Thursday, August 15, 2013

Final Stretch

Click HERE to see a turntable render of the helmet on my Vimeo channel.




Getting close to finished with this helmet. I'm in the optimization stage now where all that's really left to do is to boil it down so it meets the required polygon counts. I did all the UV mapping, but the texture is a standardized texture provided by SOE. I have to say this has been a really fun and rewarding project and I'm looking forward to doing more. I would encourage anybody with even a passing interest to get on board with SOE's player studio. It's a great way to work on your skills, get involved with players and you can even make money off your work.

9 comments:

MrGoodson2 said...

Outstanding. A great piece. Wouldn't surprise me if it leads to work. Spread it around.

Surly Bird said...

Thanks, Ellis! I certainly would love for that to happen. I really think this is the best kind of portfolio piece or art test. What's great is that I also feel like I'm a partner in a business model that makes a lot of sense to me.

I've gotten great guidance from both Tramell Isaac, the A.D. on Planetside, and the players who have also been really enthusiastic about my work. The've given some great constructive criticism, too. I really have enjoyed the collaborative spirit of this and I love that it's mutually beneficial - everybody wins with this development model.

MrGoodson2 said...

I remember a long time ago, your entry into games was by a build your own character in some sophisticated multi player game. You've come a huge distance but it's interesting that this is akin to that first game enthusiasm.

Tom Moon said...

Yeah, looks great Ronnie. Wouldn't it be great if you came back to SOE San Diego via this route?

Davis Chino said...

Ronnie!! Dude, this looks super. And I'm not just saying that 'cuz of the oh-so-believable lighting.

Have you looked into doing some tutorials for CG Circuit online? This is a site run by a friend of Ellis and mine...it's a very legit thing, and they've been going gangbusters...and it can make you some $$!! I believe you'd be a great video presence.

http://www.cgcircuit.com/ Check it out!

Surly Bird said...

Thanks for the comments, everybody. Tom, it would be great. I'd love to see everybody down there again and would love to be on any project down there. SOE seems to really be firing on all cylinders and it's exciting to see where you guys are going.

Marty, I have actually thought of doing some training. I had an idea about doing some Blender training awhile back and have a friend up here who has done some training for Skillshare and had mostly positive things to say about the experience. I'll look in to CG Circuit. Had not heard of it before, but I'm intrigued.

Surly Bird said...

And...just submitted to the helmet to SOE. Here's hoping it passes muster. :)

Rickart said...

I have no doubt it will pass muster. :)
How long does the review process take?

Surly Bird said...

I'm not sure about the length of time, Rick. When you submit your work, there's a staged process it has to go through before it's accepted into the game. You can check your progress online. My files passed the initial validity test, meaning I submitted everything in the right format, correctly named, etc.

From what I've read and what I've seen in game, someone on the art team will have to add a second UV channel to the helmet to add detail normals to each asset submitted (including my helmet). We submit our files as an .OBJ, but .OBJ doesn't support multiple UV channels. Sounds like there will eventually be a forthcoming update to the process which will make that possible.