Introducing Ed Johnson: Torque Art teacher
by Ed Johnson · 07/18/2007 (5:13 pm) · 9 comments
Notes:
1) Make sure you read Dave's post introducing Torque School before you read this. It will make much more sense.
2) This blog post is mirrored on my website here.
Hello!
My name is Ed Johnson, and I've been an avid gamer for years, as long as I've used computers, which is also as long as I can remember. My first memory of computers included watching the original Prince of Persia game being displayed on an overhead projector in my Kindergarten computer lab. Yes, I was a lucky kid :-).
I have since played dozens and dozens of games over the last decade, from Banjo-Kazooie to Metal Gear, Zork to WoW. Something that has never gone away in this time has been the feeling of limited satisfaction, or always thinking "This could be better". In just about every game I played I would notice things I wish I could change, but there isn't a button to "pop the hood" and see what makes it tick. I was a game developer trapped in a gamer's body! Aaahhh!!
My first game development experience was with a game "maker" I played around with called o.h.r.r.p.g.c.e. It allowed you to make a basic 2d rpg, reminiscent of games I enjoyed growing up like Zelda: a link to the past, or the pokemon games (yes, I used to be a PokeFreak). Not having to worry about the coding aspect let me focus on the art and world building. Months and many notebooks later I had drawings and notes up the ying yang, so many ideas out on paper, but I was really feeling the limitations of the program I was using. Still, I had fun and I played with it, but never did anything serious.
I kept the game development passion burning inside of me, albeit on the back burner, during high school while I took time to learn some real programming. I had written some html in the past, but I took a pluge when I bought a 3 inch thick C++ Reference book. I didn't even buy an "Intro to C++", I dove straight into reference. For a year or two I practiced C++ and read many articles on the interwebs about programming and IT. At some point I bought the book "Programming Role-Playing Games with DirectX".
I thought the only route was to write my own game/engine from scratch because I could never afford to license one like in the games I've played. While that book has many useful articles and tutorials, I still wasn't prepared to tackle the project of making a game engine from the ground up. I didn't really know enough about the game I would want to make to start from scratch. I still had lots to learn about Game Development, so Game Engine Development was still beyond me. I just wanted a powerful game engine I could use as a starting point and tweak to my heart's content, to make my dream game.
Sometime in early 2005 I was watching The Screen Savers with Leo Laporte on TechTv, my favorite show at the time, and they were showing off and talking about a really cool game called Blockland where you could build things out of Legos in a multiplayer environment. It was a lot of fun when it was fresh and still popular, there were lots of people on there! What really caught my attention about this game is that they pointed out the fact that it was made with a game engine specifically designed for Independent Game Developers, or otherwise those who can't afford 10 grand to license a game engine. I'm not sure if I fully realized what that meant at the time, but it was interesting, and I downloaded the Blockland demo to try it out. It was indeed very fun, and I was fascinated by the gameplay and how they did it!
I dug a little deeper and found out the code was there. I sat there reading the scripts figuring out how it all worked. I was amazed at how simple yet powerful the scripting language was. everything that made the game tick was there to be read in black and white.
I instantly knew this is what I wanted to be a part of. It was amazing. Not just the engine, but what you could do with it. Namely, anything you could do. The first thing I figured out is how much control you have, and the engine's limitations are really your limitations. With that said, there are so many people in the community sharing their knowledge and making it easier for others to learn. I am one testament to that statement. More proof can be found scattered around GarageGames.com in the forum posts, resources, and blogs posted daily.
In February 2005 I bought the Torque Game Engine license and I haven't looked back since. I've spent the last two and a half years comfortably tinkering with it, learning bits here and there. Not until recently have I even attempted to work on a full game project, I have been taking my time to learn the various aspects of the engine.
I've learned so much and have had so much fun because of all the resources submitted and forum conversations people have been having. I wanted to give back in any way I could, and after struggling with the current Torque documents to learn the art pipeline and find a work flow that worked for me I decided to start to write all new Torque Art Pipeline tutorials from scratch.
I wanted to take the best info that was already available in various places and fill in where I felt info was missing. For example, if you search around the GarageGames website you can find a cornucopia of info on modeling, animation, and scripting game objects. This information is very disorganized though, and many out on the forums have asked for an "All In One" approach.
I started asking myself questions about what kind of shapes there were to make, and began outlining my Intro to Torque Art guide. I referenced the existing docs where appropriate and found the gaps of information that I felt needed to be filled in. Little by little I began piecing together a picture of the Torque Art pipeline from ideas, to basic shapes, to some of the not-so-basic shapes like weapons and vehicles.
Those docs evolved over time. I began to focus my efforts on Milkshape3d, the standard Indie modeler. I didn't have a lot of experience with it, but it is what many in the community use, and I saw it as a good starting point for someone who was new to the 3d art scene. It was because of these documents that I was introduced to the Torque School project. Little did they know but they were making my dream of being a teacher a reality. Having a job doing what I love: helping others, and making games... what else could anyone ask for?! Peace on earth? well... things are looking up, so who knows :-).
Continued below, or read it here.
1) Make sure you read Dave's post introducing Torque School before you read this. It will make much more sense.
2) This blog post is mirrored on my website here.
Hello!
My name is Ed Johnson, and I've been an avid gamer for years, as long as I've used computers, which is also as long as I can remember. My first memory of computers included watching the original Prince of Persia game being displayed on an overhead projector in my Kindergarten computer lab. Yes, I was a lucky kid :-).
I have since played dozens and dozens of games over the last decade, from Banjo-Kazooie to Metal Gear, Zork to WoW. Something that has never gone away in this time has been the feeling of limited satisfaction, or always thinking "This could be better". In just about every game I played I would notice things I wish I could change, but there isn't a button to "pop the hood" and see what makes it tick. I was a game developer trapped in a gamer's body! Aaahhh!!
My first game development experience was with a game "maker" I played around with called o.h.r.r.p.g.c.e. It allowed you to make a basic 2d rpg, reminiscent of games I enjoyed growing up like Zelda: a link to the past, or the pokemon games (yes, I used to be a PokeFreak). Not having to worry about the coding aspect let me focus on the art and world building. Months and many notebooks later I had drawings and notes up the ying yang, so many ideas out on paper, but I was really feeling the limitations of the program I was using. Still, I had fun and I played with it, but never did anything serious.
I kept the game development passion burning inside of me, albeit on the back burner, during high school while I took time to learn some real programming. I had written some html in the past, but I took a pluge when I bought a 3 inch thick C++ Reference book. I didn't even buy an "Intro to C++", I dove straight into reference. For a year or two I practiced C++ and read many articles on the interwebs about programming and IT. At some point I bought the book "Programming Role-Playing Games with DirectX".
I thought the only route was to write my own game/engine from scratch because I could never afford to license one like in the games I've played. While that book has many useful articles and tutorials, I still wasn't prepared to tackle the project of making a game engine from the ground up. I didn't really know enough about the game I would want to make to start from scratch. I still had lots to learn about Game Development, so Game Engine Development was still beyond me. I just wanted a powerful game engine I could use as a starting point and tweak to my heart's content, to make my dream game.
Sometime in early 2005 I was watching The Screen Savers with Leo Laporte on TechTv, my favorite show at the time, and they were showing off and talking about a really cool game called Blockland where you could build things out of Legos in a multiplayer environment. It was a lot of fun when it was fresh and still popular, there were lots of people on there! What really caught my attention about this game is that they pointed out the fact that it was made with a game engine specifically designed for Independent Game Developers, or otherwise those who can't afford 10 grand to license a game engine. I'm not sure if I fully realized what that meant at the time, but it was interesting, and I downloaded the Blockland demo to try it out. It was indeed very fun, and I was fascinated by the gameplay and how they did it!
I dug a little deeper and found out the code was there. I sat there reading the scripts figuring out how it all worked. I was amazed at how simple yet powerful the scripting language was. everything that made the game tick was there to be read in black and white.
I instantly knew this is what I wanted to be a part of. It was amazing. Not just the engine, but what you could do with it. Namely, anything you could do. The first thing I figured out is how much control you have, and the engine's limitations are really your limitations. With that said, there are so many people in the community sharing their knowledge and making it easier for others to learn. I am one testament to that statement. More proof can be found scattered around GarageGames.com in the forum posts, resources, and blogs posted daily.
In February 2005 I bought the Torque Game Engine license and I haven't looked back since. I've spent the last two and a half years comfortably tinkering with it, learning bits here and there. Not until recently have I even attempted to work on a full game project, I have been taking my time to learn the various aspects of the engine.
I've learned so much and have had so much fun because of all the resources submitted and forum conversations people have been having. I wanted to give back in any way I could, and after struggling with the current Torque documents to learn the art pipeline and find a work flow that worked for me I decided to start to write all new Torque Art Pipeline tutorials from scratch.
I wanted to take the best info that was already available in various places and fill in where I felt info was missing. For example, if you search around the GarageGames website you can find a cornucopia of info on modeling, animation, and scripting game objects. This information is very disorganized though, and many out on the forums have asked for an "All In One" approach.
I started asking myself questions about what kind of shapes there were to make, and began outlining my Intro to Torque Art guide. I referenced the existing docs where appropriate and found the gaps of information that I felt needed to be filled in. Little by little I began piecing together a picture of the Torque Art pipeline from ideas, to basic shapes, to some of the not-so-basic shapes like weapons and vehicles.
Those docs evolved over time. I began to focus my efforts on Milkshape3d, the standard Indie modeler. I didn't have a lot of experience with it, but it is what many in the community use, and I saw it as a good starting point for someone who was new to the 3d art scene. It was because of these documents that I was introduced to the Torque School project. Little did they know but they were making my dream of being a teacher a reality. Having a job doing what I love: helping others, and making games... what else could anyone ask for?! Peace on earth? well... things are looking up, so who knows :-).
Continued below, or read it here.
#3
07/18/2007 (6:20 pm)
Aw, I still miss The Screen Savers. I didn't know they showed Blockland on it. That's great that that indirectly led you to Torque.
#4
07/18/2007 (6:46 pm)
Yeah, the good ole days :) 
#6
My personal prefrence is Maya but Torque school being for the masses should focus on tools that are availible to everyone. That being said blender is the obvious choice.
07/18/2007 (6:50 pm)
so does this mean that the torque school art classes are going to focus on Milkshape? I hope not this is prolly the most limited app for making art for torque. I know along time ago people argued that it was cheap an many people here didn't have a lot of mony to spend thousands of dollars on Maya or 3ds max. Well hey blender is just as capable as either of those when it comes to torque. and it is free.My personal prefrence is Maya but Torque school being for the masses should focus on tools that are availible to everyone. That being said blender is the obvious choice.
#7
My Intro to Torque Art course is meant for those who have little to no experience with 3d modeling. It starts from Ground 0 and takes you to the point of creating and exporting simple shapes and props into TGE, as well as texturing, level of detail, and simple animations.
07/18/2007 (7:57 pm)
I am teaching One course on Milkshape. I chose it for the reason you cited: it is limited, IE simple. Blender is also a great choice and GusM is going to be doing a course on it. I may also, I'll see how it goes. The reason I didn't choose blender though is because I equate that with the more advanced programs like maya/max, which also means it is more confusing for beginners... especially Blender (I can hear the moans now).My Intro to Torque Art course is meant for those who have little to no experience with 3d modeling. It starts from Ground 0 and takes you to the point of creating and exporting simple shapes and props into TGE, as well as texturing, level of detail, and simple animations.
#8
07/18/2007 (8:09 pm)
Hmm interesting... :) Right on Ed.
#9
01/25/2008 (7:45 pm)
I have to say- I've never seen a 3D model of a pizza before! Looks yummy. Do you have Hawaiian too?
Torque Owner Ed Johnson
I'll need to fit it in with everything else I'm juggling. I'm sure plenty of you out there understand juggling a bunch of things at once in life. Not only am I working on course materials for my intro and advanced torque art courses, but I have signed on with a couple game development projects to keep me fresh and on my toes. As I mentioned in my last blog post, I'm a part of the Gryphon Game development team, as well as the FantaSci and Of Brass and Iron games. Since then I've also began helping the Arcanoria team with some concept art and world design. I hope to be able to show off some of my work soon, provided it doesn't violate one of the NDA's I've agreed to :-).
I'm not complaining at all, mind you. I'm having a blast! Each project is unique and needs different things. I contribute a little different to each, which keeps me well rounded. Some need concept work, others modeling and texturing, and others need coding/scripting additions. Luckily my head is big so I can wear many hats.. hehe.
Here are a couple samples pulled from my gallery, they are mostly miscellaneous objects. I've tried to be creative with my 3d art and derive off the beaten path of ammo boxes and barrels.
My presence in the community has mostly been on the sidelines, but I'm trying to change that. You may remember seeing my name in various forum postings and resource comments over the years. I'd like to participate more in community activities, such as the Game In A Day project. I will have more to show off in the next few weeks, things are busy busy in my world.
My website, or my 'workshop', is located at Ed.TorqueWorkshop.com. Thats where I'll be posting weekly progress updates, images , links, and eventually some free downloads, articles, and much more.
If you haven't figured it out yet, this is my formal introduction to the community as a Torque School instructor. I've gotten the go-ahead to produce a series of Torque Art classes starting with an Introduction to Torque Art with Milkshape, with various 'advanced' courses that build off that introductory material. My first Advanced class will cover weapons. In the next few months I hope to have classes on vehicles, clothing/equipment, critters/creatures, and similar.
I still have preparation to do for my weapons course. Luckily a lot of the materials for my Intro course I had already outlined and written. Quite a bit of brainstorming and testing different weapon types to go over. There are lots of different weapons in different games, so I'm going to try to cover as many different kinds as I can. Many are simply variations of the same few techniques.
For example, melee combat such as hand to hand, tooth and claw, or with swords and shields, is accomplished by attaching a weapon object to a hand (or mouth in the case of monsters that bite you) and animating the attack. Other weapons rely on projectiles to do the dirty work, such as guns, but also mines, grenades, and flamethrowers. By changing the media (models, textures, sounds) and scripted behavior you can make just about any weapon you can think of.
I mentioned content packs in the works on my last blog post. Stay tuned for updates in the next week or two. If you wanna chat, I'm almost always in the MyDreamRPG IRC.
Happy Torquing!
Ed Johnson