Michael Hosticka

Alien... thing...

2011-05-06T07:14:00.000-07:00

Character for 3D for Games III.

Guitar WIP 2

2011-04-25T03:27:00.000-07:00

Almost done...

Guitar WIP

2011-04-25T01:41:00.000-07:00

Haven't gotten around to this in a while, but I figure it'll be good to finish it for Harmonix! My Les Paul <3

Camera WIP update 3

2011-04-24T14:56:00.000-07:00

Almost finished with the model...

Camera WIP update 2

2011-04-24T12:11:00.000-07:00

Getting there...

Camera WIP update

2011-04-17T17:04:00.001-07:00

Only managed to find a few hours to work on this since last time... But thought I'd post a progress shot.

Camera WIP

2011-04-06T07:24:00.000-07:00

A personal project I've started for modeling practice:

New Website

2011-04-06T06:31:00.001-07:00

WIP, still need to put more content up:

www.michaelhosticka.com

Better Pictures Part 2

2011-02-19T21:43:00.000-08:00

Better Lighting/Pictures of Old Projects!

2011-02-19T20:42:00.000-08:00

More Soon...

70's Pad Update

2011-02-19T17:10:00.001-08:00

I took some of my props from the realistic assignment and arranged a little scene out of them to show them in a different context:

And with a vintage filter for fun:

Another shot from the actual level:

Huge updates to portfolio are on the way this weekend, considering GDC is fast approaching.

Color!

2011-01-04T19:30:00.000-08:00

Color is something I've always struggled with. This is most likely because for the majority of my life I almost exclusively drew in graphite. This problem most prominently reared its head during my attempts to draw scenes from my imagination. The only solution I saw was to spend a large amount of time doing light and color studies until it became second nature, something my current college schedule simply doesn't allow. That's when I discovered the fantastic website "The Dimensions of Color". I learned more about practical application of color within 10 minutes of reading that than I have in all of my art classes combined. These are two quick and entirely imaginary studies I've done by applying the principles I've learned:

I would highly recommend the website to anyone who wants to improve their understanding of light and color and doesn't mind technical reading.

Final 3D Project

2010-12-11T22:24:00.000-08:00

Winter break has finally begun, so this is a good checkpoint for an update.

Over the last month I worked with 4 other peers to create three unique environments in 3D for Games class. The goal was to create a "fantasy" environment; a place you couldn't book a flight to. This definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone and helped me to develop my conceptual side.

We planned to split our environment project into 3 bite-sized chunks from different parts of our conceptualized universe in order to show more variety. I started the task of conceptualizing our "hi-tech interior" environment by doing a paintover of a previous greybox from another team member:

This was the first pass I came up with:

The team liked it, but I gave it to another teammate (Shaun Ellis) for another pass and he changed it to look like this:

All in all, the production process for this space went very smoothly, and because of the strong direction of the concept art we were able to finish most major assets within several days. The final space stayed very true to the concept:

In this level I modeled the radial modular walls, walkways, and the "curvy arm pillars" that rise up in-between the walkways. I also played a role in lighting.

The next space I helped develop was an alien jungle. This is the map that I spent the most time in, and I did most of the set dressing and lighting myself. I also modeled and textured the large ferns, small moss sheets and mossy rocks, as well as hand-texture the large platform plants with the orange glowing tops.

(My texture and material setup for the platform plant)

This is the type of environment where it is extremely difficult to unify the scene and lead the eye without overcluttering. Bioluminescent plants look cool, but when they're placed without care they destroy the coherency of the scene. This was happening a lot in the early stages of set dressing before I took it into my own hands. For comparison, here is a side by side of what the lighting and set dressing looked like before and after I took over:

Before:

After:

More pictures and information coming soon...

UPDATE?!

2010-10-23T11:13:00.000-07:00

We just finished a massive crunch in 3D for Games class, so this seems like a good checkpoint to post some more recent work.

At the beginning of the school year, we were allotted 2 weeks to create a modular 8-piece construction kit that could be used to convincingly fill some kind of space. For my space I decided to limit my scope and model a kitchen, so I could spend more time addressing each individual prop. I'll post more specific pictures later, but this one example constructed from my modular props:

(click to see detail)

Then, for the next 7 weeks we were tasked with creating a "realistic environment" piece. We were given the option to work in groups, so I collaborated with Clarke Nordhauser (you can find his blog here: http://nordhauser.blogspot.com/).

Our concept was a 70's "shag pad"/studio apartment which had been ransacked and the owner murdered over a drug trade dispute. The most difficult part of this project was the transition between concept and final production, especially when in a collaborative environment, but I feel that we succeeded for the most part.

(click to see detail)

My Props:

-Windows/curved wall

-Blinds

-Curtains

-Retro Table

-Bean Bag Chair

-Air Vent

-Lamp

-Procedural Non-Repeating Carpet

(click to see detail)

My Props:

-Interior of Pinball Machine

-Ficus Tree

-Egg Chair

-Rug

-Fish Tank Exterior

-Magazines

-Air Vent

(click to see detail)

My Props:

-Bed/Blanket/Body

-Nightstands

-Disco Ball

-Egg Chair

-Shag Carpet

-Floor Lamp

-Air Vent

More pictures and info coming soon.

Wine Glass - First Try

2010-08-05T21:38:00.000-07:00

Glass cups have always been hit or miss in games, so I am attempting to make one myself and see how far I can take it. One of the tricks I used was to attach an inverted fresnel to the diffuse in order to create contrast on the edges of the glass and make it "pop", which is what most game glass is lacking. Not 100% satisfied yet, but here's what I have so far:

(Click to see detail)

Relighting Assignment from last year

2010-04-24T17:45:00.001-07:00

Paintover Concept of Epic's Map

Final Render based on Concept

3D for Games assignment. Picture on left is my lighting, picture on right is Epic's original lighting. Rendered in Unreal Development Kit (UDK).

All assets belong to Epic Games.

Finished Character

2010-04-22T10:19:00.000-07:00

(Click to see detail)

(Click for detail)

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(Click to see detail)

Finally. First character. Done.

Character Model - Carl

2010-04-19T07:51:00.000-07:00

(Click to see detail)

At this point the model is about 90% complete. Still need to finish the maps, fix some seams and do some touch-ups. I might play around with hair planes if I have time.

I'm pretty happy with it for my first character model.

Base Character - WIP

2010-03-24T19:53:00.000-07:00

Very brief update, tight deadlines!

(Click to see detail)

WIP - Campus House #3

2010-03-16T21:41:00.000-07:00

Quick update this time - only difference is the new front door. I spent way more time than I should have trying to get the metal handle material to look decent. I'm still not happy with it, but fixing it would involve making a new high-res handle and baking normals, and I don't want to waste more time on such a small detail when there's so many large assets to still model.

The decorative door inlays are normal mapped to save polys - First, as with the door frame, a high-poly model was made, and then those normals were baked and brought into Photoshop to be applied to the final door normal map.

Next update might not be for several days - phase 1 of character modeling is wrapping up in 3d.

WIP - Campus House #2

2010-03-13T12:32:00.000-08:00

(Click to see detail)

The first thing I created today was the rug. The material was created from heavily photoshopped pictures from my phone's camera. Just a simple diffuse this time - it didn't need anything extra.

Then I created a "dirty clutter" decal for the carpet, which took a bit longer than it should have due to troubles making the mask in photoshop. Finally got it working... I'll make more of these later so it's not all the same leaf.

The door/window frame was really fast - I created a plane in Maya, quickly modeled the indents/curvature of a piece of the doorframe and baked out the normals and occlusion. I created a material off of those and applied that material to flat BSP cubes. The normal map gives enough depth that I think I can get away without an extra mesh.

Finally, the leather... table thing? I created an RGB texture in which each color contains a different mask (so I could stop the detail normal map from covering the legs, for example). Then the black color itself comes from a constant. Pretty much all the "leathery" detail comes from the normal map, which contains a combination of the normals from the high-poly smoothed version of the mesh, smaller leather "cracks" as a detail normal, and a "grunge" map (also used in both the walls and carpet) to add a bit of variation and the illusion of wrinkles. Finally, the same grunge map was tiled differently and put into the specular to give the specular itself some variation. Having a nice grunge diffuse and normal texture on hand is absurdly useful - when used right it can be applied to pretty much any texture to add slight variation.

(Click to see detail)

I'm not sure what to tackle next... I'm probably going to end up finishing the door and windows. I'm really getting sick of looking at that black void.

Almost Forgot...

2010-03-11T22:24:00.001-08:00

Never got around to uploaded a finished picture of my last commission...

Better late than never.

(Click to see detail)

WIP - Campus House

2010-03-11T20:38:00.000-08:00

I want to document my level creation process, not so much for others to see, but so I can track my own pitfalls when it comes to putting a complete package together, and hopefully make myself more efficient in the future.

So, here we are, day 1 of Gorgoroth (me and my roommates' name for our on-campus house), modeled to scale, textured and lit in Unreal. It seemed an obvious choice for a side-project because I don't have to travel far for reference ;)

(Click to see detail)

Today I primarily grayboxed the scene I wanted to work on (the living room) and then began work on the base materials.

I knew from the start that the carpet material would take the most time. I've never really been happy with the carpet materials I see in games - they all suffer from terrible repetition, flatness, or some other issue. In fact, carpets are probably the 2nd most butchered texture in games, the 1st being brick walls (imo).

With that in mind, I designed the carpet with multiple layers of Lerps, Adds and Multiplies in order to create natural-looking variation, and Rotation and Texture Coordinate nodes to ensure that the texture will never repeat.

I then moved onto the walls, which I used a similar process for. They're still a work in progress, and the ceiling is placeholder. However, I felt like I was spending a bit too much time on them, so I decided to move on and get back to them later.

I wanted to start modeling... And it made sense to me that the first model I make should be the light fixture - get the light motivated as soon as possible, right? (Plus I wanted an excuse to try out UDK's new transmissive mask feature.)

The lamp itself was just an extruded cylinder with, I believe, 15 sides. Fairly low-poly, just enough to get the silhouette right. I didn't bother fixing UV's for the black metal stand, since I'm planning on just using constants for diffuse and specular there. The one part I did make sure to UV was the top translucent plastic... I need a gradient there for the transmissive mask. And after playing with the values of the transmissive mask and transmissive color a bit, I'm extremely happy with the result - fairly accurate to how the light actually does spread through and illuminate the plastic.

So, next I'm going to start modeling from big to small, starting with either the couch, tv stand, or coffee table. I'm also planning on getting those doors and windows in so that we aren't constantly looking into the black void of Unreal space.

Next update tomorrow...

Puzzle Design and Occam's Razor

2010-02-26T22:59:00.001-08:00

Recently in Game Design class we have been developing individual "tutorial" levels in Unreal in order to showcase mechanics we developed previously. And naturally, the route I've chosen to go with my particular mechanic requires me to dive straight into the insane world of puzzle design.

My mechanic is a simple magnetic ball with a magnetic field that can be toggled from positive to negative. The first part of the tutorial level that actually demonstrates the magnet's field is a large, sliding metal block that is, by default, blocking the player's path. The player must discover how the magnet interacts with this object and then utilize that information to progress.

The first iteration was an utter mess. It was the first time I had ever attempted staging a puzzle for the player to solve, and I had attempted to throw too many minuscule things at them at once. During initial playtests, the players never received the correct information, even though they received a large quantity of clutter.

I realized that my problem with the design was in the fact that I had designed the puzzle in a linear fashion, a habit I had brought over from Scripting class. When writing scripts to solve problems, it is legitimate (and many times necessary) to solve each new problem with a new piece of code. If that code creates new problems, write yet another piece of code to tackle those, and so on! (Incidentally, this is the same approach I use in designing magic tricks!)

With puzzle design, I discovered that this method of creation is impossible. When the player went the wrong way, I would throw in a wall or a distraction to make them go the right way again. When one path doesn't work right, I made another. This is what led to the player's confusion, when there were more things in the puzzle meant to account for the player's actions than there were to actually solve. With magic tricks, this is a beautiful thing - it separates the audience from the solution. But in puzzle design, it's exactly the opposite - bad, bad, bad!

So, I decided to go the opposite route. I challenged myself to make the puzzle as simple and transparent as possible, while still being functional. I ended up taking out about 60% of the level. Anything that didn't explicitly benefit the design fatefully met Occam's razor. Things I'd always thought necessary, after further consideration, were found to be nothing but problematic, and/or had much more elegant solutions. The next playtest was an outstanding improvement.

My other discovery at this time was the complete lack of documentation concerning puzzle design for games. This is alarming, considering that all games, at their core, are puzzles, and good puzzle design is essential to creating a good game. There are certainly masterful puzzle designs in popular games (Braid and Portal stand out to me as recent examples), but my fascination with the process of designing these scenarios is largely unsatisfied.

Solving puzzles requires a certain mindset. Creating puzzles involves seeing through the same mindset, both forward and in reverse, through a haystack of probable failures and dead ends, all the while balancing the tightrope of self-designated design and keeping an intimate record of exactly what is being presented to the player and how they might see each point of the puzzle through their own eyes.

Creating puzzles is insane. I'm going to bed.

Augmented Reality

2010-01-14T20:20:00.000-08:00

If you can see it, touch it, hear it, taste it, and smell it... is it real?

What if everyone can see it?

Imagine walking around in a digitally augmented world. As you walk past buildings, virtual signs pop out, telling you if there is currently seating available and displaying a virtual button to click for the menu. Your friend's name appears over their head as you walk up to them, and with a universal tagging system, you play a little prank and attach the description box "didn't shower today" onto them for the world to see (hey, not your fault they enabled friend description permissions). You look up at the night-time sky to see each star marked by name. You invite your friend to a game of chess, but neither of you has a board. No problem; you clear off a spot on a nearby table and a chess board appears, fully set up, for you and your friend to manipulate in real-time with your hands.

If you lose your keys, a compass-like arrow in your field of vision points directly to them and tells you how far away they are. Better yet, your car instantly recognizes who you are and will not start for anybody you haven't authorized.

You have edited your personal preferences so that words you don't like to hear are censored-out of surrounding people's speech for you in real-time. When someone says a big word you don't know the meaning of, you can convert that word into text and read a dictionary definition.

You haven't sat down at a physical television or computer screen in years - just project your own into 3d space and make it visible to whoever else you want. And if you're trying to explain what something looks like to a particularly non-imaginative person? Just draw it - in mid air!

There are no "computer programs" anymore - not in the normal sense. There is only reality, and the virtual framework that augments it. "Applications" exist as tangible, 3d objects with which to interact.

Video games run on their own "channels" or "frequencies", visible only to those who enable them in their feed. Gigantic boss dragons loom over treasure chests at the bases of historical landmarks.

The newest "Discovery Channel" special, say "Underwater Earth", simulates a tidal wave enveloping your local area in real-time, crashing down and rushing between the cracks of buildings as you gaze around seeing it all play out around you.

Don't own a drum kit? Or a piano? Don't have to - project whatever kind of instrument you'd like into reality and play it at your local gig.

The word "internet" doesn't exist anymore. Only the word "reality".

No single corporation owns authoritative power over "reality". On the contrary, every user has equal power, contributing to reality in a similar fashion to Wikipedia. Personal changes only effect individuals who allow for them, while a universal database of information grows larger every second, giving every human on earth access to any education they desire, on-demand.

These are but a few of the possibilities of advanced augmented reality - the combination of the virtual world and the real world. This world would be visualized through handheld displays, specialized glasses, and, eventually, contact lenses. Is this what the future holds? That all depends on company politics and people.

We are just now starting to see the beginnings of augmented reality - in advertisements, browsers, games, and maps. But this technology, given enough time, is potentially the most exciting invention since the internet itself.

Until then, enjoy these first toddler steps into this uncharted realm:

Layar - Augmented Reality Mobile Browser: http://layar.com/

GE Augmented Reality website: http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/#/augmented_reality

One of the first AR games: http://www.indiecade.com/index.php?/games/selected/levelhead

The first of 8 faces...

2009-12-19T20:44:00.000-08:00

For a gigantic 18x24 family collage commission. And you people wonder why I've been busy...

Playing with Lightmass...

2009-12-16T12:35:00.001-08:00

Still having issues, but I have discovered that Dominant Lights are amazing. The entire scene is now lit by just 1 light.

Now, to tinker with more settings... I'm sure it can look a lot better!

The Favela Level...

2009-12-09T21:29:00.000-08:00

...is due tomorrow morning. Here are a few screenshots:

Now, time to polish OneUP for Game Design class Friday morning...

And One Month Later...

2009-11-25T13:07:00.001-08:00

Yay, updates!!!

Since my last post, we've been working on 3 tiers of props for our eventual level; easy, medium, and hard. I was assigned:

Easy Prop: Signs

Double-sided sign: 28 triangles

Billboard: 1224 triangles

Medium Prop: Tire

432 triangles

Hard Prop: Skydome and Background Assets

Mountains: 20 and 30 triangles

Buildings: 6 to 30 triangles

Over Thanksgiving break we have to create the rough layout of our personalized level by blocking in geometry. (You can see the beginnings of the process in the picture above.) This is my original, rough layout:

It will obviously evolve over time. I'll post updates as the level becomes fleshed out.

In Game Design class, I have finished the gameplay of my mod, OneUP, and am now in the process of finalizing all of the visual elements (pieces, board, rulebook, and box) which is due in two classes. I'll post the rules up as soon as I polish them, so that any readers can try the game out for themselves!

Unreal Lighting Issues... fixed!

2009-10-25T15:09:00.000-07:00

Finally, no more ugly black gradients on the corners of walls!

Also, a new window material that isn't noticeable in this shot. :P

Modular Stuff in Unreal...

2009-10-21T12:33:00.000-07:00

Still annoyed by some of the lighting issues, but I've solved most of my problems.

Dedicated Servers - An Insight.

2009-10-20T11:38:00.000-07:00

The recent statement by Infinity Ward over the weekend that the new Modern Warfare 2 won't have dedicated servers on the PC end has already resulted in an almost 100,000 signature petition (the equivalent of nearly $6 million in sales) from the PC gamer community. The dedicated server system is said to be replaced by a Halo-style matchmaking system, to give PC gamers more of a "console" experience. People are pissed.

But why? Are people really that frustrated about not having the option to accidentally hop in a laggy or incompatible server? International players will surely take a blow.

But no, that's not all of it. There is something much bigger that will be undermined if Infinity Ward carries through with this decision: clans and player communities. THAT is the one thing many PC gamers are truly concerned about losing.

There is something about having player-controlled servers that instills a sense of order and community not found in most console games. The simple ability to assign administrative privileges to certain players on a server allows not only for a cleaner, friendlier game, but for huge sub-cultures to emerge. One server's administrators may prefer a certain type of behavior, or have different expectations for play style than another server. Players soon learn which servers they can go to for a unique experience that best fits their needs. They become, in a very real way, part of the game. There is an amazing difference between the experiences of the game controlling the player, and the player controlling the game; something that has not been harnessed nearly enough.

So, let's talk about this largely underdeveloped aspect of games. Allowing players to run their own servers, and effectively create their own political systems, adds an entirely new dimension to the game, one that is much more customized to the individual player. Games should embrace this, not discourage it. I would love to see more games that were actually built to be community-based. That means more built-in administrative and game-tweaking privileges, and the ability to strew together political systems for clans and the like. Rising up the ranks based on real player decisions and interactions is, in my opinion, much more fruitful than having a bragging-rights number assigned by a computer.

Modding is another hugely important aspect in games. Certain dedicated servers may enjoy certain flavors of mods, be they gameplay-based, map-based, or even adminstrative-based. The browser could be specified to notate and organize servers based on this. The great thing about this kind of setup is that any kind of flaws the game has will be quickly fixed by the players - they're great at doing that if you give them the chance. And it operates very much under free-market and evolutionary principles: the servers that implement good changes will become more popular, and less popular servers will have to adapt these changes themselves if they want to get ahead. Allowing player-driven control over a game is equivalent to building evolution into it; the game will always adapt to current player interests/needs, and this procedure will add years and years onto the game's lifespan as the community continues to update it.

In the present day, there is no automated solution to completely solve poor player behavior. In contrast, dedicated servers allow not only for customized rules, but give players a real sense of community, property, and family than cannot be established through mechanized means.

Modular Building Stuff... Done.

2009-10-18T19:26:00.001-07:00

Quick building setup using my parts. Maya software likes to spit out fuzz whenever two planes are even remotely near each other, so don't mind that... >_>

And the Modding Begins...

2009-10-16T15:24:00.000-07:00

We are now starting the process of altering the gameplay of our selected games. Arimaa is an interesting case; whereas most people in the class are striving to fix certain problems they see with their games, I honestly cannot find any serious problems with Arimaa. So, me being a fan of the mantra "don't fix what isn't broke", I'm going to be pushed into some uncomfortable territory.

Not that that's a bad thing. I've already got a few interesting ideas, one of which the teacher really responded well to, so things are looking up at the moment. I'm sure there will be many unforseen twists and turns, some bad and some good, but that's the nature of this career choice.

Now, back to the labs to model, UV and texture a door, window, roof, and piece of trim for next CA class.

New Arimaa Illustration

2009-10-13T09:41:00.001-07:00

No mechanics this time, just a picture:

I really need to learn how to draw horses...

Parallax Mapping! (Making 2d surfaces in Unreal look 3d)

2009-10-08T19:03:00.000-07:00

I have discovered a new friend. This is my "parallax" material in Unreal applied to a flat surface:

If any of my fellow game arts would like an explanation, just ask!

Simple method to avoid texture tiling...

2009-10-08T00:16:00.000-07:00

The biggest game engines support texture blending for things like terrain. In other words, you can "paint" different textures onto the same surface in a manner in which they blend smoothly. See, for example:

Why would one not use a similar process with variations of the same kind of texture in order to "paint away" any noticeable tiling? This could also be used to add "dirt" or "dust" variations to specific parts of the ground - say, perhaps, in the corners of an old unkempt room? Maybe one could have a clean tile texture and blend it in areas with a broken tile texture to give the effect of realistic abuse? Perhaps I'm missing something, but this process seems like it should definitely be used more often in games.

Latest Commission

2009-10-05T12:57:00.000-07:00

Finished.

Alleyway Concept

2009-10-05T02:18:00.000-07:00

Thank you Red Bull.

Game Mechanic Illustration #2

2009-10-02T13:39:00.000-07:00

Illustrating the combination of the hierarchy of power mechanic and the trap mechanic.

Textures, textures, textures!

2009-09-28T22:29:00.000-07:00

Something that has become more and more apparent to me through my experiences with games and other 3d mediums is the unbalanced (and largely unrecognized!) importance of textures.

When a designer decides they want to create a realistic looking 3d scene, they will no doubt first stress the detail of the model; is it accurate in shape and size? Are the nuances of edge, smoothing, thickness, curve, and definition being modeled correctly?

Next, the person will no doubt turn to lighting as the second ingredient in creating a real-looking scene. If there are no shadows or highlights, we'll end up with a very fake, flat-looking scene that won't look convincing at all.

So, once the model is built, and the lighting is cast, the creator steps back at the clay render and says "yeah, that looks great! Now I just need to slap a texture on."

And then they end up with something like this:

This is a case where the model is quite satisfactory, but the result still looks like Nintendo 64 crap. Why? Because a sword's textures look nothing like what we see.

In fact, textures appear to add to realism more than the model itself does. For example, take just a simple, basic hut model:

Now, what will this look like once it's textured? It's easy to imagine it going the route of the sword above. But instead, the artist here has paid extremely specific attention to the textures, no matter how simple they appear to be at first glance. And so the result we get is:

Stunningly realistic in its simplicity.

A HUGE pet peeve of mine is when people will put dark lines or shadows in their color maps in order to simulate depth (think of any crate from an old Quake game). That is the job of the lighting and shaders! In real life we don't find shadows "painted on" to objects... so why would we do this in a game? I can understand doing this maybe 5 years ago, but since then real time lighting and shader depth in games has improved to the point where there shouldn't be a need to fake color maps any more.

A great model with great lighting will look terrible if its texture doesn't accomplish the same look and interaction it would have in real life. Taking a picture of a bumpy wall in real life and importing it into a game will end you up with an unrealistic, flat, bad-looking wall. Why? In real life, objects are already being hit with light that wraps around their 3-dimensional attributes. When you throw a picture of something that already includes rendered light on a 3d surface into a game, that game is now going to treat it as a flat surface, and the result will LOOK like a flat photograph in the game. You don't want a bedroom with photographs of wallpaper glued to the walls; you want a bedroom with wallpaper. You don't want a treetrunk with photographs of a tree glued to it; you want a treetrunk!

This means thinking about textures in different ways. Use color maps for raw colors... use bump maps, models, specular maps, and lighting for depth and realism. Don't paint light onto color maps, or you'll end up taping photos to walls.

Penguin Model Assignment: DONE

2009-09-27T13:55:00.000-07:00

Still not happy with a few things, but all in all I think it turned out good for my first modeling project:

Now, on to the next mechanic illustration for Game Design...

Ringling and Arimaa

2009-09-25T17:02:00.000-07:00

I'm now about a month into my sophomore year as a Game Art & Design major at Ringling College of Art and Design.

Computer Animation 1 is turning out particularly fun, even though the subject matter of our current modeling project is a boring little stress-relief penguin. I'm glad that he's seen better days; it gives me more opportunity to work on the textures. I'll have pictures up soon.

Game Design 1 is definitely interesting. We are currently working on wave after wave of "mechanic illustrations", where we take the game we chose at the beginning of the semester and, you guessed it, single-out and illustrate specific mechanics.

The game I chose was Arimaa, for several reasons: first, it intrigued me that the game was specifically designed to be extremely difficult for AI. Second, it requires an interesting version of strategy - it is impossible to think ahead very far (only 10 turns in Arimaa already warrants more possible games than there are atoms in the universe) so you are forced to think in abstract terms and goals.

Anyway, here's my first full-color render of Arimaa's Push mechanic (and this also doubles as my first tablet drawing ever! Woot!)

I have a feeling I'm gonna be learning a ton of animal anatomy over this semester.