Demo reel:
Shot list:
- Intro animation.
- Fully animated character in environment, with lip-sync.
- Low-poly models developed for Dejobaan Games' The Wonderful End of the World (shown in real-time game engine):
- 256-triangle spider with 256x256 diffuse map.
- 270-triangle cobra with 256x256 diffuse map.
- 418-triangle "generic man" with 256x256 diffuse map.
- 360° beauty render of Bionicle battle scene.
- Russian T34 tank (tread animation).
- 360° occlusion render of T34 tank.
- T34 tank animated and composed on 2d background image.
Blog:
↓20070824↓
Oh yeah! When I downloaded the Internet Channel on my Wii, one of the first things I did was check out
Orisinal to see how the games would play with the WiiMote. Some weren't so great, but there was enough evidence to support the possibility of great Wii gaming using Flash. Of course the next logical step was to think "maybe I should make a website just for Flash games optimized for the Wii?" -- well it turns out these guys were already there (at launch no less). What's more, they have released an
API for Flash that gives access to all kinds of WiiMote info (e.g. rotation), including multiple WiiMote support (Flash party games, anyone?) -- so everybody get out there and make some games! Nice job, guys!
↓20060710↓
Game artist Chris Holden has a few good tips and tutorials on his website. I especially enjoyed his article "Game and Mod Development Basics" which provides a good conceptual foundation for getting started in game development.
This was referred to by Polycount in January -- I just stumbled upon Polycount recently, so I'm perusing their archives of excellent links. I haven't had a chance to fully entrench myself in their community, but so far it looks like a great resource for any aspiring game artist.
↓20060518↓
Another older article (I'm still trying to catch up), but I'm going to go out on a limb here and call this one
timeless. The thought processes and observations made in this article about the
Experimental Gameplay Project (now a continuing project open to anyone) are brilliant.
↓20060512↓
This article is a good critique and analysis of video game aesthetics and the current trend toward realism in most games. The author (David Hayward), makes some compelling comments on the lack of diversity in artistic style of games, in comparison with film, comics, and sculpture. I fully admit to being impressed by overt realism, but I agree with Hayward — there seems to be a distinct lack of risk-taking in interactive entertainment. Although I don't remember the exact source, I remember reading something about PONG stating that the ball isn't square because they wanted it to be, it's because it
had to be. Now that same "old school" style of blocky graphics has become somewhat of a trend — but not in video games. Why? I think marketability is the primary deterrent. Even abstract painting still suffers from this problem, perhaps not as much with collectors, but certainly with the general public. It's well-understood that the general public isn't interested in the "avant garde". Publishers aren't willing to risk shipping an "avant garde" game because it's cost-prohibitive. Less expensive media, such as comics, can afford to take creative chances because the cost of production is minimal. Let's face it, it's eyecandy that sells. Screenshots and trailers; video games are marketed as a primarily visual medium (they are "video" games after all). However, with companies like Nintendo taking significant risks with their hardware, the importance of visuals in games is somewhat lessened, and the actual "game" part of the equation is gaining more weight, which is good. Of course technology will continue to advance, as will the movement toward realism. What I hope, is that as the technology improves, so do the artist's tools to allow for more freedom of expression in the real-time environment. There's certainly a lot of potential in shaders, but how many artists can write shaders? We don't even have the equivalent of parameterized Photoshop filters to apply real-time. So perhaps the focus should not necessarily be "how can we make this engine more realistic" but "how can we make this engine
do more". When I have the same level of control over the visual elements of a game as I do in After Effects...(drool)...
↓20050802↓
inexpensive, easy-to-use input/ouput board for receiving electronic signals (e.g. from sensors) and controlling electronic devices (e.g. motors). beats the pants off of that old dinosaur ezio board (which was really cool back when we all used director and all macs had adb connectors). best part about it is that it can run completely autonomously or hooked up to a computer. build it and they will come!
↓20050630↓
finally after years of drooling over rear projection screens that cost more than the damn projectors themselves, i stumbled upon this canadian company that makes "projection-screen-in-a-can" — acrylic paint that can be used to make custom projection screens! even rear projection! this stuff seems too good to be true, but some big names are using it, so i'll definitely give it a try.
↓20050607↓
This essay is a bit old (1998), but the basic gist of it is still relevant:
This is one of the first axioms of creativity in this realm: Solve something first, then apply that solution elsewhere. It doesn't matter if the first stone was sharpened to kill animals or cut wood, because once you have the principle down, making a knife into a spear or a scimitar or a scalpel is just application-level development. I have always been skeptical of any real possibility of viscerally engaging 3-D spaces, but I believe that I see in Quake -- and its subsequent imitators and descendants -- the sharpened stone, the thing that indicates the beginning of a new way of using the network.
I've worked with the unreal editor before, but unfortunately it only runs under windows, so reading this has given me pause to consider quake as a possible tool for creating 3d interactive environments on multiple platforms. Also, I'd like to evaluate x3d (vrml's successor) to see if there is any potential there.
↓20050519↓
a bunch of great essays and tutorials on the application of artificial intelligence — games, robotics, computer vision.
Noah Falstein, 24-year veteran of the game industry has a number of articles about game design at his website, including a interesting set of "rules" of game design. He currently writes an excellent column in Game Developer Magazine.
↓20050507↓
lots of links and information regarding programming life-like behavior (e.g. flocking).