-= ReyBomb.com =-

Van Der Dick 08

-= Unrwapping

I think I want to destroy my CPU. I have been staring at those damn checkers for way too long. I think they are getting bigger on their own. No wait, that must be my imagination...

Seriously though, I'm almost there. Again I've restarted the process a few times for the sake of practice; and to figure out what the hell I was doing. I have learned so much; the ability to save mapping coordinates is so helpful and it's starting to save me time when I experiment. I think I'm getting the hang of this skinning, but I don't have to like it!

Labels: 3d, VanDerDick

Van Der Dick 07

-= Skin and Pelt

Now that I have a body and a head, I need to paint them. This process involves "unwrapping" the mesh into segments that can be flattened. Think of it as if you were to peel an orange. You pull off the slices of skin, lay them out next to each other, and sew them together into one flat piece. Now paint over the flattened skin, go ahead draw some eyes on it and a mouth.

Now take that painted skin and re-apply it to your orange. Hey! Check that out. Your orange has a personality. Okay, well maybe it is not that easy. Yet that is what texture artists are asked to do to strange and complex 3d objects.

One technique is to apply a texture map to your whole mesh in order to see where things are deforming. Using a checkered contrasting pattern you can see where the faces on a 3d model will pull on the pattern.

Learning this, and learning to use the still fresh skinning tools in 3dsMax is proving to be a test in patience and persistence. Thank god that I can leave in a few minutes to go eat some food. I've never had Middle Eastern chow, I hope I like it as much as I like far eastern cuisines.

Labels: 3d, VanDerDick

Olympic Withdrawal

The 2008 Beijing Olympics are over and now my life can resume a sense of normalcy in schedule. To be honest I had been watching a lot more TV than is usual for me. It was hard not to, especially with four channels broadcasting the events; not to mention the live events online. I have to give NBC and Microsoft a big up on doing a great job delivering content to the States.

So onto my project news... A huge design undertaking on my part has come to an end. I designed an engagement ring for my sweetheart and after nearly 2 months of working with a jeweler the ring has been delivered. I know this is not the place to tell people that I'm engaged, but it is a fact.

I spent a couple of months sketching and modeling a ring in 3dsmax. The result has far exceeded my initial expectations and the computer milled ring is a design success.

On the video game front I have become much better at modeling humanoid bodies. The lesson book I'm going through is teaching me all the steps in modeling, texture wrapping, and rigging of game characters for next gen game engines. Speaking of game engines... Dan is going through code trying to figure out how to control a fully animated game character within a game environment. I don't envy his challenge, but I'm sure he will succeed.

The game we are working on is initially going to be just one level and may not fully be considered a vertical slice. At least not yet. For the time being it will act as a proving ground for our production pipeline. Essentially it will be a lesson for us in how to make an interactive product. Back to modeling... expect images in the gallery this Fall.

Labels: spillage

Van Der Dick 06

-= Almost There

Working all night on this face. It still needs much work to be a handsome devil. For now Van Der Dick, as he is now known, will have to stay content as an ugly mug.

This face has been mirrored and combined to form one whole head. I'm not sure that I like the way the geometry was laid out. I have read in other books that edge loops should be clean. This face is more like the sky, stars everywhere. By that I mean that in too many areas I was supposed to connect triangles and make them look like stars. Not too crazy about it, I prefer nice even quads.

Oh well, onward, I have to learn to paint this thing and make it look decent.

Labels: 3d, VanDerDick

Van Der Dick 05

-= Shape Me

You really do need to develop a sense for organic shaping and modeling. My first attempt at a facial spline-cage wasn't the best. I had to re-start a few times just to get a sense of where I was placing lines. After a while I was able to get a feel for where to curve the lines. Eventually I got a face that didn't seem so boxy and rigid. Still needs more shaping, but it should do for now.

In these images you can see a surface modifier is applied and the mesh is turned into editable polygons.

Labels: 3d, VanDerDick

Van Der Dick 04

-= Face Me

Modeling faces in 3d seems like an overwhelming task. Like everything in life, practice makes perfect. I have seen my friends model faces from scratch and with rather good accuracy.

I haven't modeled a face in a while, but I'm hoping to learn a new method. Well, new to me anyway. I have modeled faces using box modeling and by deforming the surface to get the details I want. In this chapter however, I am instructed to use lines to lay out the cage of the face. In some steps I am to pull lines forward or back to create depth. This is a very interesting method, but I am not fully sold on it just yet.

Here we have two views of the face sketch; the front and back. You can see the spline cage I'm building from both views. The third image shows the face from a different perspective.

NOTE to self: use higher res image map for sketches.

Labels: 3d, VanDerDick

Van Der Dick 03

-= Mirror Mirror

The symmetry modifier in 3ds max is the gateway to using the mirror modeling technique. It is such a time saver and I can't imagine modeling without it. Here you can see varying views of the nearly completed body.

Labels: 3d, VanDerDick

Van Der Dick 02

-= Modeling Half

Working from quick and dirty sketches I have mirrored the front to create the back. After some push and pull action I ended up with what amounts to half of the character's body.

In the second image you can see the sharp edges from the geometry. After smoothing the polygons you can see a difference in appearance. I am hoping to keep the total geometry pretty low, I'm aiming for around 600-700 polys.

Labels: 3d, VanDerDick

My first game model.

I used to think of game models as boxes on top of boxes. That is to say, that they would be extremely low polygon creations in which you could expect to see many sharp corners. This approach, has of course, changed over time.

Continuous improvements in graphic hardware allow our current game models to reach very high polygon counts. Although I have just started to research the trends, I felt like I could create one of these "game-engine friendly" models.

Thanks to dmak for getting me a book that covered this very topic, a great present! This book is a great start and already I have learned much about game models from it. Check it out if you need a quick start in game modeling; Game Character Modeling...

Although I started going through the book with the given character, I plan on making him my own. I could finish him as a pirate, but I want to learn everything on my own. This means I'll be learning how to unwrap the model and I'll have to create my own texture maps in Photoshop.

The book does come with a finished model and all the necessary graphics to complete the pirate character, and there is nothing wrong with pirates; aargh!

-= Getting Started

I began with spline outlines, added some cross-sections, and pulled some vertices a bit to create one quarter of the wire cage.

Labels: 3d, VanDerDick

Game Design - Planning

It is a daunting task to build a 3d video game with a team of two...

Back to the drawing board is what they say when your challenges become harder and the scope of work changes. Either that or you kill the marketing department. Well, no. I wouldn't want to kill any marketing dept, especially because I have dear friends who do it for a living.

After some initial tests and more software research Danny and I have decided to take a few steps back and re-asses the goals of our project. Initially it was to be a hit the ground running effort to make a top down shooter with a simple game engine. XNA seemed to be a likely solution, but Danny has found it to be somewhat complicated in implementing some of what we want to do. That is not to say it wouldn't be useful for a 2d side scroller game, but we want to incorporate user controlled animations.

So this weekend we will have a pow-wow style brainstorming and planning session. The hottest topic will be defining new goals for our game and figuring out the pros and cons of using a more expensive game engine. It may costs us more than we had hoped to spend, but that may all be driven by how beneficial it would be to cut production time. We love games, and we would rather spend more time making it a decent, fun, and playable game. Not to mention that we would both like it to be stylized and eye catching.

This Sunday should prove to be very fruitful in defining a game story and charting milestones. More on that later... Meanwhile I have been going through a lesson book on Game Character Modeling and Animation; It is a great book to get started with and so far I'm enjoying it. Now about those game engines...

Labels: game design

Game Design - The Map

Dan has started downloading all the necessary development tools; he's been looking into using the Torque game engine. Meanwhile I've been sketching some map ideas and trying to come up with a compact and engaging environment. I don't have the luxury of making it lush a the moment, so what I'm really after is a quick view of what a game map may look like.

It took me about 4hrs to model, texture, and render an overhead animation of the game map. It is crude, but it should suffice for now. We are aiming to play this on our TVs, so our resolution reflects a wide screen ratio. We'll see how this holds up. We may have to cut down the size if we hit any snags or limitations.

In the meantime, here is a quick clip showing the game map test:

Labels: game design

Game Design - Making a game.

Summer 08 has been good so far and now it seems to be getting more fun. After kicking around the idea of making video games with my home boy Dan, we've decided to make a go of it. Our initial concept will be simple. Mostly it will be a chance to try out a collaborative and new techniques. Dan will be handling all the programming, meanwhile I'll take care of art and animation.

This is an organic process for us since we've never designed games for the XBOX before. The game idea is drawn from the good ol' days of games like Ikari Warriors. We will attempt to create an overhead scrolling shooter. Top down view with simple left, right, down, up controls. Initially we've given ourselves a month to see how far we can get in laying down the game mechanics and some artwork.

I'm hoping to create most of the art in 3d and animate walk cycles for the player character and the NPCs. The story is evolving and at the moment it is merely an excuse to have an anti-hero character destroy his enemies and a big boss. Dan will have his hands full trying to figure out XNA and including enemy AI.

Wish us luck!

Labels: game design

ProjectBlog

August 30, 2008

Van Der Dick 08

August 27, 2008

Van Der Dick 07

August 25, 2008

Olympic Withdrawal

Van Der Dick 06

August 22, 2008

Van Der Dick 05

August 19, 2008

Van Der Dick 04

August 15, 2008

Van Der Dick 03

August 13, 2008

Van Der Dick 02

August 11, 2008

My first game model.

August 8, 2008

Game Design - Planning

August 5, 2008

Game Design - The Map

August 4, 2008

Game Design - Making a game.