Artists

The artwork on your site is totally amazing.
KILLA DEE2007-05-16 20:44:38

How much are you willing to spend?

My budget is around $2500 for now, but dont hesitate to provide several alternatives :D. Thanks in advance

did some massive research into this awhile back...but yeah naturally, the more you spend, the more worthwhile it is.

$2500 is probably gonna be tough to find something that'll suit 3D. I bought me a D820 Dell, which is more a businessy/multimedia laptop. In Maya, my Quadro NVS flickers abit and if I were hardore 3D (painting weights etc) it'll probably drive me nuts.

I have 2 gigs of RAM and it handles Zbrush quite well (to an acceptable point). Duo Core for rendering!

You could also consider the Power Book since it has the Intel chip and you can run Windows on it. Apparently they are a quite a good all rounder. There's a couple of cheapo laptops you can always go for where you can pick and choose your components.

Search on CGTalk forums etc, where this has been discussed alot. And don't forget ebay. But yeah, I think, for sanity and the fact that laptops can't be upgraded easily, you'll have to spend upwards of $4000

you could get a kick ass desktop with a 22 inch wide screen for that much.

I don't think you will easily find a laptop capable enough for the higher end 3D applications for the $2500 mark.

Apps like Mudbox and ZBrush are going to want 2gb of RAM, a fast dual core processor and a good graphics card to really get the best out of them.
It may be ok for apps like Maya, Max and Photoshop but even they like to eat RAM, just try playing back your animations real time in Maya not to mention Photoshop is a resource hog at the best of times.

A few guys at work bought the new 19" Dell uber-laptops for 3D work but they cost near 6K.

I'm still yet to see how them being mobile (19" mobile? yeah right) is worth the price when my desktop PC which was half that price has all the bells and whistles.

Not too mention I'm still able to upgrade and it doesn't overheat or burn my lap.

If you are keen on a laptop still then check out some of these guys:

http://www.p4laptops.com.au
http://www.computeralliance.com.au
http://www.umart.com.au

In the end it's really up to what you want to do with it, if mobility is more important than pure power per dollar then I guess a laptop will be ok.

Yeah, I agree that its much better to work on desktop rather than laptop, but sometimes when you go overseas, its nice to have a laptop around to help you spend your time :P. Anyway, lets say if by any chance (or miracle, hehe), the money falls down on me, and I would have more than $2500, what laptop is your shot?

I got a Dell- runs maya and max well, - Autodesk and Alias (back then) used Dell precisions for their demos.
I like mine, its noice.

I have recently been looking at a laptop for my woman and well, the Asus G1 would suit you perfectly.

Here is a URL for the specs (P.S dont buy from umart) http://umart.net/au/product_info.php?cPath=162_343&products_id=109173&o…

Check it out, it's a fantastic deal, but the only problem is they are hard to get.

Cheers,

I'm on the polycount side :D

http://boards.polycount.net/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=181630

Im going to attempt an entry, even though I know I am going to get totally pwned like a n00b..... it will be fun anyway..... Ill also be joining the polycount side (even though I have probably posted more on the cgsociety forums.... oh well.... I read polycount more).... no WIP thread from me yet, will update when started....

oooh. im going to TRY and join the CGtalk side, even if that means going up against shika, not that you'll ever see my Shadow coming ;)

Lookin good david ! lovin the green

Being pwned like a noob is fun as long as its the fantastic pro's doing it and not other noobs :P

no, that would be getting pwned BY a n00b..... which is far worse :)

Wish I had the time, haven't done any personal work in months. :(

I was thinking about having a crack, lookin good shika.

I think ill join the 3d total side, maybe   

since its the cool thing to do, I thought I would post a link to my as yet fairly insubstantial thread.....

http://boards.polycount.net/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=183174&an=0&page=…

Posted my concept up today!

Looking good Shane, say is he compensating for something with that massive weapon -_^ (which is uber)

no, no, not at all..... he is completely comfortable with himself, and the size of the weapon is for purely practical purposes only :)....... and he thinks it looks cool.....

I would check out your newly posted concept but for some reason I cant load the cgsociety forums at work :( no idea why.....

no wait, it finally loaded.... stoopid internet..... lookin cool.... those boots look familiar :)GuyBrave2007-02-12 15:49:14

Scale up that sword, hippy.

i have also made a start! fingers crossed we all finish and win a boat load of treasure.

My weird robot dude thread

ugh im not going to finish on time :(

I dont think Im going to either.... stupid work :)

well, still gonna try anyway......

Hey lame-o's! YOU STILL HAVE A LITTLE OVER 3 WEEKS! Game's not over yet. You cant afford to put in an hour a night and a bit extra on the weekends?

you guys can make it, if you try + you could win a t-shirt.   

Check out shinja's entry -- aka ninja (sumea comp 4th place)

very cool

your face is a lame-o..... I didnt say I was giving up......

:)

Hey i came fourth too !

I can finish if I dont have to submit a good normal map :P

render up soon

Hey killadee thanks for putting it up man.

im still putting up detail on that thing. its a ball breaker + work . ahhhhh .

Yours is comin up well too man keep it up.

looks like you get an extra week - new deadline is the 26th
http://www.cgchat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26636

yea i gave up =/

Now that I've secured a job for the time being, I'm gonna try and complete this model! I started a little late and not all that confident yet with normal maps but gonna give it a go anyhow.

http://www.cgchat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26628

Yeah, that's right. I'm opposing you all muahahahaha! :p

LOL thank god for that !
Shika are you still in ? Ninja2007-03-13 08:34:32

yep, I am also officially giving up, but I pretty much knew from the get go I was never really going to have time for this....

I officially would never give up, unless someone told me they weren't giving out free t-shirts.

I have also seen some other ozy's posting entrys, but they haven't posted here like -->shadowbreeze<--

Looking good Savarn, tell us about your new job? (like where and what is your posi) KILLA DEE2007-03-13 17:55:10

I haven't been able to work on my entry for over a week now :(

yay go savarn ! maybe you will finish this one -_^

Yes do tell about ur job, did you have to relocate?

Do you get free chippies, and coke?

Oh and yes Neffy, I am still gonna finish that other one, I promise ... Eventually =P

Anyhoo, I've got a job at a service station for the moment while I'm working on my portfolio (shhh, don't tell them that though cause they expect me to be there for years).

I have been putting the feelers out there atm though, sent off my show reel to about 7 or 8 different places, only got three responses. One saying that they don't have a place for 3D artists at the moment but liked what they saw from my concept art and wanted to see more, unfortuantely once they saw more they decided that it wasn't the style they were looking for. The other places that responded said thanks for the interest but didn't have a position for me atm.

Sounds like you need to refine your demo and resume.

Don't give up, you an make it if you try. It may help to register with a couple of recruiters like datascope, interactive selections, opm etc. They usually will help you with you resume + they will give you pointers on refining your portfolio and stuff.

You can find most of the games recruiters at -->www.gamesindustry.biz

If you need XP, joining a MOD can help? www.moddb.comKILLA DEE2007-03-15 04:18:20

sweet, thanks for the tips!

Hey there is some basic info on this regarding UE3 @ Unreal Technology.

Over 100 million triangles of source content contribute to the normal maps

Wireframe reveals memory-efficient content comprising under 500,000 triangles.

Normal Maps & Texture maps
We are authoring most character and world normal maps and texture maps at 2048x2048 resolution. We feel this is a good target for games running on mid-range PC's in the 2006 timeframe. Next-generation consoles may require reducing texture resolution by 2X, and low-end PC's up to 4X, depending on texture count and scene complexity.

Environments
Typical environments contain 1000-5000 total renderable objects, including static meshes and skeletal meshes. For reasonable performance on current 3D cards, we aim to keep the number of visible objects in any given scene to 300-1000 visible objects. Our larger scenes typically peak at 500,000 to 1,500,000 rendered triangles.

Lights
There are no hardcoded limits on light counts, but for performance we try to limit the number of large-radius lights affecting large scenes to 2-5, as each light/object interaction pair is costly due to the engine's high-precision per-pixel lighting and shadowing pipeline. Low-radius lights used for highlights and detail lighting on specific objects are significantly less costly than lights affecting the full scene.KILLA DEE2006-12-08 01:11:47

Thanks killa dee, the link is looking like it will give me a good idea of tech standards for enviros, including stuff I hadn't really given much thought to. I browsed some other forums and realised it was a kind of 'how long is a piece of string' question too.

haha :) With Gears of War it must have been a very long piece of highly talented string.

Gears of War Environment art by John Wallin

Some more Gears of War concepts

i checked that guy out and his work is so stunning, i thought it was all 3D at first then was like hang on this is a painting *jaw drop* *desktop*

Haha, yeah he rocks.

Maybe a good place to start would be to take a look at Unreal Engine and the emitter/particles system

Also check out Unreal Enigne 3 (sry im like a broken record with spamming that link)

KILLA DEE2006-12-08 04:36:05

Unity does cool fx in the engine. It uses most types of maya files natively, but you have to reinsert lights, particles and probably other bits. The transform nodes remain intact which is useful. Unity3d.com (mac only)

AC

Hey Double,

To answer your question, its usually all in-house particle systems. If you want to make a reel to show off that you can do the job, I suggest faking lots of effects using simple billboard particles with textures you have created yourself.

That said, you can also acheive a lot of effects using mesh and good shaders. A falloff shader based on the camera normal can fade out a billboard as you turn side on- and there in lies the trick.

I recently had the pleasure of using the Unreal III particle system- its really very close to, say, 3dsmax particles.

If you show a reel with an effect, then how you did it (wireframes of the billboards, renders of the textures used), you shouldnt have much trouble.

If I had known what I know now I would have started with my high poly first. I didn?t do too much searching for the proper way to do a normal map I just knew I need a high poly and I needed a low poly and since I love doing low poly work I started with that. It didn?t help when I asked one of my tutors what should I start with that they ummmmed and ahhhed for awhile and then told me to do what I liked best first :P /sigh
I was unable to use Zbrush it just hurt my brain but I have seen the plastic mould effect and I?m quite happy that some pieces of my high model I made separate from the body in max, which eliminated that problem for me. Even just reading what you said now if I had known a few of the pros and cons I would have had a much nicer workflow in the end. Ah the dilemma?s of a student well there?s always my next normal mapped model!

all about pro's and con's, and the fastest way to get the best looking thing -- normally I try and get a single mesh to a middle area and then branch it into two assets (nicely subdividing source for high poly, then create my low using that same base). This gives me a middle point to work from with both high and low so I can get the best asset to use in the right situation. Also means I have a starting point for my low that I can match to my high since I have both assets readily available.

Also don't forget that zbrush and mudbox can be quite handy in moving mid-res geometry around, not just high. Since you can work retro-actively and go back down to subd-1 you can always re-export that and use it as a low base to start working from again.

Wow, my formatting on my original post has gone. Oh well, hopefully its still readable :P



Neffy, yeah I thought that it was mostly likely an inexperience thing. ZBrush interface isnt tooooo bad, keep at it :)



Styles, yeah i forgot to make mention about having a mesh as a middle area. Lol, i hate using zbrush (never used Mudbox :( ) to move/edit anything dramatically. But Im not that experienced in the app so far.

you can avoid that "plastic mould" look by masking and using the alpha grabdoc to stamp detail onto the surface.



the first normal mapped character i made was for a mod and i was asked to model/uv the low poly first so the animator could have something to rig and fudge around with. i also didnt have ZMapper then, so i thought that was the only way to get a normal map out of zbrush



i ended up modelling/UVing the low poly character for the animator then duplicating that model and changing it slightly to work with zbrush. it wasnt that painful and it turned out to be quick. of course the problem with that is the normal map wont fit the original low poly exactly, but it was better than subDing a partly triangulated mesh



i had polyboost for a while and that made it 100 times easier to make the low poly last.

now i just use the really simple base mesh from zbrush and optimise that. i really wish max had a shrinkwrap modifier though :(



- David



shika2006-09-21 02:32:14

Hey Makk,

Shika pretty much hit the nail on the head with the reason we here are almost always in a position where we must get the low polygon model signed off first. Production environments and tight deadlines often dictate that the low needs to be sent to the animators for animating as soon as possible.

Remembering that each day they wait while you build your high poly model they could be making 1 or 2 animations for that character. 1 week late - could mean most of the characters animation list complete.

Having said that, I've used both ways now and Ive found almost ALWAYS youll need a final pass on the low tweaking the normal map and tweaking verts / UVW's to ensure its the best looking character possible, regardless of which way you get there.

So I'm at a moot point with regards to whats actually better. Weve been exposed to similar pipelines involving getting Low's done first so we are pretty comfortable with that method - its pretty much natural.

Weve come to know that method of workflow fairly well and understand the areas in design and concept that will come through tricky or require extra attention, so I just carry that through.

I guess ultimately what it comes down to is practise and repetition with the method that most suits you.

Hey someone/something fixed the formatting in my OP, thanks.

Hah! never considered the animators. Thats what I get for not being in the industry!

At the end of the day being able to do either way (As dictated by production, etc) effectivily is the most important thing, i guess.

even when im not considering animators, i still am just more comfortable doing the low poly first. im not using Zbrush. i make a low poly, in all its glory, getting more and more practise every time i do it, then i duplicate it, and subdivide the hell out of it, making the high poly.

then i unwrap the low poly after making any changes that were invented whilst doing the highpoly, the extract the normal maps in the usual way.

regardless, if i wanted to make a highpoly mesh first, id have to start by making a low poly(ish) mesh to base it off, thats just how i work. so with that in mind, i might as well just make it a full on low poly mesh, as clean and as topologically perfect as i can manage.

we each have our preferences, but i just cant see myself ever doing it any other way than low poly first. nothing else make as much sense to me

That is my exact work process currently, I still have yet to use Zbrush on a finished piece so I find it simpler in max to work like that.

I am thinking the next model I do I will switch it around and do highpoly first in Zbrush or mudbox just to try something different and learn more.

I have read briefly about the poly boost method for doing the low poly and I realy want to give it a shot... ahhh just so many options and techniques to try I guess.

Great thread Makk, My 2 cents, Always try to keep an open mind and be on the look out for techniques that you can use. (like this thread)

My work flow:
-Low Poly Modelling
-UV Unwrap
-Mid Poly then export .obj to Zbrush
-Paint Masking texture for Zbrush
-Zbrush Modelling then export normal map with Zmapper -Texture Painting and Rig

Usually there's a lot of hiccups and tweaking along the way. But that's just me, I'm sure there are better ways.

things may change. ive just discovered mudbox. i suggest you all do the same ;P

Hmmm...The best workflow- in an ideal world... i,e the one that gives the best results is definately build high model-low model.
Fitting a hi-res model to a low res model is time consuming and inhibits art direction, and can ultimately choke an animation pipeline, since work may need to be done over if changes need to be made. If you want control over art direction and quality I highly recommend not signing off a low model before the high- you get a bad raycast and something has to be revised- so your going to edit, remap and re-export. Thats cash bleeding out and poorer results.
I recently saw a project loose enough money to buy a small house through this sort of workflow recently. Not pretty.

That said, the high model doesnt have to have every detail added, it can be about 60 to 70% there, but you need to have all the masses in place- things like where bucklestraps, guns and holsters meet. Studs, buckles and surface details do not need to be in place.

Ultimately though, your workflow may not be perfect, but it will get you over the finish line, which is what counts.

I go about the same way as you except I don't use zbrush, mudbox then I grab the mid poly and high poly change them into .obj then of to xnormal if it's for a character and I'll just end up continuasly tweeking my normal map till I have it just right

I am someone that still exports the low-res into zbrush instead of a mid res version(or what ever should be exported for better results). I am assuming that is why the quality of my normals are not great.

I really want to learn how to do it the mid res way as it may help with more defined areas but I am worried about losing my UVs, or is it that as long as you have unwrapped the character it should not cause any issues? I have never done it this way so I am just curious.

They've resorted to giving it away hey. lol

I saw about two thirds of it (tuned in a bit late). Although what they concentrated on in last night's episode wouldn't have been of too much interest to artists (brain, spinal cord and nerves etc), it was still very interesting stuff.
It was also interesting to see the reactions of some of the audience members too. Some seemed a bit distressed from the expressions on their faces and also the way that some of them sat. Since teh cadaver was drained of all the blood, and there was no skin for obvious reasons, it was a bit harder to identify or associate what you were seeing to as a real person (well for me, anyway).

So you missed the skin removal section Souri? :)

Yeah, I thought it was quite interesting. Pretty graphic but I found myself (suprisingly) able to watch it quite easily.
They concentrated a lot about the movemnt of the body for this weeks show, anyone know what next weeks show will be on?
Hehe, that german surgeon was like somebody out of movie, kinda funny I thought.

Yes, you obviously missed the skin removal part, though, I thought the chisel hammered to the back of the head was also another good highlight :). Quite liked the use of a kitchen knife to do the work with - I don't think I will look at steak the same way ever again.

I think it is probably the best you'll get in the way of anatomy demonstration of the real thing. The second best is the plastinated models that you could see in the background. But the problem with those is that they are rigid, so they don't move, have lost their fluids so various elements have shrunk and deformed, and they have lost most if not all of their colour and therefore lose their detail - what colour you do see, has been painted onto the models, usually really badly.

Next weeks show as far as I could tell, had to do with the internal organs, so heart, lungs, liver kidneys, stomach, intestines, etc.

For those that have no idea what plastination is or just want to know a bit more, try: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastination

There are four episodes:

1.Movement
2.Circulation
3.Digestion
4.Reproduction

You can only imagine what ep. 4 entails ;) Thanks for the plastination link there CynicalFan. Interesting stuff, especially the technique.

damn, I was hoping they would have more about the muscules on the body. Didnt see ep 2, as I didnt think it would have much use for an artist.

when is it on? it seems like a pretty integral part of getting people to watch it but you neglected to mention it :confused:

Monday nights.. Roughly 10pm? I'm not exactly sure, but late Monday nights on SBS.

There is a way to get them all...starting with "T" and ending with "S" I won't be more direct than that ;)

quote:There is a way to get them all...starting with "T" and ending with "S" I won't be more direct than that ;)

Try ordering the dvd from online storeS?

http://www.ezydvd.com.au/item.zml/786927

I think that it is definitely one to add to the DVD collection, especially if your SBS reception is as bad as mine. Not a bad price either at $29.95 for a documentary series, there also appears to be an additional special feature documentary on the DVD as well.

Though, not sure if I will watch it that often :)

I just love the dude himself, Gunter something, the bald head, round glasses, black hat, whole weird antisocial thing going on, I mean how much more can one guy possibly fit his vocation? he's great. Apparently his exhibition is on in Canberra at the moment isnt it? My sister has watched them all and she's seen a doco on him and apparently his father is more whacked out than he is, lives in a garden shed in the backyard and eats nothing but seeds or something.

Anyone know anymore about him?

I think that show is the one that was in Sydney a while back. Those "models" come from a "factory" in China I think. They weren't that impressive, and it seemed like they were dragging the bottom of the barrel for the show - some of them weren't in that great a shape. Apparently bits and pieces go "missing," which is also why most are male specimens. I also found them to all be on the short and scrawny side - I'm assuming that they were all once old farts. Would be nice to see one that used to be a body builder, as you would really see the muscle structure and definition.

As for the man who pioneered it all, well... something tells me that he knows the age old question to whether people taste like chicken or not. Actually, I heard his next series will be called:

Dr. Gunther von Hagens' Anatomy Cookery For Beginners - A new interpretation of German classic cuisine.

Actually CynicalFan we are meant to taste like pork. :P

Since we are generally omnivorous like pigs we tend to take on the taste of the food we eat, thats why you never eat deer from a pine forest, they taste like kerosene. :P

Vegetarians might be closer to chicken...mmm grain fed vegans.....

Funny, when I watched the first episode, and they were slicing the upper thigh muscles. I had this bizarre image of a pork fillet, medium rare, with an onion gravy, a serving of beer battered wedges, and an ice cold pilsner beer.

Hmmm... pork.

I cant seem to draw anything...

Make sure you have the latest version of Flash installed (I think it requires at least v8, but the latest is v9).

I dont think its that, it comes up with some weird thing thats almost like a mini game. Attached is a screen!

[img]icon_paperclip.gif[/img] Download Attachment: [url="http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/JdM/20067913526_screen.JPG"]screen.JPG[/url]
100.91 KB

you have to solve the minigame before you can start drawing
just connect the dots without going over your previous lines - i remember doing that puzzle in primary school

Oh yeah, awesome! :)

I was stuck on that letterbox thing for ages. At first I thought it only let you draw from one dot to another. Bit then I figured it out by accident. I wonder why they put that there with no instructions, probably to stop idiots who just scribble on other peoples work.

That thing is so fun! here is my contribution:
[img]icon_paperclip.gif[/img] Download Attachment: [url="http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/parka/200682483344_drawball.jpg"]drawball.jpg[/url]
97.19 KB

It depends on the purposes of the character but I'd say 90% of the time model them with clothes on in the first place. If you have a good idea of what sort of clothes you are going to do you can still use a non-clothed reference so that you can get the anatomy more correct but once you've gotten comfortable with doing the anatomy correctly its best to search for clothed references.

An example of a type of game that benefits from separate clothes / character model is The Sims or an RPG. However this approach is constrictive in poly count and should only be used if you will have a non-clothed character ingame.

Yep and I would add to that that when you model in clothing you should model in everything. Especially on things such as straps or objects that lay across the skin.- simply poking these through means deformation will cause your details to dissapear into the models when they move. It can be really difficult to skin a character like this.

kingofdaveness2007-03-23 11:10:23

the pinching is caused by topology poles created by meshsmooth subdividing non-quad polygonal surfaces. The worst offender of this is pure triangles (aka tri's). What this means is that quad based geometry smooths good, triangles don't. So, to fix, hide edges on your base mesh to create quad based topology like this:

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/j.i. styles/20067519492_head.jpg[/img]

Ah righto, so I just need to keep triangles to a minimum. Cheers Styles, i'll get to work ridding my model of them (Hopefully it won't take to long!)

Try using turbosmooth instead of meshsmooth - it will run a loooooot faster.

u might have some one come on later with a better answer but when i was playing with stuff like this a while ago i would have used a dumy box and linked it to the base so u can rotate it and a look at constraint to link to the gun and link that to a dummy box so u can put the dummy box where u want it to shoot

um i think u can also restrict the movement of the doxes so it can only be rotated moves etc might help you if im whong well meh i tried :/

Try using an 'if' statements in a script controller to add constraints.

Set up a dummy to look at your target. Link another dummy to this but turn of inherit X,Y (in the heirarchies tab).

Now, you want your actual nodes to be equal to that of these dummies, but with a constraint. Do this with script controllers. Look up how to use IF statements.

IF (TurretRot > 120, MyturretZ= 120, Myturretz= TurretRot)

...for example.

Alternatively play with history dependant controllers- which let you use sliding IK. Its rather old, but you get more access to stuff.kingofdaveness2007-03-23 11:23:15

try creating and bevelling your poly text, then deleting the history, before saving and reloading...

yeah i just saw this toady. pretty damn cool. its a shame about all the ice though, its kinda hiding all that hard work.

p.s cool soudndtrack

modelling? : if so which field?
uvw?
rendering? & (normal mapping?)
animating?

3D Buzz has some great video tutorials on pretty much everything worth a damn.

www.3dbuzz.com

It's been a while since I've downloaded anything, but I'm sure that system where you can't leech is still there (you have to contribute to the forum to download more etc). You should have joined our little DVD service a while ago where I pretty much burnt all those video tutorials onto DVD and sent them out to anyone interested.

I just got these and think they are really good:
[url="http://estore.autodesk.com/dr/sat2/ec_MAIN.Entry17c?CID=194952&PN=5&SP=…"]3DS Max Games Development Series[/url]
As well as detailing general modelling, texturing, animating and exporting to unreal tutes, there are nifty little tips specifically about the games industry. The narrator is actually a professional games developer unlike most video tutes you tend to find. Oh, and best of all, it covers normal mapping.

Also, [url="http://www.poopinmymouth.com/"]Ben Mathis[/url] has some great video tutes covering the complete character modelling process. You could do far worse.

Thank's,

A few weeks back i read about the Maya fundamentals learning video from 3DBuzz and also
read the testimonials and it sounded great. I downloaded the free 2hr intro video and it looked really good and enjoyable.It teaches you Maya through projects,with each project
begining at the basics through to final animation therefore incorporating all aspects of 3d
in each project.(i like learning this way)

Is there a 3dmax video similar in teaching this way.3Dbuzz have a 3dmax fundamentals
video at the same price as the Maya video. Just curious if anyone knows of other 3dmax videos that teach in a similar way.

Thanks palantir for the link it looks good.

LOOM, i'd love to learn all aspects of 3D using 3dmax,Zbrush and Motionbuilder,
Games and FX are the fields i,m really interested in.As an artist i think modelling would
be a great skill to start with because everything is built on that.

Sorry for the worded response,i,m just a newbie.

Thank's,
Sheldyn.

There are a heap of free 3dmax videos on 3DBuzz. Just register for free and go here: http://3dbuzz.com/vbforum/sv_dl_list.php?c=2

are those discreet videos really worth the price tag?

quote:
are those discreet videos really worth the price tag?

I guess that depends on your perspective.
A couple of hundred dollars sounds like a lot of cash, especially for someone like myself (non-working student, studying non-game related course), however as far as education goes, personally I think they are worth the price.

Also, consider that they are a similar cost as other training alternatives; a three day training course or a couple of quality text books would easily cost as much. Personally I prefer video tutorials, but then I?ve spent my share on text books and workshops also. (Which is kind of odd considering I?m essentially just a hobbyist [:P] )

So yes, I think they are worth the price, though if money is an issue you could certainly learn this stuff without paying for professional training. However most professional training video?s I?ve seen are certainly much better then any free training video?s I?ve found.

You could get my DVD ;) www.daveking.com.au

Oooh, shameless plug.

PRACTICE!!!
But yeah as for the sketchy problem, I suffere a bit from that as well. There are things like putting a bit of paper down between the tablet and pen so the surface isnt so smooth; or do what i do and sketchbook n scan. However its mostly about confidence with being a able to put down a line and know that its "correct" and that is something that only patience and practice can provide.
Simple excercise are the way to go for starters, training your eye to see something and put it down on paper. Doesnt matter what its like, its about repetition and training.
Hope that helped abit

Hey MoonUnit! good to hear you are getting the tablet into order - it really is a necessity for drawing/painting into the computer direct if you want to get anything other than compromised results.

I have included a sample of a recent advertising visualisation to show what sort of results I am getting with my current setup.

[img]icon_paperclip.gif[/img] Download Attachment: [url="http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/johnn/20066173019_cleanUp.jpg"]cleanUp.jpg[/url]
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I'm only using photoshop at the moment but I'm sure painter has equivalent paintbrush features.

okay photoshop setup first...

1)I used a small brush (2-5px in size), hardness 100%, spacing 25% (in 'brush tip shape' section.

2)'Shape Dynamics' checked and size jitter set to pen pressure, minimum size 1%.

3)'Other Dynamics' checked and opacity jitter set to pen pressure.

4)from memory I have opacity and flow set to full... if they weren't, they were probably both set at about 60%-70% (a setting I use alot when painting).

tablet setting next... I would recommend that these settings are something that you experiment with, as an appropriate setup will depend on how you draw, and the results that you want to get. It wouldn't be unreasonable to to expect to change these settings as you progress through an individual piece of work to suit the effect you are trying to achive either, so what may be the 'correct' settings for you one moment could be wrong the next.

my settings most of the time: default, except for 'feel detail' in the pen settings. Here I got the sensitivity one notch to the firm end. This allows me little more lee-way with sensitive line strokes. If you are a little heavy handed or want finer line work this setting may be the first stop for you with experimenting.

lastly technique: do whatever works for ya! ...I am tending to do multiple strokes as I line up the line/curve/stroke I want. These strokes either don't come out or are really faint, then as I get the line I want I smoothly increase the pen pressure often building the darkness and strength of the line with 2+ strokes over it. I also have a hot key set on my tablet to reverse through the history allowing me to remove lines quickly giving me the opportunity to have a fresh go at a line that would have otherwise looked overworked. Lastly my sample was about generation 4 of the initial sketch. So I initially did a rough sketch turned its opacity down, made a new layer then drawing again using the old one as a tracer image, making refinments to the overall composition and details/linework as I went... then repeated the process till I had found a balance between running out of time and being satisfied with with the final drawing.

and for the eye-monitor coordination - make sure you tablet is always parallel to the monitor. Get into a good sitting position for drawing (can be hard to do at a desk designed for typing at) and practice practice practice.

...hoped that helped

Thanks heaps guys, i didnt expect such a detailed response so fast! Ive been too busy to visit these forums in a while, ive forgotten how usefull they can be :)

makk: Dont worry, ive no illusion that the most important thing here is to just keep doing it :) Putting down paper might be a good idea especially since my plastic sheet has an annoying deformity in it from when i think i dragged the pen too hard once. The real pain is youd think something like that would be replacable without changing the entire unit but its not attatched that way.

John: dont worry, im photoshopping aswell. Thanks for the settings ill have to play around with that (oh note though, ive only got a graphite so no fun wacom button features :( ). I actually noticed when drawing that image that i needed to change the sensitivity for the cranium of the head (which im still not really satisfied with) then the rest. I think by and large im a firm sensitivity kinda drawer. I also noticed just how much pressure it takes to get it making lines of decent thickness, but again thats probably a slider or two to fiddle with. Gotta say the first thing that really jumped at me was the idea of just layering attempts with the wacom to get a smoother picture, that totally makes sense. Admitedly its kinda time consuming but seems like a good helper especially to get the ball rolling. On the desk thing i work on the most crammed messy desk imaginable, theres actually no space on here for anything but the computer and i worked with the tablet on my lap. Good thing im desk hunting soon anyway, just another reason.

thanks again for all that help, ive got mid year holidays coming up so one of my big project will be to just get drawing with the tablet.

I find it helps to try and use your elbow to do longer flowing storkes. This also takes the pain away from your wrist and/or fingers :)

When I sketch now I try to do as much of a line in one quick, flowing stroke as possible, then try and go over that stroke on the exact same path. (to make it darker or thicker) This helps with my accuracy and also I find it can look better than to erase fuzzy edges.

I have a custom brush at 100 hardness, and set on foreground/Baground jitter in "other settings" Opacity jitter gives me alot of fluffy edges when I sketch. Its all a personal preferance really.

Goodluck with it anyway ^^

anuxinamoon: thanks, i tried using f/g jitter but it didnt really come out like i wanted it to. Im still playing around though. I know what you mean about fluffy edges though. thanks

http://www.deviantart.com/view/34164658/
Another piece i cooked up today, just filling up a page with random things. Started with cartoons to get the basics down but worked my way up to something a little more complete. Theres faults that are more an issue of my drawing ability :P but im really enjoying just drawing random objects and images in one random collage.

I see whats happening here, Try having a standard hard brush at 2 pixels and lower it to 80 opacity. also try to be a bit softer on your brush. You will end up with a sore hand very fast if you press too hard :)

I find the hardest strokes are the ones that are horizontal in nature. so if they come out looking flyffier, its just cause its a more difficult stroke. I have a shortcut to rotate canvas 90? for that sort of thing. But you would only really need to do that if you were cleaning up line art for model sheets or something.

That baby is funny lol xD

Draw while zoomed in...try 200 or 300% The smaller the brush the more jitter you will get so zooming in helps a lot.
USE the erase tool to clean stuff up.
Use a big brush and then erase bits to make it look like what you want for bigger areas. If you want very clean lineart then use illustrator.

Press "e" to erase and then press "b" to draw in photoshop.

everything that has been said is on the money. but try scanning a picture in and tracing it with your wacom. helped me heaps.

Just to show you how clean illustrator looks, it's your drawing traced...kinda
[img]http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/7918/trace1jr.jpg[/img]

Well in illustrator you don't have to worry about fury lines etc.

thanks for all the help guys :) i havent been back to post because recently i discovered some potentially nasty errors hapening on my hard drive and was advised against using programs like photoshop which make constant writes to the scratch disk (same drive) untill the issue was fixed. Its now fixed and my last exam of the semester is actually today (yeah i know, ill get back to studying) so more wacom fun soon!

Scratch disk stuff can actually f up the hard drive data, so I'll advise you use 2 drives and put photoshop out by itself and keep the scratch data on that drive.
That's how some people crashed the mac's completely anyway.

im afraid i dont really have funds, ports or other resources to put photoshop on its own drive.

Thanks everyone for your help again, i quickly ran this up without playing with too much though (as you'll see its rather sketchy, ill use illustrator when its more appropriate)

Another one: http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/34552222/

Yes thats a selfportrait, so if you see someone who looks like that in the street feel free to go up to them and ask them if theyre moonunit :P That picture will probably make a lot of people cringe as its hell messy, i just wanted to knock something out to keep drawing. Thought id give overlaying a photo a try this time.

My next question of wacom crazy hapenings, do people use different settings when theyre colouring? I had a quick shot and it came out how my attempts at digital colouring allways have, fragmented (that is to say essentially blocks of clour beside each other). I am kinda hoping with a tablet i can get a better kinda merger and blending of colours, this could also go into a lot of lessons on how to actually colour digitaly which is something ive been needing to learn for so long. Any insight and wisdom is appreciated :)

custom brushes are a god send, i see you have a deviantart account by memory there are a lot of brushes available for downlaod there (free i believe but most ask for rating boosters). but i would recommend making your own, its a lot of fun when you get the hang of it and in my opinion a good texture brush is priceless. there are some great tutorials over at 3dtotal.com once you go thru a few of these u should be able to make your own and each tute should only take a few minutes. so next time uve got a few spare minutes give it a go.

Well ive had another mess around and ive come up with this

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/MoonUnit/20067611359_eyeballjpeg…]

recently finished the tony hawk PSP game so the neversoft logo eyeball was as good as anything. Im starting to get some sort of grip on colouring, im trying to avoid using the smudge tool if i can help it because that can turn large sections into mush from my experience so instead im using a variety of brushes and fiddling with the opacity slider constantly so that my colour has a more subtle effect when applied as apposed to being a block of colour just dragged along. Im rather happy with the eye and "tail" but the spear i dont really like, this might have something to do with organic vs non organic objects.. that and just my skill level in general. Still progress made, woo! (there was actually a few sketches i did the other day but i accidently deleted them, arrrrgh!)

Fiddling with the opacity is a great way to get good blending of colours, i found the best tutorial on how to setup your brush for it using just 50% opacity and a few settings. http://www.deviantart.com/view/24105181/
i highly recomend it, taught me alot and i dont leave home with out that custom brush saved on my usb :)

another great painting tutorial can be found here http://www.furiae.com/index.php?view=gallery the steps are very vague so i recomend learning the first one then moving on to these.

that tutorials really helpfull but im totally stumped as to where the "spicy curry brush" is supposed to be... nearly pulled my hair out when i realised id been reading another tutorial that once it got to the important part (blending the colours) made a one sentence instuction with no explanation... please help..!! Is it supposed to be a custom brush im donwloading somewhere? Is it the brush that i setup earlier? How does a brush itself help me blend? it just applies more colour... raaaargh confused

I always thought the ?spicy curry brush? was the brush settings he/she describes at the beginning of the tute?

Logo looks cool btw.

Yes the brush is the custom one he makes at the start you should be able to make a copy of it by following the instructions, ill do a little quick thing on how i blend with it since he only provided one sentance :P
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v105/Nefquareiel/brushthing.jpg

Ok this is all with that brush
1. set the brush to 50% opacity your brush strokes will be light so paint over that area lots like i did in image 2
2. Ok so where going to be blending the pink and blue together so using the colour picker (alt) grab your blue colour and do one stroke over the pink area like in the third picture. the only reason for this is so we can grab a 50-50 mix of those 2 colours and use that to blend.
3. so using my new pink/blue (red circle) i painted over the blue area as shown in my uber diagrams. You have to brush a few times to get the colour to show up. :)
4. so now i take that new blue colour (green circle) and paint over the hard edge in the center.
5. finishing touches are where u see 2 edges of different colour, colour pick one and single stroke over the edge (maybe more then one :) depends on how different the 2 colours are.

i can email the brush to u if u need it.

could you actually email it to moonie1988 at gmail dot com so im just positive ive got that setup allright. Thanks for that though thats essentially the missing step i needed. Allthough theres still plenty of practice to be done... im having a fair bit of trouble getting a sort of smooth blend as apposed to just gradiating blocks of colour.. heres a semi sucesffull attempt:

[img]http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/MoonUnit/200679221751_blend1.jpg…]

and thanks palantir :P

Thats looking great :D i personly dont think it needs more smoothing but im a real sucker for seeing brush strokes in digital art i just think it gives it a more realistic traditional feel.

emailing you the brush now :)

It seems to be impossible to not have some kind of line on the edge of any colour transition though (well no, just at my current skill level and such). Like allthough there's some purple mixed in the brown still just kinda stops at one obvious point. Plus these are large squares and transferring this knowledge to all kinds of spaces and shapes is quite difficult. Thanks for the brush, came through :)

looks fine to me! if you want no brush marks use a soft edge brush - easy :D I don't think you should fuss too much with custom brushed yet - they won't provide a magic solution to your delemma and will only serve to mask short commings in techique.

Your last posted sample does has quite strong vertical bands: try a smaller brush and/or brush strokes that vary in length, direction and weight to create a potentially more interesting/organic/natural texture within the blended colours.

once you have gotten some blending techniques down you could start applying them to simple volumes like boxes, globes, cones etc. for the next step... maybe the whole process is worthy of a project in the 'quick activities' section ... ?

Well i wouldnt really be much good at giving instruction in that regard obviously :P Thanks for the tips JohnN, though i gotta say i noticed that smaller brushes actually made it harder to conceal obvious edges, as ofcourse they have less of a fading edge... could you explain a bit further how a smaller brush would assist?

smaller brush and more brush strokes will allow you to blend the colours in more steps - so the colour difference between each brush mark will be less, and hence less noticeable...

To follow up on my comment about practicing blending and its application I have started doing a warm up before painting along those lines. Just using tone and experimenting with different brushes and settings in P'Shop.

[img]icon_paperclip.gif[/img] Download Attachment: [url="http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/johnn/2006712205243_warm-ups.jpg"]warm-ups.jpg[/url]
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A worthy excercise - you could even just do several tonal blends and post them for feedback/suggestions on how to change you brush setup. Then when you got several brush setups working apply them to some basic forms.

thanks for putting the time into that JohnN :) unfortunatly i have to report another hardware issue with my computer (its worse this time, got the black screen of "your harddrives probably 100% kaput" death. On borrowed laptop) which has halted my practice again -_- ... get a call from the shop tommorow with some kind of diagnosis hopefully (sounds very medical dosent it...)

Sorry for double post but ive gotten my PC situation rectified again.... ugh. Anyways the point of this post is to link to my exhibition thread, i figured i was finally doing something worth posting out of my newbie thread so click over to:

http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3994

HUuuuuuuuuuuuuuUUUUUUuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge thanks to everyone whos helped me out here, im so excited that im finally looking at work im producing with satisfaction that i have some ground in this area.

OI dude, the face looks fantastic. Keep up the good work hey! Show us some other stuff too whenever you get around to it. Good one!

Oh dear god! That is one screwed up mouth/jawline.
Please stick to standard proportions and rules THEN tweak in the little imperfections.

not a bad tech demo... pity it's only 3/4 there on the animation side.

The lady's neutral expression is fine - model and texture absolutely fine (not fantasticly great, but by no means bad). But BAD BAD BAD lip synch and blend shapes... I really hope that's because they where forced to do it with bones instead of morphs, just so they have an excuse and not because the artist thought it looked good as is.

Another game this reminds me of is magna carta -- cinematics are very pretty, good models/texturing/lighting/etc... horrendous animation. Destroys the impression of all that good work by just shattering your suspense of disbelief.

As a general rule of thumb, I've always had it drilled into me that if you're going to have a project with 100% quality in all departments but one, then it's better to take a whole project 75% of the way consistently instead.

I liked it... lip synching aside. I thought THAT was bad. First thing I noticed... but yeah, I liked it. I thought she looked fine. Her mouth was a bit big, but everything worked expression wise.
So yeh, I like that.
-Parka

there are parts when the mouth blendshapes, or bones, or however they did it, look fantastic. mostly in the close up angry shots. apart from that, its teh eye acting and really good body language that sold me. But yeah, they really should have nailed that mouth animation first though.

I dont think this is an example of Uncanny Valley though....maybe you need to be outside the industry to be creeped out?

There's an article on The Wiire on the Uncanny Valley (which makes reference to the animation linked in the first post), stating that perhaps the Nintendo Wii is better off being underpowered, so that developers won't have to aim for photo-realism. http://www.thewiire.com/features/149/1/The_Uncanny_Valley_and_Wii ...Interesting read.

the Wii is better off being underpowered so they can focus on innovating with what theyve got, and stand out from the competition more than they already have.

Souri that article is spot on. Photorealism really isnt that important. When you think about what is more universal, really simplicity is king.

Emoticons for example, a simple :) can apply to any person in the world, regardless of gender, race, sexuality etc. Whereas if emoticons became more detailed, they would loose their universal appeal.

Oh and this is a bit off topic, but I was taught theory like this in an art degree at a university, not a vocational tafe. Just an example of the difference between uni and tafe. A lot of people think uni is useless, but it really does broaden your theoretical understanding of the art/world and how the two are interpreted and interact. Which ultimately develops your critical thinking and decision making when creating art.

I believe their was a post over at cgtalk.com about that animation. A person who worked on the clip said it was mostly motion capture and the person who acturally did the motion capture had a big/weird mouth like in the tech demo, Also the audio was abit off, which gave the bad lip synching. Animation aside, the models and such are really pretty good.

Ultimately photorealism costs a lot, lot more money- money that could be spent on making the game fun. Gimme something like serious sam anyday- lots of fun, a bit dodgy in the art stakes

They showed the new trailer for Heavy Rain at GCDC 2008, and boy, what a difference a couple of years makes, eh :D I've put a pic of the uncanny valley'd female protagonist from 2006 above what she looks like now.

The red wireframe is max's "I can't render" error.
The cause is going to be your card doesn't support the pixel/vertex shader versions that are being used. I'm really not up on hardware capabilities or tech specs, but it may just be you need a gf fx and up to handle pixel shader 2.x and onwards.

Im pretty sure you will need a 5200 card or highter to run pixel shader 2.x. Anything under that won't do it for you.

[:D][:D][:D]
Gah! that sucks!

Thanks for clearing that up Styles and Anuxinamoon, appreciated.

Hey champ!
I'm looking to get into games animation as well, and I was talking to this guy from the Uni that i'm wanting to get into to study animation, and he was telling me that he noticed animators are those people that do have good drawing skills as it helps to figure out movement, proportions, and all that jazz. Something about understanding the way a person is put together. Getting into this kind of field then, I guess, it's always good to have some kind of drawing history because it is a fairly artistic business.
How well do you draw at the moment as it is? I'd love to see a couple of your pictures if you have any. It's always good to get critique from others to see where you're at, I reckon.
Have a good one!
-Parka

Thanks parka [:)]

At the moment I don't have any artwork to show, my scanner broke down and I lost my work on the PC...

I'd say I need some work, I can see it all in my head (which i was hoping animating can bring out) but when i try and draw it, it never comes out the same.

I think i'll look into a short drawing class, gets the skills up.

Thanks for the help!

No worries champ! You know, I know exactly what you mean about seeing it all in your head, but not really being able to get it out onto paper or something. A good way to battle that is to just keep practising. I like your idea of drawing classes, that should help out heaps! Just keep bulding the skill though and taking every chance to draw something; anything! It can be so frustrating, but you've just got to keep at it is all. Let me know when you're scanners working again! I'd love to check out some of your stuff.
Have a good one!
-Parka

Hey Parka!
I checked out your website, you've got some real talent, I couldn't hold a candle to your work.
Depending on how important drawing ability is I want to go to QANTM next year as well!!! - if they don't bring in FEE-HELP I can't go [:(]

I've spoken to a couple people and I get varied results.
Some say if your not a drawer you?ll still be fine, but with this field it does help a lot if you can and you?ll have classes during the course for it (that was from tamarind taylor), others say you need good skills for storyboards and more so the final concept sketches...
I could imagine at the moment i'd draw some crappy character then be like "give me a minute i'll just show you in 3d".
Furthermore I heard that there are different sections with the animators that do different stuff, so a 3d animator, storyboarder, concept artist etc...I tend to believe Tamarind seeing she just finished the course and has massive talent!

Well the research into the subject continues, fingers crossed.

OOH! You're wanting to go to QANTM too?!?! That's awesome! And if that's the case with the course, then don't be too worried hey. Take up some drawing lessons and just practice as much as you can and you'll be set!
So you're in year 12 this year? Woot.
Good luck with your research then! I'll catcha later.
Bai!
-Parka

Yep I certainly want to get into QANTM,
I'm not in year 12, i'm 20 in a couple weeks.
I could never afford QANTM after school, so I went to work instead.
lol still can't afford it so hoping on FEE-HELP...

Good luck, I hope you enjoy the course! and hopefully i'll catch ya later!

I have seen what comes out of qantm and I know how they work.

They have 1 trisemester of life drawing in the whole 2 year course, they teach very basic things.
You get a choice of 2 3d lecturers that teach you how to use the programs. They will try and teach you the basics and get you to do exercises. They have a lot of computers at qantm but only a few are good etc...I know most people get annoyed at the computers because of speed and so on...

So if you can't afford to go to qantm it is not a bad thing at all.
It is better to enrol yourself into life drawing classes somewhere else and take them whenever you want them.
Also why not read the manual and internet tutorials on cgtalk and save $15,500 a year? You could own your very own workstation with the money you have saved from not going there.

Your design and drawing skills are going to be very important.
Having good drawing skills helps you express your imagination much more clearly and helps speed things up.
The basic knowledge of how things are connected, weight and move will help you greatly in animation to make stuff move better so it doesn't look stiff or something bad.

I also think taste is more important than talent and skill combined. Which qantm clearly does not teach.

The ability to make stuff that is appealing enough to get people to employ you...if you think about it, it kinda does come down to if you have good taste, style and good work flow.

So here is a thinking process you might want to have while making your stuff to be like industry standard:
Does it look fantastic? (if no, find out how to make it better..ask people)
Does it look like eye candy? (even if it's a monster design)
Does it look like/better than the MARKETABLE work in that awesome game that just came out? (you must look at what is out there and make stuff that can compete with it... set higher goals, look at what is popular and find out why it is popular)
Do you think will want me to work for them with this quality of work?
All of the above is yes?
Then put that in the folio pile.

A lot of companies get folios coming in all the time so if it's not really good it's going to the bad pile and their thoughts will be like "...next".
Work is like food... if it tastes bad people won't buy again.

Anyways have a good read of http://www.androidblues.com/FAQ/
start at : I'm aiming for a career in 3d cg, but I have no idea where to start. What are some of the best schools to go to get a diploma in cg?

Hey,
That was really good advice... it's good to know what's going on. Thanks for that.
Hey Dsreaper, just in regards to fee help, my brother was explaining to me that somehow you can get sponsorship from gaming companies and then work with them later? Do you know anything about that?
Hmm... Well! I'll catcha later.
Oh, and sorry about being SO off thinking you were in year 12! I just assumed... but yeah.
Bai now!
-Parka

If you want in on some life drawing classes, and just a plain ol' good group of like minds, get along to sessions held by the Queensland Animators over at Wooloongabba. It's once a fortnight and well worth getting to. www.qa.org.au Associate yourself with QA too. It's a great group, and you'll get along to some good events and meet some tops people.

Queensland College of Art over at Southbank probably also holds regular life drawing sessions. Look about campus for flyers, or ask at admin downstairs. They should be able to point you in the right direction.

Aloriael, thanks for the insight, It was really good advice! [:)]
I went to the open day and the PC's didn't look half as good as the specs I was given, animators didn't even have LCD the programmers had better PC's by far!

Hey Parka, I haven't heard of that where they sponcer you, that's not to say it doesn't exist i've just never heard of it, I'd suggest asking qantm or a game company and see what they say. Haha it's cool 9 out of 10 ppl at the qantm open day were in year 12, my mate and I felt really old! It was funny we got on well with a lot of staff because were the same age [:p]

Brain, thanks for info on drawing classes and QA [:)]

Yesterday I was offered a more permanent position where I work atm so I'll be staying put instead of moving into Animation.

Thanks so much everyone who contributed it really helped [:)]

Best of luck next year Parka!
Laterz!

quote:Originally posted by parka
Hey Dsreaper, just in regards to fee help, my brother was explaining to me that somehow you can get sponsorship from gaming companies and then work with them later? Do you know anything about that?

I don't remember ever telling you anything like that! More like you could probably easily get work experience at any of the local game dev companies.

Whatever! You totally told me something about getting sponsored by a company for fee help, then you work with them for a while to pay them back? Don't you twist your words around child!
But h'anyway, are you feeling any better? And I thought you were coming over tonight?
Meh, catchoo later,
-Parka

quote:Originally posted by parka

Whatever! You totally told me something about getting sponsored by a company for fee help, then you work with them for a while to pay them back? Don't you twist your words around child!
But h'anyway, are you feeling any better? And I thought you were coming over tonight?
Meh, catchoo later,
-Parka

Nope, I never said that .... unless .... was I drunk at the time?

No, I have a throat infection, I'm sure the next australiangamer podcast will be just peachy ... I'll pop over soon.

quote:Originally posted by Yug
Nope, I never said that .... unless .... was I drunk at the time?

Well, you must have been... either that or I was just listening to you with very very select hearing.
THANK YOU FOR THE TABLET! He is beautiful. SO beautiful. When do you need it back?
Catchoo,
-Parka

Hi Adie,
If you would like then, i've got a job for you.
A friend of mine has asked myself and a number of other people to help in drawing some concept art for a film they're picthing to Lion's Gate films. Here's some info if you're interested:

126: The idea that man co-exists daily with a very real and very powerful spiritual realm, only levels of consciousness away from experiencing it. As consciousness rises closer to level 126, the protective borders the mind has erected to create a safe perception of what is deemed reality deteriorate, and nothing stands between man and all that surrounds him.

So far what i've drawn is basically this guys face where you can see through to his bones but you can always really clearly see his skin - sort of both elements of the face meshed into each other. What the guys want is something that shows that spiritual/unconcious realm seeping into the physical/concious.
For one of the characters, they've based his looks and persona around actor Philip Seymour Hoffman:
- http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000450/
- http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hc&cf=gen&id=1800021779
- http://www.hollywood.com/celebs/detail/id/192742
(Or just go on and google him to get your own results.)
So this guy, Philip (we shall call him), is dying of cancer of some description, so we see him in the hospital ward often. Anyway, some pictures to think of him in could be lying in a hospital bed surrounded by sort of misty, just discernable figures reaching into his chest/heart. Another idea could be the hospital room again, and you see Philip sitting upright in his bed, the angle from the doorway [bed end is facing the doorway] and you're sort of looking through some shadowy figure at Philip, who's looking straight back at the figure.
Anything that incorporates this guy being able to see the unseen to everyone else.
Let me know if you're interested, or even if you can start drawing asap, or if you need more info.
Reply here or email me.
Thanks heaps!
-Parka

ok ill give it a go !!!! heres a quick sketch.. the evil dude is too heavy as i only used 1 color...
ill lighten him up a bit and add some bakground so hes see through and add some mood color if u like the sketch so far or ill just scrap it and start againt? It was the first thing that came to mind !..

sorry bit rusty havent been drawing as mutch as i would like lately

[img]icon_paperclip.gif[/img] Download Attachment: [url="http://www.sumea.com.au/forum/attached/adie/20065167315_film_sketch-01…"]film_sketch-01.jpg[/url]
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NICE job! Very nice! [;)]You're definitely on the right track. I like the way you'd drawn the 'evil' guy. I forgot to mention, use as much shadow as you want to make it look all mysterious and scary [you seem to have gotten that though. thumbs up], and also that the figures [or evil guy...], they're anything ranging from angels to demons, or beings trapped in some unseen place, you know? Definitely on the right track though.
I love it! I'll send it to the guys and let you know what they think, then get back to you as soon as I hear from them, but until then just keep going with as many as you can think of and whatever idea comes into your head. Everything is good!
Thank you heaps by the way. Catcha,
-Parka
P.s. Philip [cancer patient] looks awesome too. Keep it up!

thanks!! cool ill keep them coming

another one ..ahhhhhh

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Hey!
Sorry i haven't gotten back to you in a while but I emailed the guys and they LOVED your work! The emails didnt work out properly though [they just got your pictures and not my message], so at first they thought it was mine and I was REALLY confused! But I spoke to Matt and him and Michael were really stoked about it! I'll make a mental note to send them your email so they can contact you.
But yeah, great job champ! The pictures looked awesome. Just what they wanted.
Catcha later!
-Parka

cool Thanx ...u can give them this eamil as my hotmail is al spamed up >>>> adrian@blipit.com.au

ok well thats ones done now so anyone else want some free drawings?? ..maybe u need to bump up your school foleo or what ever ??..just tell me what to draw and ill draw it !!!

I'm heading an indie team that is building an MMORPG based on vampires, werewolves, wizards, and humans. The setting is a futuristic dark ages (post-apocalyptic). We'd be interested in help with creature concept art.

Email me at dishmal@gmail.com if you are interested

dish

ok i emaild u !! sory it took me so long havent been online all week

Hey, I'm an aspiring game developer in Canada.
I was born in mexico and am of Aztec descent.
At one time I was really into drawing, and I was good.
I'm just starting to get into it again now, and I'm finding it hard.
I can draw other people's creations fine but it's drawing from my head that i find hard.
So, I come to you in a desperate situation to try and lift my game concept in the air and get it going...

It's about an Aztec boy who is growing up in ancient mexico.
He is historically the son of montezuma II's nephew.
(even tho he didnt have one)
He would be around 18 years old and would be native.
You can take a look at any native really but, Aztecs are very extravagent and colourfull.
He is a kid that was denied a father because of certain matters.
His mother died and so did the name of his father.
When he finally figures out that his father is the emperor of the Aztec empire it's too late, and he has to watch his father get tortured to death by the spaniards.
So he would have to have a very dark persona.
His face and body paint should be darker than usual showing grief.
And also, he has a dog that his father (unbeknownst to him at the time) gave to him as a small child, so you could sketch a quick one of him too.
So yeah, he's an 18 year old warrior that grows up to kill hernan cortes and get revenge.

If you could draw ANY concept art for ANYTHING even relevent to this I'd appreciate it a lot.
Even Aztec landscapes.
I like your drawings and I think you could do really good.
My name is Ari Fregoso-Gonzalez but you can call me Alex Dow.
(dont ask [:)])
And ya, email anything you can give me right here:
Tezcat-li-poca@hotmail.com
Thanks, and again, I appreciate it.

Yo Ari !! heres a sketch of what came to mined ..didnt work from ref pics so its not very acurate,as far a Aztec costume go's anyway.. let me know what u think
I was thinking of a blue chiehuahua for his dog ?? there supose to have magic powers??
I think ?? I have 2 chihuahua myself ...I read this on some chihuahua site [:p]

but i think u are probly want a tuff dog ...maybe the dog could transform into difernt animals ..eg a lama to take u to farawy places, jaguare to kill stuff

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