I always enjoy a chance to look over a list of recommended books and add a few to my amazon wishlist. So, I thought it would be a good idea to look over at my favorites on the bookshelf and write a list for the site here.
These are the top three (or 6, depending on how you look at it) books that I’ve returned to after I’ve finished them, and the books with the most to offer to a game artist:
I recently gave a short talk on Photoshop Custom Brushes here at EA Mythic (I might post about that another time). I started off talking about stylization and ended up rambling for quite a while. I think the subject is big enough to deserve a post.
What I’m going to say here has been said before by many others and probably said much better. But, this version is focused squarely on how stylization relates to games. What I’m interested in is how to make a game more attractive and make it cheaper to produce with a single style.
EDIT (2011): Re-reading this four years later, I don’t hold the same opinion anymore. Somewhere along the line during this generation of consoles, artists began placing equal weight on the value of environment art, and it shows. Game worlds in this generation have been beautiful, believable and immersive.
It’s the most common division of labor amongst game artists today. In my experience, there is a distinct skill imbalance in favor of character artists. Â They’re what students and hobbyists almost always are, and so the best artists get to choose to keep working on characters. The best of the rest get to do something else, most often environment art.
I still have big hopes for Steam, but I think we will have to wait a few years to see all of the great changes it can bring to the industry.
When Steam debuted, I saw a future where developers get more creative control about what kinds of games to make and when to ship them. I envisioned a time where developers sold directly to their customers, reaping big rewards. I saw the opportunity for big time developers to make games that aren’t forced to be sized up for retail, especially if they have some great gameplay that doesn’t hold up past 5 hours of play. I even considered that piracy could be eliminated if you require a customer to login to your distribution channel to play.
So, I’m starting this site up primarily as a new place to put my portfolio, but I also hope that I’ll find the words to say a few things about the game industry. To get things started, I’m going to post a few images here. More can be found in the gallery link above.
This is Roland, a character from Stephen King’s Dark Tower books. I made him in my spare time over about 6 months, although I probably only worked about 2 hours a week on average (~50 hours total). I did a high poly model in Max and Zbrush, and textured in Photoshop. All of the shots are real-time using J.I. Styles’ Max Viewport Soft Skin shader. The shader notably lacks any kind of shadowing.
Edgeloops were cut into the lowpoly model in order to have visible creasing in the facial expressions
All shots of this character are screengrabs of the Max viewport using a realtime shader.
The shots would look a lot better if the shader included self-shadowing
Roland from Stephen King’s Dark Tower books.
High poly model. Max and Zbrush – 80% complete.
High poly model. Max and Zbrush – 80% complete.
Head texture flats.
