Crago (needs to be updated for new GDAA president)

What are your highlights as the Game Developers' Association of Australia (GDAA) CEO and President of the last (four?) years?

What major contributions has the GDAA achieved for the games industry during your time with the GDAA?

What more needs to be done for the industry? (by the GDAA, Government bodies etc)

Has the industry changed since you first headed the GDAA? In what ways?

What challenges do you see the industry facing in the upcoming years, and what can it do to solve them?

(Question on Quality of Life)
(Question on Xbox Live Arcade kits)

How was the Game Connect: Asia Pacific conference this year?

What are your opinions on the importance of: original IP, business with the Asia Pacific region, service for hire work. Should any of these be the main focus of the industry? If not, what should be?

Phil Harrison, president of worldwide studios for Sony Computer Entertainment, recently commented that the local industry lacked the ambition to compete on the global stage, and that we needed to specialize. What are your thoughts on his comments?
(source: http://www.theage.com.au/news/games/game-industry-at-the-crossroads/200…

You're moving on from the GDAA to be the new Chief Executive at Live Performance Australia (LPA) next year, are there any lasting comments you'd like to give to the industry?

Interview for Rob Murray from Firemint

Interview for Aussies working on Quake Wars: Enemy Territory at Splash Damage

Sumea interview with local websites: AustralianGamer, PalGN, Screenplay, Ausgamers, Bigkid, and Gamenews

Can you give us a brief introduction about yourself? (name, age, your role at *website* etc)

So when and why did you start *website* (or how did *website* come about)?

What is the main focus of *website*, and what is it that you're trying to achieve better than anyone else?

I've talked to you briefly about the profitability of running a website before, and I've found out that you do what you do for little financial return. So why do you invest the amount of time and energy that you do for *website*? What keeps you motivated to work on *website*?

What have been the highlights of running *website*?

And what have been the downsides and turn offs?

Have there been any controversies that *website* has been involved with?

Where do you see *website* in another five years?

What websites do you visit regularly, and what thoughts in general do you have on Australian gaming websites?

What's your opinion of the Australian games development industry and the games they produce?

Can you give us your history as a game enthusiast? When did you start playing games, and games have been most memorable over the years?

What consoles do you currently own, and what gets played the most?

what issues need serious attention or What do you find disappointing as an Australian game consumer? (R rating, cost of games etc for example)

What games are you playing at the moment, and what are you most looking forward to and why?

Because this interview is part of our belated celebrations on the 5th birthday of Sumea, are there any comments you'd like to make for Sumea?

Finally, thank you very much for answering our questions. If there's anything you'd like to say to finish off the interview, that would be fantastic!Souri2007-06-24 06:52:14

Ok, this is just a reminder for myself so I don't forget, but I want to do an interview of a few developers on general company issues:



The origin of their companies and names

If they offer work experience, internships, apprenticeships, and if not, why not

What they look for in employees



and a few more...

That site is very cool, but I wouldn't consider it a substitute for life drawing

o key

that one gets me heaps, ive been through my entier keyboard to find the button to turn it off once hehe.

i prefer to put my keyboard on the ground and jump up and down on it, dance dance revolution style in situations like that.

Sweet, thanks for that.

good old, adaptive degradation toggle. There are some cool max tips at cgtalk you may be interested in 3dsmax Secrets

Killa Dee2007-05-29 15:29:38

[QUOTE=Killa Dee] i prefer to put my keyboard on the ground and jump up and down on it, dance dance revolution style in situations like that. [/QUOTE] But while jumping you could step on the key more then once and turn it back on and then you still wouldnt know which key it was.

it's a highly complex process of elimination, but when this technique is mastered it speed in pad mashing is unparalleled.

your ninja skills must be very advanced to master such an amazing technique, please take me as your student so that i may one day be able to call myself a ninja as well.

your already a 3D ninja, 176 post each.. JINX!

Subdivision Modeling - Sharing TechniqueKilla Dee2007-05-31 17:20:18

what a train wreck. You think he is going to pay to have it removed?

Whoa nos... That's just... Daymn...

I got a tattoo on my arm when I was 17. Don't ask. It was my design, which I don't mind to be honest - it means something, so I'll never get sick of it - but in coloring it, he WENT OUT OF THE LINES. It's just a simple, black, geometric design. I thought people learned to color in preschool :/