3D created graphic whores

This post is going to raise a few eyebrows.

As 3D came into the videogame world and became a standard because "it made things look more realistic", 2D was shoved to the corner of childish things. By the time of the Nintendo 64 and the Sony Playstation the standard was 3D. It was the future Sega Saturn had pointed years before.

By that time 3D was cool because it was new. Bad 3D was chosen over good 2D because a lot of people thought it was cooler. Ok, it gave people the chance to do new things because they could move the camera and all that. It represented technological breakthroughs in the hardware and programming side of things.

3D games were hot and 2D were not, or so it seemed. There were exceptions, of course. The interesting part is that some games were proud to be 2D and some of them were only fun because they were planned that way. Money was speaking high and there were conversions. Lots of conversions. Some of them were rubbish but a few pearls were created. Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid. New genres of gaming came from that time. The classic DOOM spawned thousands of clones and a few were good.

Where was 2D? Mainly in puzzle games and RPGs and mostly on the PC. I love good 2D graphics and by that time the best games kicked in. Awesome RPGs like Diablo, Baldur's Gate and Fallout showed up. Worms came out of nowhere and gathered a cult success by sheer fun and humor.

With these new generations of consoles and graphic cards the emphasis is on the graphics instead of the concept of the game, good characters or stories. I know people who can't enjoy a game if it's not running at full speed and full resolution and that actually makes me sad. They spend hundreds on pc parts to have the games running like that. They only play games and don't use it for anything else.

Nowadays people are divided in various sectors but the people who really enjoy games for what they are couldn't care less if the game is in 2D or 3D as long as it is good.

The coolest tattoo I've ever seen

Wow. WOW. A few years ago I was a fan of tattoos and even wanted to have one done, but I have a phobia for needles and really couldn't find something I would not regret having on my skin for the rest of my life.

I kind of lost interest but today I spend the day sick at home and decided to finish The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker on the Gamecube. After that I went to look for some pictures of concept art of even screenshots to further study its wonderful graphics and I found THIS.

I have no words to describe it other than "The coolest tattoo I've ever seen".

Here is a photoshop mockup of what it will look like when colored:



Further info here.

Learning from books

Today a book I ordered from Amazon arrived. It's about creating 3D models for games from sketch to rigs and normal maps. This has reminded me that I should probably talk about learning from books.

In my humble opinion a book is good as long as you commit yourself to it. If you don't take it seriously you aren't going to learn. It can even be the best book ever written and it just won't work.

You can also learn from the internet and the same rules apply. The major difference is that a book can gather most of the topics you need and a tutorial can talk about a subject only. This means you will probably need a tutorial per subject and there's a high chance at least one of the tutorials is about a previous or newer version of the program and one of the tools will be in a different place. A book like this can help you from the start of your project to finish and you don't need to be looking at a screen the entire time.

I mean, after writing this I will pick it up, go downstairs and enjoy a quiet evening near the fireplace, learning and resting my eyes. How good does it sound?

Pretty good to me.

Super Mario Bros theme has lyrics

A while ago I was told this and I was amazed and nostalgic at the same time. You probably don't know this, but the Super Mario Bros Theme has lyrics. Not just any kind of lyrics. In fact they are really japanese ones. If you know the japanese culture you'll get why.




Go Go Mario

Today, full of energy, Mario is still running, running
Go save Princess Peach! Go!
Today, full of energy, Mario runs
Today, full of energy, jumping!
Today, full of energy, searching for coins
Today, keep going, Mario!

Get a mushroom - it's Super Mario!
Get a flower - it's Fire Mario!

Goomba! Troopa! Buzzy Beetle! Beat them all!
Mario is always full of energy and strong!

[Spoken] The only one who can reverse the spell that has captured the Mushroom People is Princess Peach. But Princess Peach is hidden underground, in a far-off castle. Ah, the days of peace... if we could once more return to those days... to save Princess Peach and bring peace back to the Mushroom Kingdom, that is why Mario is on his journey today.

Today, full of energy, Mario is still running, running
Go and beat the Koopa tribe, go!
Today, full of energy, Mario runs
Today, full of energy, jumping!
Today, full of energy, searching for coins
Today, keep going, Mario!

Get a star - become invincible!
Quickly, go save Princess Peach!

Lakitu! Blooper! Cheep Cheep! Beat them all!
Mario is always full of energy and strong!

Today, full of energy, Mario is still running, running
He's made it to the castle and gets fireworks!
Lightly sidestepping the Hammer Bros.
Show the last of your power, Mario!
It's been a long journey but it's nearly at an end
You've done it, you've done it! You've defeated Bowser!

Princess Peach says "Thank you"
Mario's got a great big heart!

Mario's adventure is over for now, but
Mario's dream lives forever...


For the complete article and video of a live performance, chech this link.

3D Tutorials for Maya Beginners

As a Maya beginner I have been searching for tutorials on the several parts of making a 3D model for videogames. Lowpoly and highpoly, I have been reading about it all in order to have an idea of the whole process from sketch to game engine.

I recently formatted my PC and lost my bookmarks, but these are the best tutorials I have found so far:

3D Modeler's Network
Texturing by 3D Total
Maya UV mapping
UV 101 (highend 3D)
UV 101 continues
Continuity(NURBS Oriented but you'll understand why it's important)
Making models for Quake
Making a model for UT2004


As you can see from the list I am having a bit of trouble with the UVs and the best help I had so far were these videos from Youtube. You really can find everything there.

Video 1
Video 2

Realistic vs Stylized

When you consider the look and feel of a game and think of visual flaws, which games come to mind? Most likely the games you think of immediately are a couple of games that try to be realistic.

In my opinion this is their biggest flaw. They try to be so realistic that it becomes terribly hard to make. With that comes criticism. The game may look better, but the flaws are way more noticeable. They pop right out of the screen into the eyes of everyone in the room. Gamers and non-gamers alike get a little disappointed at it and if there are more, they may cease to take the game environment seriously. It breaks the suspension of disbelief.

With stylized or cartoon games we can live on with those flaws because they don't actually matter most of the time. You'll think "Ok, he's laying there like a board even with half his body off the set. Ok he just got up. It's Super Smash Bros, who cares? Now let me try this...(mumble mumble)". The whole environment is cartoon and we don't expect the same level of realism. It just draws you away from all the fun.

Some of these games try to be so accurate in their mechanics in order to achieve realism that it becomes rather hard to play even a simple game. Comparing racer titles, Burnout titles are fun and rewarding and GT games are visually pleasant but ultimately boring to me.

To resume, I think full realism is only useful for accurate simulations. If you want to shoot people and have the whole environment in Full HD, perfect physics and all that...try AirSoft. If you want a racer, try karting and if you want realistic football play it with friends, far away from the TV screen.

Videogame webcomics

One of the things I use to complete my suite of videogaming goodness are webcomics about videogames! That's right, there are webcomics about games as there are comics about anything else. Some of them are really good and they get updated regularly.

This things are great and...free! That's right, you can keep saving up for the new hot games and read these at the same time.

Below are my favorite ones on the subject. Behold!

Penny Arcade (a Legend among webcomics)
Ctrl+Alt+Del
Machall (this one is over, but it was great)
Extralife (not always on topic)
PVP Online
Megatokyo (not always on topic)
Gone with the Blastwave (not directly about videogames, but it reminds me of Fallout!)

Enjoy!

Videogame-related Events

What better way to get some answers from people from the industry than really asking them face to face?

If you're really interested in making videogames I advise you to use your free time looking for information and answers and most of all actually making your own projects, be it art or programming. I have written about the importance of online forums and learning with them but if you play your cards right you can get an insane amount of information in a videogame-related event.

I have only been in a few and only one of them was relatively serious but I tried to get the best of it. I believe I succeded. There you can get information about the skills you need to get the kind of job you want, you can deliver portfolios and business cards. You can go to the company's booths and ask them a few questions.

Also, booth babes.

One of the best parts is realizing it's not impossible. Those guys aren't superheroes, they are people. They have a sense of humor and they love games. They may work at one of the coolest game companies and still get excited about a game their rivals released. Most of them took a chance and that's why they are there.

I want to be there. If you want it too try to go to every game-related fair you can.

Good luck.

Demoscene

If you're interested in computer graphics ou may have come across this name in the past. This is a text for the ones who haven't heard it yet.

If you happen to be a gamer, the word "demo" is of course a demonstration of a game. Something that lets you try the gameplay for a while, an interactive limited experience. Well, this is not right. Demos can also be the showcase of a programmer's work or in this case, a technical showoff crafted out of time and love by their makers with the main purpose of making your jaw drop.

Demos started as signatures for cracked software and soon began to gather attention to themselves and now they are separate areas. Who make these things? They are called Demogroups and are composed of a short number of people who spend their free time learning and working together in order to build a piece of non-interactive software. They have several goals, like making the most realistic-looking real-time graphics, creating envolving atmospheres by using graphics and sound, letting their message come through or sometimes just making all of this using the smallest amount of space. This can go as low as 1kb.

There are demos for every platform I can remember. All the gaming consoles, PC, I have even seen 3D demos run on cell-phones!

A lot of people do this to win competitions but there are those who do it just for the fun. The best part of this is the non-commercial attitude. It's refreshing to see something so good be distributed freely online. That's why I can provide you with links so you actually get to see what I'm talking about!

These are some of my favorite demos. (Debris has some problems with AVG Free because of the compression algorytm, so please avoid it if you have it installed. If you have to do this it's too bad because it rocks.)

"1995" by Kewlers
fr-025:the.popular.demo
fr-041: debris
STS-02: Electric Kool-Aid
Gerbera by Moppi Productions
Lifeforce by ASD

Want more? Check Scene.org or Pouet.net.

If you didn't understand yet, this is a great way to learn computer graphics from either the art or the programming side. Most demosceners say they are anti-gamers but deep inside they love them.

And don't forget to come to Breeze Demoparty 2008!


I love Lifeforce.


P.S: Zeroshift, you can has demo: Metal Flirt by Napalm Core

Old-school Videogames and me

I was lucky to start playing videogames at an early age but I missed a lot of the now-called old-school classic videogames. I was paying attention to them, though. Watching some videogame-related tv shows, reading magazines and talking to my friends kept me up to date on the new ones.

I loved when we visited a friend or relative which had a videogame console or cool PC games. I ignored everything else and played it with its owner. This may seem unsensitive and maybe it is, but it was the chance to play the Super Mario and Sonic games (my favorite ones at the time).

At home I played SimCity (yes, the first one!), Supaplex, Rodent and another videogame about the Olympic games on the PC. It was nice, but they weren't my favorite games. I wanted to play something from Sega, or Nintendo! Those guys delivered good games that hooked me right from the start. They created characters that looked cool and videogames that seemed long and fun.

When I was introduced to the Game Boy and the Game Gear my brain almost couldn't handle the excitement. I couldn't handle the cost, either. When I learned the price and counted my savings, it remained a dream.

When I got my first Game Boy Pocket for my birthday, my life changed.

Online Forums

Two years ago I had only registered myself in one online forum. After a whole lot of them in which I wasn't really relevant and one in which I was a moderator, I have learned a lot more than if I was just fiddling with the programs I was trying to use.

Online forums are a great way to show what you are doing in order to get good feedback. You just have to choose them well. Lurk around them, read the new and old posts for a few days and if you think it's worth it, dive in.

You'll probably feel more confident about yourself if you get a few compliments, but you also need to know how to introduce yourself or else you may sink. You have to be humble and open to criticism. You can't go in and write your posts like you're trying to teach them, otherwise they'll refuse to read what you have to say.

Don't be overjoyed by everything you read there. Really. Somethings are worth it but other times if you don't say something constructive about it it will be like spam. I have read a lot of "ZOMG THAST AWSUM HOW DIDYA DOIT??!!?!?!??!" posts and I hate it. Even the person who posted the thing you adore so much will most likely be scared and confused by comments like that.

Show your work. If you're in an artist's forum, you won't be taken seriously unless you prove you're worth it. A fancy diploma doesn't help you here. Either you give constructive feedback or you show some good work. Sounds easy, right?

The last thing I have to say is: Please write properly in online forums. If I have to translate 13375p34k or street talk it is most likely not worth my time. Mine or anyone else's, so it's spam again.

Worldwide forums for artists:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/
http://www.conceptart.org/
http://boards.polycount.net/ubbthreads.php

I am portuguese, so here are a few more links for the Luso ones:
http://www.gamedev-pt.net/
http://www.dimensao3.com/forum/index.php

If I forgot something don't be shy to comment!

Learning Art

I am not the perfect example for what I'm about to say, but this is the way I think.

I am one of those who think if you want to learn Art for videogames, you first need to learn Art in general. You may not realize the importance of it at start, but there will be a whole lot of conflict situations that are important. I for one hated some of the most famous painters and didn't understand what was so special about some of the most famous works of traditional and modern art.

Studying it really put it all on perspective. Knowing the context in which they were created is crucial to understanding them. I don't love most of it anyway, but I understand it and I know here to look if I seek some more information about it.

You will be asked to create some weird things in a short period of time. It's good practice and your brain will be trained for weird situations, wich is nice. Frequently they will ask you to change most of the things you've done near the end of it. I believe this is on purpose so that you'll be trained to be flexible. You never know what your bosses will ask you next.

Learning how to draw is the most important part of it. You will begin by making weird doodles that are abstract and they will probably mean nothing to you but after a while you will be learning the most important things such as perspective, proportion and shading. Drawing people is also extremely important if you want to be a Character Designer.

The best think you can do is train while you're at it. When you can choose a subject for a research, choose one you think it's going to be useful to you. If the class is extremely boring, draw something! If the daily trip for school is long, even better. You have a chance to read books, draw a few things, look at people (it's actually important, you know), make plans. If you have to take that trip with a friend, talk about everything that pops into your mind. You'll have made a friend for life by the end.

When you've finished it you'll feel like it went on pretty quick, despite some long nights doing weird things or missing school to look for a rare material that is only sold in one place of the city you're in. It's all part of it.

Videogame Music

One of the things that brought the joy of gaming to me was listening to old videogame tunes. I thought my fate was sealed and it had little to do with videogames. They brought me back. I was studying animation away from home, everyone thought I was happy, even myself. My goal was to be in an independent videogame team and help them develop games while I was there. Finish my degree with a few games to show, or at least some art that could be used in videogames.

I love videogames and after the first semester without playing due to the hard work and parallel projects, I snapped. I had to play and I had to be informed about what was going on. I got a second hand Nintendo DS and a few games. I figured out it was the only way to make the most of my waking hours. It was awesome for a while, then the second semester began.

Every shred of free time was snatched from my hands and I could do nothing to stop it. If you know me you already know that when I make something I give it my best. I wanted to finish my degree and be on a different level. I wanted to shine and I wanted to prove my parents I had made a wise choice on the degree. All my time was sucked into the degree.

No free time and soon my sleeping hours began to disappear. Just too much work. The only way I could contact with games was to do it while I was working and also in some of the most practical classes. Music was my way to fix that. I knew podcasts were a vehicle of it, so I searched around. They helped me to work and they helped me to rest.

They helped me.

They helped me to make a choice. Nintendo and videogame music helped me to better understand myself. Demoscene was quite important too, but that will be the subject of a few posts to come.

For Videogame music check these, they might just trigger something in you:
http://www.ocremix.org/
http://www.vgdj.net/
http://www.eightecs.com/infinitegamemusic/

Intro

Hello to those who read blogs and an even bigger hello to those who want to be part of the Videogame Industry.

I am not part of it yet but hopefully will be. The idea behind this blog is to provide links and interesting articles about videogame art, as well as the best tutorials I find along the way. This blog also represents my growth as an artist, now that I admitted this is the way I want to lead my life.

If thinking about videogames brings a smile to your face, join in. Check it once in a while.