I was going to try to get better at using Blender, but my family just got a new computer with an absolute monster of a graphics card, so finally I can run 3ds Max. I took the opportunity to finally create a 3D model I've been planning since last year but never had a chance to create: a skyscraper. This required heavy use of the skills I've learned in using the material editor, object manipulation, and modifiers, and tested my skills with lighting as well.
Then I reset the groups for the material editor: the windows, the doors, and everything else. I created a multi/sub-object material and used the brick pattern as a bitmap for the main building, then created my own from scratch using standard materials for the windows and doors. Afterwards I tried for quite some time to use lights to illuminate some of the windows, but I couldn't figure out how I'd used to do that and was unable to find any answers from google, so I ended up creating another group for the materials after reading about self-illuminating materials, hence the lit windows. The flag on top was easy: I stuck a sphere on top of a cylinder for the pole, used a boolean to combine them, and quickly created a material to look like shiny metal. The flag itself was the result of a very thin box primitive, another quick material, and some fiddling around with the wave modifier. So, to summarize:
Citations:
Khalid, Hassan A. “Free Stock Photo of Brick Texture, Bricks, Building.” Free Stock Photos, www.pexels.com/photo/brick-texture-bricks-building-cement-1200862/.
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I started 3D modeling in Blender, and I thought it would be just like 3ds Max. I was wrong. I ought to start looking up tutorial videos. Now, behold the worst 3D model I've ever created: It harkens back to one of the first 3D models I ever made...but worse. I dove into Blender with absolutely no idea what I was doing. It took me about fifteen minutes just to figure out how to work the controls, and searching the web didn't seem to help. Finally I managed to create a sphere. Cue another five or so minutes trying to figure out what I could do with it. I started messing around with "sculpt mode," which raised the vertices on the object when the cursor was dragged over them. I still don't understand it. The coloration comes from "vertex paint" mode. I don't know what that does either. Finally I found a page that explained how to rotate the scene view. Afterwards, I essentially just clicked on everything I could see, without getting a lot of results, and honestly I'm disappointed in myself. I came up with a new plan for creating 3D models of cups: extrude one part of a circle to create a sort of pill shape, then subtract it from a cylinder to create a hole in the middle with straight walls but a rounded bottoms. Or–as it occurs to me just now–just subtract a chamfered cylinder. That would probably make more sense. I also spend a slightly ridiculous amount of time trying to design a wineglass in my head. Either of these things I could have accomplished in 3ds Max with ease, but in Blender I was a fish out of water. Honestly, I have to consider this a failure on my part, but I haven't learned nothing. The next time I'm faced with a new piece of software, I'm going to look up tutorials and really do my research so I can get the most out of it–and I'm going to start early. So, to summarize:
Works Cited:
tutor4u. “How to Use Blender without a Middle Mouse Button or a Scroll Wheel.” Blender Hut, 31 Mar. 2017, www.blenderhut.com/use-blender-without-middle-mouse-button-or-scroll-wheel/. I've improved since I was younger, but time management still isn't my strong suit, and recently that's come back to bite me. It's time to start fixing that. One of the most important keys to effectively managing time is to eliminate distractions. I've recently taken this into account by banning myself from watching any videos YouTube or using any social media (I don't have a lot, but the one chat program I do use eats up substantial chunks of time). It's important to take breaks in order to not become too stressed, but I keep them short and avoid anything that might become a time sink–that means staying away from the TV or starting any lengthy conversations about, say, whether or not a hot dog is a sandwich. One strategy has been to find long playlists of music to listen to instead of constantly scrolling through YouTube looking for another song–this is typically where my problem of getting distracted by non-music videos comes from. I've had also issues with distractions working on a game in class recently, namely because I get caught up with constantly fixing the racetrack or fiddling with minor features. I've tried to rein in this urge to perfect things that are better left alone. When I notice something that can be left as it is without too much consequence starting to take up most of class, I move on. Another key practice is to not waste time waiting for things. I've begun working on homework during free time in class (especially when I arrive early), before school, and during lunch. It's typically something easy like a reading log so I don't get entirely burned out, but it saves time so I can worry about items like this portfolio when I'm at home. I even manage my breaks, such as using the rides to and from school to listen to music or work on personal writing so I don't end up feeling like I've done nothing enjoyable all day. Short deadlines also help productivity. Parkinson's Law states that work expands to fill the time allotted for it–the more time you have, the more you procrastinate. I've started setting hard deadlines for myself that are as early as absolutely possible–for example, I've committed to creating/digging up at least two pieces of artwork for my portfolio by the end of tonight, no excuses. So, to summarize:
Citations:
“8 Time Management Strategies for More Productive Work.” Teamdeck.io, Teamdeck, 7 Mar. 2019, teamdeck.io/project-management/time-management-strategies/. Rampton, John. “Manipulate Time With These Powerful 20 Time Management Tips.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 1 May 2018, www.forbes.com/sites/johnrampton/2018/05/01/manipulate-time-with-these-powerful-20-time-management-tips/#4935474e57ab. I've had two experiences making games with a team. Neither has been particularly ideal. Why? Time to find out. One of the most important things to do is to make it clear who's supposed to do what. This year, we've done that...sort of. We know who's doing the art, and who's doing the programming (me), but it took far too long to figure out who was supposed to do the other things that needed to get done. Two other important things are to set goals and communicate. Communication took awhile–over a week into the project, I still didn't know the mechanics of the game I was supposed to be programming, and even after making a document to lay everything out I still didn't have a clear outline. I'm beginning to appreciate just how useful GDDs are. We did set goals, and kept them organized on our Trello board, which had admittedly fallen behind. I made an effort today to update any cards pertaining to my work. Another piece of advice was to make decisions together. I tried to foster that. I've asked for input from my team lead and artist and have reigned in suggestions when I had to. I can't speak for anyone else here. More tips I read didn't seem to offer answers. I've heard that one should play to individual strengths and put people in roles that suit them. I didn't have much of a say in that, since team leads assigned roles, but seeing as I'm the team programmer, I think we accomplished that. I read that you should get to know each other and develop relationships outside of work. We've known each other for quite some time; this certainly isn't the problem. I read that team members should promote sharing–I did my best to do that. I set up the document and made requests for input. I've done what I could. I read more tips about setting ground rules to prevent arguments and controlling conversations, but a lot of this simply doesn't apply. Based on what I have read, the most obvious issue to me seems the communication and lack of planning. We didn't know what we were doing and who was doing it. That's been improved upon now, and I think we'll pull through. I hope this improves next time. So, to summarize:
Citations:
Mattson, Dave. “12 Tips for Fostering Teamwork.” Entrepreneur, Entrepreneur, 23 Mar. 2016, www.entrepreneur.com/article/270024. “Top Tips for Effective Teamwork.” Uplift Events Blog, Uplift Events, 19 Apr. 2018, www.upliftevents.com.au/blog/top-tips-effective-teamwork/. This is my last personal reflection this school year. Unbelievable, isn't it? Since this is probably the final post of this school year, I've decided to discuss how the year turned out, since I've realized something I wasn't at all expecting. I came into this class convinced I was going to be a 2D artist. The problem was, I wasn't good at it, and the work it took to get better seemed like a nightmare. I couldn't draw well, so I hated drawing, so I didn't have the motivation to improve, so I still couldn't draw well. You can see where that's going. Then we moved on to 3D modeling and animation, and I remembered how much I actually liked it. I wasn't great at that either, but I honestly enjoyed it more than 2D art. Then we moved on to programming. I had felt a growing sense of dread as the programming portion of the year approached. Code seemed like this scary, incomprehensible thing I was going to have to slog my way through. It was something I shouldn't be excited for. Then, we actually started coding, and instead of slow, tedious work (well, it actually was a little tedious) like I expected, I tore through the tutorials. I realized that I actually liked writing code. It all seemed so logical, like a puzzle, and it made sense to me. I always assumed I 'd never get into programming; I looked at it with a sort of disgust. Turns out, "don't knock it till you try it" is right. The topic I thought I'd hate turned out to be the topic I most loved, and the thought that I might not go straight back into coding next year actually scares me a little. At this point I've made three games by tutorial and I'm finishing a fourth by myself. I hate to admit it, but I fell victim to the classic rookie mistake of aiming too high on my first go. I'm having to cut back, mostly because I overestimated what I would get done in the amount of time I had left, but the important thing is that it's still an actual, playable game that I made myself. I've also discovered the mechanics I need to learn more about, and I definitely intend to keep improving my game over the summer. The other big thing I'd like to mention here is that I came to an art school not knowing what I wanted to do for a career but with a a vague idea that I'd be a writer. I entered the game design pathway thinking I'd just use some of the skills, and I meant to do it more as a hobby. I didn't actually expect I'd join the game design industry; that was just a sort of fantasy. Now I'm realizing that while I love writing stories, it's not something I'd really want to do as a job. Game design (especially programming), however, is something I think I really would like to do as a career, and I'm starting to get on track to make that idea into reality. I guess I might become a writer for work after all–just not the kind I expected. That's all from me. I might give occasional updates over the summer on my game or any other interesting developments (pun fully intended) in my game design education, but until next fall, peace out.
I'm officially designing my own game from scratch–no tutorials! I'm thrilled and terrified in equal measure. I'm officially a game developer, so now what? Luckily, the Internet is there to help. The first article I found had five pieces of advice. The first was to figure out if I want to be a programmer or an artist. Well, that's pretty easy. I like art for sure, but turns out I like code more. That's why I'm using free downloaded art assets. The article goes on to mention C# and Unity. Well, I'm set there. The second piece of advice was to enjoy myself. So far, so good! Tip number three was to find a focus within your realm of development. That won't really be possible with this game since I'm working as a one-man team, but it's something I ought to consider for the future. The fourth piece of advice was to get experience. Well, I've finished three games made by tutorial (though I did have to add some features to one of them), and I'm about to start a fourth pretty much from scratch, so I'm already working on that one. It also mentions looking for an internship, which is funny, because I've been meaning to do exactly that. I guess I should get to it. The fifth piece of advice was not to give up. Well, at the moment, I couldn't if I wanted to. That's all great, but what about advice for right now? This article came to the rescue, and I noticed three important things. One piece of advice I noticed right off the bat was to implement and test side by side. This is good advice. I know this is good advice because the last game I worked on mysteriously bugged out and I didn't check it immediately. It's a pain trying to debug when you have to hunt through code unrelated to your problem. Another piece of advice the article gave was to start with a simple game–the example given was Tetris. I'm planning on making a simple platformer, so I think I've got that down. It also recommended playing other games and gathering inspiration from those. I'll have to keep that in mind, because I don't even remember the last time I played a platformer. There you have it. Wish me luck! So, to summarize:
I just started working on my first video game (a tutorial), which is exciting! The game itself is not exciting. The player controls a UFO and moves around the board picking up what appear to be gold chunks, which is made less exciting by the fact that they're arranged in a diamond around the board. That's the whole game. When I first started the tutorial, I was rather underwhelmed by what I was going to produce, but then I remembered that even something so simple would require a lot of code, and this is my first video game. It's not meant to be exciting, it's meant to teach me how to build a game. On a seemingly unrelated topic, I finished an art piece today. It made me realize something. One my first art projects that truly made me proud was a picture I made that was 99 percent based on Photoshop knowledge and 1 percent based on my ability to draw. At the time of writing, my portfolio still contains this: At the time I made it, I thought it was the coolest art I'd ever created. At the time I made it, that was probably true. I was so proud of it that I made it my phone's lock screen and showed it almost aggressively to anyone who was willing to look. Not long after, I had some free time and decided to make another. I actually finished it, but then a bunch of the edits didn't save (I have now learned to always make backup copies). Flash forward a few months to today, when I needed art for my blog and decided to finish the half-done piece. The result was this: I'm proud of this one, too. Then I looked at my old cloud monster, and my first thought was, "Wow, that's actually pretty terrible." There's no doubt in my mind that I've improved. And I do like the cartoonish style of my first drawing, but I think this one is just better. I've realized that, much like the simple game tutorial I'm working on in class, early work doesn't look great in hindsight because compared to what you're about to produce at the present, it often isn't that great. If it looks just as good as it did at the time you made it, you haven't improved. A lot of early work, whether it's art, code, or otherwise, isn't about whether or not it's good. It's about figuring things out and learning how to actually produce the work. Don't feel bad when you look at art (or any work) from your past, and it's not as good as you remembered. It's good for what you could do at the time, and that's really what matters. Of course, I realize my new drawing isn't perfect, but it's better. The limbs look more like limbs than last time, but they could look more like limbs. Someday I will master the art of making octopus limbs look realistic! They way I blended them into the body is a little awkward, but at least I blended them in (and I know what I did wrong). They could definitely use shading, which I considered doing but didn't have the time for, but the way I layered them at least gives some appearance of shadow. Those two blue things on the left are supposed to be comets, and they could look a little more like comets, but at least I figured out how to make them at all. Those were actually part of the original version of this piece before my edits got deleted, so I might be able to make better comets now. Of course, that galaxy in the bottom right corner doesn't look great on top of the nebula background, but this piece is really just an experiment of making space-related things, so it's not going anywhere. Going back to my point about making better comets, I might edit this piece again. I know how to improve it, and in the future I'll probably know how to improve it further. Of course, I'm still proud of my first cloud monster artwork, because that was the pioneer. It might not be as good as this new one, but it was a step in the right direction. Besides, I still think it's pretty cool. So, to summarize:
While working on an animation project about a week or so ago, I found out some incredibly useful things about 3ds Max lighting. Without further delay, here they are. One thing I discovered is how to light windows convincingly. The shape from which light emanates can be changed; in this case, it's probably best to use a rectangle. This shape can be modified in length and width, much like a 3D primitive. There is an option to make the shape from which the light emanates visible, so it will show up when rendered. This is useful for windows, since it allows the user to create a glowing rectangle. The light looks best lined up with the window and placed just in front of it, so the shape will be visible. Placing it behind the surface of the window (unless the surface is at least partially transparent) will result in a glow that is especially visible around the edges, but the shape itself will not be seen. The last time I tried to light windows was about a year ago, and I didn't know what I know now (and I was using the exact same model as I used this time). The result was a lot of small, weird-looking dots of light on the window, and the rectangles didn't fit the windows properly. I would also like to mention that this trick of showing the light itself is also useful when illuminating headlights, especially on simpler models. I also worked on lighting street lamps. I learned a few important things, one of which is that spotlights have two radii which can be modified. The first is the hotspot in the center, where the light is most direct, and the second is the falloff, where the light fades out towards the edges. I discovered that for street lamps, keeping the hotspot radius and falloff radius close together usually gives the most realistic effect. I also recommend making the shape of the light visible, because if any shots happen to catch the underside of a lamp, it will look strange without any a visible light there. The other interesting thing I discovered was temperature and filter color. Temperature can be set using a preset or by typing in a Kelvin value. Higher Kelvin values produce a pinkish tint, while lower values produce a bluish-white. Filter color is useful for unusually colored lights, but be careful, as it can have a drastic effect. I particularly like the Halogen presets for temperature. Using a few different temperatures in different windows of a building looks less monotonous, and is also more realistic; people buy different types of lightbulbs. So, to summarize:
We've finally been moving into 3D animation and rigging, using 3ds Max. It's a daunting task, but exciting. From both research and personal experience, I've learned a few things about rigging. Enjoy, and please excuse the cheesy post title. The first piece of advice that this article gives is to have the right rig for the job. To do that, you have to know what the character you're rigging is going to do. Accommodate for what you need and don't worry about what you don't. I'm using a simple biped rig, since I'm just learning the basics, so there probably won't be anything too fancy happening. The article also suggests keeping the control curves organized and accessible. Color-code them, name them clearly, and don't create more than you need. Having worked in 3ds Max, I can attest that not naming things so you'll know what they are is a bad idea. It's a mistake I made several times when I was just learning to use the program, and I regretted it. Other suggestions included using deformers for facial rigging and adding special controls where you need them. I'm not sure I'll be worrying about that just yet, but I'll keep it in mind for the future. What have I learned from personal experience? Don't complicate your work with things that won't improve your final product. There are tools to simplify the process and improve quality, and it'd be foolish not to take advantage of them. For example, 3ds Max lets you mirror the adjustments of one side of the biped rig to the other. Hence, adjust one side, then copy it to the other. It will be more exact that way, and a lot easier. I addition, it's definitely true that you shouldn't worry about features you don't really need. Don't skimp on important things, but focus on what needs to be animated, and don't worry so much about what doesn't. I realized this when I wasted time trying to rig the fingers, even though I didn't need to. The other thing I've learned is to make sure everything is lined up as well as possible before I start making adjustments. It makes life so much easier. So, to summarize:
Having made numerous digital assets for our board game project, I’ve been using Illustrator a lot recently. Back when I didn’t know what I was doing, the program was infuriating to use, so I’ve complied here some useful tips to make the experience more pleasant. I said this about Photoshop and it applies here too: click through all the buttons, tabs, and anything else you see. Click everything. Find out where everything is. If you already know where it all is, great! Presets and menus will make your life much easier. When creating a shape, click once instead of dragging out an outline, and a menu will pop up that lets you type in in values for the size (and in the case of polygons, number of sides). Using transform on the right click menu also lets you input values. If you need things to be exact, don’t eyeball it. I repeat, don’t eyeball it. This will make lining things up much easier. Speaking of lining things up, borders of any size will be ignored when shapes snap to guidelines. It makes arranging things absolutely infuriating, in my opinion at least, but it’s good to know. There are different click tools. They do different things. They’re found at the top of the tool menu, right next to each other, and they’re used to modify shapes in different ways. I recommend you experiment with this for yourself. That’s all the main ones. Keep in mind, it’s a good idea to experiment. So, to summarize:
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AuthorI'm moving on to my 4th (and final) year as a Game Art & Design student at Durham School of the Arts. I'd like to call myself an artist, but I'm a programmer at heart. Archives
February 2020
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