Pre-GDC

So it is the day before I am traveling out to GDC... Not sure what to expect other than what I read online haha. Feel a combination of excitement and nervousness when I think about it. I go armed with business cards and resumes. Meanwhile project news: working on some buildings for a project:

Other than that still polishing animations among other things. Seems there was a bit of trouble with one project, lost an artist, so when I return I may have to try my hand at level design in Unity (not a bad idea, would be interesting).

Alright, little late again this week but been working on animation mainly. Sorry for the quality of the video I will post but it gets the basic point across which is a preview of a string of animations. If all works well we can use these to have the creature basically play a portion of it when doing some action such as walking or attacking.

As you can see I have refined this character a bit from the previous version. Fur looks a lot smoother, some more details on the face, normal map with some minor sculpting applied.

Here are the animations . It has been awhile since I have animated, so lets consider these rough animations for now. However, I also feel I will never be fully satisfied with the result at this time. I suppose more confidence would come with more practice! Taking a character from a simple sketch to a full on animating character is definitely a time consuming process. Still, it is definitely a good way to pick up a lot of skills quickly, or brush up on some things one may be rusty on.

Other projects still in the works, got some 2D animation coming up, hopefully I can get some more of that done before I head out to GDC. Also, I recently joined the Age of Aincrad team! It is a really big project setting out to create a game inspired by the popular Sword Art Online anime. To find out more about it be sure to check out facebook or their forums.

Whew, lots happening recently. I look forward to seeing where all these projects go though!

So busy I missed a week. Anyways, still working on various art endeavors to improve including a couple projects. On deck atm is this guy:

I dislike the fur pattern a bit, so will try and blend it together more. Other than that is it just refining details now and the bump map. This model is taking some time as I had to learn about alphas almost from scratch. Been learning a lot lately, it seems you can find tutorials for just about anything on youtube or floating around the internet.

Another thing I was looking at was atavism, but it seems somewhat incomplete at this time (see http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/atavism-whats-your-opinion.260957/). A lot of base elements are there, but to truly customize you still need to know how to create content. Honestly the idea reminds me a lot of Spore:galactic adventures. I put together a few scenarios/missions in that. It was cool, but no matter what you do the weapons or powers are the same presets. To add more you would have to get into the code and then add models, effects the works, or sub out what is already there for something else.

Anyways, that is all I got for game creation etc for the last couple weeks. See you again soon for more updates!

So here we have another character I started last week. Some sort of zombie. Anyways, lots of projects on deck I edited my thread on tigsource saying that I had all the projects I can handle at this time. Great place to meet up with other peeps and get better at creating things.

Also, I find myself thinking about GDC and its a combination of nervousness and anticipation I feel. Then I distract myself with project thoughts because it is easier to think about that stuff than a completely new experience lol.

Creating a demon, crazy how fast I got this mapped, a testament to a good base mesh? Hope so!

Other than that still working on various projects thanks to TIGsource forums for giving me stuff to work on. Skills leveling up, now if I could just get a game finished with a team hah. I have been noticing that many are eager to start projects, but few will take them to the finish. I am guilty of this as well, though I at least finish my part of the project if it is a team. Something about being in a team makes me feel like I have to at least keep going for other people. A solo project seems harder because as your own boss you can be too easy on yourself. Though I have read a deadline shifts some of that to a time limit and puts a challenge forward to finish something. Either way lots of projects cooking, so that's something at least.

Not much to report this week. Got distracted from my game, but this is a good thing actually. I think I need to think about scale and story elements. What would make my dungeon game unique? Also I might have to make a simpler game, hard to say at this time.

In the meantime other projects all over that I am working on in addition to learning some more odds and ends about programming via MIT open Courseware.

below: trying my hand at some pixel art and other styles for small sprites.

below: More zbrush stuff, working with alpha brushes to bring out some rough stone textures.

all in all not a bad week, good for learning especially.

2015 has rolled around and it has been pretty slow lately for me. I have been battling a wretched cold that is lasting forever. However, I did manage to get some things done. I got a start on a throne and added a golem boss to my dungeon game. I also have started blocking out the second level for said dungeon game:

I go into more detail on the video about what the plan is here but basically it is another quest type thing. Gather some keys, fix a bridge a bit later on. Currently I am considering the story and how exactly I want to present it to the player.

After each dungeon the player does go back to town and receives some gossip and another mission objective. I could use the built in text messages, but they are kind of small... Perhaps I will use a sprite to convey the story that is destroyed on a click. Decisions decisions... anyways see you next week!