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3 Dimensional Chat / Simons Artistic Agony Aid

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Simon
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Posted: 27th Apr 2004 20:24
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Hi Folks,
I felt it was about time that I was more active around the forums, so here goes.
For those that don't know me, I've been The Game Creators more-or-less permanent freelance game artist for the last three years.
Title's I've worked on for TGC iclude: 3D Gamemaker, Dark Matter 1, Dark Basic Pro, and Driving Test Success Practical.
Currently I'm working on the much-awaited FPS creator.

I'm happy to help out with any problems of an artistic nature you might be having. My expertise is in the modelling, animating and texturing of 3d game models, sprites and effects. I'm not so hot on the programming side or getting art assets into DB or our other products.

So here's the deal...
If you've got a question for me, mark the subject of your post "FAO SIMONS AAA" and I'll try and help you out.

Regards,
Simon

This Week I have mostly been......
......Making special level objects for FPSC and getting really frustrated with Nvidia's Melody tool
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zircher
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Posted: 27th Apr 2004 21:00
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Just for fun...

What percentage of the designated art resources for FPC Creator are completed?

Can you give us a hit list of items that will be included?

What tools do you use to create character models?
--
TAZ

Game Beavers
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Simon
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Posted: 27th Apr 2004 21:20
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Hi Zircher,
I can't say too much at this stage without consulting the team,
I will say that our Art asset list is probably about 30-35 percent complete. We're at what I call the production line stage now, where must of the problems associated with development have been solved and now its just a case of working through all the models and textures. However odds and ends always come up at this stage of a project, so its difficult to say precisely how much work is left to do here.

Many of the items in the game will be shown in the regular newsletter, so keep an eye out.

I use a whole range of tools to create character models. Everything from high end packages like 3ds max, down to Milkshape3d. Texturing is done in paintshop pro. FPSC will support Dot3 bump mapping, so the texturing pipeline is quite different from how things used to be, its more like colouring the model rather than actually painting realistic lighting effects. So we can support older video cards, the combination of bump, colour and specular lighting maps are combined onto a single texture plate to give a more traditional realistic texture.

Hope that slakes your thirst for FPSC info for now
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zircher
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Posted: 27th Apr 2004 22:07
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Thanks for the info!
--
TAZ

Game Beavers
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Grismald
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Posted: 28th Apr 2004 00:19
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hi simon,
Welcome to the forums!
Just need some advice.What's best when painting a uvmap:
to use black and white at first, for shading and giving depth to the texture, and add colours afterwards or start painting directly with colours?


Team EOD : Programmer :: 3D artist
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Simon
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Posted: 28th Apr 2004 01:08
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Hi,
If you're a confident painter, I would just jump straight in and paint as if you were painting a picture.
However, the nice thing about working in layers is that you have a record of everything you've done, and its easy to make changes.
I usually start off in greyscale, adding highlights and shadow until the texture starts taking shape.
Now I'll add a series of texture overlays using different blending modes, I tend to pick a texture or combination of images that have the colour and detail that I need. I rarely use areas of block colour, unless something has to look really pristine and new.
Then I'll add detail - usually painted straight - for things like bullet holes, blood splats, and buttons.
Often I work at twice the resolution thats required, the benefits of this are that a reduced image nearly always looks better, and sometimes the client may require a higher resolution later in production. My rule is, the bigger the image, the more useful it will be.
The thing about textures in computer games is they rarely have to be that detailed. A lot of texture artists tend to spend a long time over painting beautiful images, quite often for their own satisfaction.
As a commercial artist you have to strike a balance between the art and the client, when you get projects that allow lots of time, make the most of them.

If you don't consider yourself a brilliant painter, take a look at some of the texture baking options available to you.

Hope that helps
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thief
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Posted: 28th Apr 2004 02:09 Edited at: 28th Apr 2004 02:11
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Simon can you say what the scripting for FPSC will be like?
or is that FBI type stuff

thief
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Grismald
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Posted: 28th Apr 2004 10:37
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thanks a lot simon, that's really helpful.
This sounds like a more efficient way of paiting textures than i what i currently use.I'm quite an average painter to be honest, but i'm definitely gonna experiment with your technique.


Team EOD : Programmer :: 3D artist
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Simon
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Posted: 28th Apr 2004 15:18
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Hi Thief,
Take a look at the FPSC FAQ in the latest newsletter. To be honest I don't have much information about the scripting yet.

Regards
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Van B
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Posted: 28th Apr 2004 15:37
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Hi Simon, nice to see another TGC face on the forums, we've been quite spoiled over the last couple of months - even Lee dropped by!.

I'm writing a modeller in DBPro, and for my own engines sakes I'll be including a sorta building block creator, like a building block could be phone box mesh, that would be added to a level. I plan to handle this in a way that will allow memblock meshes to be created from several blocks. I reckon that's similar to the way FPSC will handle it's level building.
My question though; Do you think it'll be possible for me to include an export function for FPSC building blocks?. Like would TGC provide me with info about the file format and do you think that it could work that way?


Van-B


The nature of Monkey was irrepressible!.
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Simon
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Posted: 28th Apr 2004 16:02
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Hi Van B
At the moment FPSC supports .X files for models, so I would imagine that if you had an export function in your software you could make files that work for it.
In order to get models into the game you will need to use one of FPSC's segment or entity editors with the X files, this basically tell the game how to use the new models.
There was talk about creating a vertex-level modeller in the package, but I have no idea whether we'll include it at this time.
Don't take my word for it though, anything can happen in a products development.
I recommed that you contact someone on the programming side if you're still interested.

Regards
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Shadow Robert
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Posted: 28th Apr 2004 16:11
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I guess a relivant question would be ... what is the theme of FPSC?
Personally, I would like to know if we'll ever see Phil on the forums. I'm sure alot of people will have questions for him, Walaber and WOLF being at the top of that list.

Any samples you care to show which aren't for any project in particular? Would like to see some work you can do outside of the time restrictions of a product.


AthlonXP 2500+ | 256MB DDR PC2700 | GeForce FX 5700 60.18 | DirectX 9.0b | CMedia 8620 | Windows XP Professional
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thief
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Posted: 28th Apr 2004 19:34
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thanks any way simom!!

thief
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thief
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Posted: 28th Apr 2004 19:44
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another FPSC "Q" simon will you be able to play intro's for your game... or do you no?

thief
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Simon
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Posted: 28th Apr 2004 21:50
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Hi,
Raven:
I'd better consult the others before I give an answer to this. I can say that FPSC will be modular, you'll be able to add themes or genres as expansion packs. I guess theres nothing stopping dedicated users creating their own expansion packs.
I do very little CG artwork outside of my job now, if I did, it would be a bit like a TV repair man coming home after a 10 hour day to repair TV's The work I do for TGC is so varied I'm never frustrated at work.
I have a couple of works I can show but they'll have to wait until I can get some webspace set up.

Thief:
Honestly, I don't know....we do have a title screen constructor being worked, which will allow you to set up a background and buttons.
If you mean tagging an intro Avi onto an exported game, then it's a damn good idea and one I'll suggest to the others. It's unlikely that we'll provide an Avi creation method though.

Regards
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thief
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Posted: 28th Apr 2004 21:55 Edited at: 28th Apr 2004 21:58
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i ment the getting your game to play a avi (or what ever file are supported) at start of the game or when you start the 1st single player missiong.. thanks!!

thief
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thief
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Posted: 28th Apr 2004 21:59
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but the back ground idea sounds good to

thief
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Shadow Robert
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Posted: 28th Apr 2004 22:11
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I know what you mean about the job; but from personal experience artists very rarely decide to put down the canvas simply because they're not on the clock.

if you like I can host some jpg's for you, a long as they're a reasonable size. (not like 10MB for 3 pictures cause of an extreme resolution )


AthlonXP 2500+ | 256MB DDR PC2700 | GeForce FX 5700 60.18 | DirectX 9.0b | CMedia 8620 | Windows XP Professional
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thief
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Posted: 29th Apr 2004 01:45
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as far as anamations.... will you have to make seperate parts for you'r item/weapon? like bf:v, example: The Ah1 Cobra has a

ve_cobra_chgun_m1,ve_cobra_chgunbase_m1.sm,Ve_Cobra_Main_L1.sm,Ve_Cobra_Main_M1.sm,Ve_Cobra_Rotor_M1.sm,Ve_Cobra_Rotor_M2.sm,Ve_Cobra_Tail_M1.sm,Ve_Cobra_Tail_M2.sm,Ve_Cobra_WreckMain_M1.sm,Ve_Cobra_WreckSma_M1.sm,Ve_Cobra_WreckTail_M1.sm,ve_cobracockpit_m1.sm

so my queston,will you have to make seperate parts for you'r item/weapon? thanks

thief
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Simon
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Posted: 29th Apr 2004 11:46
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Tell that to the missus
Generally any time I get for personal artistic projects is not spent on the computer, I was a special effects guy and sculptor before I became a video game artist and thats what I try to find time for, for the last 3 months I've been sculpting batmans mask.
Thief:
I'll give you an example with weapons, the colt commando HUD model has 3 limbs linked hierarchially to a main mesh: cocking rod, magazine, and D-ring. Everything is animated together and the result exported to an X file. As long as you can put the lot in an X file you'll be able to use it as a weapon in FPSC.
Characters are a little different as they use bone based animation.
You WILL be able to port your own weapons and models into the game.

regards
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thief
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Posted: 29th Apr 2004 16:52
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Thanks Simon!! bone animation? so you mean i could animate my charactor with 3ds max 6 Rag Doll tool?

thief
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thief
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Posted: 30th Apr 2004 01:30
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simon, i have a question, how will some on protect his own codes/scripts? i REALY wouldnt like it if some one stoll my code that i made..

Thanks

thief
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Simon
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Posted: 30th Apr 2004 02:17
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If I keep getting all these questions, we won't have an FPS creator!
I'm not sure about protecting the users code, I guess if you export your game to an exe, it will have FPSC's protection built in....not really my area I'm afraid.

Regards
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thief
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Posted: 30th Apr 2004 02:51
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Quote: "If I keep getting all these questions, we won't have an FPS creator!"
ROTFL. Thanks Anyway!!

thief
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