Rigging is a pain but the animation turned out okay. It took me all day to get the rig set up for this guy. I admit that I may have gone a little overboard with the rig, but I was hoping to only have to visit the rig for this model once. The is intended to be a “spawn” animation for when the player drops one of these on the map. It’s very rough, but it should hold for now.
Pew Pew Pew!
Sitting at my PC, I looked over to find an untouched box. It had been there since Fathers Day; an unopened “gag” gift from my wife. Little did I know that the real gag was in putting it together.
I thought for sure that a child’s toy would be something that I could do while I leaned back in my chair, piecing bits together between pages loading from my favorite websites. I could not be more wrong.
About an hour; and 77 pieces, later I finally put these two little guys together. I am half tempted to smother them in crazy glue to ensure that they never come apart again. I will say this much, it was kind of therapeutic.
It isn’t often that I get to do things that don’t involve an LCD screen and 101 keys. I force myself into the outdoors often for manual labors such as mowing the lawn, but in rare occasions I do try to get into the garage and piece together something more puzzle-like such as a bird house or bookshelf. There is something very gratifying about nearly sanding off your finger prints and waiting for the wood stain to slowly fade from your hands; especially when most days are spent pushing down on ergonomically spring loaded keys from a chair that looks more like a plaster mold of your back side.
Concept Turret
I do find myself sometimes lost in the brainstorming processes. I know, this is supposed to be the fun part right?!? It is fun, but I get more satisfaction from working on something tangible. I guess you could say that I am a bit jaded (never been one to disagree with that statement) and the brainstorming process is a place that I’d rather not be.
If you are brainstorming then it means that you have no clue what you are going to do next and that is just scary. I have worked on so many start up projects with countless people and it never gets past the brainstorming phase. Everyone has their own vision for what they want, everyone wants to make their own game, everyone knows what is best for the team. It’s kind of fun to stand back and watch it all unfold like a popcorn flick, but after a few dozen of these it’s time to put that movie down.
In between my small but necessary brainstorming phases, I like to pause and try to work on 1 or 2 pieces of content that I am fairly certain I will need for the next project. It helps me break up my many responsibilities between the modeling, texture mapping, painting, sound design, engine and game programming, special effects programming, and everything else. Somehow I have to make time for all of them and I rarely have time for pipe dreams.. *cough* I mean, brainstorming. I guess I am a little down on the concept of brainstorming because I’m only “really” good at programming, and just barely keeping my head above the wake on everything else.
I hate to not be good at something, but I just don’t have the time for all of it. Still, every now and then I seem to find the inspiration to do something that I am remotely proud of; today it was a turret that I plan on using for my next project (if that ever comes together).
Yes, I have started a new project. It’s been a while since I’ve had the fire in my gut; Seizonrenda’s complete failure on XBLIG was a crushing blow for me. I am still debating exactly what platform to shoot for in this next game, or if I should even use XNA. If I do go the XBLIG route again, I think I’ll have to keep my target audience in mind and accept that I may not be 100% happy with a $1-$3 game design, but I’ll do my best…
…wait did I just brainstorm? damn!
I spent some time this weekend trying to get Maya to render it’s lighting to a texture. There are countless resources out there for baking Direct Lighting or Ambient Occlusion but if you are looking to get Final Gather into your texture, the information tapers quickly. I did find one way to make it happen, but it’s far from ideal. This technique is only useful if you plan to render a simple model with local lighting, like a small detail object or vignette. If you want to bake an entire scene this would get ugly…
Any baking that you do here (and in your preview renders) will reference the frozen file that you pre-constructed.
I won’t get into the details of how to bake because there are plenty of in-depth video tutorials on this part. I only wanted to show that it is possible to use final gather in your light maps. This approach however is not suited for large environment light baking…
Animated GIF with no ghosting alpha
This is short blog to remind myself how to do this. The steps are easy, but the arguments are a little tough to remember. The important thing to remember is parameters are processed in the order that they are parsed.
I don’t get it… We go to the doctor when we are sick. We go to a car care center when we are having car trouble. We go to specialists whenever we are dealing with something that is clearly beyond our intelligences or window of time. Sure I can change the oil in my car but it would make a mess all over my driveway, cost me $100 in supplies and take me half the day. Or I can take it into the shop and have my car back in under an hour. This is something that we all accept, that we don’t know everything or simply don’t have the time in our lives to care about every little detail that spans the vastness of earth. This basic human law holds up right until you cross into politics, where suddenly everyone is an expert.
I recently posted a link about a well intended movement. As popular as it has been, I am sure that you’ve seen it already. http://www.change.org/petition
For some reason, individuals came down on my post like Hellfire. Yes, over an online community petition created by a non-lawmaker as a suggestion to review our current laws on this matter; this is thing that you want to get puffy about?!?
I hate that when it comes to politics, everyone has “the answer”. I honestly do believe that it is something that is taught to us, not something that we have inherent within us. We don’t grow up with an obsessed need to push our own views onto others, or insist that there is only one way. We don’t grow up with a growing sense of ownership over every idea that is pushed into our heads, we are raised that way; there is a difference. I was one of the lucky ones. I was raised in a home where politics was never a topic of discussion and we were free to accept that perhaps there is a little truth in both sides. I was blessed to be raised with an open mind and understand that not all intentions are bad.
For those who think that the law can be perfect for everyone, and not just your own person gain, I pity you. If a building was burning down and you only had time to save your wife or your child who would you save? There are thousands of moral questions beyond the severity of saving the life of just one person and lawmakers are forced to make the hard choices every day. So for the sake of all that is holy in your life, stop pretending that you know everything about politics. If you did, you wouldn’t be playing armchair politician, you would be out there trying to make a difference even if it meant moving to a small town where you had a chance to win your way into office.
To those who wish to fight about politics; I don’t come to your house and tell you how to wipe your back side, so stop telling the people around you about your strongly suggestive and baseless arguments about how the world should be. We have people who have dedicated their lives to specializing in lawmaking, so stop thinking that you are any better at their job.
I’ve been away from my PC for a few days now. I sometimes like to take time away to rethink, reevaluate my current situation. It’s no surprise to any loyal readers that the months of March through May are always tough for me. It’s a recurring theme I suppose you could say.
The funny part of this entry is that; after 1 month of no entries and a long time to think. What you are reading is all I have to say. I did write pages and pages of outlandish ramblings. I did write paragraphs that detailed my woes. The problem is that it all seemed like a garbled mess of thoughts. More importantly, that is how I feel; a garbled mess of thoughts.
I haven’t been able to focus since closing the company. XBLIG has proven to be useless as a business model that only serves hobbyists and one-man-army development houses. PC has never been a platform that has brought me fortune. On top of it all, I have struggled with the same stupid problem for nearly a decade if not more. I have never gotten over the art hump.
As much as I love to be in the company of others, I am not what most people would call a social butterfly. I dislike small talk, often forgoing the usual rituals of conversation. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy an engaging conversation. It’s just that most conversations I don’t find to be very engaging. With that said, it is difficult to find a compatible development partner. It has become so difficult, in fact, that I’ve simply given up. After 10 years, I have officially reached the definition of insanity…
On a gaming forum, someone made a comment that I found to be fairly personal. We were debating some fairly well known issues that programmers and artists don’t generally see eye-to-eye. No surprise there. I have however always prided myself in being on equal ground with every member of my development team, be it programmer or artist. I have a huge respect for the amazing work that each person puts forth, the sacrifices they make to reach the level of skill that they have. I know this because I have done the same. I have worked very hard, my entire adult life, to be a better person than the man I was the day before. It is exhausting some days, but what this person said to me made me pause. It affected me more than I thought it would have. She implied that if things aren’t working out after countless tries that, “maybe it’s you.”
There are some things that you just can’t change. Personality is like an incurable disease, it’s something that you are born with. It can be managed with proper treatment but it will never go away. Perhaps my quirks have played a larger role in my life than I am aware of.
Her words were harsh, and crossed the line of debate into personal attacks. Normally I brush off the trolls but I fear that she is probably right. I had convinced myself that; in all these years, it was just bad luck, poor matches, and incompatible personalities. Maybe the answer is much simpler than chemistry, maybe it’s just me.