Plan for David Franson

Create game development books.

Yes, there are a good few dozen game dev books out there. For the most part, they are highly specialized. My goal is to create books that cover subject matter in-depth. My currently published books are "2D Artwork and 3D Modeling for Game Artists" where I cover object and character modeling, skinning, tons of general texturing, game setup for the character and export to the Torque engine. My second book, "The Dark Side of Game Texturing," is ALL about creating cool textures for games. Not much on skinning (only two simple examples) but that book is my favorite so far. All color. If you can create the textures in that book you can create ANY texture, literally.

My third book is in progress, called "Game Character Design Complete Using 3DS Max 8 and Photoshop CS2." This will cover every single thing you need to know about creating a cool game character using these programs, then exporting them to a few of the most popular game engines on the market. In fact, all you have to do is read up on a game's SDK to learn the setup info for the character and you're set. Granted, these programs are expensive, but let me tell you: if you plan on joining ANY game company that pays a regular salary, there's a 99% guarantee that they'll want you to be able to use Max and Photoshop, or Maya (2nd choice). Yes, you can accomplish modeling and texturing using cheap programs, but that will take forever! Better to fork over the cash if you're serious and get the good software.

-David