It's been a long time...

It's been a long time since I posted. Been working hard. In the last few weeks I've A)slept an average of 3 hours per night, B)Finished set dressing my Level, and C) Finished my Board Game/Commercial! Here is the commercial! Its on youtube for easy viewing!

Quick Post: Turntablism

As in a previous post i said that when i could i would get an actual turntable for scratching with. I did, just today. Bought some vinyls to scratch with from Goodwill for 99 cents a piece. And a Game Boy Color. One of the vinyls i bought was called Kismet, which is funny because our programming for UDK is called Kismet. It turns out that album is not only great for scratching but costs, new, on amazon around 45 dollars or something. I found this out right after putting little dots all over it in silver sharpie. Ill explain in a later post what thats about. Later, gotta work!

Various Art-makings(related and unrelated)

Related: Made a fountain and waterfall thing in Maya, imported into UDK and made a cool "flowing" water texture. Made a secondary stationary water texture and put it on a FluidSurfaceActor, and put it in the fountain, then made a particle system to show water hitting the surface of other water and splashing. Still needs work but oh well. Looking good so far. Here it is:

Unrelated(I guess): Had this idea for an icon for Firefox a while back that would look like the fox was the main character from one of my most favorite video games of all time, Okami, and suddenly last night(or rather earlier this morning) I found myself making it. It turned out pretty cool looking. Here it is:

For those who don't know the game, here is the box art and I highly suggest getting it, because it is amazing. On the PS2, not for the Wii, I've heard the Wii port had somewhat shoddy controls(which doesn't make any sense to me)

Been up all night, time for the labs.

Listening to: Sabaton-Metalizer
Watching: The Office, Psych
Playing: Rage, Disruptor

Second Tutorial: The Apple

Everyone has been doing this apple tutorial, so i decided to do it too. Its really cool how there are so many ways to blend colors together in photoshop. Here is what i came up with.

More Art Tutorials

Kenae's post on her blog really interested me, and its a surprisingly easy tutorial, and since I love the look of Da Vinci's old sketches and the illustrations in the Core Rule Books of Dungeons And Dragons 3.5 edition, I decided this would be a good thing to do. Here is what I came up with. I tried picking really intricate drawings that would look good in this style. Also, I found that you didn't have to make a path and then turn it into a selection, you could just select what you want and then copy into Photoshop. Here's my image:

These are the images I used to make it:

Digital Painting Tutorials

So our latest project in Game Design has been to find a few tutorials for Digital Painting in Photoshop and learn new techniques from them. A very cool project indeed, however since I have a pretty good grip on Photoshop, I couldn't find a large tutorial online, so instead I did a few smaller ones. Here they are:

http://gallery.artofgregmartin.com/tuts_arts/making_a_planet.html

I chose this one because our project in 3D is an asteroid-based Egyptian-esque society, and we will eventually need to make some sort of skybox for the level, and this could help a lot. It was a pretty easy tutorial, only took my 15 minutes, but I learned a good technique for easily creating good looking planets in Photoshop. Also, I didn't follow the tutorial exactly, the tutorial called for downloading a texture off the website to use as the planets surface, but I chose a similar texture that comes standard in Photoshop. It was easier that way, and it still looks good, plus I'm not using anyone elses intellectual property. When I do this for the final skybox in UDK, I will most likely paint my own texture. I also added a sun and star field, with a bit of lens flare.
Here's what I came up with:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQJs-Vlv4dw

 I chose this one because the eyes are the most important part of a character if you think about it, as a ton of emotion is portrayed through the eyes. I am also not very good at drawing eyes.... This tutorial maker is also amazing, as not only do you watch the whole video that shows you what brush strokes are being made when, but at the bottom they also tell you what specific tools and settings within those tools are being used. Constantly. Which is good, because if you see some other tutorials they just show you what they are painting and occasionally tell you a tool to use to get a certain effect.
Here is what I ended up with. I'm not as happy with how this one came out, but its a step in the right direction. It took me roughly 1 hour:

http://www.androidblues.com/cloudtut.html

This will definitely help me along in the way of Concept Art, having to paint clouds all the time and all. Very good tutorial, not as informative as the last one, but it was still pretty helpful, as ive never been able to paint clouds very well. Here is my attempt:

 So yeah...

A Brave New Art-Post: Some more of the Crazy, Wacky stuff I do at Ringling

So, besides falling epically ill, with some sort of flu or cold or whatever, and then beating it proficiently my last few weeks have created some cool little pieces of art/game design. We just finished our Modular Building project, which was the project where we as a class each build every piece that someone needs to build a building. I built this really cool stuff. Here's some process!

This is the start of my UVing, adding texture to 3D models, this is where I still have this really, really bad looking door in there. I modeled all of this in a few days, and the models are relatively simple but really cool looking, in my opinion.

This is my door, the bad one, brought into udk and lit with nightime lighting. Its UV's, and Diffuse Maps, Normal Maps, and Specular maps in place. Apparently we weren't allowed to use wood for our texture.... And this is a particularly disgusting texture(this of course speaking in hindsight, as I thought this was a totally awesome idea at the time)

This is my slightly modified textured models, and the door is in its place. Something seems out of place.... I wonder what it is? Maya however, makes the colors and textures look a little different when it doesn't fully render. In Unreal Development Kit my textures always look different. So lets see what this stuff will look like in UDK!

..... At this point(also after our in class crit) it became apparent to me that this door was just not working. To quote GLaDOS, "The best solution to a problem is usually the easiest one." The door, the source of a lot of my problem and grief, has got to go.

Not only does its replacement look more like the rest of my building, but it just looks pretty good. All on its own. There are a few problems I still have to fix, but its coming along smoothly.

This is my latest version of my uv'd building. I built a small building in UDK with Midday lighting using my kit. Looks pretty good so far. Lots of problems still, need to fix a few UV's and how door pieces fit together etc...

 Some sketches for my Board Game Mod in Game Design 1. These are cards that the players will pick up. Just sketches for now...

These are all the "Playtesting Kit" cards we'll be using. I like them, the final ones will probably have the same layout, but not the look. So far, so good.

Playing: N/A
Listening: Sabaton - Metalizer, Wintersun - Wintersun

RAAAGGGGGEEEEE!!!! On more than one level.

Firstly, I Bought Rage! WOO! Good thing I have tons and tons of time to play it, what with Game Art and Design college taking up ABSOLUTELY NON OF MY TIME.... oh, wait....

Anyways, of the something like 2 hours I have played of it, I can say that its BEAUTIFUL. And I'm on the PS3 with it. It looks fantastic. I'm just gonna say that even though there is some pop in(textures sometimes take whole 5 seconds to load up) thats probably just from it being on the PS3 and not a PC. Also, I am really seeing the benefit of Megatextures(as id calls them) because the rocks and worlds look worn and weathered by the elements, there is nearly no I REPEAT NO duplication in textures because basically there is one HUGE texture covering an ENTIRE terrain element. This is really cool, albeit taxing on my PS3 hard drive(Sucker took up 8Gbs of my already precious hard drive space). Also, this is the first game on a console I have noticed where the saving saves basically the gamestate, not just from a checkpoint. Basically, EXACTLY where you were when you saved, THATS where you are when you come back. Awesome. Also, the death sequence is really REALLY cool. I can't seem to find a screenshot of it, but basically you use the control sticks to move a abstracted paddle across your heart to bring yourself back to life. Really, REALLY COOL! Also, the out-of-ammo backup hands(I call them the Fists of Rage!) are really fun. If you are feeling suicidal, you can just run up to an enemy and just punch the bejeezus out of them and watch the blood splatter on the screen. Nice!
There are some flaws. The world doesn't feel as open(I've only played 2 hours, hopefully it gets better) as I would have liked. It seems to be mostly set in one little canyon. Also, the first few missions are set in the same area, so you go back through the same places a lot. Also, the vehicles have a LOT of traction for being in a sandy environment. In Jak 3(something i can compare this game to a lot) you can swerve, skid, jump, and tumble all you want. In Rage, you can't really skid around a lot(there is also no sound effect for it) and sometimes at what seems the tiniest drop you get jet-propelled from your vehicle screaming as you get destroyed by the approaching earth. Another, very minor detail, you can't interact with much. I walked up to a soda machine and wanted to dispense soda into the tray below, and I couldn't. That was a sad day for all mankind...


Anyway, RAGE for a different reason is the following: If you don't already know(AKA started reading my blog late) my "One New Thing" thing is Turntablism. This is the scratching of records blah blah blah. And, yes, I have been working on this for what has apparently been 2 months. But, alas, I am not satisfied with the results I'm getting. Granted, I don't really have much time to turntable, but still i should be seeing more improvement in my opinion. The reason why I don't share any recordings of my work so far(because I really have been making them) is that honestly I am ashamed of them. They don't sound good. I play mostly guitar, some piano, some harmonica, and some drums somewhat well, and I can't seem to scratch records to save my own life. Why? I'll blame my equipment. The ION Discover DJ System:



I don't like doing this, blaming the equipment and not the user for ANYTHING computer related, but in this case I have to. This image, by the way, although not taken by me is exactly my setup. Anyways, the turntables don't really act like turntables and trust me I know turntables. I have one in my room in Texas that I have a decent collection of records for. It has a diamond stylus and a really spectacular speaker system. When you put your finger down on a record thats spinning, it slows down then stops, allowing you to, depending on the pressure, slow down the song then stop it. Not on this set. If you so much as bump this crazy contraption with your palm while adjusting the knobs(it happens A LOT) you STOP THE SONG. COMPLETELY. THIS RUINS ANY CUEING YOU HAD SET UP. YOUR SONGS ARE NOW OUT OF SYNC. COMPLETELY. Then, when I was reading up online about DJing tips, one tip is to run your finger around the bumpy sides of the turntable to slow down your song to create interesting effects, SOMETHING I CAN'T DO WHEN EVERY TIME I TOUCH THE TABLE IT BASICALLY PAUSES THE SONG. This also enters into the scratching thing, because now I have to deal with the start of my scratch starting from a complete stop instead of from a moving turntable. This is bad. Anyways, I WANTED to share my amazing music with the world on a soundcloud account I made, but since this one song is the ONLY thing I feel mildly comfortable enough sharing... here it is. I made the backing track in GarageBand and the scratched "record" is a Futurama quote. Excuse the repetition, I'm practicing....

Futurama Funk by tEh iNsiDiOUs 1

So, being the awesome person I am, I thought "I'm not just gonna quit and never try this again". Instead, I'm going to go down to goodwill today(since it is 3:15AM when I'm writing this) and look at their turntables and records and see if any of them will be good for me. If so, then hey howdy hey my project is back online. Huzzah!

The above song is where I am, this below is where I someday want to be:



Lofty goals, I know. Especially without a decent set of tables....

Listening to: Samurai Champloo soundtrack, Kill Bill Soundtrack
Playing: RAGE, Tekken 2

Ahhhhhhhhhrt! Real Monsters!

Trying to get into the habit of updating this blog more often. Here is some more art, mostly sketches, one color work!

Currently Listening To: Massive Attack/Mezzanine
                                       Wu Tang Clan/Various



Currently Playing: Jak 3, Resistance: Fall of Man

Mega Art Post! A look at what I've been doing at Ringling.

 Above: The map I made in illustrator for the layout of my level. This is a very early sketch, as you will see below I added quite a bit to it. It still seems to be a reasonable size, I'll be able to manage.

 Above: This is just one of the many screenshots I took for my level. Its in the "greyboxing stage" meaning that it is a bunch of boxes that don't usually have texture on them. However, so we could start getting an overall feel of the level, we started to add colors and terrain etc. This shot shows the vertical aspect of the map, as mine is a platformer this is necessary.  Note: the Blue figure is one I found in UDK's content, as a sort of place holder for a sculpture that will sculpted by another student.

 Above: Another shot showing the scale of the eventual statue and a look at a different angle of the map. The green box will be a dumpster that the player will be able to use to jump to the other buildings.

 Above: A quick shot of the temple, and another pathway up above. The temple, as it seems, will be entirely sculpted by me, and by sculpted I mean I will make all the modular pieces that will go onto it, so that I can put it in my portfolio as completely my work.

 Above: Just another cool looking shot.

 Above: Concept for the aforementioned temple. The blue will be a glowing substance called Cantfinditonearthium that glows naturally when exposed to the planets atmosphere. The brown is a copper/bronze like metal found on the asteroid the people live on. The top temple area will be an altar where sacrifices could be made, also where the player starts.

 Above: This is a sketch for a fire escape I will apparently be building in Maya, the writing shows that the pieces will be able to be reused for mulitple purposes. The top sketch is the walk way and fire escape path, which can also be used to end a hand railing. The other pieces will be new, but can be reused for other purposes.

 

Above: This is the fountain area, another piece I will be sculpting, and it shows how the people will get their water.

 

 Above: This is another look at the fountain, also a brief idea of a cornis that will line the top of my temple and also can be reused as a capitol and a base for a column. The main drum of the column can be reused to work as a standalone sculpture/obelisk or can be used for any other purpose the level designer sees fit.


Currently Listening To: Fooly Cooly Soundtrack(The Pillows)
Currently Playing: God of War 1, Unreal Tournament III, Mirror's Edge

Mastermind: A deconstruction

So, our new project in Game Design I is to deconstruct our board game choice, so we can modify it into a new game based mildly on the old mechanics.

MASTERMIND:

 Goal: The goal of this game is for each player to score the most points, this can be achieved by breaking the other player's codes.

Core Mechanic: The Core Mechanic is placing colored pegs in the holes on the board. The Codemaster chooses the initial sequence, hidden from view of the Codebreaker, and the Codebreaker must use strategy, logic, and luck to pick the correct colored pegs and get the correct sequence of pegs. The Codemaster must place either white or red pegs on the side of the Codebreakers sequence to let him know how close he is getting to the actual sequence.

Space: The board consists of 40 holes in the center, large enough for the larger pegs to fit. There is a section to the Codebreakers left that has 40 smaller holes, this is where the Codemaster places tinier pegs to let the Codebreaker know how close he is getting to the actual "code". There is a third section to the Codebreakers Right, consisting of 60 holes for the tinier pegs, this is only to keep score though.

Objects: There are an assortment of colored pegs, there are a set of larger pegs of an assortment of 6 colors: red, orange, yellow, green, violet and white. These are used to set the "code" and break the "code". There is another set of colored pegs, smaller than the code pegs, to assist the codebreaker in solving the puzzle of the "code" and also to keep score.

Attributes: The holes can have the attributes of containing each possible color, the colors can have the attributes of each hole they are in, these are to keep track of not only the chromatic system, but the sequence in which the colors exist.

States: Each row of the Codebreakers field of play has the state of filled or not filled, if all 10 rows have the state of being filled, and the Codemasters code has not been solved, the codebreaker gets points. Each row has the various states of correctness to the Codemasters code, shown by the pegs to the left of the Codebreakers field.

Actions: The operative actions include the choice of pegs by the Codemaster, which has the resultant action of defining how the rest of the game turns out in terms of length, and the possible choices and decisions that the Codebreaker makes. The Codebreaker has the available operative actions of picking the pegs they want to test against the Codebreakers code, and those actions create the resultant action of receiving new information from the Codemaster about what their code is. Once the Codebreaker makes a operative action, the Codemaster has a new operative action that is to place little red and white pegs in the board to let the Codebreaker know which ones he has right and which ones are wrong, and some of which might just be in the wrong place. This has the resultant action of influencing the choices of the Codebreaker, as the Codebreaker makes his next decision based on their last decisions correctness.

Rules: The two players must adhere to the rules that the Codemaster must provide accurate information to the Codebreaker, and the Codebreaker must not attempt to cheat by looking at the Codemasters hidden code. The unwritten rules are that the Codemaster must not change his code at any point after the beginning of the game. Also, an unwritten rule of good sportsmanship, the Codemaster and Codebreaker switch roles at the end of the game.

Skills Players Learn: The Codebreaker learns some problem solving and logical thinking. Although the first move determines the probablity of the Codebreaker figuring out the code and the first move is mildly based on luck, the rest of the game is based on good logic and lateral thinking.

Currently Listening to: GZA/Liquid Swords, Mindless Self Indulgence/If

Currently Playing: Heavy Rain, Rayman 3

Good News, Everyone!

I've never been a big blogger, but as we are learning in the Game Art program of Ringling College of Art and Design how to document every step of the creative process, I suppose this is a good thing.

Recent events in my life are me finishing my concept art for a game project. My art didn't get picked for the final project(we each thought up an idea for a space that we can walk through, and then based on everyone's ideas we chose one) but I am still extremely happy with my piece as it is probably some of the best art I've created yet(not really saying much, as this is the idea behind going to school, to get better at something) so I suppose I'll share it now:


Also, as a project for my Game Design class dictates we learn "One New Thing" that we haven't ever done, I decided I would learn how to be a Turntablist. For those who don't know, Turntablism is the art of getting source music and sounds AKA Samples and scratching them to produce new music. This is clearly different than DJing as a DJ only plays music that they or someone else produces and playing it in front of a crowd such as a party etc. I have already bought a set of digital turntables(they will be arriving in the mail shortly). I know, this isn't ideal for scratching, but as I live in a cramped room with tons of stuff I just don't have the space or the money to buy real turntables and records, and I believe its better to practice with inexpensive equipment first to learn the basics. The skills will transfer over easily I'm sure.

Currently Listening To: Kid Koala/Some of my best friends are DJ's
Beasty Boys/Hello Nasty
Deltron 3030

Currently Playing: Borderlands, Soul Calibur