Apr 232012
April 23, 2012
Blog
I’ve just completed my first week of class with the good folk at 3DBuzz.com. Four hours later I’m extremely pleased I got on board for this. The instructor Zak Parrish has years of experience with the tools and years of experience teaching these tools. If the remaining sessions are anything like this first one, I’ve got my work cut out for me.
Here’s a look at week one’s material:
Week I – Lighting
• Light Types in UDK
• Dynamic Lights
• Lightmass Settings
• Using Dominant Lights
• Shadows
• Light Shafts
• Using Emissive Materials as Lights
• Light Environments
• Tweaking lights with post processing
This is a far more engaging learning method than the non-interactive tutorial systems I regularly study. It does improve the experience when you’re dealing with a live classroom setting… Even if I am at my own machine comfortable in my own home. There is a benefit to being able to ask questions in real time and interact with others in the course.
Here’s some screen shots of the UDK software that’s the focus of this course:
Capture of my center screen. Main UDK interface. Here you can see the blocks of this tiny level I’ve built for testing.
Capture of my right display. This is the UDK content browser. All game assets are located here.
Here is a capture of all three displays. The left 3rd of this pic is my 3rd display. This one streams the live course while class is in.
This course is gonna be pretty intensive as I mentioned. I couldn’t be happier about it either. I’ll post something after each session. For now… I gotta go get some homework done.
Share on FacebookMar 262012
March 26, 2012
Blog
I’m working my way through a tutorial project offered by 3dmotive.com. From their Asset Workflow series, the project is titled “The Briefcase”. So laying aside my worries about this post popping up on homeland security’s radar, I’ll just go ahead and say it… I’m building a briefcase bomb. 
I’m pretty familiar with Autodesk’s 3ds Max and of course, Photoshop. I’ve also done a bit of preliminary work in UDK (Unreal Development Kit). There’s an example here. This tutorial system covers how to use these tools to create a hard surface prop for use in a 3d game environment.
This is an in depth project that moves through a complete development workflow. Compiling reference material, object modeling, texture mapping/unwrapping and finally, importing the asset directly into UDK.
The author of this material, Alec Moody, has worked on a grip (yeah… I said “grip”) of high profile titles. He states in the introduction that the end result is “a really good compromise between final asset quality and rapid production time.” The techniques he shares in this project are well in line with that description.
Here’s a few pics from the modeling and unwrapping stages:
(Modeling: Case shell)
(Low poly model unwrapped and re-sized.)
(Expanded unwrap.)
(The model on the left is the high poly model. The one on the right is low poly.)
(Snapshot of what the final product should look like.)
Upon completion of this project, I’ll add some pics to the portfolio. After that… More training! I’m subscribed to 3dmotive’s site. There’s quite a bit of material there. It will keep me busy for a while.
Share on FacebookFeb 092012
February 9, 2012
Blog
Done enough for now…
New portfolio site is up and running!
This is the 2nd evolution of my portfolio site. It’s based on the WordPress CMS. The first version was developed completely in Adobe Flash. At it’s core was an image gallery CMS. This system was easy to update, and the site worked well across the majority of systems and browsers.
Enter iOS. Apple’s operating system for their mobile devices. The iPads and iPhones have, in short order, defined the mobile market. As most already know, these devices do not support Flash. There is a significantly smaller percentage of the mobile internet devices that do support Flash. This support however has limitations. Due to tablet and mobile phone form factors, they run less robust processors and have limited power resources.
Ultimately this site needed to be overhauled to better ensure visibility across multiple platforms. After studying Flash for a few years, it feels a bit limited as far as the potential for interactive content. A few new tricks with “jquery” and animated gifs however, and I consider the site “done enough for now.”
(First iteration of this site.)
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