Deep Deep Underwater

posted by Scott Hsu-Storaker at 11:29 AM

I have been completely submerged in textureland the past couple of weeks. For me, texturing is so thoroughly consuming that I find it hard to break out of the spell of deep concentration that engulfs me. What that means to you is that I am still holding off on finishing the longer articles I have been promising. They are progressing well, but I need to transition into a different mode to read over stuff I've written to ensure that it makes sense. Here, though, is the completed version of a texture I have been working on. I hope to get it all packed up tonight.



Recently I have been coming to the creeping realization that my main art role on this team will be as a texture artist. We've got a really strong team of modellers here but a shortage of artists on the free content library projects who feel comfortable texturing. If you know any texture artists interested in having their work get put to good use, feel free to pass the word along. I currently have about 8 months of solid texturing work to do with my current schedule and more models are coming through every day.

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Send Screenshots, Yo!
That's it. Just the title.

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A Turn of the Screw
If you've been reading this blog you may be familiar with the challenges I face in terms of finding time to work now and soon, when my third child will be born. I'm already maxed out at home, buried in laundry and dishes and baby projects, and at work and the pressure is gradually building. At the beginning of March I will be starting to taper off on the time I spend on communication in particular. So, it may get a little more quiet around here, but please be aware that work is still proceeding at a healthy clip. Up until the time that the baby arrives I will still have almost 2 hours a day guaranteed. There is a strong and slowly growing team bolstering the projects here and I am confident that things here will continue to grow and thrive during the time I am less active.

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Like Riding a Bike...
I have worked on many virtual game dev teams over the years and one thing that has always been present amongst teams scattered over the world is that no two artists use the same software. Being a big fan of Blender and of Mac computers I have always needed to find ways to play well with others and remain as flexible and general as possible. During many discussions with other modellers I discovered that, although the words and names are different, all 3D software has a comparable set of basic functions and that no matter what software an artist ends up using there is a small set of basic skills that any artist should know. Over the past year I have been collecting and recording this set of skills and will one day do a more thorough analysis of them. But, for now, here is my growing list. All comments are welcome as this is still very much a work in progress. Also, I would love it if all of you who work in other software like Maya, Max, Gamespace, Anim8or, Wings, Milkshape, Silo, etc volunteer to make similar lists using the jargon that you are familiar with.

Transferable Low Poly Modelling Skills
1. Sub-object editing (translating, scaling, rotating) of vertices, edges, and faces.
2. Building faces and edges.
3. Selecting edge loops.
4. Subdividing.
5. Edge loop cutting.
6. Knife cuts.
7. Extrude and/or bevel.
8. Turning edges.
9. Welding verts.
10. Flipping normals.
11. Mirror modelling.
12. Editing with constraints.
13. Utilizing orthographic views.
14. Background image tracing.
15. Creating a basic automatic uvmap.
16. Editing and pinning uv coordinates.
17. Creating image based materials and placing textures into uvmap.
18. Preparing files for export.
19. Scaling files for use in game engines.
20. Tell me what you think.

I am sticking solely to basic low poly modelling here. Texturing, rigging and animating deserve their own lists. I would love comments if you have 'em.

Stay free.

~shs~