Art blog
by dsfsd · 03/02/2007 (11:51 am) · 22 comments
Been awhile since I've done a blog post on here, so figured I'd throw up a quick art blog.
First though,in case you missed it, GGE has gone live for the general public, be sure to check it out at www.greatgamesexperiment.com. Congrats to the team on going live, it's an awesome site.
So some people picked up on the shots of a character I was working on in my spare time around here (not a lot of time for art in the last six months). About two months ago we had a power-surge here at GG due to old wiring kicking out the power (too many computers on this side of the building). When the power came back on, all the machines came on at once and poof, fried my two external hard-drives which were stupidly not on a power-surge strip. Lots of stuff lost on those, but one of the things was the character demo from GameFest. I think Mark McCoy actually has a copy somewhere, but it was a rush job anyway so I figured I'd spend a little time hooking up the dude I was working on in the same situation. So anyway, hooked him up, still have to tweak the animation a bit to not be a little wonky, but it runs.
So since it was rather painless to get it up and running for GDC, I figured it'd be fun to just run with it and make a quick little environment to show it off in, to show off the new lighting stuff as well. One of those rare moments where things just gel quick (did it pretty much all yesterday) so I ended up coming up with this "Gold Forge" setting yesterday (mostly because I wanted to play with dramatic lighting and glowing meshes). I think what I dig most is that it's a pretty dynamic environment, everything has some sort of movement, etc. Was a ton of fun, and still have some stuff to do, but for the most part it's going to wind down. Still on my list is to actually put some texture on the dude's back, he used to have a backpack, but due to time constraints for GDC I just took it off because I didn't think I'd have time to properly texture it all, even thought the normal map stuff was done awhile ago (I'm slow with character stuff, not my primary area of
expertise). Gotta touch up some of the textures, thinking of throwing some decal light projectors in there of some veiny looking stuff as light/shadows, maybe throw some floating stuff in the water, etc. Got a really nasty bug in there that freezes the scene, probably because I'm built this in a hacked up orbit camera directory and there angry going on. Got some script problems with particles too, again just seems to be in this hacked up demo script version I'm using. Nothing that can't get fixed today though with any luck, will bug someone to figure out why it randomly freezes up on me.
Other than that, we got some cool stuff to show off at GDC this year, everything from Torque X, TGEA, TGE, Games, GGE, TGB, and the list goes on. I don't think we have enough booth space to show off all the cool stuff properly actually. I'll be down at GDC, busy worker bee again, so if anyone will be at the IGDA, Minna Mingle, or XNA evening events, please feel free to say "hi"! Sickhead Games will have some cool TGEA stuff to show off very soon too, but want to save that little juicy
tidbit for them to show. ;)
Obligatory pictures and movie following:
www.garagegames2.com/web/images/tima/plan/forge.wmv
First though,in case you missed it, GGE has gone live for the general public, be sure to check it out at www.greatgamesexperiment.com. Congrats to the team on going live, it's an awesome site.
So some people picked up on the shots of a character I was working on in my spare time around here (not a lot of time for art in the last six months). About two months ago we had a power-surge here at GG due to old wiring kicking out the power (too many computers on this side of the building). When the power came back on, all the machines came on at once and poof, fried my two external hard-drives which were stupidly not on a power-surge strip. Lots of stuff lost on those, but one of the things was the character demo from GameFest. I think Mark McCoy actually has a copy somewhere, but it was a rush job anyway so I figured I'd spend a little time hooking up the dude I was working on in the same situation. So anyway, hooked him up, still have to tweak the animation a bit to not be a little wonky, but it runs.
So since it was rather painless to get it up and running for GDC, I figured it'd be fun to just run with it and make a quick little environment to show it off in, to show off the new lighting stuff as well. One of those rare moments where things just gel quick (did it pretty much all yesterday) so I ended up coming up with this "Gold Forge" setting yesterday (mostly because I wanted to play with dramatic lighting and glowing meshes). I think what I dig most is that it's a pretty dynamic environment, everything has some sort of movement, etc. Was a ton of fun, and still have some stuff to do, but for the most part it's going to wind down. Still on my list is to actually put some texture on the dude's back, he used to have a backpack, but due to time constraints for GDC I just took it off because I didn't think I'd have time to properly texture it all, even thought the normal map stuff was done awhile ago (I'm slow with character stuff, not my primary area of
expertise). Gotta touch up some of the textures, thinking of throwing some decal light projectors in there of some veiny looking stuff as light/shadows, maybe throw some floating stuff in the water, etc. Got a really nasty bug in there that freezes the scene, probably because I'm built this in a hacked up orbit camera directory and there angry going on. Got some script problems with particles too, again just seems to be in this hacked up demo script version I'm using. Nothing that can't get fixed today though with any luck, will bug someone to figure out why it randomly freezes up on me.
Other than that, we got some cool stuff to show off at GDC this year, everything from Torque X, TGEA, TGE, Games, GGE, TGB, and the list goes on. I don't think we have enough booth space to show off all the cool stuff properly actually. I'll be down at GDC, busy worker bee again, so if anyone will be at the IGDA, Minna Mingle, or XNA evening events, please feel free to say "hi"! Sickhead Games will have some cool TGEA stuff to show off very soon too, but want to save that little juicy
tidbit for them to show. ;)
Obligatory pictures and movie following:
www.garagegames2.com/web/images/tima/plan/forge.wmv
About the author
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• Video from GDC
#3
03/02/2007 (12:00 pm)
Nice! So that's why you were in so early yesterday :-) 
#4
03/02/2007 (12:03 pm)
DAAAAMMMNNNN! Nice work, Tim! 
#6
03/02/2007 (12:11 pm)
Nice stuff Tim. 
#7
Though you might want to check the texture for the back of your player model in those videos tim, looks like you might have UVW template overlay still on the back of your character there. Also why is the bloom on the gun the same color as the lava glow?
03/02/2007 (12:23 pm)
My favorite us the use of the varied geometry to break up the scene (also help that all those pipes are nice and smoothed out, constructor at work i bet), particle effects to sell the mood and some good usage of lighting.Though you might want to check the texture for the back of your player model in those videos tim, looks like you might have UVW template overlay still on the back of your character there. Also why is the bloom on the gun the same color as the lava glow?
#8
Great job you are inspiring alot of us keep up the great work
03/02/2007 (12:24 pm)
All i can say is DAMN, it look better then some of the next gen games on the 360 and PS3, does your environment have normal mapping or is that bump? Great job you are inspiring alot of us keep up the great work
#10
I'd like to see more mid level details on the pipes. Some seams and rivets would break em up and make them feel more real. Some dirt/grime to blend in the transition from pipe to structure along with a clamp.
Great start!
03/02/2007 (1:11 pm)
The color and atmospere look nice.I'd like to see more mid level details on the pipes. Some seams and rivets would break em up and make them feel more real. Some dirt/grime to blend in the transition from pipe to structure along with a clamp.
Great start!
#12
Thankx!!
Bobby Leighton
03/02/2007 (2:09 pm)
Tim!!! Nice stuff here:) I have a question for you that just popped in my head, I hope this hasn't been asked a million times to you before. I have bought, well more than a few of your content packs, what are the rules concerning re-using any of your textures? I wanted to make sure that is was ok to use some of them before i put them in my own objects. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't taking away from your hard work, and most of the time I only use the textures as textures to paint with in Photo shop, so they generally don't stay the same as you made them, but there are a couple of exceptions, and of coarse i would never advertise them as my own. Just curious:)Thankx!!
Bobby Leighton
#13
03/02/2007 (3:20 pm)
Very cool. How did you do the lava flow?
#14
I do however thing its time for GG to make us a nice glass entity for constructor so we dont see through geometry when using transparent materials in game (for instance in your map the glass floors). Dont forget the field to allow light to pass through and diffuse :)
Keep it up
03/02/2007 (4:11 pm)
The demo map is looking nice :)I do however thing its time for GG to make us a nice glass entity for constructor so we dont see through geometry when using transparent materials in game (for instance in your map the glass floors). Dont forget the field to allow light to pass through and diffuse :)
Keep it up
#15
03/02/2007 (4:15 pm)
Are all of the pipes and such, all DIFs? which if so, I guess the beauty of Constructor... And is that reflective floor or glass floor
#16
03/02/2007 (4:29 pm)
TGEA... Nice. Wow, infact. How much work does it take to get everything working / looking that nice. How much of that is stock and how much of that is special sauce (not really talking about the art - talent is evident there:) ) I'm just wondering what you have to do to make the engine magically look great like that. I'm hoping it's stock except the super special art.
#17
Jeremiah, I'd say about 50/50 DIF/Static Mesh stuff. TGEA's ability to process more geometry faster (e.g. advanced) allows me to use more static mesh stuff. That said, you have to be smart on usage. I get good framerates on that scene on a medium-high end computer (which is what I was targeting) because of smart LOD use, and containing stuff smartly in portalized sections. This is the way a lot of next-gen games are going to be for the next few years until something better comes along, smart usage of foundation, structural, containing BSP geometry, detailing done through smart static mesh use. Luckily, constructor was built with this technique in mind, check out Dave Wyands and Matt Fairfax's blogs about it. :)
Worked on this a bit more (detailed those pipes, got called on it, and was too lazy to unwrap them properly, so I went in and added some more detail). No time tonight to get updated shots, but thanks anyhow for the kind words. See you guys at GDC (or afterwards when I get back).
Tim A
03/02/2007 (6:24 pm)
Hey Steve, just stock Torque. It helps I've been using it for awhile since I know the ins & outs, but nothing custom there. The only scripting is for the orbit cam. Hey Bobby, if you own the content pack, you can do pretty much what you want with the content. Andy: Just flagged the material as scrolling (basic material stuff, $scroll, check TDN), the shiny bits on the floor are just cube-maps, standard TGEA material stuff as well.Jeremiah, I'd say about 50/50 DIF/Static Mesh stuff. TGEA's ability to process more geometry faster (e.g. advanced) allows me to use more static mesh stuff. That said, you have to be smart on usage. I get good framerates on that scene on a medium-high end computer (which is what I was targeting) because of smart LOD use, and containing stuff smartly in portalized sections. This is the way a lot of next-gen games are going to be for the next few years until something better comes along, smart usage of foundation, structural, containing BSP geometry, detailing done through smart static mesh use. Luckily, constructor was built with this technique in mind, check out Dave Wyands and Matt Fairfax's blogs about it. :)
Worked on this a bit more (detailed those pipes, got called on it, and was too lazy to unwrap them properly, so I went in and added some more detail). No time tonight to get updated shots, but thanks anyhow for the kind words. See you guys at GDC (or afterwards when I get back).
Tim A
#18
03/02/2007 (8:02 pm)
Sweet!!:)
#19
Seriously though - I can't believe its Torque! Awesome work.
03/02/2007 (9:19 pm)
Quit lying! thats the Doom 3 engine!!!!Seriously though - I can't believe its Torque! Awesome work.
#20
03/02/2007 (10:10 pm)
wow. that looks soo sweet.
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