Wow. It’s been almost 3 years since the last entry. What happened? In short, I started to work on the backstory for LightShrew, and then I got carried away, and then the story got bigger, and bigger, and my perfectionism grew and grew, and then things got really bad.
I think the real takeaway is that humility is good, and it is good to keep your project simple, and not attach your self value to your art. Also, neural plasticity is a thing, and can be used for good, or bad. Please use it for good. Develop good habits, and catch yourself, when you slip.
I don’t know if the embed will work on WordPress, but here is a direct link to the 3d model on Sketchfab for the model of the girl who was born out of this growing story which I wish I could be free from.
I could (should) have had this rigged a week ago, but oh well. Anyways, I got a workable rig. I noticed however that when importing into Unity, it sometimes looks weird as if some of the bones in the spine are rotated when they shouldn’t be. It does a similar thing in Blender sometimes, but once I move the frame it snaps back into place. It might not be a problem. Its a good thing this isn’t even the final character model/rig. I’m going to use this as a prototype for the game. Later I will re model the character to look better. As you can even see here there are some weird deformations in some areas. I think it should be good for now.
Tomorrow I plan on doing some C# Unity tutorials. After that I will get this guy running around in game.
Last week I talked about how things always come up, and set you back. Well, I think things are just about fixed. (almost) I can actually work on the game now. Anyways, I was able to finish up this preliminary testing model today, so that I can start prototyping. I will most likely remodel this character later once I see what kind of changes will be needed. This should be good for now. I thought about using primitives to test, but I think that having an actual character model will look better. having models (even if they get changed out for better ones) will help me to nail down the look as well. Tomorrow I plan to rig him, and then put on some basic animations. After that I will get him moving around on screen.
Here I did a quick test in Unity, where I imported the model, and put some spotlights near his eyes. The idea is that his eyes emit light. So I need to be able to show a forward facing beam from each eye, as well as have them look like they are glowing and lighting up the front part of his face. This is going to be a big part of the game. Including other abilities revolving around light. (did someone say lasers?) I’ve even figured out how refraction can play a part in game play. Well, it sounds cool in theory. I’ll have to test it out.
Im writing this week’s blog post from my phone. Something always comes up to throw a wrench in your plans. Especially for for the game i want to make. Its as if an invisible force is actively working to ensure I fail. For example, last week i decided to walk to the park with my sketchbook to do some concept art in a nice distraction free environment. As I get there, my nose starts bleding profusely. I had no tisues,so I had to wipe it with my hands. I got it to stop bleeding, but my my hands are all covered in blood. I had to walk back home to clean myself up. I intended to drive back to the park and draw. However, it startrd raining on the wayback. ( it was nice akd sunny whem I decided to leave initially)
That’s just one example. Right now there is an issue with my computer. Literally the day after I decide to go public with Lightshrew.
Today’s post was going to be a kind of introduction to my new blog format. Being all about the production of a 3d action platformer video game being made by a lone animator with mi imal coding skills, and documenting the process. So, I suppose we can still count today as an entry into the Lightshrew dev blog.
The takeaway here is that there will always be resistance, and something will always get in your way. It may even seem like the world is against you (in many ways it is) something will hault you before you even get a real chance to start. Expect that. Expect to be thrown even more obstacles. They wont let up. They will continue, and they will get bigger. Don’t give up. Deal with the issue, and move on. Its an uphill battle. Well, lets get climbing. I’ll see you at the top.
The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is exactly 6 months from now. There are a few team projects things that I am currently working on to show off there. Mostly I want to go there to meet people and network. But of course that’s no excuse to not come prepared with cool stuff to show. Besides these team projects, there is this game idea that has been bouncing around in my head for several months. I’ve been figuring out story, and doing a bit of concept art in my “free time”. I haven’t been full on with this, as I have some other projects that are taking up most of my time. I need to make this game a bigger priority. I need to see what I can come up with in half a year.
Right now I’m hesitant to show too much, as I want to get something somewhat substantial going before I really go public with this. Maybe I can be convinced to turn this Weekly whatever blog, into a dev blog. For now here is a quick sketch of my main character reaching for a weird mushroom.
I’ve been struggling with this question for quite a while. Talking to lots of people it seems that if you want to be successful in the field of CG, you need to specialize. Become just a character modeler. Do just hard surface modeling. Be a texture artists. Just do lighting. Be a rigger. Do straight up character animation. There are so many pieces of the pipeline, and its impossible to get good at all of them. I’ve been really hesitant to pick something to specialist in, as I feel that would pigeonhole me too much. Or worse, my skills become obsolete with new technology, or employers hire more people from overseas, leaving me to be highly skilled in one niche area that I can’t find work with.
Yet, I also read that generalists are better for freelance work, and for smaller studios. Still though, the common piece of advice I read is to specialize in something. Maybe its my stubbornness showing again, but I really do not want to pick something and abandon the rest. I think about what got me into this in the first place. I don’t like doing CG, because modeling is fun. I don’t do it because texturing is fun. I also don’t do it because animating is fun. Although doing certain things are fun, what I like about it all is the whole package. I remember the first time I created an entire scene in 3D. I can’t find the file, but It was a simple snowy landscape with a snowman character. It was so simple, and very crude. Yet, I was so proud of it. It was mine. I used a tool which was the computer, to create a world and a character that didn’t exist. I brought life out of nothing.
I’m having a hard time explaining what I mean. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I don’t think I would be happy if I was making a lot of money doing just the same thing over and over. I’d be a cog in a machine, and I would constantly have to worry about layoffs. I would only be able to work on other people’s projects, and I wouldn’t be able to do my own.
Ok, so I want to be able to do everything. Is that even practical? I like to think that it is. I don’t see a problem working for smaller studios or indie projects. Yes the smaller guys wont have the funds to hire a specialist in every piece of the pipeline, so it makes sense that they will hire a smaller number of generalists who can get the job done and wear more hats. At least in theory that’s how I envision it. Maybe I’m wrong.
I just know that there are things that I want to do, that will only be done if
A: I do it all myself (maybe bring on a few teammates to help, but overall its my baby)
B: Somehow get the funds to hire a specialist in every other thing that I am not, and then also play director role.(Which by definition means that I’m no longer specializing)
I’m not rich, so Option B is out. It has to be option A.
Does option A offer a realistic way to make money and afford living? That’s the question I wonder about. In theory yes. If I do everything at a high quality then yes I can make it work. There are lone indie game developers who can afford to make ends meet. Most of them don’t however, but they do exist. Can I be one of them? I would have to take on programming in addition to art, which makes things VERY difficult.
So I wonder, if I decide to stay a generalist, and create my own stuff in hopes to support myself, am I being naive? Or am I being ambitious? That seems like the harder option. Yet, at the end of the day I would prefer to be successful doing what I want to do, than to be a cog in somebody else’s machine. Is that a childish mentality to have? I think about what got me into this in the first place, and it wasn’t the modeling. It wasn’t the texturing. It wasn’t the animation. It was creating.
I think I need to at least give it a shot. The worst that can happen is I fail.
The economy sucks. War is raging across the world. Health costs have been going up. You’re getting older and seeing that adulthood is much harder than you thought. You have to work a shitty job, and work on your goals in your off time. Or you just do school and go into massive debt, hoping to get that job you’ve always dreamed of that will somehow pull you out of the hole you dug for yourself. Art jobs are over saturated with people who are already way better than you, and realistically you don’t stand a chance. You’re just wasting your time.
Why even bother? If you’re smart you’ll quit now and save yourself from a trainwreck later down the road. My advice for you is to quit trying to be an artist, and do something else. Go ahead and do art as a hobby, I still think that’s a great idea. But if you intend to make a living doing this, you’re wasting your time.
Does that sound negative? Yes it does, and I don’t care. That’s the truth. You’re parents lied to you. Your teachers lied to you, and so did your friends.
Now if you’re stubborn like me, and decide to pursue this anyways. Maybe your late to the game, or maybe you just suck. If you decide that even though its a bad move, that you still want to pursue art as a career. Then what are you doing on Facebook? Quit watching YouTube. Quit playing videos games. Quit hanging out with your friends all the time. If they are true friends, then they will understand that you have goals, and they will support you in that. If they get offended for you not wanting to hang out, then they aren’t your friends. Find better friends.
Quit watching TV. Quit going out to eat. Quit going on trips. Quit buying shit you don’t need. Lower your expenses as much as you can so that you can save money for when things get really shitty, or maybe so you can afford to live working less hours at your job, so that you have more hours in the week to work on your art.
I can only speak for myself here. I know I’m not the best artist, and I’m often doubtful about if I have what it takes. Yet, I can’t think of anything else I would want to do with my life. I know we need doctors, engineers, construction workers, teachers, software developers, grocery store managers, truck drivers, and the list goes on. Yet, none of those will make me happy. Maybe I’m stubborn.
No matter what decision you choose, you’re going to have to quit something. Are you going to quit your dreams of being an artist so that you can live comfortably working in a more stable industry? Or are you going to remember what got you into art in the first place, and decide to quit being a little bitch, and do your stuff?
The time for pussyfooting around is over. You need to make a decision.
I was rummaging through my hard drive, and came upon this horse model that I made a year ago. I’m not doing anything with it, I thought I would put it online for free. Why not? Its just a base mesh. If I’m going to sell something, its going to be of quality. Then I thought, that I should probably actually sell my Fire Hydrant Asset.
That’s good enough to sell. Let me just log onto the Unity Asset Store, and set it up. Then I remembered…
Taxes.
You can’t do anything these days without the government trying to get a piece. I suppose I could just start selling my stuff now, and deal with taxes on a personal level. Yet, I think it might be a good idea to register as a business first, that way I don’t get screwed over later. Looks like I wont be selling that Fire Hydrant just yet. I thought I would upload just the free horse model, that way I can get some more credibility for when I actually sell stuff. Yet in both the Unity Asset Store, as well as TurboSquid, they want information pertaining to your company. Since I don’t have one yet, and I don’t want to deal with the hassle of having to re-do things, and jumping through hoops trying to change names of everything, and possibly even having to make new accounts with the business email. I decided not to upload to either of those two places.
I thought it would be a good idea to do some one hour master studies (First image is a photo. I would like to give credit, but I don’t know who took it.)
I think part of the reason why I have a hard time drawing from imagination is because I don’t do enough drawing from reference. I’ve always felt weird about copying other people’s art, even if I do give credit. Yet, it seems that’s what all the really good people did to get where they are.
Black and white is so much easier than color.
Turns out that all the purple here is actually a desaturated red.
If I could go back in time and change one thing, it would be that I would have drawn a lot more when I was a kid. I kind of dabbled, but it was never really a priority. Then when I learned 3D modeling, I jumped on that. There seem to be 2 schools of thought when it comes to doing 3D. The first being that traditional drawing is a must. The 2nd being that traditional drawing although can be helpful, it isn’t exactly necessary. I believe the latter to be true if you were to focus solely on recreating things as realistically as possible. Just gather a bunch of reference photos, and go to town. You can make some great looking stuff!
Yet, what if you want to do something original? For that you need to have concept art. Concept art implies that the thing you are drawing doesn’t exist. So you must create a concept from your imagination. Its one thing to take a photo and copy it onto paper, yet its a completely different beast to recreate an idea from your head. When I try to draw from imagination, I get frustrated. I think I know what something looks like, yet when I actually put it down, half the time it looks like crap. Poses are stiff, proportions are off, and everything looks very generic. I haven’t built up my visual library. Sometimes I’ll draw random lines and squiggles. Then I can sometimes see things in there. Doing that is fun, as I can sometimes make cool characters from my subconscious. Its hit or miss though, because most of the time the paper is just a mess of scribbles.
Doing realistic stuff is easy. It just takes time.
I can do cartoony stuff too. Its just more difficult
The reason why I have a harder time doing the less realistic stuff, is because It simply doesn’t exist. I have to make it exist. Its hard, and I haven’t made imagination drawing a priority. Yes, I know that all good artists use reference, and even for concept art, reference is heavily used. I can even do realistic drawings from reference if given enough time
Yet, it’s one thing to copy a reference exactly, and another thing entirely to create something new from it.
Ok. That’s cool. a sort of Comic book esk human. Same pose, different clothing and hair. Ok, mix a bunch of references together and create something different.
But what about cartoon stuff? There are no references for that.
For the turtle, I sculpted him in 3D. I molded him as if he were clay, and then after making the basic shape, I then rebuilt the mesh to work for animation. I’m not saying I can’t do cartoony stuff. Just its harder. Starting in 3D works, but it would be better if I started on paper. I could design different versions, before deciding on the one I want to use. I can even draw him in different poses, and facial expressions, as well as in different environments. Starting on paper will give me much more flexibility. If I can get that down, then I will be unstoppable.
Remember a few posts back about a sketch a day? Well, that lasted a week. I need to be held accountable, and it looks like I’m not as hard on myself as I need to be. So I will put it in writing right here, that I will post at least something daily. Be it a sketch, a screenshot, or even a full animation. Monday will continue to be blog day. Yet, one day isn’t enough. I need to do more. I need to post more. I simply need to do.
Daily updates will be on facebook and my newly created Twitter
I didn’t forget about the turtle. Some cool stuff is going on with him, stay tuned.
Things are so hard. Going to work takes up so much of my time, and is holding me back in my life goals. Even a 5 hour shift takes up 7 hours of my day, because I need to get ready, ride my bike there, then ride back, and shower. Then on my days off, I am plagued with countless other responsibilities, such as getting groceries, doing laundry, and other stuff. Its hard to get stuff done. I just need to stick it out, and work on my graphics as much as I can in the time I do have. I belive that things are going to change soon, and then I can do this full time. I think of the life I want to live, and I believe its possible. I just need to get my hands dirty. So although life seems dark at times, its all going to work out if you keep going and don’t give up.
My friend talked me into doing a Patreon, and posting videos of my work. I should have been doing that a long time ago. My expenses are really low. If I can just get a couple hundred dollars from Patreon, that would be amazing. To do that, I need to reach a larger audience. Doing tutorials, and time-lapses of my work sounds like a great way to gain an audience. I’m already going to be working on stuff. I might as well record it, and then speed it up with some commentary so other people can watch and learn. I just need to find a better screen-capture software for it to work nicely. I found one that gets the job done, but it gets really distorted when there are a lot of movements on screen. That wont do for when I start doing animation tutorials, or when I show off gameplay for this game that I am working on.
I’m trying to re-learn C# for use in Unity, so I followed the ball rolling turoial on the Unity3D website. I threw in my old panda model, and Roman Legionary, just so I have something that looks better than a simple ball. These characters will not be in the game. I want to do this right, so I’m still in the concept art/ pre production phase. not to mention, I have 2 projects that I’m working on until the end of the year, what I can’t share too much about now. Come January, I hope to start actual production of my 3D Platformer game. (Yes, I was inspired by “Yooka-Laylee”, and “A Hat in Time” So sue me!)
I usually have to work at my day job on Saturdays. However, thanks to the holiday I had the day off. What better way to spend the day off than to make a game? The past couple of months I’ve been going to the Albuquerque Game Developers Guild. Here I have met a bunch of other artists and programmers. One programmer I met is Kurt Hollowell, of DogEatDog Games. He brought us to the attention of the Epic Game Jam. This is a 45 hour period to make a game off of a main theme, with various sub themes being released throughout the 45 hour period. That sounded like a fun thing to do on my day off.
The main theme was 90% water 10% evil 5% skin. We decided to do a simple game where we have a rag doll diver who tries to do flips before diving into the water. The game is designed for phone. You drag back on the diving board to launch the diver. You then swipe on the right side of the screen to control his arms, while swiping on the left to control his legs.
Kurt did all the programing for the game, while I did all the art assets. We threw in an old human model that I rigged up real quick, just for testing purposes. I originally intended to model a more cartoony guy, but time was short, so we just went with the test model. For the optional sub-themes which got released every couple of hours, I wanted to put them in the audience. I originally wanted to model each one in 3d, but since I only had a short time to work on it (Only part of Saturday, so I didn’t utilize the full 45 hours) I decided that drawing them to map onto planes would be a better option, so that we could get more sub-themes, and thus more Epic points. This is the Epic Game Jam after-all.
Here a link to the game to check out for yourself!
I have a hard time drawing from imagination. I want to come up with fun cartoon characters, but I struggle with that. I believe I’m better at realism using lots of reference, yet its the cartoon stuff that I really want to do.
“I wonder how they make video games. You press buttons, and something does something.”
As a kid I was obsessed with video games. (and Mexican food) Even now my family still jokes about the huge blisters I would get on my thumb. (I swear, they are from street fighter! You have to slide your thumb all over the D pad. There is no way to do the moves without getting blisters!)
Countless hours were sunk into playing Super Nintendo, and Nintendo 64. The Donkey Kong Country series probably took up the majority of my time as a kid. Then when 3D gaming came around, (being a Nintendo kid) I played Super Mario 64, Zelda, Diddy Kong Racing, and of course Banjo Kazooie.
I would get sucked into these games. The outside world disappeared, and all that existed was me and the game. I was in a new world.
When the GameCube and Playstation 2 days came, I didn’t get my hands on either of those systems for a while, as they were expensive. I would play them at friend’s houses, and I did eventually get a PS2 and a GameCube after they have been out for a few years. Getting the systems so late means I had such a vast library to choose from. There were some great gems in this generation. One of my favorites being the Ratchet and Clank series. I also loved GTA, Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, Zelda and a bunch of Shooters. There were some great games! Yet, something seemed off. I still had loads of fun with these games, but there was something missing. I wasn’t getting that feeling that I used to have. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was.
When the next Gen came out with PS3, XBox 360, and Nintendo Wii, I found that I wasn’t really as into games like I used to be. I would still play my old games, and I found I had even more fun than I did when I would go to a friend’s house and play on their fancy new systems. Used games were where it was at. I didn’t really care much for the newer ones, as they seemed to feel empty. They lost their magic. Something about the older games in the SNES and N64 Era made them in my eyes superior to all the new ones. I was also a bit sad to see what happened with Banjo Kazooie turning into a car game. What happened Rare?
Eventually I decided to get a Ps3. Honestly, I wasn’t even that excited to play it. The only reason I bought it was because since I was trying to get into 3D animation, I should at least play some newer games. One of the first games I got was Ratchet and Clank for the system. It was fun, but it still felt like a chore at times. The other game I got, Final Fantasy 13 was a big letdown. Games just aren’t the same anymore. They used to be about fun and colorful worlds with interesting characters, and fun music. Now they are all (for the most part) realistic shooters trying to one up each other. The fun music has turned into epic orchestral scores (which are nice, but they feel superficial)
I got rid of my Ps3 because I wasn’t playing it, and it was taking up space. The only games I would play are very few PC games, (since I already had a good PC for doing graphics) Mostly StarCraft, Elder Scrolls, Unreal tournament, Minecraft, and eventually League of Legends. PS4, Xbox One, and Wii U came out, and I didn’t really care. Consoles are expensive, and lately games have been boring. I’ll just stick to the occasional PC game. Also, I’m an adult now. I don’t have time to be playing games. I work as a janitor, while trying to pursue my dream. Which means I work 80 to 90 hours a week, with only 30 to 40 of that time I even get paid for. I just don’t have the time to be playing games.
Being as busy as I am, I miss a lot of things. Browsing the internet on my phone (oh how far we’ve come) before bed, I come across an interesting game with a Chameleon and a Bat. hmm.. This looks eerily familiar. The art direction was beautiful, and so were the character design. Only, it looked too close to one of my old favorites Banjo Kazooie. I dug a little deeper. and found out that the people who were behind my favorite games as a kid, have quit Rare and founded Playtonic Games so that they can make games like they used to. I was ecstatic to find that the key players in all my old favorites still hold on to their passion after all these years, and they were suppressed by higher ups to do what they truly love. This Chameleon and Bat game isn’t a ripoff of Rare’s Banjo Kazooie. This is made by the same exact people who made my favorite games as a kid! Steve Mayles, Chris Sutherland, Steven Hurst, Mark Stevenson, and others. Not only that, but they have the same music composers. David Wise, and Grant Kirkhope. This seems too good to be true!
Rare the company owns the license, but it is these people who are the brains behind these games. So for obvious reasons they can’t use the IP Banjo Kazooie. Its sad that the actual creators can’t expand on their own creation, but its understandable. In a way however, this can be freeing as they are no longer tied down to past lore and expectations. This gives them the opportunity to experiment, and bring something new to the table. These people have the experience to make the best games ever, and it seems they are on their own now, so they can do just that again. Its a Rare-vival of one of the best game dev teams the world has seen.
17 years ago in 4th grade, I wrote in my class journal
“I wonder how they make video games. You press buttons, and something does something.”
In the picture I drew an N64, but I distinctly remember that I had Donkey Kong Country for SNES on my mind when I wrote that. It was also 3 months after the release of Banjo Kazooie which I was obsessed with. Back then I had no idea how games were even made. How do you make 3D objects and characters? How do they move? How does pressing a button, make a character on your TV do stuff? It was magic! 17 years later and I am experienced in making 3D game objects and animations. I’m not a programmer, but I have programmed a few simple things, and I even have a basic understanding of how physical objects can have digital data written on them, and how simple on off switches can come together in such complex and beautiful ways. Those old Rare games have set me on the path that I am on today, and although the journey never ends, I am very close to making it.
These people have made games that were so magical that they shaped me into the person I am, and every game I play to this day is compared to these. They are the standard. These same people have broken from the shackles of the big studio to go back to basics. Make good games. I feel like a kid all over again. I haven’t been this excited for a game in years! Maybe the game will flop. I am well aware of that possibility. Maybe the only reason I am so excited, is because I want to be excited. I want to feel that magic again. Maybe I am hyping myself up just for hype sake. I don’t know. What I do know is that I haven’t felt like this in years, and it is refreshing. Not only am I wanting to explore the world that these guys are creating, but I am inspired to create my own world. Yes, I’ve been doing 3D graphics for several years, but most of that time has been uninspired. I feel a surge of creativity. I want to create my own world! Not just random game objects. Not just cool animations, or characters. No. I want to create an entire universe. I want reach down, to that magic that has laid dormant all these years, and let it burn. I want others to feel that magic too.
For a full asset pack, I can’t simply have a large quantity of models. they need to be of quality. So far the scene looks OK as a whole. Only when an object is singled out is when you see how simple everything really is. I have been focusing more on the whole, and not enough on the parts. I believe this is what is holding it back. I need to make each object a standalone piece. I need to model a high poly version first, to bake normals onto the low poly. Every edge needs to be beveled.
From far away this trashcan looks good. Up close you see how simple it really is.
this is no good. The edges are too sharp, and the texture isn’t good enough. Yes there are white scuff marks on the edges, but they need to be much more deliberate. I can do better.
I am going to have to completely redo the trashcan. It does serve its pourpose at the moment as a great standin. So far everything is a standin, as they are not up to my standards. For this pack, I will also need a lot of vegetation. I am still experimenting with different ways to do plants. For now I will finish the Fire Hydrant. I intend to sculpt the detail into it. Rust, dirt, texture. Then bake those normals. I may even do vertex painting on my high poly model to bake into a texture on the low poly.
Bryan Tenorio 