3DRyan

Low Poly Modeling Shenanigans

2012-01-26T19:48:00.000-08:00

Hey kids, remember those individual urban props I mentioned that I would be doing for my next project? It's happenin'. Some screenies:

There's no big underlying theme or meaning behind this project. The main focus is to take something found in the real world and make it look as good in a game engine as you possibly can. I'm going to really be focusing on texturing for this project more than anything. I feel as though it's my biggest weakness as an artist right now. So I'm giving myself the challenge of making all four objects be entirely hand-painted in Photoshop. I don't care too much about how long it will take either, it's going to be a learning experience more than anything. I took alot of good pictures of these guys from a bunch of different angles, so that'll make for a more accurate reading of scale, texture, color, etc. As always, I'm not trying to really skimp on the polys as if it's for a mobile game. It's more to be used in an engine like Unity or Unreal.

Speaking of Unity, I've been really reading up on it as of late. This project will be the first thing that I've done in Unity. Since it'll be these four objects in the scene with nothing else, it's a good simple start. I'll get the hang of importing, set up lights, etc. I think I'm going to add a chunk of ground for the objects to sit on as well. It'll be a big chunk of some really roughed up pavement to help make the screenshots look more interesting than just putting the objects on a flat gray background.

Right now, I'm getting started on the Zbrushing. More pics to come.

Tweaking That Stuff

2012-01-02T21:58:00.000-08:00

So I took some advice into consideration and made some changes to the deco environment.

These include:

1) Added more contrast to the skybox.

2) Tweaked the cubemap reflection so that there's less white.

3) Upped the contrast in the lighting so that shadows are more noticeable as well as highlights.

4) Added some curtains for the windows.

5) Made the horizon line higher and added water to add interest.

Let me know what y'all think! ;)

Deco for the New Year

2012-01-01T14:48:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile, hasn't it? Things have been beyond hectic for me throughout the holidays, so this post is coming a little later than I would have liked. But I'll get to the actual point of showing you all what I have on the Miami Deco environment, and save the personal stuff for later. In a word, its' done! Well, for now. Once I get some feedback, I'm sure I'll make changes. It's definitely close though.

Here it be:

Now that I look at the last post, it's amazing how different it looks. Polish goes a long way, eh? I really focused a lot on lighting this time around. I originally had a simple directional light set up to represent the sun, but it wasn't getting me the results I wanted. It still looked

very flat to me. Instead, with the advice of someone well versed in lighting levels, I used a 3 point lighting setup. A key light, back light, and fill light. 3 directional lights all with different intensities and color tinting. Other than that, nothing really changed from my last post other than using those purple arches all around the bottom. It just seemed better than breaking it up with two different arch models. The switch from one to another was too abrupt and just looked awkward. I also increased the amount of palm trees for added visual interest and added in the cubemapping to the windows for a nice reflection.

The only main thing I have to do as far as touch up goes is remove all the seams between pieces in photoshop. It pains me to do it post engine, but I (as well as everyone else that's experienced this problem on the internet) couldn't figure out how get rid of them. Apparently, it's a limitation with UDK. Kinda crappy. Next time, I'll have to design around it.

As I mentioned earlier, lots of craziness over the past two months. The usual holdiay hoopla, combined with longer hours at work. And oh yeah, my computer died. As I said earlier, I had plans to buy a new one already in motion. But I decided to wait until Cyber Monday to get one at a cheaper price. So a few weeks before that, it died. Literally two weeks before getting a new one. After having it for 6 years. O_o

So now I make any needed changes to this project. After that, I'll be going through tutorials on how to use Unity and I'll also be brushing up on some of the programs I already know. Speaking of which, that's what I'm gonna be using for my next project. I think it's just gonna be some urban prop work. I don't really have any individual props in the portfolio, so I'm thinking that's the next logical step. I'm not sure how fast it'll get done though, as we might be ramping up on that indie project I mentioned earlier. It all depends on how that goes.

I'm also thinking about branching out from just doing game environments for the sake of making myself more well rounded for the dried-up job market I'm facing right now. Just limiting myself to games isn't the best idea with all the studio closings and layoffs I've seen as of late. Which of course makes it even harder than it already is to break in. Such is life for an aspiring dev.

I guess we'll just see........ :D

Deco Coloration

2011-10-11T20:49:00.000-07:00

Howdy partners......

Not much new here on the home front. Just plugging away at this and that. I'm done working out the overall color layout. Things may change, but it's pretty solid.

It's kinda funny how the lighting almost looks kinda Team Fortress 2-ey. I'm thinking that its mainly due to the lack of shaders and color texture though. Hopefully. If not, then the lighting will need some adjusting. You'll notice that there's a bunch of whites and dark blues. As in, A LOT. Much of this is just transparency that hasn't been applied to the balconies yet. So everything will make a lot more sense visually when that's done.

I'm also very happy to say that I'm finally able to get a new computer! I've been looking at several options, and I'll probably know by next week what I'm going to get. Rendering out those extra millions of polys in Zbrush won't be a problem any longer. :)

Architecturally Speaking

2011-09-18T13:47:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'll admit it. It was pretty freaking awesome being able to relax for a week or so after the portfolio was finally up to snuff. But, as always, I got bored pretty easily. It reminds me that I'm one of those people that starts to lose my mind if I'm not being productive. It's very hard for me to be one of those people that just goes home every night after work and parks it in front of the T.V. Needless to say, it was nice to get back into what I like to call "creation mode".

So about that art deco-ish building I mentioned. Well, I've been plugging away at it. I'm done with planning, low poly modeling, UV layout, and world building. Observe:

There's some key things that I wanted to achieve with this project.

1) Make a modular environment.
2) Make something architectural.
3) Make something clean looking, and not putting a crap ton of grungy detail into it.

These are all things that I think about and wonder why I haven't done any of them. But no longer!

I'm working in unreal units and exporting from Maya with the model already at the proper size, which is something I haven't done until now. Making things modular is actually pretty easy, and snapping them together in UDK is pretty painless as long as you have Maya's measuring units set accordingly.

I originally didn't have the fountain, steps, guard rail, parking lot, or trees included as I thought that I could have a tighter angle that only shows off the building. This made for a pretty awful composition, so I scrapped it, and decided to put in the extra work to make more props for a wider view.

The water fountain will have water effects, with the water being handled by mostly transparency and specularity.

The overall lighting will be pretty similar to how it is now, with some tweaking most likely to follow. Especially after the texturing is done.

The trees were made fairly quickly in Speedtree and the terrain was sculpted in Maya. I tried using UDK's terrain editor, but it was giving me all sorts of problems. Basically, the terrain I generated would only appear if the camera was 200 miles away from it. Lame? Doesn't matter though. The trees and terrain are far off in the background, so they don't need to look stellar anyway.

I won't be doing a whole lot of Zbrushing this time around as I'll be testing out Crazy Bump. I must say, it's pretty awesome so far. One of the main reasons the bike took so long is that every single object was Zbrushed. It was a project I used to show that I have high poly sculpting chops. Typically, a lot of environment props will just get crazy bumped and generally take less time. As is the case with this project.

I almost wanted to do a night scene, but everything else in my portfolio is really dark/ sunset-ish. So, I opted for some daytime lighting to mix things up a bit.

So at this point, everything is set up in the editor. All I have to do is make all my diffuse, spec, normal, and opacity maps and import them in. And make adjustments to the lighting. Shouldn't take more than a month as long as my life doesn't get too hectic. Then again, I'm making trips to both Wooster, OH and Rochester, NY in October. Which will eat up some of my time as well as being generally awesome.

New Workings of Times Past Volume Three

2011-08-21T20:24:00.000-07:00

Hey peoples, how we all doin?

So, I decided to redo the Pripyat environment once again. Third time, I believe? The good thing is that each time the improvement ends up being huge compared to before, which lets me know that I'm improving. And that's nice.

List of improvements:

1) Lighting is the big one. Window has more of a glow to it now, which I tried to get before, but didn't know how. Shadows have more contrast, and the room is less evenly lit. SO much more atmospheric now. Lighting just wasn't doing it justice before.

2) Gurney cushion has specularity to it now, stands out more.

3) Less saturation all around. Fits the mood of the piece better.

4) Ceiling texture is improved. Texture isn't as plain as before, and there are now decals on the ceiling that help to break things up more, especially where the ceiling meets the walls.

5) Floor isn't nearly as noisy as it was. You can actually tell what's going on with the objects placed there now.

So now, a couple of things are happening for me.

First off, I'm working on a new portfolio project. It's an art deco-y building. That's all I'm saying for now. I'll have a post soon showing the first of the low polys.

I've been more active in the local games community. Didn't do enough of that in the past. Been meeting some great folks. :)

Trying to get an independent game project going. No details yet, we're in the early brainstorming stages. Should be fun.

Just gotta keep movin'.......

Day of Glory

2011-07-26T04:25:00.000-07:00

Guess what folks? MY PORTFOLIO IS FINALLY COMPLETE!

That's right. It's been a LONG time coming, but that day has finally arrived. I finally feel like I'm ready to start shooting out those resumes. Huzzah. I just pulled an all nighter on the bike, just to make sure it got done. And done it is. It turned out to be even better than I could have hoped for, which is very exciting. Very exciting indeed. A definite shout out of thanks to my greatest ally Joe D'amico for coming through with an awesome concept to work off of. Thanks to you sir. And if ya'll want, you can check out the website for higher res pics. It's fancy.

www.ryansanderson.com

Without further adieu, I give you The Blue Bomber:

Texturing went a lot faster than I thought it would. When you have the groundwork laid out from the normal maps, it's surprising how fast you can work out all the other details. I tried to keep the colors mainly neutral, with some accent colors thrown in. Having certain parts of the bike painted blue, yellow, and white allows a conceptual reason for this to happen. You'll see little dabs of red here and there, but it doesn't overpower by any means. I also was trying not to put too much detail into the maps, which is a problem I've had in the past. This project taught me that sometimes less is more. There doesn't seem to be any part that overshadows another. You honestly don't want to know the total amount of layers I used in Photoshop for this project. I'm guessing at least a couple hundred.

The cardboard, toolbox, and wrench were thrown in last to help fill out the scene, and also to help with a little narration. I'm pretty proud of the lighting setup as well. It gives me some liberty to not worry about the background so much so that I can focus on showing off the bike. I didn't want to have a blank background for it to sit on, but I also didn't want to overcrowd the scene either.

You also might be able to tell that the normal mapping detail pops out more as opposed to before, with the overall lighting having better contrast. Messing with the shadows parameter in the postprocess editor helped to achieve this. However, you'll also notice that the shadows aren't as dark at the same time. With the amount of light that's hitting the bike, they were way too dark before. MUCH better now, I think.

Some wireframe pics thrown in for good measure to show that I model nice and clean. :)

Overall, the polycount comes in at 10k. Considering that this would be onscreen constantly, almost as much as the main character, I think it's just about right. I must say that I'm impressed with the amount of polys I was able to cut out. It was HEAVY before.

Since my computer is a total fail when it comes to rendering a lot of polys onscreen at once, I had to export each part out of Zbrush individually to composite all together in Photoshop. With a little shadow tweaking, it turned out pretty well.

And finally, some of my best sculpts individually rendered. The engine turned out REALLY nice. Added in some sexy blue. Who doesn't like sexy blue?

And that's it. DONE. So happy. SO HAPPY. Now, I go into work and try not to pass out. Coffee don't fail me now.....

What's next? Cover letters, cold emails, resumes, looking for a job. All that good stuff. Be on the lookout for some possible progress pics of a robot looking thingy for my RPG Meetup group.

Also need to order new business cards. Also need to shave. And get a haircut. I've been very bear-like lately.

Color coding

2011-06-26T22:23:00.001-07:00

This post is about you guessed it: color. The actual texture detail isn't even close to being final (a few are close though, actually). Rather, it's just a "color pass" to get an idea for how the overall color scheme will feel.

I always envisioned the painted parts being blue, with some sort of accent throughout. I ended up using yellow and white for this. Seems like they go together well. Everything is fairly neutral, with splashes of warm and cool colors here and there. I really tried to add in some subtle coloration all throughout. If you look real closely, you can spot hints of blue and green in some of the chrome, for instance. It's all about finding that perfect balance. I think I've achieved it here more than I have in the past.

And last but not least, I've finally come up with an official name for the project. Henceforth, the bike will be forever known as "The Blue Bomber". Guess what the title references, and I'll give you a dollar. No joke.

I'll post progress pics of the texturing as they come.

Fresh, normal baked goodness

2011-06-17T22:26:00.000-07:00

Finally, I can now say that the normal mapping is done. It's most likely gonna be the vast majority of time for the project in the long run, so it's a relief to have it finished. Though I will say that diffuse mapping is gonna be pretty time consuming as well. It's funny to think that when I first started out on this project, I thought it would take significantly less time than the desert. Silly me. If you really look at it, I really have around 70 props to make total, which rivals that of Desert Straggler. Over ambitious much? Well anyway, here's some pics. UV layouts, textures, in-game normals. It's all here. I decided to split the bike into three separate props for importing into unreal. The front of the bike, the back, and the sidecar. The images for each are 2048 x 2048, which is barely enough resolution to cover all the details found in the normal maps. Not bad I must say, considering the sheer mass of parts it has.

Bike front:

Bike back:

Sidecar:

Now it's about time I dust off all these paint brushes.

Enter the Dragon (or, insert your own, more clever phrase here)

2011-05-27T08:10:00.000-07:00

So, as promised, here's some renders of a piece I did for Casting House. It's basically a dragon design meant to go on the side of a ring. It's all shiny and stuff. In the future, I'll probably be posting more stuff from work if it's something I think looks good. I'm sure there will be others that won't. Ha.

Credit to Steven Howell for the actual ring that the design sits on.

Details, details, details.

2011-05-22T18:09:00.001-07:00

I must say, I really put my foot on the gas for this one. It went WAY faster then I thought it would. The detail pass for zbrushing the motorcycle is complete.

Rust, scratches, dents, welding, fading, it's all here. It's nice to know that's one major step is out of the way. I think that it was a lot easier for me to do this then adding the clean structural detail, because it's what I'm more used to doing. But, both passes come together to form a pretty solid whole, i must say. A fair warning: there's a lot of pics this time. Also, if you have a phobia of tires, I wouldn't scroll down. You've been warned.

I tried to have certain elements that repeated throughout all the pieces to help unify it all. Bolts, a lot of scratching, and welded parts are examples of this. I tried to make each object feel like it's own thing, but I also wanted all the pieces to fit nicely together. I also tried to lean away from making every single piece beat up all to hell. You won't see most of these cleaner parts, mainly because I felt they wouldn't be interesting to put up here. Nevertheless, they help out the bike as a whole.

Next up:

1) UV layout
2) normal map baking
3) setup in unreal
4) texturing
5) screen capturing, rendering, assembling for portfolio page

The UV layout and normal baking will take some time, so you might not hear from me too soon. I might post my UV layouts just for kicks, but it's German to most people. So we'll see i guess.

Also, some random stuff in my life:

I'm proud to say that I was promoted at work! I will now no longer be supporting jewelry models. I'll be helping to actually make them from now on. The best part of it is that I'll be using Maya, Photoshop, and Zbrush to do so. So that'll be awesome. I might post up a particular piece I did. So look out for that.

I beat Portal 2. It's awesome. You should play it. Like, NOW. Valve also published a digital "book" that shows what went into making it. It's pretty rad.

My parents are coming up to see me next weekend, and they're bringing me some awesome stuff. A couch, my two cats Sam and Jake, my Nintendo 64, and an air conditioner.

:)

Milestones are nice.

2011-05-03T21:25:00.001-07:00

Yes they are. Whenever I hit one, my motivation level goes through the roof. Hopefully, I'll have enough to get me through the rest of this project. Definitely feeling some proper project fatigue with this one.

My friend Eric was kind enough to let me use his beefy ass computer so that I could actually access the sidecar file. I was able to get in and separate it into multiple, smaller sized files. Props to him for saving me the trouble of having to redo the damn thing. :)

So, just as promised, here are the remaining pics of the sidecar.

Rough detail pass, here I come.

Oh, it's YOU. It's been a loooooong time.

2011-04-23T13:47:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I'm feeling a little bit like Glados at the beginning of Portal 2. Like I've been asleep for a while, and I'm just starting to wake up again. Kind of like an extended vacation. Or a coma.

I think this post warrants some explanation as to what the hell I've been doing for the past 3.5 months. Well, I surely haven't been laying on the couch eating Fritos if that's what you think. No, I've hit a pretty large milestone in my life. I have finally gotten out of the world of retail/customer service, and into the realm of having a 9-5 big boy job. Yep. I was hired up by a company by the name of Casting House in early March. They deal in custom jewelry CAD design, and I'm sort of a quality control guy. I make sure that the wax models of the jewelry come out okay. Well, that's the short version, anyway. And for the month before that happened, I had to learn some new tools and software to land the job. So that and also getting used to my new schedule has left me little time to work on game stuff. Until recently, that is. And because I've gotten the lead out, I now have these brand spankin' new pics of the bike to show you. This is what I like to call the "new pass", which is where you model out everything as if it's new, with no scratches or anything like that.

It feels like I've kind of taken a big step in terms of what I can do now in Zbrush. I've really been diving into tutorials as of late, mainly on hard surface sculpting. I used to feel like I could only just take a model and carve into it, making some wear and tear, etc. But now I feel I'm capable of doing a little more, which is a good feeling to have. I've also learned that there's no shame in using high poly geometry made in maya for cases where it would be easier to do than in a high poly sculpting program. I always used to think that it should all be done in Zbrush, but that's really not the case.

You'll notice some artifacts and weird geometry on parts, but most of it won't show in the normal mapping that is actually applied to the low poly model. Also, Photoshop does a pretty good job in cloning out some of the undesirables. I might have to figure something out in terms of presenting the high poly models though. I'm thinking more and more that I may need a new computer. The one I have just can't handle the amount of polys I need it to any more. I've had it for about 6 years now, so it's been a long time coming. Part of the artifacting in the models is probably due to not having enough polys to begin with, which a new comp would fix, obviously.

Speaking of not having a good enough computer....

You're probably wondering where the sidecar pics are. Well, as it turns out, It was a mistake for me to put all of the parts of it into one Zbrush file. The file size got so huge that now, I can't open it on my system. There's just not enough memory to handle it. A friend of mine with a beefier computer might be able to help me with this today, actually. So, fingers are crossed.

Next up for me is to get the sidecar files operational again, and then finish the new pass for it and post pics. Hopefully, it'll be sometime this week. After that, it's what I like to call the "rough pass", where I add wear and tear to the parts that need it. Then, texturing and implementation into the unreal engine.

So we'll see.

Biiiiiiiiicycle! Biiiiiiiicycle!

2011-01-01T21:47:00.000-08:00

It's me again. I hope everyone's holiday season was good and spiffy. Mine was as much fun as it was productive. Low poly modeling for the "bike" part of the motorcycle project is for all intents and purposes done, aside from minor changes due to feedback I may get. With all the necessary faces deleted, the model comes out to about 10,000 polys. It may seem a little heavy for some games, but I'm treating it like it's gonna see a lot of screen time in an engine that can handle the weight of the model well (in this case, Unreal). As I predicted, it was ten times harder to do than the sidecar. Trying to get an understanding of how a motorcycle functions is no easy task. On top of that, I have to simplify it so that it meets my poly budget and also looks like it can function properly. All in all, I think an average Joe such as myself will buy it, but it won't stand up to the scrutiny of a motorcycle expert. But, this is usually true with a lot of things in games, so it doesn't concern me much. I think I stuck close enough to the concept while also giving it my own personal touch. But, that's for you folks to decide. Take a look see:

So once I'm satisfied with the low poly, it's on to planning for the high poly. This project is gonna push my Zbrush skills to the limit, so I honestly can't say how long it'll take. Should be interesting though. Next posting should consist of zbrush progress pics. See you then....

EDIT:

So , In my haste to get the post up, I completely forgot to show off Joe's concept of the bike. Shame on me, because it's pretty damn good. I had to take a picture of it as opposed to scanning it, so apologies for the crappy quality. Definitely doesn't do it justice enough. Well done!

The anchors have been lifted, and the bike is a coming.

2010-12-09T16:07:00.000-08:00

Hello all me friends on the interwebs! It's been a while, hasn't it?

The bike project is under way. Over the past month, I focused more on getting some work done for the RPG project, which is coming along nicely. But, it was always hard to find time for the motorcycle project, which I would like to get done ASAP, so that I can finally have a full portfolio to show to employers if need be. So, I 'm putting my contributions to the project on hold in order to get the bike cranked out. I'm hoping that it'll be done sometime in January, but it's as you all know by now, very hard to tell. Especially this early in the game. Other than that there's not really too much going on.
As you can see, my roommate Joe D'amico has done a bang up job on the concept. The idea in itself is simple. It's a motorcycle with a sidecar. The setting for it is post apocalyptic, so it's put together with found scraps. The idea itself is admittedly not THAT original, but we're hoping that the execution of it is something unique.

We still haven't worked out tiny details yet, but it's coming as soon as everything is modeled out. He's working on the concept for the motorcycle as we speak. It may seem like a kind of backwards way of working, but the sidecar kind of acts like a warm up for the actual bike. The bike has ALOT of detail. It's gonna be pretty hard to determine what's normal mapped and what's modeled, but that's just the fun of it. :) So for now, we're just working on the foundations of the model.

The final product will be a few shots of the bike inside an old, dusty garage. The other objects within it won't be nearly as focused as the bike, which will be an advantage as I want the bike to stand out alot. It's the centerpiece, I guess you could say. I'll also have the normal goodness of wireframe shots, texture images, and lighting only shots.

This project is meant to show off all my skills in general, but mostly that I know what I'm doing in zbrush, as well as photoshop. With that in mind, I plan on doing ALL the normal map detail in zbrush and all the texture work will be hand painted. Expect to see some renders from inside of zbrush as well as in game shots with it as a normal mapped model, naturally. The wire shots I have below are from inside the maya viewport and the lit shots are from inside the UDK editor.

Enjoy!

And also, here's how the UV's are set up. Nicely packed if I do say so myself.

So the next few posts will be his drawings of the motorcycle, as well as modeling progress. But before I go, I'm going to do a shameless plug for Joe's new independent video production company, Smoking Water Productions. He's got a tasty video up for my other friend Jake's techno band, The Chaotic Good. Awesome stuffs. Do yourself a service and check the links y'all.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/SmokingWater

http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=517684230432&oid=101298146609826&comments

Pripyat and Desert Straggler, versions 5.billion.

2010-10-20T16:54:00.000-07:00

So, I just finished em'. FOR THE LAST TIME. I swear. Pinky swear, honest.

As I said in an earlier post, Due to an overwhelming consensus that I should rework all my demo reel projects, I have done just that. The laser Rifle got trashed all together as I mentioned earlier. So here's some screenies:

Pripyat

1) Remodeled the following objects to increase visual quality(mostly adding on polys since they were WAY too simple): Gurney, radiator, sink.

2) Started the lighting over completely from scratch. Lighting has more mood to it now, with stronger shadows.

3) Normal maps show up better. Not sure if it's a result of a better lighting setup, or that this version of the engine displays normal information better. I suspect a bit of both.

I can't get over how much better the lighting looks in this. I'm not even so sure that I did a lot differently from the previous lighting setup. I think I just have a better handle on all the different lightmass settings than I did 6 months ago. Learning gooooo!

Desert Straggler

1) Made the shadows cooler, to better reflect how outdoor shadows look.

2) Added a VERY low ambient light to give the overall level more brightness.

3) Made a lot of changes in color choice. Trees and sand are less saturated, rocks now match up more with mountains and cliff side, grass now matches surrounding terrain and doesn't stick out like a sore thumb.

4) Retextured the terrain and optimized terrain layer setup. Ground now has gravel and grass layers to give more surface variation.

A huge world of difference. Everything seems to work better, mainly just due to altering colors and adding more detail to the ground. Not really much else to say. The results sort of speak for themselves.

Whew, it feels good to have all of that out of the way.

Now, all I have to do is recapture the video footage of both projects and put them back into premiere to edit in. Should only take one day, which is tomorrow. I'm also trying to find a better way to post my demo reel to the web, as youtube's uncanny ability to degrade my video quality isn't quite cutting it right about now.

After that's squared away, I'll dig into the RPG project a bit more. There won't be any pics posted from that until the game demo is actually out, so don't expect to see anything from that anytime soon. I'll still be working on that side project with Joe in the meantime, which he is about 1/4 of the way done with, in sketching. Once we have a better idea of the details and the drawings are done, I'll make a nice big post about it.

Where do I begin?

2010-09-28T13:18:00.001-07:00

Well, I guess I can start off with the bad news. Some professional game devs have collectively decided to crush my soul. It's a good kind of soul crushing though, because they critiqued my demo reel and in a nutshell, I'm not good enough to start applying to places yet. They REALLY hated the laser rifle, so that got trashed all together. In a couple of months, hopefully I'll be ready.

More bad news: The tf2 props have been scrapped. I loved working on them, and would love nothing more than to finish them, but it has become a low priority for me. (See below as to why)
It's what I would like to do rather than what I should be doing.

Good news: I've begun working on my first group project! Me and some other Chicago chaps are making an action rpg demo, kinda like Mass Effect as far as style goes. They're two years into it so far, so it's cool to be sort of diving into it head first, right into the fray. I've got a couple models done so far, and we meet up every other week, so good times are ahead.

More good news: In response to those critiques I mentioned before, I'm doing a new solo project that is basically making a ridiculously detailed high resolution mesh in zbrush and showing it off. I need to have a piece that shows off my high poly modeling skills, and I guess you could say that the style of TF2 weapons doesn't allow for such detail. My roommate Joe and I have come up with a concept, and he's currently sketching it out. Details to follow.

TF2 Props Modeling shizzle bang dizzle

2010-09-08T11:25:00.000-07:00

As I get more and more settled into Chi-town, I also have some fruits of my modeling labours. Yes, just because I'm still getting situated doesn't mean I can't find some time to work as well. The initial low poly modeling is complete, and now I take them into zbrush and add detail, as per usual. Here they be laddies/lassies:

So, the replacement for the revolver is The Ceasefire. It's description reads as:

"Our first item is a old west style revolver that stops even the most war-hardened veterans dead in their tracks. Said to have been used by General Custer in his Last Stand at Little Big Horn, this weapon will make its victim unable to move for a short amount of time, depending on where you hit the target. Head and torso shots will give you more time, as limb shots will yield significantly LESS time. This makes it the ideal weapon of choice for making a smooth getaway. The downside is that a specific target can only be affected once until they die and respawn, and your shots will do less damage than your trusty revolver. And, oh yea, no crits allowed."

+ On hit: Freezes target for a short time, based on where the target is hit. Target is affected once in one life.

- 25% Damage to target

- No critical hits

I'm trying to stay as close to Custer's real revolver on this, but it has a lot of engraved detail on it, much like the Ambassador. I'll take the detail down a bit, and vary the design so that they don't get confused for each other. This will be by far the hardest to detail in Zbrush. It will definitely push me to my limits.

This one is the replacement for the sapper. Description:

"Enter the Instigator. This gem of an item takes the idea of your regular sapper and makes it a bit more distanced. That's right, you'll no longer have to get up close and personal with this baby, because it disables an engineer's equipment remotely. It's no matter if you're around a corner, or whether or not you're looking right at the blasted things, as long as you're within 40 feet of your targets, it'll sap any and all buildings that an engie has within that radius. However, take caution when using this device, because it takes a bit more time to fully destroy buildings. Also, it will emit an electrical current that will instantly blow your cover."

+ Remotely saps all enemy buildings within a 40 feet radius

-40% sap rate

- emits an electrical current that nullifies the user's disguise.

This guy is a mixture of a bunch of stuff I got when I googled "1940's technology". It's what you call "logical nonsense", where something looks like it makes sense and can be used for some task, but you don't know the actual tech behind it. As long as it's believable to an extent. The plane that rests over the top part is duct tape that the engineer has used to hold the bottom part of it together. Nothing works quite like duct tape. Zbrushing should be relatively easy on this one.

The Despiriter has a wonderous description:

"We've been told that this is probably NOT what King Ramses II called his favorite dagger, but it sounds really friggin cool, so why not? Backstabbing an enemy with this little number will release the tormented spirit of good ol' Ramses himself upon all who witness your crime, sending them into a helpless, frightened state that can only be cured by a hot cup of cocoa and a good crying session. The effect will wear off after about five seconds, which is more than enough time for you to finish off those who have their back turned to you and escape. WARNING: This weapon only works once during a lifetime, and every life you take after using it will take some of your life as well."

+ On hit: Puts all enemies that witness the backstab into a fear state for 5 seconds. Can only be used once in a life.

-30 health drained on wearer for every backstab after first initial stab.

It basically HAD to have it be curved. It just cries out sinister when you see it. It's a blend of a couple different references, but manages to read as Egyptian pretty well. The hilt will be engraved gold, and the round part at the top of the hilt will be the face of Ramses, carved into it.

I'm by no means a designer, so the pros and cons of these weapons may be a bit unbalanced. The description was done mainly just for fun though, the real importance to this is how they look. I'll make another post when the zbrushing is complete on all three.

New things in the mix

2010-08-30T21:51:00.000-07:00

So, guess what? I am now a Chicago resident. YES. Where do I begin? Let's see....

1) The website is under a bit of a delay. My website maker lady had an unfortunate incident with her computer which makes it unclear as of now whether or not she lost all of her files. So I'm waiting to see how that goes. No idea on when the site will be up. I'm not worried though. It's not a matter of if, but rather a matter of when.

2) I've been playing the resume game, getting ready to apply to some companies. It seems that everyone wants something different in a resume, so that makes it tough. Just some tweaks here and there and they'll be done. Cover letters are another story entirely. Ugh.

3) I've started on another project. I've decided to visit some familiar territory this time. I'm doing some TF2 weapons! If you remember back to a year ago, I tried to work with the source engine and ended up scrapping that ctf map I worked so hard on. Compiling custom content for Valve's games is a nightmare, which is precisely why I gave up. But, long story short, I won't have to worry about that this time. You see, Polycount, the forum I frequent, held a contest with Valve recently that I really wanted to participate in, but couldn't because I was so determined to get the desert environment done. So now I'm going to do it on my own. Sort of my own little private contest. You make three new weapons for a class, and then send them in to Valve. Obviously, I can't get any sort of prize now, but I can send it in to them and have it put in the game. That's right. If you send them your own models and textures, they will compile them for you, and put them in your backpack so you can use them in-game. This kills so many birds with one stone that it's not even funny. Not even. I love TF2, it'll do a good job of replacing the laser rifle, which I am less and less happy with every time I look at it (though it's still not bad, really), and this will also show that I can do stylized prop work and not just stuff based on realism.

I've already got the concepts done, and I just started on modeling today. I'll post some pics when the models are ready, which will hopefully be soon.

2010 Demo Reel

2010-08-09T02:10:00.001-07:00

That's right. After a year long journey with many bumps along the way, at long last my demo reel is DONE. It's hard to believe that it's been almost a year since I set out to get this done. Unbelievable. I must say that there's no way I could have done this without the support of my friends and family. In times where I got so frustrated that quitting seemed like the only option, they helped motivate me to pick myself back up, and I am extremely blessed for that. So, here it is.
All I have to do before Chicago now is put up the website, so look out for that sometime this month.

Cheers to progress!

EDIT: It appears that blogger hates my video and cuts off a part of it when I try embedding it, so here's a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfThYDJJ3Cg

Make sure you watch it in 480P. Otherwise, it looks like crap. Hehe :P

The Desert Sessions, PT. 9

2010-08-07T13:10:00.000-07:00

It's done! That's right, after 6 months of solid labor, Desert Straggler is complete! I've got tons of pics to show, and I must say that this is by far the best thing I've done so far. Considering that I just started learning the Unreal engine about a year ago, I'm happy with how much I've learned since then. There's still some ways to go, but I'm anxious to see what future projects will bring. A list of things new in this final version:

1) Shack is done. No more boring-looking flat, purple and gray boxes.

2) Plane is done.

3) Tire prop is complete.

4) Ambient occlusion effect is working nicely for the outside, while the interior has very little, which looks best.

5) Water bottle shader is complete.

Enough talk. Onto the pics now:

So the biggest part of the update, the shack. It's actually made up of several props. I tried to keep the colors under wraps, with mostly reds, and greens without making it look too uniform. After all, it is made of what this guy can actually find and stick together. If you looks closely at some of the pics, you can tell that everything is held together by nails. Makes enough sense to appease the general player. I drew influence from a bunch of pictures of makeshift shacks and tents and pieced together parts from each one to form the final shack you see. As I said, my concept artist crapped out on me, so the concept is entirely my own. I didn't think I had it in me, but I'm rather proud of myself on that one. It was tricky figuring out how the shack's tarp would be held up, but reference of tents being held up by long sticks with rope sold me on how to achieve believable results. I'm also happy with how the floor blanket turned out. The dirt around the edges and over it really makes it look worn and dirty. As for the overall wall structure, it's made up of three components: wood, corrugated steel, and cloth. Not too many different things to confuse the player, but enough variety to be visually pleasing.

The plane was a lot of work. It was really tricky to get the proportions right, as I'm sure there are plenty of airplane experts out there that need to be convinced. I chose blue as a way of making it pop out of the environment, as the red-orange sand and green flora match each other. In contrast, blue stands out more. The color map is entirely hand painted, and is perhaps one of the best I've painted to date. I didn't want it to look too destroyed, as you have to believe that the guy stranded here could actually survive it, even though his friend had no such luck. Good reference was perhaps the hardest to find for the plane, especially in a wrecked state, and I drew influence from multiple pics. I like the result.

Oh yeah, and here's the maps for it:

Diffuse

Specular

Normal

The rest of the pics are things you have already seen, but enjoy nonetheless:

Fun facts about Desert Straggler, which has:

87 diffuse maps
43 normal maps
26 specular maps
(That's 156 maps in total, if you like math)

114 props
87 materials

Alright then! What's the plan now? I'm going to finish the demo reel, of course. I need to optimize the level more, so the engine keeps a decent framerate, set up camera work, capture the video, make the wireframe shots, and edit it all together. From there, I give all of that stuff to my new website maker lady, Whitney Martin, whom I'm sure will do a fantastic job. When the demo reel is done, I'll make another post. Same thing with the website. So close to having this portfolio thing done.........

The Desert Sessions, PT. 8

2010-07-15T15:18:00.000-07:00

Well now, it looks like there is a light at the end of this tunnel. Everything is done for the desert level, except for the shack and plane. Like I said, they're the two hardest props to make, so I'm unsure of how long it'll take to get them done. I'll be handling them as far as concept goes, so I'll be diving right into it tonight. The truth of the matter is that the shack will consist of multiple meshes that are all put together, but I'll speak of it as one for clarity sakes. All my reference is ready to go, and it's one last push until this thing is finally done.
I'm optimistic that my demo reel will be done by mid August, just in time for the move to Chicago. Speaking of that, there's an official date set: August 22nd. Words cannot express how excited I am. The actual editing of all the video, titles, music, everything is ready to go. I decided to get it all done one weekend to kind of break up the monotony of zbrushing and texturing. I literally just have to make some video of the desert and plop it right on in. I'll also be fixing some image issues in the website with Harlow, and I might also make some behind the scenes pics to show my process. But for now, here's what I gots:

I made a bunch of improvements to the interior of the shack as you can see. I fixed some issues with parts of my normal maps fading out where light hits them. I Made a grayscale copy of their normal maps' green channel, and overlayed them over the rest of the diffuse layers. It seems like a hack, but since none of my lights are dynamic, there's really no difference to be seen except for just having more detail in general. The backpack, sleeping bag, and table logs benefited a lot from this. I also played with the specular power of some objects, which gives them a more realistic look as far as specularity goes. The plastic bottles need to be fixed material wise, but once everything around it is done, I can capture the reflection map which will make it look a lot better. I also got rid of a weird occlusion issue with certain objects, mainly the table and tripod. They were casting a weird artifact around them, but messing with some world properties straightened them out. I dirtied everything up as well, since I'm sure whoever lives there would track some dirt in there. The t shirt now has some better color choice, as does the flashlight. And most noticeable of all are the log stumps holding up the makeshift table. Pretty much everything on those are new. They were pretty bare looking until I decided some moss would look nice. Imagine them without any green. Dull, right?

Next up is that stump thing that looked pretty bad without any texture work done to it. It has a pretty subtle texture to it, but it works. I added some sand to the bottom to make it blend in more with the ground. It looked pretty poor without it.

And here arethe mountains, which are improved. The old texture for it looked pretty bad, so I redid it. It uses one texture twice, one that's really big for viewing the mountain from far away, and another that tiles smaller for close up viewing. This helps break up obvious repetition of the textures, no matter what distance you're viewing it from. As you can also see, the dead tree is done. Nothing flashy here, once again subtlety works.

As one guy suggested on Polycount, I added some leaves and increased the amount of twigs. Finding a right amount of saturation for the leaves was tricky, as I didn't want them to look too fresh, but too much desaturation prevents them from blending in properly with everything else.

Ah yes, the grave. It was pretty simple to do. I modeled it after some reference of an old wooden sign and it has just the right amount of dirt and detail. It was tough to conceptualize how some wood carved for such a purpose would look, since he wouldn't have the best tools, but once I settled on something, it was smooth sailing.

It's mostly in shadow, but the "fallen tree" as I've called it helps to break up the environment a bit. Zbrushed all to hell, this guy is pretty light at about 2000 tris. I'm pretty happy with how detailed it ended up looking.

And finally, I added in that campfire area I mentioned in earlier posts. This was a bitch to do in zbrush, as I had quite a few sticks to do, and I was being a stickler on all the detail. Maybe too much for how close you get to it. Out of all the things I zbrushed, this along with the fallen tree took the most time to sculpt. I dug into the terrain a bit and put down a flat plane that would serve as the ash beneath the logs. This is definitely one of the props I'm most proud of.

That's all for this update. I've promised myself that there will only be one more final update for the desert sessions. I just really want to get this thing and looking nice. Once it is, and the website/demo reel is done, a gigantic weight will be off of my shoulders. Stay tuned...

The Desert Sessions, PT. 7

2010-06-17T10:36:00.000-07:00

So this is q really quick post, mainly because I just made a really quick fix. Some folks on the Poly count forums recommended that I take the red hue on the sand down a notch, so I did, and it looks much, much better. The plants don't stick out so much now. I also toned down the green on the trees as well, and shifted them towards a more yellow-greenish hue.

The Desert Sessions, PT. 6

2010-06-16T15:32:00.000-07:00

All the organic stuff in my environment is done! I replaced the expensive plant meshes I once had that had each individual leaf as a mesh, and replaced them with transparent plane geometry that takes each plant from 1,000 polys to about 10. HUGE difference, needless to say. So now, I don't have to skimp on the amount of shrubbery the level has. The planes cross each other in just the right fashion to make the grass believable from virtually any angle.

I also added some bushes in, which are not as abundant as the previously mentioned plants. They serve as a sort of "accent" mesh to add visual variety. Same idea as the other plants in construction, just a different plant image used.

Another big change is all the rocks that I added in. I modeled them out in maya, detailed them in zbrush, and painted them in photoshop. It was tricky getting the colors for them to match in with the environment just right, but a neutral gray with a touch of earth tone works just right. I tried more chromatic orange colors like I observed in many reference pics, but they ended up sticking out like a sore thumb. The poly count of each rock is roughly 600-700 polys, which I'm happy with, given how their silhouettes look.

The last thing I did was fill in the open background area past the point where the player can go. Trees, rocks, grass, it's all there. The magic in it is that they are all flat image planes. Since they are far away, there's no need for them to be complex models, so I faked it by taking a screen cap of the actual 3D models, erasing the surrounding backgrounds in Photoshop, and including an alpha in the TGA. It looks convincing, and it made virtually no mark on my poly count. It's nice to see my map really finally feel like it's part of something bigger, like it's never ending.

So, now that the natural stuff is done, save some unique trees that are static meshes, I can move on to finishing some remaining models. After that, it's time to visit the material editor and make some of my objects look a bit shinier. And after that, I finally tackle the plane and shack.

More to come....

The Desert Sessions, PT. 5

2010-05-23T21:02:00.000-07:00

It's about due time for an update. There's been quite a lot of progress since the last post, mainly in the the fact that there's trees now populating the map. List of new things....GO

1) Added 12 different types of speedtrees to the map. Most are populated with leaves, some are bare. Used 3 different leaf textures, and 3 bark textures. Bark textures have normal maps as well.

2) Map now uses motion blur for the player.

3) Depth of field is now enabled. Objects in the background look out of focus.

4) Changed the water to reflect the skydome texture. The way it's lit looks more spot on with the surrounding environment.

5) Added grass clumps. The ones seen are placeholders. More on that later...

6) Finished sculpting mountains. It blends between two textures and has a normal map applied.

7) All props are now in place and scene layout is finalized.

8) Background land plane is in place.

9) Terrain layers are finalized, all with normal maps in place. Let's just say that the ground is done.

10) Added the post process volume, a sort of controller for the shadows, midtones, highlights, etc. in the scene.

11) Added a lightmass importance volume to speed up build time.

And the images as proof of my labours:

So. What to say.... Well, for starters, half of my time has been devoted to making it so that the frame rate stays at 24 fps. The big culprit was the grass clumps. I apparently overestimated what the unreal engine can handle as far as poly counts go. So, I spent a lot of time reducing the polys on all the models, only to find out that I have to completely remodel them in a new way. Back to square one. Live and learn. It's okay though, because it was a huge learning experience on engine optimization. I even tried to add in some tall grass, but the engine wasn't having that either. Don't know HOW I'll figure that one out.

There's also been some back and forth on making the trees look decent. Speedtree gives you quick results, it's just that the results can be unpredictable, and the amount of value sliders can give you a headache. Poly counts had to be adjusted, limbs cut, roots placed in at the last minute, the list goes on. For the amount of time spent on them, I like how they turned out. I would have liked to have had more of them, but Unreal craps itself when a certain amount of speedtrees are present. Another lesson to be had, this time in conservation.

I tried to get some subtle fog going in the scene, but the engine can only do height based fog and not distance-based. The depth of field effect replaced it, and I must say it looks better than what fog could have given me. It also had the bonus of making my sun look like it's glowing which is nice. The water got blurred a bit more than I would like, but there was no way around it. Still, it doesn't look too bad.

The post process volume I added in also gave me the control I needed to make the shadows darker, to reflect more realistic sunset lighting.

The terrain itself was a bitch and a half. It's pretty complex right now with different texture layers, height restrictions, yadda yadda, but it's looking good. It takes so long to save any material connected to it, that I literally will go and take a shower, brush my teeth, and it will ALMOST be done when I come back. No exaggeration there. It's almost as long as my build time, which is at a cozy 20 minutes. Not bad, i say.

Things to come:

1) Bryan is finishing up the concept sketches. I'll post em', probably over the next few days.

2) Rocks need to be added. Will probably have 5 models total, all zbrushed with super detailed goodness. I originally wasn't going to have any, as I didn't see any in the reference pics I have, but Bryan's concept sketch of the overall environment told me otherwise. Thank you Bryan.

3) Foliage needs some closure. Need to find a low poly solution for bushes, tall grass, and grass clumps. That will take some experimentation, as well as time.

4) Need to make background cards for trees, rocks, etc. Flat 2D planes in the distance that give the illusion of stuff in the background.

5) Remaining prop work: Plane, shack, grave, fallen tree, tree stump, dead tree, table stump. More stuff than I would like to admit. That's the bulk of my remaining time.

6) Make a final material pass on all things in the scene. I learned a lot about materials as of late, and still have yet to fully apply that knowledge to the scene. The water bottle sticks out the most in my mind.....

*Shoooooo. That's a lot off my chest. For now. I really have to kick some ass to get all of my portfolio stuff done by August, which is when Joe and I are moving to Chi-town. And yes, we ARE moving then. No more holding off :P. Words can't express how nervous I am about getting this all done. June is a busy month for me, as work will be hectic due to many new, busy movies coming out, as well as the fact that we'll be getting 3D movies at my theater. We will literally be blowing up. It's intense. Also then is the final trip Joe and I will be making to Chicago to look for apartments. On top of all that, I will be gracing Lexington, Kentucky with my presence this Wednesday and Thursday. I am VERY excite. Good people there, I say.

Oh and before I forget, Ross contacted me and asked me to make him a model for an upcoming episode of Civil Protection. Said model was completed today, and now he has a guy that can compile my models, so we're in business again. I'll make a post about the episode when it comes out, no doubt.

The Desert Sessions, PT. 5

2010-04-26T22:18:00.000-07:00

Greetings y'all. So I've gotten a bit side tracked by some happenings in my life, but I'm still plugging away. I just finished sculpting out the majority of the terrain, and next is texturing it. UDK has a pretty nifty way of blending between textures based on the height of the terrain that I'm using. I have it set up so that on flat surfaces you have some flat sand with some rocks here and there, raised surfaces have a more bumpy feel to the sand, and the cliff side that overlooks the sea has its own rocky texture. The game engine automatically calculates which texture to show based on height, and I just have to sculpt it out and play with the numerous settings. Another cool feature that UDK terrain has is the ability to simplify its geometry based on the player's view. If the player is right next to a hill for example, they see the high detailed version of it. But, as they walk further away from it, it loses more and more polygons until it's at its lowest poly version. Definitely saves ALOT of processing power, and allows me to make a higher res landscape, so that's awesome. As for all the little dots on the cliff, I'm not sure. I'm sure I'll find some way to troubleshoot it.

Another thing you'll notice is that the water is done. I followed a tutorial on www.hourences.com (if you mod with UDK, check it out, it's an EXTREMELY useful site) , that was very useful in teaching me how to make water look realistic without making the shader itself too complex. I'll no doubt change some stuff about it, like making the reflection of the sun more accurate. But, I'm very, very happy with how it turned out. Which reminds me, another reason why I haven't had too much to show lately is that I decided to take a week to get really in depth with unreal editor's material system. I feel like I can make my objects look ten times more realistic as a result. It'll be the last thing I do to the desert, sort of the icing on the cake if you will.
I also fixed the skybox up a bit, textured some more objects, and I also have some concept work coming in from Bryan. So far it's just one pic showing the overall "feel" of the level, and he's currently working on pics of the shack, plane and rock formation. Here's a little taste:

Pretty sweet, eh? So what now? I finish texturing the terrain, then I place the trees, then some rocks, and then make the crashed plane, shack, and rock formation. I'm sure there will be things in between that come up unexpectedly, but whatever. That's the joy of making game art. :)

The Desert Sessions, PT. 4

2010-03-31T09:18:00.000-07:00

I've been mining in the UDK salt mines as of late, and progress is happening. So much, that I've of course, been ignoring the blog a little. I'm getting more comfortable with Zbrush, enough to the point where I don't just stare at a model for an hour, debating how I can possibly get what I want out of it. Let's put it this way, on average I can make a normal map for an object in under a day. I guess it depends on the prop, but that's a huge improvement on one month (laser gun). That one month spent on learning the normal mapping workflow was a pain, but it seems to have paid off. It's a good feeling to know that, as one whole year trying to grasp the Source engine proved fruitless. I feel like I'm getting faster at just about everything that I do, while not losing any quality on the actual result, which makes me extremely happy. A prop that would have taken me a week to do 2 years ago now takes me a day. Well, enough gloating over my artistic growth. To the meat and potatoes, as I say.

I've been texturing, which is really all I can say. It's the bulk of time spent on my work, probably a solid 50%, at least. I've been doing one object at a time with diffuse maps, spec maps, and normal maps. Hell, even the occasional opacity map. The fruits of this labour:

I'll be honest. I'm proud of this one. It might be one of the best models I've done. The spec map works great, the normal map works great, diffuse, everything comes together very well. The normal map took the most time, due to the sheer amount of detail I put into it. The player won't see it too closely, so I didn't go ape shit on it, but most of the reference detail is there. I had a fully rotating reference to look at, which helps immensely. Thanks Newegg.com!

I'm curious to see how the bear trap matches up against the ground texture when I put it in. I might have to do some tweaking on the color, but it'll work one way or another. I wanted to keep this one simple. I'll probably put a chunk of meat on the trap part to make it look like the player is trying to trap some kind of game.

The boom box was similar to the camera in the way that there was a lot of potential detail to show off. So I went nuts with it. It was out of necessity I feel though, because since it's an older type of stereo, it needs the detail to be believable. Think of it as something the player found in a scrapyard somewhere that he somehow fixed and got to work. The knife is one of those simple props that adds a little bit of needed detail to the overall environment.

This is the side of the shack. I'm happy with how this layout turned out, it just seems like it flows well. Not sure why. The bucket was one of the first models I textured, and has some pre-meditated dirt at the bottom like most of my objects. This is a dirty environment after all. Textures on the meat slab are incoming. You can get a glimpse of the skybox texture which has the setting sun situated at the edge of the cliff, thus creating what Valve calls a "vista". It's pretty much a sight that is supposed to direct your eye. A pretty sight to behold, if you will. Thanks to Jake for this nifty little idea. Obviously, I'm shopping out the trees, since it's a view out into the ocean.
Here's the makeshift table. The specularity for the flashlight top needs to be tweaked, as does the water bottle. I've been trying to get a good looking material going for the bottle, but that has proven difficult due to my lack of knowledge on Unreal's material editor. I might add an item or two if time allows.

Things will really come together when the shack is completed. For now, objects just float on checked default surfaces. The backpack is heavily zbrushed, but the other items were simple tasks. Getting the uv layout for the lightmap on the tennis ball to work was a pain. I had to utilize some trickery, that's for sure.

Now this is a closeup of the light, which makes it look a little worse than the player will see. It'll be seen from further away, rest assured. Getting the lighting to look right for the room was no problem. Making light hit the lamp in a desirable way was another story. I basically had to make the light that affected the rest of the room not affect the actual lamp, and I created a new one to specifically light the lamp itself and nothing else.

The first aid kit was my first model to texture. Like everything else, it's a mixture of zbrush and photoshop as far as the normal mapping goes. I think it'll blend well with the completed environment. Here's pics of some of my zbrush models fresh out of the view port itself. Keep in mind that these are incomplete, as they are taken into photoshop afterwords. Correct some bad normal baking, and then add in some detail with the Nvidia normal map filter.

Well, that's it for now. I'm gonna keep plugging away at it, and I'll have another update when I get more stuff textured. Hopefully it'll at least be almost done at that point. I talked to Bryan Jares, my concept artist, and he's gonna get started on some drawings/ paintings soon. I'll post those up when I get them. Speaking of that, Bryan, here's your section of the post:

This is a VERY rough layout of the map. It's just to give you some idea of where everything is situated. Mind the horrible photoshopping. The bottom right rock texture indicates where the cliff drops off into the ocean. It's pretty much situated in the Australian desert, on a cliff right by the sea. The brownish orange shapes at the right of the image are rock formations. There should be two pics in the "general landscape" folder on photobucket that give you an idea of what this looks like. There's also a folder that shows how the cliff side will look. As for the actual ground, in the general landscape folder, look to the pics with orange sand in them. That's what I'm aiming for. As for the plane crash, there's a plane at the top of the image, as well as some trees under that. I want there to be some separation between the plane wreck and makeshift shack. It won't be a forest by any means, but just a concentration of trees to break up the environment. Finally, the shack itself will be left VERY open for you to decide. Just make sure that the dimensions fit with the rough model I have now.
If things are left too open for you and you need some direction, here's some pics that are the closest to what I want. All the other pics on the photobucket page are meant to garner some additional inspiration for where you could go with it:

Feel free to add in some metal surfaces, as seen in the other pics.

These are the pics that look the most like how I want the overall landscape to look. Take a look at the pic with the vehicle in it. Replace the jeep with the wrecked plane, and assume that the background is how the area beyond the plane is. It's just an endless open desert with trees obscuring the view.

Here's a list of things that HAVE to happen with these concepts.

1) It needs to be based in reality. No fantasy stuff, as I'm sure you're aware.

2) The time of the day is during the sunset. So as with that sort of lighting, objects in the exterior part of the environment will be pretty dark, but I still want to be able to see some detail in them.

3) Try to stick with the sort of lighting the skybox would offer. I don't want you to feel too restricted on color, but keep it within that realm.

4) Stick to the reference I give you, obviously. Also heed to the layout I gave you in the 2nd pic from the top of your part of the post.

5) No need to include the actual props I've done. What I'm mainly concerned about is the plane, shack, and overall landscape.

Other then that, go nuts. If there are little things you can do to make the environment more interesting, go for it. Chances are, I'll probably like them.

Here's a breakdown of the pics I'll need:

1) A pic with the same rough angle as the layout pic a gave you. Just something to get a feel for the whole place. Can be very roughly detailed like we discussed earlier.

2) An image of the plane wreck.

3) An image of the shack exterior

4) A pic of the shack interior.

5) A pic of the rock formations.

For pics 2, 3, and 4, no need to put in the environment around them. Just the objects themselves. As for what's a painting and what's a drawing or rough sketch, it depends on what you want to put into this project. I would be thrilled if they could all be detailed paintings, but I definitely don't expect you to feel like that has to happen. If I can at least get a rough sketch on s0ome of the pics, I would be happy enough. The most important pics to have painted would be the shack and plane.

Well, I think that just about covers it. If you have any questions at all, just ask. My email is 3dryan@gmail.com, or you can hit me up on Steam. I'll try to be on as much as possible. The link for my photobucket is: http://s573.photobucket.com/home/3DRyan.

Good luck you, sir!

Well I'll be!

2010-03-10T22:04:00.001-08:00

Looks like Jake has put up a nice little image of our laser rifle project on his portfolio site. Shiny ZBrush sculpt included!

http://www.coroflot.com/public/individual_file.asp?from_url=true&portfolio_id=3433284&individual_id=150335

The Desert Sessions, PT. 3

2010-03-02T15:10:00.000-08:00

Ahoy! More modeling progress is abound. Everything is currently modeled except for:

-fire pit
-crashed airplane
-shack
-terrain

I know. The four biggest, most important parts, right? The reason why I'm putting those on hold is due to not having any concepts sketched out yet. My minions have yet to complete this task, and I still don't know when this will happen. I've got a bunch of new models to show for now, as well as some bushes modeled in Speedtree. Observe:

A camera on a tripod, a hand-carved grave, and a big ol' slab of ribs. I've been thinking about using a simple concept that the guy who is stranded here was not alone on his disastrous trip. He had a buddy that was killed in the crash. So, he buried his body and made a grave with his hat nailed to it in remembrance, over time. The camera and tripod suggests that either the player or the dead friend is/was a photographer. The rib slab, along with all the other bones and meat you see throughout the level are from animals that the survivor has eaten in order to survive. There's a sort of thought process behind all this stuff where I want to tell a simple story through prop work, and I think what I've got so far is pretty good. Especially since I'm no story teller to begin with.

Here we have a make-shift table with some items on it that include: flashlight w/ top screwed off and battery, med kit, notepad w/ pencil, passport, and Ipod. Once again, simple story implication. The table is just thrown together by the survivor to have a place to organize his stuff and think about his situation, maybe a place to plan his departure for help.

Bug spray, sun hat, leg bone, meat chunk, and jaw bone. Not much to say here.

Two examples of grass patches found in the level. Grass tends to clump together in this type of place, so I just decided to make it as separate static meshes. If there's an area where there's alot of grass, i can clump it together. The tree stump is an example of trying to break up the environment a bit more. Just having some speedtrees thrown in doesn't do the job well enough for me. It needs some custom mesh work to give it some character. Plus, it's stuff that you just can't achieve in Speedtree. The grass is Maya paint effects, which works well enough for something as simple as grass. Try modeling it from scratch, and your head will explode.

A tree that has been hit by lightning. A lucky thing for our survivor, who has stripped the branches for firewood. I had to really watch the poly count on this one, plus it would take way too long to model it with lots of branches as if it just fell. The firewood concept remedies that. It's weird how story elements can lessen your poly count. Ha!

Bushes to help once again, break up the environment. Once again, everything will have its own custom textures, especially the leaves which will look drastically different.

Well, now I put the level together in the editor and then start texturing. When it's generally composed, I'll post some pics of it. Unreal is refusing to build my lighting at the moment, and I'm probably going to physically harm it. If I find a way to actually do this, I'll let you all know.

The Desert Sessions, PT. 2

2010-02-18T10:38:00.000-08:00

I figured I would post some process on the modeling of the desert. I've been modeling like a fiend as of late, mainly due to the fact that I quit one of my jobs. It's amazing how much more time I have on my hands to do the stuff I actually enjoy doing, and it shows. So, the props you see below are mainly just things that I've been thinking about that you would find in the "straggler's" living space. No conceptual drawings or paintings are needed, they're just things that I know I'll have regardless of anything. Speaking of concept drawings and such, I'm still waiting on stuff in that department to start up, which will hopefully be soon. It's hard for me to tell. I will say that a new person is aboard now, one that actually does conceptualization as a soon-to-be living, so it's exciting to have him aboard. Joe is still tentative at this point, and Jake seems to have done his part which was a big help. So, nothing else really to talk about. I'm just gonna keep modeling until I'm happy with the amount of props I have. Then, I'll get my hands dirty with some texturing. Enjoy the pics.

**BONUS**

Some trees I made in Speedtree, the awe-inspiring tree generator I love so much. The textures for the bark and leaves are just placeholders:

New Website Is Up!

2010-02-06T08:13:00.000-08:00

So, this happened a whole lot sooner than I thought it would, but my newly designed website is up! Thanks to the flash man, Ryan Harlow for making it functional. Now it's a pretty easy task to actually update it, since I designed it to have stuff added to it. This is the opposite of how my old, crappy site was. And to that old piece of crust, I say good riddance. And as you can tell by looking at it, this very blog is linked to it. Well, not much to say, just that the new site is up. Check it out at:

www.3dryan.com

The Desert Sessions, PT.1

2010-02-04T15:25:00.000-08:00

Alright. so the desert is coming along nicely. I've even come up with an official name. Henceforth, it will be known as "Desert Straggler". I think it has a nice ring to it. Anyway, I've got some 3D sketching pics to show. Now obviously, it's extremely simplified. This version is made with the sole purpose to give Joe an idea of where things are within the level. Observe:

Okay, so what you're looking at is a cliifside that overlooks the ocean. Obviously, the blue is ocean, orange is cliffside, gray is ground, orange sticks are trees, the metallic looking square is a small shanty, the small cylinder in front of that is a fireplace, the red thing is a crashed plane, the large orange block next to the shack is a rock formation, and the block that looks like sand is a rocky beach area. Confused? I hope not. If not, here's the general concept of the area. Two men were flying their small plane above the coast of southern Australia when they lost control and crashed right near a cliff that overlooks the ocean. The crash was fatal for one guy, but the other survived and now lives alone, stranded and surrounded by nothing but desert and ocean. He has constructed a shanty for himself from sheet metal, as well as a small bonfire area, a grave site for his friend, and two tall light stands to help illuminate his habitat. You can see the crash site as well, which tells you that he didn't venture too far away from it. Now obviously, there are many plot holes in this story, and as to how he collected all this stuff, but I don't care. If I held back and made this totally realistic, it would be boring. He just so happens to have this stuff. Deal with it.

Before I even had a theme to go by, I knew a couple things that I wanted out of this project.

1) It had to be open ended, like if you took a chunk out of the map in Fallout 3. You can look around in all directions.

2) It had to be outdoors, so that I can show my skills in making exterior, organic environments.

3) I had to have something that would really let me sculpt some terrain, so I could show that I'm familiar with that tool set within Unreal.

4) It had to have a skybox.

5) It had to have some sort of water, whether it be a river, ocean, or lake.

6) It had to be more ambitious as far as scope goes. It'll take me until May at least. Trust me.

7) It had to take place during sunset. It's something you don't see as much as daylight scenes in games. Also, it'll be more fun and challenging to light as well as just looking prettier in general.

I this project fits all aspects very well.

Landmarks:
Shanty campsite- The metallic shanty mentioned earlier with a campfire in front of it. It sits right between the edge of the cliff and the wooded area. It contains many personal belongings, like a toothbrush, clothes, pictures, etc. Good little details that will tell a story. Situated between the campfire and rock formation are fixed up floodlights that he has duct taped and custom rigged together to stand properly.

Grave site- Not sure where it'll be yet. This can be pretty flexible. It will be a small dirt pile in the ground that has a small, crudely made wooden cross sticking in it. Simple.

Airplane crash- The prop that tells us how the player got here. It's a small plane that can only accompany two people. It'll have the front end all crunched up, with a good amount of grit on it. You know, it'll look like a crashed plane. For some reason, it keeps coming up as red and blue in my head.

Open space- Wide open area behind the crashed plane. It's almost completely flat, and you can see pretty far away. Minimal trees, but plenty of smaller vegetation. Gives you the biggest impression that it's a desert.

Cliff side rocks and beach- Next to the shanty is a bunch of rock formations that eventually lead to a half sand, half stone beach. If you are looking at the ocean, on the right opposite side of the cliff, there is no beach sand, but just steep cliffs.

Small wooded area- Located where the bulk of the trees are. It breaks the environment up a bit. Makes the composition of the environment better.

This all may sound kind of confusing, but after me, Joe, and Jake have our talks, it'll make sense like it currently does in my head. Haha.

And for a better idea of reference, here's my Photobucket page with pics of inspiration:

http://s573.photobucket.com/home/3DRyan

Now, it's on to learning more Speedtree and waiting for sketches. Huzzah!

Post Game Jam, Website, 3D Sketching, Speedtree, etc.

2010-02-03T18:55:00.000-08:00

So, I got back from the Game Jam this past Monday, and I must say I had a blast. First, I went up to visit my friend Joe in Rochester. We hung out for a couple days, and then we both went to Chicago for a couple more. The main reason for this trip was of course, for the game jam. Let me first say this to anyone who read my little story on last year's jam. It was INFINITELY better this year. For those of you who didn't read said story, I got insanely sick during last year's trip. So needless to say, it was pretty hard to do worse this time around. However, in keeping with last year's tradition, my team biffed up pretty bad. Our designers and programmers were unable to get certain elements working properly, which made it so that I couldn't make pretty art for all to see. No hard feelings though, as it was a fault of technology and no person in particular. It didn't really bother me, as I got what I really wanted out of the trip. Meeting cool people, networking, and generally being around like-minded folks that do the same thing I do. Nothing is better. Having my best friend along for the journey definitely doesn't hurt either. So all in all, it was a great trip.

Now, onto future business.

The website: Will be up soon. I just gave Ryan Harlow, my friend that knows flash a hell of a lot better than I do, the needed files. So in a couple weeks, it'll be up. Now obviously, it's only the work that I've done thus far and does not include the demo reel or pics of the desert environment, which I have yet to do.

Speaking of which, that is coming along pretty well. Jake just gave me the map file that lays out the level roughly, and I'm going to edit some stuff to my will. Then I'll hand it off to Joe to draw from. I'll post some pics of the level as soon as it's done, which will be in a few days.

Lastly, Speedtree! It's amazing. It's basically a 3D app that lets you very quickly generate realistic looking trees, grass, and rocks, among many other things. I'm learning it right now, and it basically cuts my workflow right in half. Very intuitive, easy to learn, and it makes my life so much easier. So yeah. I'll post again soon.

New Website in the Works

2010-01-17T20:53:00.000-08:00

So, for my next order of business, I decided to start revamping my website. Right now, it's about to have it's second birthday. Two years. Crazy to think that it's been almost two years since I graduated. So anyway, it's been collecting cobwebs and definitely needs some sweeping, so here's some pics of the re-design:

It's surprising how creepy it feels to see my face in the first pic. Haha. So, as you can see, simplicity is the word of the day. Not simple as in crappy-looking simple, but simple as in not having all kinds of fancy motion with five million colors all over the place. I hate going to websites and having them take twenty seconds to load some ridiculous flash animation, just to get to the next page. Since this is meant mainly for future employers to look at, I want it to be extremely easy for them to navigate and find what they want. Also, I think that having your contact info at the top of each page makes their job easier as well. They don't have to hunt down the right page just to contact you if they like what they see. This is by no means done, as I still need some backing from friends that it's looking good, which is partially why I posted this in the first place.

In other news, Jake and I had our conceptual talk over the desert environment. We now know the basic layout and premise of the project, and over the next few weeks, a 3D sketch and some 2D sketches will be posted periodically. Jake will do the 3D sketch in Hammer (Valve's level editor), and then we'll pass it off to Joe to sketch from. Once again, it all depends on how everyone's schedules go over the next few weeks.

Finally, the Global Game Jam is coming up next week. I'm taking a week off to visit Joe in Rochester, and then we're going to Chicago. I'm participating in the Jam of course, and he's gonna work on a tasty script. I'll definitely have some pics to post on my facebook. Stay tuned for that.

Another milestone done, another day.

2010-01-12T10:30:00.000-08:00

There's not really a lot visually to show this update, but it IS a big step in the right direction. As I said in earlier posts, I've had some time to kill while waiting for the desert project to get rolling, so I finished the Chernobyl and laser rifle projects. Now, I've finished making decisions on how to present each project in the demo reel, as well as determining camera movement and capturing video. So in a nutshell, I have all my raw footage and stills, and I'm ready to import them into a nonlinear editing package to finish for good. I'm still a little on the fence about this, but I think I want to wait until the desert is done to actually start editing. Reworking the website is also something that I've been thinking about getting back into. I think that both things go hand in hand though, as I want them to have a similar look and feel. In any case, here's a breakdown of the shots for the reel thus far:

Chernobyl
1) Fade in as camera pans out to show a full view of the scene.
2) Still image of wireframe view
3) Still image of color map view
4) Still image of color/normal map view.
5) Still image of final view, which now includes specular map.
6) Camera pans from left of scene to right and fades out.

Laser Rifle
1) Shot of Jake's concept drawing fades in and out.

*The camera stays still in each following shot as rifle does a 360 rotation. Each shot has it rotate around once.*

2) Fade in to view final shot
3) Wireframe view
4) Color map view
5) Normal map view
6) Specular view, which is once again the final shot at this point.

What I DO have to show is the wireframe shot of Chernobyl. Since unreal editor does a crappy job of capturing stills in the viewport, I had to do some cleanup of the black lines in Photoshop.

And that's all for now. In a week or two, expect to see something on the desert. I am out.

laser rifle final-ish final

2010-01-05T14:00:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I know. That was quick. But nevertheless, the laser rifle is 100% complete! There wasn't near as much stuff wrong with it as Chernobyl, so it took only some minor tweaking to get it to the level I wanted. Here it be:

List of changes:

1)- The wood stock grip was far too damaged looking. I tried to justify in my mind why it would look that way before, but this time around I decided that it needed to be revamped. The specularity plays better off of the bumps and I've also added a silver rim around it that helps it pop out a bit more.

2)- The glass encasing the blue batteries looks more glass-like now. How nice!

3)- Some subtle paint marks have been added to the wood stock. I thought it might have been lying around a woodshop and someone might have gotten some paint on it accidentally. It adds a little, visually to the wood.

4)- I made all of the lights on the trigger dimmed out completely, except for the one that the switch is on, which I made more chromatic to differ from the others. You can see it in the second pic. It's the green light.

5)- I altered the specular maps in general, as adding the new lightmass system made the lighting different. Some things are more or less specular.

6)- The most apparent of all the changes is adding the new lightmass system. It's what's responsible for probably more the 50% of the overall improvement. Bump and specularity show up better, and light reaches all around the object in a more realistic manner.

So that's another one down. The plan remains the same for now with all the other projects. I have yet to touch base with Jake on the desert project, and I plan on doing that ASAP. While I'm waiting for sketches, I'm gonna start on production for the demo reel. I must say that I'm getting excited as the global game jam gets closer, and I'll also be helping Joe with his new film. Expect something on the desert or demo reel towards the middle of the month or so. YES.

Chernobyl circa 2010.

2010-01-02T19:49:00.000-08:00

Happy new years and all that stuff. I'm starting my new year off right by saying that Chernobyl is complete! No reworks. Case closed. It's always hard for me to walk away from projects due to the fact that I'm a perfectionist when it comes to just about everything. But, there comes a time when you have to lock the gate and move on to newer things. So here it be laddies and lads:

As you can tell, there have been even more changes. A list:

1) Four new props: paper towel dispenser, hand soap dispenser, ivy vines, and trash can. Though they're all mundane objects on their own, they help to make the level more believable. A sink without at least something to go with it just looks odd in my opinion. Not too much wear and tear on any of them. They all have normal maps but the only one done in Zbrush was the trash can. It was mainly just to keep Zbrush fresh in my mind for when I use it in the desert project later. Plus the trash bag detail and the grooves on the metal lent themselves to 3d sculpting extremely well. The vines especially make the room look older and overgrown as nature tends to retake things that haven't been kept up in awhile.

2) I desaturated some objects to give the level a more dead, abandoned feel. Some of the objects had too much chromatic pop to them, so I lowered it so they wouldn't stick out so much. The chair and wall tile are the most noticeable by far.

3) I added what is called a post process effect. It is basically a box that makes you able to make changes to stuff like color contrast, which is what I used it for. You might not be able to notice it that well, but it allows things to have more of a contrast that just looks more pleasing to the eye.

4) I darkened and desaturated the poster so that it would blend into the wall better. Stuck out like a sore thumb before.

5) Not big, but I moved the papers around on the floor to better compose the scene based on the new objects I added.

That's it! I will probably never be fully satisfied with it, but compared to how it looked before, I must say It looks pretty good for my first time using Unreal.

So, new things in the mix! I'm still waiting it out for Jake to get me some sketches of the desert, so I'm going to make one more run at the laser rifle and correct some minor issues. I hope to get the ball rolling on more detailed sketches by mid January, but I have a huge amount of things that I can do while I wait, like post production for the demo reel and reworking the website. The gun shouldn't take long to finish, so look for that soon.

Ryan out.

End of Year Stretch

2009-12-17T17:05:00.000-08:00

So, things aren't happening in the way that I expected them to this month. Not that anything usually does. This time it's nothing really bad, just that things will be switched around a bit. Starting off:

Desert: It's been pushed back. The holiday rush has proven to take a toll on all three of us involved (Me, Jake, and Joe). It's not certain how much time everyone can devote to this project while our jobs all take a firm grasp on our throats, so I'm kind of playing it by ear. I'm hoping that me and Jake can have a concept fleshed out by the beginning of the year, and then the more detailed sketches can come by mid January, which is when I hope to start on full production. It's a whole month behind where I thought I would be, but I don't think that's terribly bad, considering that I wasted a whole year on the TF2 project. Here's how the process goes in my head:

1) Me and Jake decide on a general concept. Stuff like where the setting is, the story behind it, a general discussion on how it looks. Not too grounded on details yet. Rough sketches from Jake will accompany this.

2) Me and Jake solidify what we want, and then him and Joe start sketching more detailed stuff, but still probably nothing too insanely detailed. I guess it kind of depends. I'm basically gonna take what I can get. If it's all super detailed, great. If not, I'll fill in the blanks.

3) I start on full production. I will probably work myself like a beast and hope that it gets done by mid March.

In the meantime, I'll be reworking Chernobyl and the laser gun. So, as you can see, I switched the order in which I'm doing things. I have roughly one month of having nothing really big to do with the desert project, so it gives me time to rework the other stuff, and if I'm feeling lucky, maybe I'll even get to rework the website.

Here's a sample of what I've done so far (right) compared to how it looked before (left). I think you'll see quite a difference.

Seriously though, it's like comparing the PS2 to the PS3. No comparison. Richer colors, better composition, better details, better materials, everything. It's mainly thanks to Unreal's new SDK (software development kit) that they released. After the gun was done, I did some relearning on my unreal editor skills, when I stumbled upon some information that said that Epic Games released their full version of the development tools they used to create Gears of War and Unreal Tournament. Naturally, I replaced my crappy version with it, and viola! More creative options! The big one is their new lighting system, called lightmass. It simulates how the lights in your scene interact with surfaces. It simulates how light bounces around, and bleeds colors onto each other, etc. All kinds of stuff that makes it look more realistically lit. Also, I redid the texturing on the ground, moving objects closer together, and completely revamped the medical lamp. Then, I added in some high contrast in Photoshop, which accurately represents how it will look when I run a contrast filter for the video.

And also, the Global Game Jam is coming up again. Hopefully, it will be alot better than last year's, which those of you that read my facebook stories will know, is pretty easy to accomplish.
It's at the end of January, so I'll keep you posted on any developments.

Laser Rifle is Complete!

2009-12-08T12:16:00.000-08:00

I always find this part of my portfolio work very exciting. I'm proud of myself for getting my last project done, and I'm also excited to get moving on the next one. I must say that with some victory Chipolte in my stomach, I am also excited to take the rest of the day off and catch up on some Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and Modern Warfare 2 (Apparently I like sequels?). As I said, the normal map is what caused the most problems as far as time goes. The diffuse map took me about half a week to do, and the specular and transparency maps literally took only about two hours. It's always discouraging when only the diffuse or only the normal map is applied to the object, because without all the textures applied, it looks crappy. When they are all working together harmoniously, it really makes me think that maybe I do have a clue with what I'm doing. :) I was a bit late on this one, but not by much considering what I learned from it. I originally wanted to have it all done by Thanksgiving, but instead got it done today, which is about a week and a half late. With all that I've taken from this project, that amount of time seems very, very trivial.

BOOM. There she is. One thing I must first of all say is that I learned one huge lesson with specular and normal maps in Unreal. Lighting is king. If your lighting sucks, then you won't see bump details or any kind of glossiness on your stuff. I feel dumb for not seeing it before in the Chernobyl project, but the lighting definitely needs to be reworked in order for more details to show. Since I didn't have any reflection map to work with on this one, i made up a fake reflection in the diffuse map. Combined with specularity, I think it works well.

Here's another closeup of the ammunition holder. I had problems with getting the batteries to look like they're behind some glass, so i faked it by lightening them in the diffuse map, and adding specularity to the transparent glass covering it. The "fan hole" or whatever you call it was added last, without any problems. It bumps nicely and has some good depth to it. I actually used my external hard drive as a reference for painting in the scuffs marks on the silver metal surface, which was a happy coincidence that it happened to be laying on my desk while I was pondering how to treat it. I really had to battle the specularity on the black wiring. It was coming across as having a way too strong shine to it, so I had to tone it down alot. Unreal definitely takes the grayscale value of the specular map differently then Maya. It seems to be much pickier.

I'm really happy with with this one. It's definitely one if the more realistic looking things I've made. Just like the wiring and many other things on the model, specularity was a battle. The dents from the normal map seemed to get swallowed up by the color detail and I was starting to get worried that it wouldn't show. Once the specular map came into play, it was no longer an issue. Just another example of how everything works together.

And the scope. I really struggled in my head with getting the wear and tear to really show on it without totally knocking you over the head with it. I cut back on some of the edge chipping compared to before and made the scratching minimal. Just so that you could JUST see it. I had to make the specularity almost not show up at all in order to make it look like metal. It seems that unreal REALLY likes to make cylindrical objects shine, so that was probably the hardest part with the spec map.

And last but not least, the improvised part. As you can tell from the conceptual picture, the knobs on the trigger were on the opposite side. After talking it over with Jake, it seemed that it would work better on the other side, so that the detail was more spread throughout the model. It worked in the conceptual sketch, but on a rotating model, well, that's different. The extrusions on the ammunition box were improvised due to there only being one side showing in the sketch. So, once again I took inspiration from my external hard drive and filled in the gaps with what you now see here.

A few specs on the model:

triangles- 2,100 ish.
triangles on the high poly model used for the normal map- roughly 16 million, or 8 million polys.
layers for the diffuse map in photoshop- 49
size of all textures used- 2048 x 2048
time spent on pre vis- a week or so
time spent on low poly modeling- a week and a half.
time spent on UVs and texturing- a week
time spent on learning and making the normal map- a little less than a month.
time spent overall- roughly a month and a half

I am doing the same thing that I did with Chernobyl. I'm holding off on any kind of camera movement and final touches for the demo reel, just in case I change things last minute, which I'm sure I'll do.

So thanks are in order:

Jake Rynkiewicz, for of course providing the foundation in which to build upon. Without his concept work, this wouldn't even exist. God knows I can't do that stuff. ;p

Jesse Sandifer, an extremely talented 3D artist. He's the guy I mentioned that tutored me with zbrush. Without him, you can just forget about me figuring out zbrush on my own.

And finally, Joe D'amico for his support on well, everything I do. HIGH FIIIIIIIVE JOE!

And so, in a couple of days I will be posting the beginnings of the desert environment. I need to see where Joe and Jake are at with this, as I know they both work ridiculously hard with their jobs. Expect to see something soon.

Ryan out.

New Skillsets Abound

2009-12-03T17:15:00.000-08:00

So, I'm really happy. I mean REALLY happy. I have finally gotten a grasp on the concept of normal mapping. Not only that, but I have also gotten a grasp on actually making them (GASP!). I kinda see it like this: Imagine you are a mountain climber. You have climbed many numerous mountains throughout your life, but Everest it right in your backyard, and try as you may, you just can't muster the courage to really try to reach the top. Sure, you make tiny little baby steps here and there, but you always end up getting discouraged and going back to the other mountains. Well, that is what normal mapping has been to me until very recently. I can always get to the top now, but I can still get faster and more efficient. Okay, so my metaphors suck a bit, but you get the point. And yes, it has taken me this whole month just to get the map to work, but it's with good reason. Normal maps are ridiculously complex and hard to understand for beginners. It's also very technical, which makes those who aren't so tech savy like myself learn it a bit slower than others. It certainly doesn't help that when you google how to make them, everyone has a totally different opinion on methods. Basically in a nutshell, I thought that normal maps were a lot easier than they really were, and had to study into it more. This probably happened about 3 times throughout making it. I now have my own method that works pretty well, and future models will go a lot faster and smoother. Hey, if I have to take a month to learn one of the most important aspects of being a game artist, then so be it. Very much worth it.

So, onto the pics.

The first one is just a general view. It's pretty much how big the gun will appear in the demo reel, So the closer shots I'll be showing aren't an indication of how close you will be to it. And oh yeah, the two pieces on the bottom right are the planes used for the battery details. They will be inside the ammunition holder, behind some glass when it's done.

Here is a closeup of the ammunition holder. I'll probably add in the round metal rims for the "fan" last, just because, well, I don't know. Just because. This pic makes me realize that I need some light on the bottom of the model, now that I look at it closely. It's really amazing how easy Zbrush makes it to create these kinds of geometric details. The color mapping will make it even stronger i feel.

This view lets you see the scope in more detail. Getting the normal map details to look right on this part was probably the most difficult. Some dings and scratches here and there, as well as more geometric detail to give it more believability.

The actual wood stock of the gun changed the most of all. I originally wanted very minimal wear and tear for everything, but I thought the concept of having the gun assembled from different parts lent a cool concept of having the wood to be beat all to hell, as it's seen a different environment than the other pieces. This also gives me more of an excuse to add more eye candy detail to show off for my portfolio.

So that's it! Now it's on to the color, specular, and transparency maps, which will take probably no more than a week or two. After that it's full steam onto the desert environment.

Ah yes, the desert environment. It's the next thing that I'm going to be working on. For now, it's very early in stages of development, so there's not a lot to talk about, except that it's a desert. I'll once again have Jake Rynkiewicz on for this one, as well as my good friend Joe D'amico. They'll mainly be doing conceptual drawings to aid in getting a vision mapped out for what exact kind of desert it will be. I want this project to be something that you can actually walk around in and not worry about seeing parts that are unfinished. Simple, yet something that you will walk around in for the demo reel.

I still haven't gotten any word from Ross Scott on Civil Protection, and I don't really expect to. No hard feelings, it's probably just a mixture of him being busy with other stuff, and not having any use for someone that can't compile models for the source engine.

So hopefully this gun will be done in a week or so. Cheers!

UV Layout

2009-10-27T18:10:00.000-07:00

As promised, here is the UV setup for the laser rifle. Extremely boring to those who don't know what it is or what it does. Now I'm all set to start on my first ever Zbrush normal map! I'm not sure how long this will take as it's like I said, the first one I've done. Hopefully it won't take longer than two weeks.

Also, for those who are wondering about Civil Protection, you are not alone. I emailed Scott Ross and haven't gotten a response. Basically, since I don't know how to get my models into the Source engine, I can't make stuff for him unless he finds someone who can help us with compiling them. I've been down that road before with no success, so there's not a lot I can do. He's a busy guy, so I'm not sure when he'll get back to me IF he does, that is. So it's hard to tell what will happen with that.

Laser Rifle Modeling

2009-10-26T19:18:00.000-07:00

Well now, here it is. The actual geometry for the rifle is done. I'm really happy with the way this has turned out so far, as I'm usually a little unsatisfied with my models until the normal mapping is applied. So, I'm excited to see how much better it will look with it on. Deciding what the poly count was going to be was a bit tricky, as weapons have a different philosophy to them than the regular props I usually do. There are usually three models used for a single weapon:

1) For the first person view, a higher poly model to hold up at a close distance.
2) The model that you see other players holding, which is about mid poly range. Some games will switch it to a lower poly mesh when it reaches a certain distance from you.
3)A pickup gun mesh. You know, the one that floats around or sits on the ground for you to pick up. Usually also a mid poly mesh.

So that's the dilemma. Which do I do?

I decided to do the mid poly version, because it seems like a good compromise. Doing something too high poly might make it look like I can't conserve geometry, and a low poly version for far away distances makes it look like I can't model in a complex manner.

Once I decided to go with that, I needed an example to follow from some game. I chose Team Fortress 2, because its model viewer lets you see the exact geometry display and count. I looked for a weapon similar in complexity and found that it was twice as many polys as I had on the rifle. TF2 models are usually very low poly with it being an online only game, so my model looked extremely well budgeted. I added some geo here and there, and came to a good looking model that conserved polys where it needed to.

So now, I layout the uv's, make the zbrush model, apply it as a normal map, paint the color map, and then finally the specular map. Easy right? :P

I'll update next with the finished uv layout, which will hopefully be tomorrow. After that, it'll be the normal mapped model alongside the mid geo model with the normal map applied. That will be sometime in early November if all goes to plan.

Chernobyl is Complete!!!

2009-10-12T18:50:00.000-07:00

Hello all, that's right! It's done. It feels really good to have something finished that wasn't either A) Rushed too much for a school deadline, or B) Incomplete due to technical issues. The normal mapping and lighting gave me some troubles, but specular mapping was a breeze. I couldn't use Zbrush to sculpt out normal maps for this project due to me not realizing that you can't do some stuff in Photoshop and some in Zbrush. Apparently, when you make a model, its entire texture has to done in one program. Which is fine, that's what this next project is about (More on that later). The book I bought helped a little bit with the lighting, but not as much as I had hoped. Mainly, I just figured it out on my own. Lighting and the way normal maps react to it is still a little shaky with me, but oh well. You can't get everything right away. Anyway, here it is folks:

Sorry about the text and player model on screen once again. I will have this cut out of the version for the demo reel. Also, anti aliasing (jagged edges) are still present, which hopefully will be straightened out for the reel as well. I went online to figure out a way to remedy it, but everybody says that anti aliasing hasn't been fixed for unreal 3. I find this hard to believe. One way or another, this will be fixed, I assure you.

Now this project is done for now, but there will probably be changes for the demo reel version. There is one object in particular that might be changed, but I'm curious if someone will notice it, so I'm keeping my mouth shut about it. Two big changes that you will probably notice are the metal piece added onto the middle of the medical lamp, and the broken glass on the window. Just little things to give it more completion.

The final product will be pretty much the same as I originally planned, with a little bit of difference:

1) A moving shot from left to right of the objects, framed similar to these pics.

2)Still shot of the left side, showing a progression of the different layers. In order of final, model and lighting only view, polycount and wireframe view, color map view, normal map view, specular map view, and a shot of the final product again.

3) The same as #2, but it's the pic of the right side of the room.

The second shot I planned out in the very beginning, I decided was unnecessary. You only need one shot to establish the room I feel. So, that's that.............NEXT!
BAM! That's the gun I will be making, courtesy of the tasty rendering you see by my good pal, Jake Rynkiewicz. Over the next week, I'm gonna take it easy to celebrate Chernobyl's completion. But I'll also be planning for this one. Expect to see some stuff by the beginning of November-ish. The finalized version of this will be a turntable that rotates the object and shows the different layers of detail applied to the model. I'm going to try to make it a ZBrush only model, so we'll see how that goes. I'm going to do some online tutoring on making geometric detail on objects in ZBrush. Basically, this guy I met on a forum says he'll make a 60 minute training DVD for anyone who wants to get better with it, and it will be completely custom made to suit my learning needs. He also seems to be very professional and legit, which is a plus. Very cool stuff. He says that he'll also give homework assignments to make sure it all sinks in, so I might have that to show even before the gun. Time will tell. Now, for some well earned celebration Chipolte.

NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM!

Color mapping is done!

2009-09-29T14:11:00.000-07:00

So, I just finally hit that huge milestone where the diffuse color is done for everything. Now, I just need to learn a bunch about lighting in Unreal(Where are you, book?), and then apply the normal and specular maps. Here is the pic that I've been waiting to post for quite awhile, the finalized color mapping:

Things to excuse for now:

1) The lighting is crap. Hence, me waiting for that damn book thingy.

2) The anti-aliasing, or "jagged edges". This is a screen grab from the work window in the program. It's not from in-game. When everything is done, all the stuff you will see will be in game, complete with pretty, clean edges.

3) There are some objects that aren't technically done as far as color goes. These are special cases where the normal map needs to be completed first.

4) For those who nitpick like me, you can see a hard edge where the tiling is broken on the floor. I'm fairly certain that this is a lighting issue as well.

You may also notice that the Russian propaganda poster is gone. This is another example of having to let go of one of your babies that you love so much. Yes, I wasted a good day's worth of work to make it look good, but the medical poster you see in its place looks better. This change came about when I had my mom look at the room. This is what I like to do when I need that non-artist opinion on my work, which is just, if not more valuable. I told her to name what kind of building the room was in within 5 seconds, and she couldn't. This is a HUGE problem, because I want the viewer to know that they are in an abandoned hospital. She said that the propaganda poster looked out of place, and that they wouldn't have it in a hospital. This was something I knew before, but ignored as I thought that establishing the location as Russian was more important at the time. She suggested to replace it with a medical poster. DING DING DING DING! She had it. So I tried it, and it worked. It was that last piece needed to sell the place as a hospital. Hey, it was a bad feeling getting rid of the other, but nowhere near the feeling of abandoning CTF_Platform (the TF2 map).

So, right now I'm taking the time to relax and gather my sanity. After some Chipotle and Team Fortress 2, I'll resume work and update again whenever the lighting looks good along with the normal maps.

Greetings, comrade.

2009-09-25T21:23:00.000-07:00

This post is just a couple snippits of what I've been doing over the past day or two. I've decided that online documentation regarding lighting in the Unreal level editor is pretty much nonexistent, minus just telling you how to place a light and adjust the brightness of it. So, I decided to buy a book on it. "Mastering Unreal Technology Volume 1", is its name, and it looks promising for 32.99. So, while I'm waiting on that to get here, I decided to finally crank out that Russian propaganda poster mentioned earlier. And I must say, I'm happy with it:

What I basically did was make the poster as if it were brand new, and then roughed out the edges and added some dirt and paper overlays that gave it its worn out look. The original design:

(The writing is Russian for "nuclear power"). Creative, I know. Also, I added the transparency map to the window glass and placed an image behind it of the infamous abandoned ferris wheel found in Pripyat. (The city that had to be evacuated due to the Chernobyl disaster, where this scene is set).

This, along with the poster, hints at the setting without shoving it down the viewer's throat too much. I guess if you don't know by the title "Chernobyl" what it's about, then these won't matter. If you do however, it shows that I've done my homework. :D The tricky part of finding a good background image for the window was all in the perspective. It had to look as if you were seeing it by looking straight at the window, and also had to be something that gave you enough of a hint at the setting. If the angle of the image would be off even slightly, it would look weird as the camera pans right.

So, hopefully when I get my book, It'll help my lighting to not look like crap. Meanwhile, I'll be working on getting some random clutter on the ground, and finishing the color mapping. I'll have this whole thing done sometime in October. That's all I know for now.

Taking Shape

2009-09-13T21:44:00.000-07:00

Hello all. Have you ever been in the early stages of a project and had those old, nagging thoughts that you have no idea what you're doing? Well, this is how almost all my projects go. Eventually though, I get to a point where all the pieces fall into place and I start to become happy with what I see. I have hit that point. Not to say that it's looking phenomenal yet or anything, but I think that the final product will be something to be proud of. I guess I'll shut up and show you what I mean:

As you can see, the color mapping for the room is complete. Now when I say room, that's not including any prop work, obviously. I like the way the whole color scheme is looking, as it is not too colorful for such a setting, but not too washed out also. So many games today are guilty of hiding their ability to use color effectively by desaturating everything to a muddy brown, which is something I tried to steer away from. Fallout 3 for example, has been a great reference for me as far as detailing goes, but I think they really could have played with color more. So also, you can see that everything is successfully in the engine and in real time. I have tested all aspects of the work flow required to get what I want, and everything is possible to do without too much of a headache. It's really just a matter of plugging in the remaining texture maps, adding some more decals and props to fill in space, fixing up the lighting, and viola! It's done! I'm not concerned too much with making a rigorous schedule for this, but I hope to have it done at the end of September.

As far as civil protection goes, Ross posted on his site saying that he's all moved into LA. So, hopefully in a week or so, we'll get it up and running again. I guess we'll just wait and see.

Arrggggh! Abandon ship, mateys!

2009-08-25T12:14:00.000-07:00

This is more just news then actual progress, but I am giving up on the source engine. Lately, I've been going back and forth between giving it another try or just learning another engine. Over the past few days, processes would work, then randomly not work for no reason. So, despite my desire to make content for Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead, I've decided that the headache required to succeed in that is no longer worth the trouble. I have no idea how Valve could have given us such an unintuitive way to create maps with a good conscience, but I will no longer try to make it work. So what am I using now? The unreal engine. I wanted to wait until I was absolutely sure that the process it uses is what I want in a workflow before I said anything to anybody. So here I am, feeling much like I learned to get around on a unicycle when I could have been using a bike the whole time. Silly me. Importing models is retardedly simple, navigation in the level editor is workable, and things actually work. No random errors, tons of programs I need to install, or lack of documentation. At least so far.....we'll see.

Also, my computer has frequently decided to randomly restart itself as of late. I'm working with my computer whiz friend to get it straightened out, though it doesn't affect my ability to work too much. More like a pain in the ass than anything really.

Some new projects might be in the works as well. Lately, I've been thinking about what to do after Chernobyl gets done. I've wanted to take someone's conceptual drawing of a complex object and translate it to 3D as a way to show off my modeling skills. I originally was going to approach someone on a forum and ask them to let me use one of their drawings, but Jake, the guy that was going to help me on the TF2 map awhile back, offered to oblige his drawing talent. We also talked about maybe doing a full level sometime in the future, but for now the focus is on the single object. Everything has been verbal so far, except for some preliminary drawings he's been doing. We literally started this last night.

What about Civil Protection? It's been put on hold for now, due to Ross moving to LA. He'll let me know when things are back on track, but I've got all my stuff completed that he originally gave me. When things get rolling again, I'll post something. Here's a link that explains his situation if you are interested: www.accursedfarms.com

Confused about what the hell I'm doing now? Here's a rundown:

Chernobyl: Currently learning workflows, programs, etc. Once things are figured out, I'll start cranking it out.

Civil Protection: Currently on hold.

Complex Object w/ Jake: Drawings are being made, talks are being had. Mostly preliminary stuff. The stuff I'm learning for Chernobyl will be applied to this as well as future projects.

Future level project w/ Jake: Mentioned, and that's it. Will be a future project.

That's all kids! DISMISSED!

New things in the mix

2009-08-04T21:34:00.000-07:00

Hello all, I have some great news for you! I've on board for a new project that I'm very excited about. Barely any of you have seen this I bet, but I'll be contributing some content for a machinima entitled "Civil Protection". For those of you who don't know what a machinima is, it's basically when someone takes an existing video game's tools and content to make their own original movies. Ross Scott is the guy that creates Civil Protection as well as another machinima, "Freeman's Mind". His stuff is extremely funny, so I recommend that you check it out if you like anything associated with Half Life. He's at: www.accursedfarms.com. I think one of his videos got 500,000 hits on youtube, so my stuff will be seen by alot of people. Very cool.

So what am I contributing? I can't get into specifics until it's out, but I'll be contributing custom models as well as some custom character skins. Skins are basically the textures used for characters and models within the game engine. I'm not entirely sure when it'll be out, but let's just say that he's stepping up his game for this one, so who knows. I'll definitely let you know when it's nearing completion.

And what about Chernobyl? It won't take long to shell out the stuff for Civil Protection, and so I'll get back on track with it soon enough. I've got the base coloring for the textures done, and the normal maps for the models and environment have been planned out.I've learned a great deal about Zbrush 3, which has taken up the most time overall over the past month. There's still more to learn, but I can operate it on a level necessary to get stuff done for this project. Once I get my new 3 GB of ram installed, zbrush will be purring quite nice, as well as maya and photoshop.

Modeling progress

2009-07-10T06:26:00.000-07:00

Alright, i've got all of the props for the room modeled and UV'd. It feels good to be getting back into the flow of maya and things seem to be going even more smoothly than I first thought it would. I've provided an updated playblast of the room, and also have three objects that I have decided to share and breakdown with you all.
The gurney is the starting point of this project. As you read in former posts, my first challenge was deciding what kind of an environment the gurney could exist in. I picked a reference and stayed pretty close to it throughout, as I wanted it to be immediately recognizable through silouette. (Thanks Valve!) I think it's leagues above what the old one from my reel was. Now you can look at it and know what the heck it is. The poly count is higher on it, which I don't sweat too much, as it is the centerpiece of the scene. I chose to have the seat tilted up, the wheels slanted, and to have the object's position slanted in general, to help break it up and make it more interesting to look at.
The radiator was taken from a reference picture I came across while researching abandoned buildings. It makes things look a bit more vintage-ey, but not too much. Since the room was built in the mid 80's, it would not look modern, yet not anchient at the same time. Objects like this fit just right. A lot of faces were deleted on this one, as you will never see any faces facing the wall. This cut the poly count down substantially. Once again, it is simple in design, but you can definitely spot what it is within a first glance. The faucet and piping at the bottom is extremely low poly, but it's so tiny that the player would very likely not notice it at all.
And lastly, the medical lamp. It was the same with the gurney as in sticking close to reference, while dumbing it down for poly sakes. The actual lenses on the round part will be normal mapped in, as will some details on the other parts. It's hard to judge such objects so soon, because normal maps, accompanied by great lighting, can make or break their believability. The light is meant to swivel on a rail attached to the ceiling, which is barely visible in the final shots. Getting the smoothness of the round parts to an acceptable level of quality and efficiency for the engine was tricky, but I like how it turned out.

So now, I'm gonna finally do something I've been itching to do for quite some time. I'm going to get my feet wet with normal mapping. I had bad experiences doing it in Mudbox awhile back, so I hope Z Brush is more forgiving. I'll post some pics of progress, but I'm unsure of how fast I'll get through this as I'm entering unfamiliar territory with this program. Once I get through this, it'll be smooth sailing for the most part. *crosses fingers*

General Layout

2009-07-01T18:17:00.000-07:00

So, here's a rough layout of the room. So far the only things I've been focusing on are shot framing, shot timing, and getting the scale of the objects right. The first movie is of the intro shot, and the second is the last, finalized shot. Like I said, these shots are just rough layout and framing studies. They will likely change in the end, but not much.

Next, I'll start modeling out the objects, as well as laying out the uvs. Pics still to come.

The idea.

2009-06-18T14:41:00.000-07:00

So, after a bit of rest from the completion of Ctf Platform, I've decided to move on to a fresh, new project. I took some consideration in redoing the medical gurney from my demo reel (www.3dryan.com), and also went back and forth with other ideas in my head of what to do next. I chose to redo the gurney after some debate, but also wanted to put it into some context that makes more sense than what I did before. In the reel, it rotates on a round platform, with an abstract background behind it. This was fine for then, but one criticism that I got from it was that I should put it into a hospital setting to show how it would fit into the world around it, and not just treat it like "here's the object rotating, just for show, deal with it :p". So, I started brainstorming scenarios in which a run down, rusted out medical gurney could exist. I knew right off the bat that the environment would be an abandoned room, that it would have been left alone long enough to show some interesting wear and tear. I wanted to have a simple backstory that would explain how this could happen in a realistic, real world setting. Nothing sci-fi or fantasy oriented, but something more grounded in reality. I was looking at some reference photos of abandoned hospitals when I came across something that sparked an idea. One of the photos was that of a run down hopsital room that had the word "Chernobyl" in the file name. This reminded me of a time when my mom told me about the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, how when a soviet nuclear reactor blew up, it poured out tons of radiation into the atmosphere, thus infecting the surrounding area, which forced a permanent evacuation of the nearby residents of the town Pripyat. The vast majority of its people have not returned since, due to the massive amounts of radiation still found there. I would highly recommend reading about the incident, as it's highly fascinating to anyone who cares about history. It's some pretty sad stuff to boot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster

Anyway, the setting of Pripyat makes the perfect scenario in which the abandoned hospital room will exist. Thanks to the lethal radiation, it has been left alone to the point where nobody picked up the mess. This allows more freedom for prop work, as anything is fair game to be left behind.

Who, what, where, why, how, when? Those are questions that every artist should ask before making anything that is tied to some narrative, which is most things in art, i guess. I want this room to tell a story through construction. or deconstruction, I guess, in this case. Here's some reference photos that will give you an idea for the "feel" I want to achieve:

Here's the shot setup:

1) A finalized, introduction shot that pans in on the corner of the hospital room during the day. Only the ceiling and two wall sides will be visible. The camera movement will be slow and smooth of course. The shot will have the following props as well as the title of the piece:

a. the gurney
b. wall air conditioning unit (right wall)
c. window (right wall)
d. sink (far wall)
e. laying chair
f. medical lamp (think dentist office)
g. random debri on ground (this can be wood blocks, books, scrap paper, etc.

2) A still shot of the gurney, poster, medical light, window, and radiator, in shaded wireframe view.

3) A wipe to the same shot, but with a normal map view.

4) Same kind of wipe to a color, normal, and transparency map view

5) Color, transparency, normal and specular map view (finalized shot). This is a moving shot from left to right.

That's it! I want this to be a fairly simple project. As I said in my last post, quality over quantity of objects and areas. I'll be making updates on progress through each stage, so stay tuned.

And also.....I'm going to be making a left 4 dead survival mode map, which will take me a good half year to make. I'll probably be doing a little pre-vis on it while this hospital project is underway. It will probably be a solo project, but options are still open. A small map, like I said before. You know, something I'll actually fully finish. *rolls eyes*

More on that in the future....

CTF Platform release day!

2009-06-09T07:29:00.000-07:00

At long last, my Team Fortress 2 capture the flag map is complete! It's been a long time coming, 10 months to be exact. You may be a bit confused when you see the final product. Let me explain.

(If you just want to see the actual completed work, and not listen to my rant, skip ahead to the pics, design theory, and video).

This project has definitely had its road bumps. I started out highly optimistic (too much, really) that I could complete a tf2 ctf map with completely original content. I had no prior experience with the hammer level editor, which provided even more of a road block. I eventually accepted the fact that not all of my content would be original, that some Valve props would be put into the mix. Awhile after that, I decided to change the entire interior, which cut out at least a month's time. Even further down the road, I realized that I couldn't do the project on my own. So I enlisted some help, and with some hard work and long nights, i realized it was finally tangible to get the thing done by the time I move to Chicago, which is now February or March of next year. But then I took a step back and realized two very important things that would stop me from fully finishing the map:

1) I originally wanted to put this into my demo reel. Since 75% of the content would be Valve's, I would have to specify which is theirs and which is mine. This would both be ridiculously difficult to do, and would also look bad. If I were an employer looking at such a reel, I would most likely toss it, and move onto the next one.

2) Sure, I could get it done, but would it be the best thing to do over the next year in preparation for Chicago? Nope. I seemed to forget an important lesson learned from one of my teachers. Quality over quantity, always. I could have nothing to show but this finished project, but it would be smarter to work on smaller, more focused projects of higher quality. Make more varied, better made projects, rather than one watered down one.

It was probably the hardest thing I've had to do as an artist thus far, but it was the smart way to go, so I pulled the plug. I took a week off to recharge my batteries, and when I came back and looked at it, I got an idea. I realized that I could salvage the project as a level design study. I could make the level playable, but with no finished art that would make it look like an official valve map like I originally planned. It would be more like a fully functional prototype.

Overall, I don't really have many regrets on this project. I guess the only regret I have is that I wish I could have realized then what I realize now. It would have been nice to start on another project a couple months back, but maybe I wouldn't have learned as much. I've gained a pretty good understanding of how Hammer works, and I now know how to make my own levels with original content, which is something I can be proud of. But enough talk. Here's the meat and potatoes of this post, the actual work:

For those who would like to see it in motion, the video is here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlARkKMcMqY

And for those other source engine savys, the BSP is here:
http://forums.tf2maps.net/downloads.php?do=file&id=1626

The Basic Rules: It's just like any other ctf map, except there are two locations for the intelligence. The first one spawns a little outside the base, and when that one is captured, the next one spawns further inside the base. Capture it twice, and you win(Three caps total, one outside, two inside).

General Design: The problem with most ctf maps made for Team Fortress 2 is that they basically turn into fragfests due to the intel being so hard to capture, with most players giving up on actually getting it. 2Fort for example, has the intel too far into the base. Even if you manage to get it, good luck on getting back out of the base. As a result, games tend to take forever. Ctf Turbine is a much smaller map, and games tend to go faster due to the size. Still, I tend to have a problem with this map, as it's a bit too simplistic. So, this map can be looked at as a hybrid of the two. 2Fort's multiple paths and complexity, mixed with Turbine's size. A match made in heaven. Ctf Platform appears to be large when really it isn't. It just seems that way due to the many paths you can take, and that's what makes a good ctf map. The main thing, I think, is to make the intel generally easier to capture, so that games don't take forever. I do this in a couple of ways:

- Making places that are good to put sentries in, but making the areas avoidable, so that sentries don't hold so much power, a balance issue with ctf. If a sentry can block numerous paths at once, you can bet that a demoman can take it out very easily.

-Putting the intelligence room near the entrance to the base. This makes it easier to get out once you've gotten it.

-Making many paths to the intel. This makes it harder to defend, since you have to watch multiple entrances. The first capture point or "stage 1" as I call it, has 5 total ways to get to it, with 2 being reachable only with certain classes. This makes for a fast paced beginning, and really tests a team defense. Stage 2's intel has three different entry points, with one accessed only by certain classes.

-Large intel room. Open areas are harder to defend, especially with sentries. This is why the intel area is the biggest room in the base.

Breakdown of specific areas:

Neutral middle ground:

This area has a giant oil derrick plopped in the middle of it. It provides a large open area to move around for scouts, while giving enough cover so that snipers don't dominate everyone. The two buildings on the sides provide a nice little path for spies to use. The top level of the derrick is similar to 2Fort in that it allows soldiers and scouts a path to use to get the drop on the other team's first intel area. Additional tunnels are on the side that provide good flanking routes for pyros and spies. There is also a secret spot in the middle that demomen can reach. Where could that be, I wonder?

Exterior base area:

This is where the first intel is housed by a small building. The intel is very easy to reach, as mentioned earlier, and defense is critical. Walkways dot the area that take snipers to good viewpoints, on top of providing good connectivity between defense spots. Attackers can use these to get the drop, or defenders can use them to get the high ground. Two tunnels come from the sides that provide good flanking points.

Interior Base Area: There are two entrances on the left and right sides that merge the paths together again near the intel room. More walkways are present to once again place an emphasis on height advantage for either team. This leads into the large intel room that is open enough to provide at least somewhat of an advantage for the attackers. It is an uphill climb to get the intel, but an L-shaped walkway provides some high ground for the attackers as well. An underground path is accessable under the right side entrance to the base, that provides even more ground for the defenders to cover. It serves as a good route for spies and pyros, and also provides a good sentry spot, probably the best in the level. There is also an air vent that scouts and soldiers can use that takes them straight to the intel, which adds a layer of interesting complexity to defending as well.

Spawn rooms: They are made with two exit paths (one shown above), so that the defenders can get to the base entrance quickly, and to the intel room sort of quickly. This makes it so that it doesn't take forever to get to the other base, while also providing a fairly quick path to defend the intel, but not too quick, so that attackers stand more of a chance.

What's Next?: I've been in talks with some people on making a left 4 dead map next. It will be a survival mode map, mainly because they are small by nature, and it will be a lot more tangible to make a completely custom map in a decent amount of time. I will also be working on some smaller self projects along the way. More on that as they come into being.

As for now, I'm gonna lay back, relax, play some games, watch some movies. It feels good to be done at last. :)

In my own little world, apparently.

2009-04-11T08:54:00.000-07:00

So i figured it would be good to post an update, even if there is no real new stuff to post. I have still been working on the level as much as usual, though its been hard with having more than 40 hours of work a week :/

So I was working on the level pretty well, when all of a sudden, i felt like i needed more inspiration. Usually when I look for this, I limit my research to official valve maps. But this time, I felt that maybe a custom map or two would be good for a change. So I browsed through tf2maps.net and found a map called tc_meridian. If you haven't checked it out, I would highly recommend it, it's a beautifully made map. I also noticed that multiple people worked on it, which ignited a spark in my brain. This map made me realize two things:

1) The interior base design of my map sucked. It was really just two hallways leading into the intel room with one room in between. Very boring. I decided to go back to the drawing board. I completely cut out most of the interior, which is one those painful things you need to do sometimes when something isn't working. I'm happy to say that this is one of the best moves i've made on this project, and the level works sooooo much better now.

2) I need help. No, not like THAT. Well, maybe. But seriously, the map made me realize that having the project not being 100% made by me, might not be such a crime. This is when I decided to bring in my friend Jacob Rynkiewicz into the mix. He graduated from CCAD like me, but majored in Industrial Design. He wants to get into level design and knows quite a bit about the concepts and asthetics involved in art, so he'll be a great addition to the project. I really need to get that last little push into production, so maybe we'll hit that mark soon. Also, my friend Ryan Harlow will pop in and out to provide some models for us. That's what he does pretty much, alongside sketching characters. He graduated with Jacob and I from CCAD.

The main layout difference will be explained in greater detail later. I'm planning on learning fraps (about time) to capture the video nad narrate over it, to explain the level setup as soon as its done. Ryan out.

3D Sketching Crunch

2009-01-12T13:43:00.000-08:00

Alright, here is that 3D sketching that I was talking about. I prefer this method over 2D conceptual sketching because like I said before, i'm not really a pencil and paper person and I think that you'll never know what looks good until its in full 3D anyway. That's just my two cents. The level is looking a lot more fleshed out, and I'm not even close to being done. Hopefully in the next few months, I will have the chops on it enough to get some color theory started on it. (Don't panic and think for one second that the colors I'm using are what the final will have, they aren't even close. They're just for distinction between shapes).

Here's how the intel room area is shaping up. The big orange block is the submarine that I posted earlier. My chairs are suffering from a case of the "having purple reflections due to the lack of having a cubemap" blues, and the control console in the back is at the bottom of some steps that are not visible due to having fullbright on. These issues will be fixed MUCH later in the process, as the level is still too rough at this point to even mess with them.

Ah yes, the exterior. I admit that I've put this off for far too long, but the red side is taking form. There is at least some differentiation between red and blue now. I'm following Valve's design philosophy of having red's base be more angular, hence the slanted roofing. I've decided that the red base will be more about technology and have more modern, sleek designs, while blue will be more industrial, and gritty. Small windows for the red side and large industrial windows for blue will help make the distinction between the two.

Here you can see what is meant to be a sort of observational space riddled with technology, as the red base demands to be. I came to a point in my process where I decided to use some of Valve's assets in the final, as a way to tie the level in with other Valve maps to keep it feeling like it's in the same universe. It also might have the positive effect of making less work for myself depending on how much of the assets I keep. It all depends on how much time I have in the end and whether or not I can get a chance to rework it all. It is also worth noting that the ceiling is taking shape in the form of metal framing that gives it a modern kick, while not demanding too much from the viewer's eye.

So here's the basement. I got some inspiration from Metal Gear Solid 2 in the form of handrails. There is barely anything to speak of as far as reference for oil rig interiors go, so my next best bet is interiors for oil tankers(where mgs2 partially takes place) and military ships which are pretty similar. The handrails are a very simple solution and seem to go well with the wall texture they are applied to, and make sense as long as as I don't overuse them. The two orange shapes to the left are doors, while the one to the right is the plant I posted earlier.

The locker room was sketched out much earlier than the other areas, as it was a test for overall spacing. It showed that I was making my spaces a bit too small, so everything got beefed up. Saved me time in the long run, let me tell you. I like the way the layout worked out for this room, maybe except for the ceiling lights. The style is perfect, but I need something larger and longer. This is an example of having that pre-made Valve model that you really want to use, but it just doesn't work for the particular situation.

The stairs are basically final in shape. The walkways will have smaller grating, which will make them less see through. I'm not sure how the metal columns (shown as a dirty pink here) are working, but I might just be nitpicking, who knows. The walkways also have support now, and the ceiling is looking much better. It's details like this that make you feel like you're making progress :). The lights are the newest addition of all, as I'm starting to situate them at least for placement purposes, and not for actual lighting just yet.

And finally, the oil derrick. What would an oil rig be without one? It serves as a good landmark to remind the player that they are in the middle of the map, which I'm guessing will be a hot zone for combat, much like 2fort. It looks much better now with at least some idea of how it will be put together. The top platform is a hidden spot that will be accessable to one class only, and I'm sure TF players will know who this is. It will give them one big advantage that is mirrored by one big disadvantage. I'm sure you can put two and two together.

This is the process as it now stands:

Pre Production
1) Current: 3D sketching and finalizing brush work.
2) Color theory application

Post Production
3) Lighting
4) Modeling (Importing models with flat lambert texture).
5) Color mapping
6) Specular mapping
7) Glow mapping
8) Normal Mapping

We all live in a yellow submarine! (More models)

2008-11-10T21:24:00.000-08:00

Alright, so here's pics of some new models I just made. It seems that I'm either posting like a fiend or hardly at all. Oh well. A submarine, plant, generator, and hanging monitor. Very random when put together, but it works in the final, trust me. This is the last of the pre modeling that I'll be doing within Maya, and I'll start focusing again on roughing out the actual level within hammer.

The sub is gonna sit in an indoor hangar which is visible through a window that is behind the inner intel point. Just one high res model, as it is only visible from on viewpoint, no need for LOD models.

I will do any kind of task that needs to be done in modeling without complaining, but foliage is the death of me. Though it is a bit more simplistic, this is the first plant that has turned out good for me. I did a pine tree and some oak trees in various projects for school, and I was marginally satisfied with the results. I guess the practice of doing it before helped this to become what it is today. And all in 1197 tris, no less!

I couldn't decide what exact look i wanted, as I also looked at ones with more tubing, gears, etc. A design principle for tf2 helped solve this problem for me. This more simplistic design saves polys and also doesn't distract the player from combat by creating too much visual noise. These are two important things to think about when modeling for TF2.

Just a simple, hanging tv monitor. I took several elements from different references and mashed them together to get the best overall look. There might be different versions of these as there will be multiple ones next to each other in control rooms, stations, etc. I'm thinking maybe 3 or 4.

Stay tuned for some 3D sketches!

A new, unnamed mod project

2008-11-08T13:42:00.000-08:00

It looks like I'll have a little bit more on my plate throughout the next year or so. About a week or two ago, a friend of mine from Columbus contacted me to ask if I would be interested in working on a team mod project which would use the Source engine. Since I know a bit about Hammer, and environmental work, that's what I'll be doing. More specifically, I'll be working on UV mapping, modeling objects and environs, and showing others the workflow for getting objects into hammer from 3D and 2D software. As I've said before, this process can be a reeeaaaal bitch to do. So, I'm glad that maybe I can speed up the process of figuring stuff out which has already taken me quite some time to do. There's no title yet, though a rough timeline for completion has been made. I don't know alot of specifics yet, but as long as it's cool with everyone else, I'll be posting stuff from that project here as well. Not sure when this will happen, but I would bet on sometime next year.

Stay tuned.....

UV time!

2008-11-03T15:25:00.000-08:00

Alright, in my last post I mentioned some UV mapping pics, and here they are so far. I tried to make as much use of the UV spacing as possible, even if it meant making more seams. I can clone them out in Maya if they become too visible anyway. I overlapped some uvs to make even more room in instances where you wouldn't notice (ex:symmetrical models that have a side you wouldn't even see.) Enjoy!

Modeling progress

2008-10-31T17:33:00.000-07:00

Well, it looks like it's once again been a long time between posts, but it's all once again due to an increasingly busy schedule. Having a new job helps, plus many other distractions such as Fallout 3, Mega Man 9, and GTA4, have all kept me quite occupied. I have still been hard at work on some modeling and uv-ing, which is what this post is all about. I decided to take a break from conceptualizing color, layout, etc to get back into some modeling in Maya. It's been a long time since I've fiddled around with it, so it seemed that knocking out a few models was in order. I've done some LOD models on ones that seemed to need it, which is pretty time consuming in itself but it'll take down some poly counts which is nice. I basically just took a look at what I thought could be modeled without any concept imagery, you know, props and such that I know are going to be used and how they are going to look regardless of anything else. The helicopter is what I'm proud of the most, as it's my first vehicle. The front still looks kinda weird though until I apply a texture to it. If it still looks weird in-game, then I'll have to go back and fix it up. This is all about 1/2 of the work i've done thus far.

So what now? I'm going to finish up with a few more models and then get cracking on finally getting everything conceptualized. I'm going to make posts showing UV layouts, color concepts, drawings, and perhaps one detailing the different locations of the map. After concepting, which will probably be the toughest part, I'll start on full production which is where I really want to be before the year ends. I guess we'll see what happens :)

Don't worry, I didn't die...yet.

2008-09-08T11:49:00.000-07:00

Oh man, oh man, oh man. I knew that this process would be long and involved, but damn! It's been a while, but I didn't want to post again until the beta was finished. Guess what? IT'S DONE! That's right, the core gameplay layout is complete. I'm sure it will change through feedback, but now I can finally share my early efforts with the public. I've learned a lot since the last post, including things like optimization, lighting, functionality, and getting the prop pipeline to work the way I want it to. Making custom props and materials is probably the most fickle process I've ever embarked upon, hands down. Getting materials to show up, models to compile, collision to work, it's all just about done. Once I understand lighting a little more and I can get specular maps to work, I think I'll finally be ready to begin conceptualization and start making those first few assets. Actually making art, who'da thunk it?

As for specifics on testing my map, I uploaded the BSP to tons of file sharing sites, so you can find it on just about any legit, free hosting site. TF2Maps.net and FPSBanana are the ones that I am using the most, however and I would recommend those. I have uploaded the map to be played on the official server for TFMaps.net, and I'll have to wait and see when and if it gets played. For those who are interested, the IP is 72.233.93.233:27015. We have a game day event on Saturdays where we go through and play each other's maps from 3 to 7 pm, but other than that I'm not quite sure when everyone gets on to play. Speaking of which, I would like to thank everyone at TF2Maps.net for all of their help. It's hand down the best TF2 mapping community site out there, and I wouldn't have had a clue how to do half of the stuff I've done without them. It's full of great, patient people that are always willing to help the clueless, and you can tell that they love to do what they do.

I 'm gonna try to update more once I get the process spinning a bit more. Expect things in the future like reference photos, concepts, and production pics as they come. The pics I'm giving you for this post are for the beta as it currently stands. Not pretty of course, but functional for gameplay, so that's all that matters, right?

Design, design, design.

2008-08-06T15:23:00.000-07:00

Specifics on the map:

-CTF with 2 intelligence briefcases. One is outside of the base (while not being too easy to cap, it will be considerably easier than cap 2), and the other is deep in the base.

-Map is symmetrical, very similar to 2Fort

-Once you cap the outside case, the interior one is able to be capped. Cap the first one, then the second. In this way it's very similar to CP games, and is intentionally set up that way to be a unique blend of CTF and a CP Dustbowl stage.

-Respawn rooms will be halfway between capture zones for each base and do not change. This way, the teams have enough time to get to and defend each point.

-capture zones for the moment, are where the home teams' briefcase is ala 2Fort. If the journey is too long for the final cap, I will move the second cap zone up a bit.

For whatever reason, most TF2 maps suck. Half of the time, it's because the person just felt like making something simple and stupid to mess around in with friends, or as a joke. The other half are serious about it, and fail to think about all of the different aspects of map creation. Not everyone is in it to build a portfolio up, but I am. Though I'm an artist and mainly focus on visuals, I also want my map to be fun to play as well as pretty to look at. Let's treat it like this: Valve told me that if I make a great map, they'll hire me. I'm gonna work my fingers to the bone to make sure that my map is the best ever created. I want this map to fit right in with everything that Valve has released up to this point. Nothing wacky like Mario Kart, but something that fits within the TF2 universe. There are several aspects of design that Valve utilizes that I will also:

1) Environments are minimal. Textures are less detailed and realistic and modeling is conservative so that the players focus on each other, rather than being distracted by complex surroundings.

2)All textures are hand painted, in an expressionistic style. I will look at reference, but everything will be fresh out of photoshop, no photographs. This will take considerably longer, but is good exercise.

3)Conservative lighting, gotta watch that lag.

4) Since it's a ctf level, keep it small. No one wants to run forever back to their base with the intel.

5)Fun for all classes. I want this map to be fun for anybody, no matter how early or late in the game. Places to snipe, places for spies to hide, places for scouts to access, places for sticky and rocket jumps, places for sentries, and a good balance of open and closed areas for pyros.

6)Many routes to go throughout the whole level. More routes to defend makes everything more unpredictable.

In regards to things I will do differently than Valve, there are a couple. I'll use 2Fort as a case study. 2Fort is:

1)Too hard to cap. games last forever. Make games more speratic. shorter games, with easier caps. Second cap is not as buried in the base too far, making it a shorter journey. I think this was the main cause of long, drawn out games.

2)Has only one area good for sniping. Mine will have two main areas, located around each cap.

3)Physics objects: do they even matter? I noticed this in all of the valve maps. There are only a couple of these in each, and they are just bottles and cans. Nothing of interest. I actually had to pause and think about whether or not TF2 has physics objects to begin with. I know it's to prevent lag, but should there be any at all, if it's barely noticable? No physics objects for me.

Finally, I'm sure that I should show some pictures and stop talking, right? The one with tons of orange shows that I've only focused on spacing and rough shapes. I currently only have two textures. One for the outer "no-leaks please" box, and one for the actual level.

CTF_Platform: A Team Fortress 2 Map

2008-08-06T14:13:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I've decided to give this whole blog thing a try for my next project. I'm making a Team Fortress 2 map, and my postings will be for showing progress through time. I'm sure more people will see this once the beta for the map is up and hopefully people will be playing it, and I can get some feedback. As for a time frame, there is none. I'll take the approach that Valve and Blizzard take and say that it's done when it's done. I don't want to take forever on this, but at the same time, I want the quality to be as good as it can be. I would like to have this and a single player map (using another engine) done by the fall of 2009, which is when I will hopefully be moving to a larger city with companies that I can show my demo reel to.

Here's a rundown of my process:

1)Build a prototype in Hammer that represents proper spacing and collision for the level. In other words, no art at all, just for gameplay sake. As I'm doing this, I will be thinking about concepts. As of now, I'm calling the map CTF_Platform.

2)Think out conceptual props, structures, and ideas, and adjust the level to meet such things. If I nail it just right, I'll be able to make the environment look interesting while keeping the original spacing intact.

3)Add details such as decals that point the players in the right direction, and that avoid any confusion as to where to go.

4)Work on functionality. Add the intel, set respawn times, round times, invis walls, etc.

5)Add placeholder textures that make it clear what is what, and which base is which. Still no art, but enough to not hamper anyone's experience.

6)beta release: Give the beta map to servers and see what happens.

7) Adjust the map based on feedback, while adding in art to make the level more enjoyable and immersive. The only pre-existing textures and models I will use will be for respawn rooms and guidance signs.

8)optimize the level and release the final version to servers.

That seems pretty far off :)

Demo Reel 2008

2008-05-01T09:22:00.000-07:00

Enjoy!