jmiran20’s blog

Day of Reality

This week was a very important week. We got in time and ate the food that they had there in the lobby. Then we went straight to work. When Eric came by we just started talking about the industry and what you should have in your portfolio when applying for a job. It was crazy because it took my idea of the industry and turned it upside down. What I thought about the industry and how Eric was describing it was totally different from what I expected. The first thing he told us was get out of Georgia. He said that if you what a good start in the industry you have to go to LA, San Francisco, Chicago and Texas. I asked about over sea industries, he said that was good to do especially now that companies are uprooting and transferring to other places and just leaving their home base in the states. The one thing he told us about applying for a job is to have one AWSOME piece. He said that usually interviews are very short and so they are looking for a short show with wonder. He also said that early on it’s a good decision to decide upon to be a level designer or character designer. He said you have to know what your good at and excel. He gave us so much information it was mind boggling. Then after that the head lead of the character department came over to check out our models. I wanted him to take a look at Tragos my Capricorn priest. He really liked it, he said they only thing was to fix the poly count that there were some edges that were really not necessary. After that we went back to work on our light fixtures. I finished baking one light but the other is giving me trouble.

Notes

•  Always bring prints of your work it’s a good safe way, sometimes bad things can happen to technology
• Bring your laptop to an interview and have the presentation ready
• RESEARCH YOUR COMPANY
• BE ON TIME!!!!! be sure to have loads of time to spare if anything were to go wrong
• be willing to jump ship if the opportunity of a life time is presented
• Don’t be annoying in an interview
• A book to get “How to Get a Job In Computer Animation” by Ed Harriss                             ISBN # 0-9743230-0-4
• Make friends not enemies, you never know who is going to be your head in the next job
• For Animation the poly count should be 18000
• For in game the poly count 9000-8000
• HiRez base mesh 5000
• some details will not seen, concentrate on the details that will have a close up
• Keep snapped!!!
• sometimes its better to start all over

Day of Batch Baking

This week was a normal work week. we got in and for the first time the food was not there yet we wondered if the food was eaten already. However then we saw the poeple waiting for the food to come and camping out in the lobby. it was kinda of funny. After we ate i showed Eric the sofa concepts. i tried this time to show a more finalized concepts. He loved the concept and he wanted me to model it in sections. He even said to bring the sofa cushions in ZBrush to make a leather texture for the normal maps. So that is one more thing to model. Also this week i got to do the batch bake for my light fixtures, WOW that was very difficult. I need a whole load of practice.

Tech Notes

• keep snapped!!- when baking it will push out all the vertices and if the vertices are not snapped they will be pushed beyond belief and distorted
• be sure to work on layers cause sometimes the smoothed high poly can make the screen go slower if their a lot of model on the screen
• sometimes its easier to start all over
• Batch bake.  go to rendering -> lighting/shading -> Transfer maps
• set the low poly and then the high poly as the source map. check your geometry by changing the display on envelope and check if your high poly pokes through
• then place the normal map in the place you want and change the file into targa and make the size of the file to 2048
• check the normal map on PS to make sure the normal map is good enough
• sometimes beveling creases will help but be very careful not to make bad geometry

Day of Cleaning

This week we left a bit later than usually because Micheal and I had a make up class. So we arrived late and we went straight to work. I started on a blue print of the waiting room design, for the concepts I’m making for Eric. I had about 5 other concepts but I did not have them on me so I showed Eric the ones I drew. He liked one of the them and said to keep working on them. I kept working on my light fixture to make the geometry as clean as possible. Eric said my geometry is a bit messy so I’m trying to fix the problem. We worked late this week. Pretty much everyone had left.

Notes

• keep everything snapped
• mirror geometry tool even mirrors UVs
• Keep an eye on extrudes, they tend to make bad geometry
• Always keep the seem of the UVs in a place where no one can see
• Keep switching from perspective view and orthographic to keep the vertices together
• When inserting edge loops DO NOT PUT THEM CLOSE TO THE EDGE because, one it is a pain to fix and two when making a hi rez model the edges, one become too sharp and two they start making these funny edge creases
• Keep switching from ( 1 ) hard edge view and ( 3 ) smooth view to check if you have missed any edge loops

Day of Judgment

This week we found out what we got as grades. I got a B on overall. I was a bit disappointed but I understood. Eric said that I did not have the best geometry and my concepts were good but the needed to be more finalized. It is funny, that I rely on teachers so much in SCAD. I’m very use to having teachers being picky and strict and telling me whats wrong and what is right. Here in Hi Rez you have to be your own judge. Eric is the final judge though, it has to be the designer who has to be strict and meticulous. This is what really makes the difference between a good and a great designer.

We went to Hi Rez and dropped our bags, signed in our computers and went to the food. When we got to the food there was nothing. It was crazy it must have been good. The only thing left was the coleslaw and bread. So i made a coleslaw sandwich, which was not bad. We went back to work and Eric came to us. We talked about different programs and how maya is the middle man in the industry of modeling. Eric mentioned a program that used nurbs to create everything, it is used for car modeling. I mentioned, how I could improve in my geomerty and he just said to practice and be very meticulous. I also asked if there was anymore concept things I could do and so he gave me another conpet project. He gave me the waiting room to work on. He sent me a snap shot of the room to work from. This week we left on time because I had to pack cause I was off to Miami at 7:00 in the moring the next day.

Notes

• Keep in mind to keep the design interesting in all angles, switch from different views to check out the design. Remember players will be seeing the model from a front, side, back and under view of the model
• keep snapped
• when fixing geometry the split geometry tool is a savior.
• When fixing be sure to have no hidden vertices lingering
• The cleanest geometry is all composed of rectangles and squares
• it is better to clean the low rez model and make a high rez then the other way around

Day of Routine

We left SCAD a little later than I expected, but arrived in good timing. By this time we are getting used to the schedule of the whole Hi-Rez team. By the time we arrive at Hi-Rez it is already lunch time. By 4:00 its time for game play. Pretty much the whole team goes to game play. At 5:00 people are leaving, and at 7:00 no one is there except a few people who are trying to finish up their work. This week I worked more on my lights. I textured and uved my lights. Eric came and explained about making projections for small details instead of modeling crevasses or nail bumps or anything. Michael finally made a normal map by baking. YEAH!! All of us were very into our projects that we totally forgot about the time and left around 6:30.

Notes

- make sure everything is on a slant because when making a normal map by baking, it will be doing so on a orthographic view.

- many edge loops in making the hi rez version of the light

- bridge tool is very helpful when closing two open holes.

Edit Mesh –> Bridge –> linear path –> Offset 5 or 4

- building something very symmetrical the mirror geometry tool is a savior. by making a quarter of the item and then mirroring the quarter to half of the object. then repeat to complete

- uv will help to find edges that are not wanted or vertices that the cleanup had not found

- when making details for your texturing. instead of modeling the details like crevasses or stickers or control box. you just make a projection with the poly plan. by modeling on the plan and by making a normal map and attaching it to your normal maps on the main body. This way a designer starts building a library of many small details.

Day of Modeling

This week we left on time and got there on time. Were getting very good at getting there. We dropped our things and ate with everyone at the company. We later went to work. I worked on my light fixtures that Eric liked. The other guys had a lot of problems with their normals maps. they tried so many times and did not get the best normal maps. Finally Eric came to explain the problem. He said it was that when making the envelope you have to match the low rez to the high rez as close as possible. I listened Eric but it was hard to understand when you are to far behind. To be behind has its benefits and its down falls. Down falls are you never understand what people are talking about and benefits you do not make the mistakes that the other people have done and they get to help you out.

Notes

• keep snapped
• Mirror tool helps to create other halves of your geometry
• the move tool and press X snaps the vertices to the grid and V to a fellow vertice near by
• Automatic mapping for the UVs is SO MUCH easier than planner mapping
• make sure your UVs are facing the same way

Day of Good Work

This week was an excellent week. Eric told us to bring in concepts for the light fixtures in the coal mines of Global Agenda. I had woken early that day to draw out concepts and the night before I had went to bed late drawing out concepts. I presented my ideas and Eric liked the ones that I drawn the night before. So Andy and Michael took the design and played off of the concept that I had made. I still worked on the tutorial finishing the light fixture. I finally opened unreal for the first time, I was shocked how user friendly it was. Michael had to show me the basics, how to toggle and use the brush tool and etc. When I finally finished my light fixture on the tutorial I worked on my concept of the light fixture for the coal mine.

Notes

· Keep all the vertices snapped to the grid measurements

· All base mesh files are named with ASE_

· To join 2 normal maps and keeping  their levels  Hi-Rez uses a plug-in  by Rod Green Project Set Team www.rodgreen.com/?p=4

· To load the plug-in go to Action in PS. Go to Load Action then Offset Action and then load the action by clicking the play button on the window. This will bounce  the levels in both layers joining them.

· All textures  are Targa files

· For the Color Mask Texture in Hi-Rez they shrink it to 128pix

· For Specular, open the diffuse texture, open the channels of the diffuse and make an alpha channel. On your specular layer go to the red channel and copy and paste on the diffuse alpha layer you made and save

· All texture files start with T_

· There are four textures every mesh should have

Diffuse – DIF

Ambient Occlusion – AO

Normal Map – NRM

Color Masking – MASK

· Exporting meshes in Hi-Rex they use the Unreal Action Exporter  (UT3)

· When ready to export click the UT3 and check every box except the (no popup confirmations) and the (concert underscores to spaces)

· In unreal import all the textures and the mesh

· Right click scroll to New Material and name the file MAT_(the name of the object)

· The Material Editor of unreal pops up, you have to click onto one of your textures and then click on the material editor and file Texture SampleParameter2D connect the window to your plug in

· And the name the material MAT_(the texture)

Day of Wonder

This week we came in on time and I felt great, unlike the last week. Also the banquet of food was not inside this time but outside. It was a huge thing that was happening. We all wanted to go and party too but we knew better and we went inside to work. We got to our stations and went off to work on our tutorials which are very long though very useful. Eric came a little later to tell us how to connect to the network of Hi Rez. He told us to go into the levels and check out the basic design and then he told us what were going to do after the tutorials. We have to design the light fixtures of the coal mines. So he told us to bring concepts the next week we come in. He also told us to take screen shots of the levels to be inspired and to keep up with the style of the game. He showed us the other designs Hi Rez did and how they did not work, he told us that he did not want a design that has a direct light source, he wanted a light fixture that pushes the light a against a wall or roof to get reflected light. Micheal was the first to open up the levels on Unreal. They were GORGEOUS!!! They  really worked hard on making really pretty levels. There was one level that all our mouths drops, which it was a mountain level with spaceships. it had a sunrise (or sun set… i don’t know) and the lighting would reflect off the spaceships and it was gorgeous, it really was.

Notes

• After the UVs are done you make the Hi Rez mesh. First you make a duplicate of the Low Rex then you load it up with Edge Loops and then smooth the whole mesh.
• Then You make a Medium Rez of the Low and make it with half the amount of Edge Loops
• Finally to Bake The Hi Rez onto the Low Rez to produce Awesome Normal Maps.
• When Baking make an envelope so you can see the parts where the shape curves and check if the Low Rez does the same.
• Keep the geometry clean
• Then you bake the Medium Rez onto your Low
• Create lights to produce your ambient maps for your light
• Save as Targa

The Day of Dread

On the first day to Hi-Rez I woke up with a splitting headache and not feeling good to my stomach. It was horrible how I felt and knew I had to get better quickly. I ate half a bagel and lots and lots of water, how I lived to regret that decision. Andy and I waited for Michael at the school for a few minutes and then we were off on our adventure. We had arrived to our destination when all of sudden the urge of going to the bathroom hit. I could not believe on the most important day of my young career this would have to happen. I thought that when we entered the building the secretary would be there to let us in if we had emergency, though I was wrong. We all sat on the seat in the lobby for a few minutes which then turned into a half an hour then to an hour. By this time I was melting on my seat, my bladder was on its countdown to explode. It was not until the secretary of the lobby finally came and gave us our access keys did I final go rushing to the bathroom.

After I was relieved we waited out on the lobby for a few more minutes more, and then finally a very tall relaxed man, named Eric came and lead the way to the studio. Before we entered the studio, we passed a banquet of food. By this time the bagel I had eaten had already been digested, I needed food again. Eric saw our hungry face and offered for us to eat, however we politely declined.

I was dragging my feet towards the doors until Eric showed us the studio. In that second I totally forgot about the banquet, the vending machine and the candy bar in my car. It was incredible, the concept drawings on the walls, the game testing room and the people walking back and forth discussing different approaches to the game. He led us to our working area and assigned our computer seats. He discussed a bit about the game and then he set us up to begin the training. I got so wrapped up into the tutorials I totally forgot about the time. The time flew, when suddenly, hunger hit me. I had a snack, but it was not enough. It was already 5 o’clock and so it was time to go. We all decided to stay another half an hour to finish and complete the things we were working on. Even though the day started as a disaster, in the end it turned out to be great.

Notes

• Different camera settings and grid settings. Keep everything organized.

• Mel script : move -rpr -ws 0 0 0;

rotate -r 0 180 0;

axmesh

this code will center your mesh to the origin and will center your pivot when your exporting to UT3 Editor. Basically keeping everything organized and all meshes done by every employ with the same settings.

• merge vertex tool. — A new tool in Maya 2009 that a person can select a vertex and then click another vertex to merge them.

• Edge Loop tool. — If you go to the option box of this tool, you can check the Multiple Edge Loop option box and set it to 1 and the Edge Loop Tool will place an edge loop in the exact center of two edge loops.
• Hi Rez begins with a Low Rez model and then they construct a Hi Rez model to transfer over an awesome normal map to the Low Rez. before they load the low rez mesh with edge loops to make a hi rez they first complete the UVs of the Low Rez
• Hi Rez concentrates the UVs on the side of objects that will be seen by the audience. Since we were doing a light fixture we concentrated on the low half that will be seen by the audience.