Several months ago I was contacted by a friend to help him work on a game project, and much like the last time I helped out with a friend's game project: nothing happened. Since this was more of an art test instead of an object to be used in the game I'm posting it to show that I'm learning new modeling programs!
So here we have a soda can, yep a soda can. It's meant to be in a game that's a bit odd/scary so I thought that a disgusting and odd flavor was in order. Blender was a bit of a pain in the butt to learn, and now that Maya has a pro-lite version out for $800 I'm thinking about buying it.
For this next one I wanted to play with modeling and uv'ing in 3ds Max, as I'd never done it before. I thought it would be cool since about 90% of the simulation/game industry wants people with 3ds max experience ... which brings to question why it's not taught as a part of the Full Sail Game Art program. I learned a lot about modeling with cubes, cylinders, and toroids, as well as overall modeling/uv'ing tools. It was much simpler to work in max than it was in blender - but they were both extremely different from maya.
This one is an old school fire extinguisher, I know it's not textured but I only wanted to learn 3ds max and not spend more time in photoshop.
I understand none of these models are exactly amazing or even very pretty, but this is where I'm starting in learning these programs and hopefully I'll get better/faster as I progress. :)
Working at AlliedBarton is okay, though it leaves a lot to be desired as far as pursuing my chosen career path. Pretty much everyone I interact with doesn't even know how to spell it, but I have a feeling it'll be like that until I can get work at a game studio.
So here's this month's projects! I received another art test from Gameloft, this time in Canada, I got some work done on my first Fender Bender style vehicle, and I did a 2D background image for a friend working on a side scrolling game.
I was surprised when Gameloft in Canada contacted me with the same art test as their sister studio in New Orleans. But I gave it a shot anyways, and learned a whole bunch more stuff about 3ds Max. I used the same assets I'd already created, only tweaking them to fit more along the lines of mobile gaming. Then I even added a few simple bits here and there to help the scene close up a bit better. I never did manage to find time to show convincing rain like I am able to do in UDK, and I'm guessing that's one of the bigger things they take points off for. But it's all good, I didn't really want to move to Canada anyways. :)
Here's the render shot and video I submitted:
This is what 3300 triangles will buy you.
I tried to keep it around the same poly count and texture limits as our game, and to just have fun with it. I've labeled this one as the low-tech light plane, hopefully I'll get together a high-tech light plane before the end of February.
I was able to keep it down to the poly count limit we had for Fender Bender.
Since the game is still in concept phasing a lot could change, but I was really happy with the way the sky/background turned out.
I liked the way the heavy atmosphere looks, but it's still just a concept.
November is my final attempt to get a job in the video game industry, so I was pretty excited when I received a phone interview and then a request for an art test. I was pretty nervous as I had never really used 3ds Max before, but everyone says "it's just like maya" .. and they're wrong. I won't go into who the art test was for or show the screenshot I was supposed to make my environment look like, to protect the company, instead I'll just tell you the rest of the details.
Art Test:
In 3ds Max, make an environment with less than 3500 triangles with diffuse and specular textures of 512x512 or below. The environment should be at night with a full moon, it should have 1 cargo ship, 2 cranes, cargo containers, and a warehouse. Optional was rain effects, but I figured I would be happy with just being able to UV and texture for 3ds max. :p
To save time I started in maya, I figured I would make less mistakes in a program I knew pretty well. So after a lot of work in modeling and then saving triangles everywhere that I could manage, it came down to this.
Then I textured everything.
Then I took it all to windows, and hoped I had everything I needed .. which of course I didn't. :p I hate it that I can't just use the mac side for everything. Eventually I figured out how to light and make materials in 3ds max, and I learned that making a secondary uv set for lighting and having shadows bake to that uv set is actually a lot easier than in maya ... but viewing that baked lighting was somewhat more difficult since a lot of color is lost. Too bad 3ds max doesn't have an unlit mode like maya. Anyways, here's what I ended up with for my final render.
They also wanted a video to go along with the final render, so I rendered out a video and found that while the scene was pretty simple and all the lights were baked .. it took max a lot longer to render than maya ever would with this scene. Or maybe it's just because it was my first time building with 3ds max. :) Here's the video I ended up with.
Total build and render time in this new [to me] program was one week, I turned it all in and was promptly told the canned email response that I'd lost out on the job of a lifetime. I think for my skill level in this program I did some amazing work, but I can fully understand them going with a more experienced environment artist in 3ds max.
It's been five months since I graduated and I've applied to 199 positions which came out to three interviews and 1 art test. All of that with no luck, it's time to go get re-certified for my security d and g licenses. I humbly admit my defeat, but I will continue to battle my school to get my diploma which they are still holding for ransom.
