Monday, June 21, 2010
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Working on Games vs Working on Films
Working on Games vs Working on Films
An Artist’s Perspective
Jeremy Cantor ~ Character Animation Supervisor ~ Sony Imageworks
Keep in mind that the ideas and opinions below are merely based on the experiences of a single artist and are not meant to be regarded as hard and fast rules. Remember that all rules have exceptions.
Variety vs Focus
During the course of a game production, you often get to wear many hats. You might find yourself doing any number of the following: character & vehicle design, modeling, texture mapping, background painting, character setup, FX animation, character animation and perhaps even level design and box cover art.
In the films industry, you are usually pigeon-holed into a single discipline for the duration of a production. This singular focus has the advantage of accelerating your improvement in a specific skill- set, but the lack of variety can become tedious.
Many VFX companies offer their employees the opportunity to “try out” for different departments between projects.
And of course, the variety in your work very often depends on the size of the company and production. Smaller companies and productions tend to expect wider skill-sets from their artists.
Creativity
In general, working on a game will give an individual artist more creative input than that of a film production.
On the higher-profile film productions, individual artists usually have very little if any creative input.
In games, the opinions of even the most junior members of a team will usually be given as much consideration as the lead designers or company presidents.
On a film production, however, an animator’s great idea often gets lost in a hierarchical maze once it gets filtered through the sequence lead, the animation supervisor, the visual effects supervisor, the producers, the director, and the director’s on-set psychic advisor.
The last game company I worked for had a great saying:
“The idea doesn’t care where it came from”.
I rarely see such a philosophy in the film industry.
Who’s Leading the Charge?
When an artist works on a visual effects shot, he is basically leading the charge.
It is a VISUAL effects shot after all. The technicians are generally there to support the art on such shots. Many times, it’s the character performance that is telling the story of the shot. Modelers, physiquers, programmers, cloth/hair/particle FX artists, lighters, compositors, rotoscopers more or less follow the lead of the animator.
In games, however, the art/animation always plays second fiddle to the design & programming. When a game artist has an aesthetic reason for wanting to make an asset larger, but the programmer has game-play and memory reasons for wanting it smaller, guess who wins? Many games contain some really outstanding visuals, but when you get right down to it, the art/animation in a video game is really just a glorified status report. It is pretty much there to tell you the condition of your character and whether or not you’re wining. Simply improving the art in a game rarely improves the game experience, unless doing so directly adds to the realism and immersive quality of the experience.
Is Tetris more fun when the blocks are 3-dimensional and cast shadows?
The visuals in games are indeed very important, but they always take a back seat to game-play.
Technical Restrictions
In games, the artist will work within a box of technical restrictions, including polygon count, number of joints, frame rate, texture resolution and memory. Film artists have less technical restrictions (but often more creative restrictions). These technical restrictions force game artists to tackle what we call constraint-based-design, which often demands a higher level of creative problem solving prowess.
Technical Knowledge
Game artists are generally expected to be technically savvy.
It’s easier to get away with being 100% right-brained in the films industry.
Innovation
The science of interactivity is still in its infancy. Knowing just what makes a game fun is still an evasive target. A good plot with well developed characters, solid acting, strong cinematography, intelligent directing, appropriate music, and decent FX will result in a good movie. The same rules do not apply in games. Make a strong plot and interesting characters for a video game, and junior will usually just ask you which buttons to press. A game must be easy enough to be fun yet difficult enough to be challenging. This is a fine line to walk and there are no formulas that can be implemented to arrive at a perfect balance between these two extremes. Game-play must be constantly tested and evaluated. Games offer more opportunities for experimentation. However, they also offer a lot of opportunities for failure. Films often fail as well, but it’s generally easier to figure out why.
Attention to Detail
Film work tends to demand a higher level of attention to detail.
However, a game artist will finish a production with a larger quantity of work.
An animator on a film production is usually given on average two weeks to complete a shot. A game animation is usually expected to be delivered in a matter of hours.
When working on a composite film shot (where a CG element is combined with a filmed background plate), a great deal of attention must be paid to matching the lighting and physics between the real and the invented elements. Games are rarely assembled this way, therefore, it’s usually more acceptable to bend the rules. However, internal consistency is an important element in both mediums.
Playing to Camera
In film, we have a saying:
“It doesn’t have to BE right, it just has to LOOK right.”
An animator can cheat a pose so that it looks perfect in the camera view, even though it might be totally off-balance if seen from a different POV.
Most games are 3D these days, therefore the animations need to look good from every possible angle.
Global Fixes
A film animator’s favorite two words are “paint fix”. This means he doesn’t have to go in and fix that technical glitch. Rather, a 2D artist will touch up the final image later. No matter how many complex elements it takes to get there, the end result of a visual effects pipeline is a series of 2 dimensional images. There are many different opportunities along the pipeline to repair and improve a given shot. Furthermore, specific puppet setups and technical solutions can be applied to individual shots. A game, however, is an interactive experience. If you make a puppet change, it had better work for every animation in every scenario. And of course, there is no such thing as a “paint fix”.
Learning Potential
The film industry has been around a lot longer so there are more “seasoned” veterans around to learn from. However the potential to wear more hats in the games industry opens up a wider spectrum of potential instructors. Both industries can suffer from politics and ego problems.
Budgets
Film work tends to be more expensive than game work.
The fact that more money is at stake is often the reason why there tends to be less opportunities for creativity and experimentation.
However, the larger budgets in film productions often provide the artists with newer and better tools.
Scheduling
Games are very difficult to schedule because they are new, innovative and the work is cumulative.
Scheduling a film FX production is usually much more straightforward. When a shot is done, it’s done.
Size
An average game production team is usually smaller than an average film FX team.
This generally supports a more collaborative atmosphere.
Impressing your friends and neighbors
Films tend to have a wider audience. More of the general public will recognize your work. Being a game artist will make you a hero to your kids and their friends, but your Grandmother probably won’t think you have a real job.
Hours
Game artists probably work just as many hours as film artists, but the smaller teams and budgets tend to allow for more flexibility. The work hours on a major film production are usually very rigid.
Job Security
At present time, the games industry seems a bit more stable.
Most game artists are hired into staff positions where they expect to be employed at the same company long after the current production wraps. Many film artists, on the other hand, are “production hires”, where they expect to be looking for work during the final stages of their current project. Many film artists prefer the variety of bouncing around this way.
Money
Salaries vary widely in both industries, but the film industry generally pays a bit more. This is mainly because the production budgets are usually higher.
The Finish Line
A broken film can still be released, even if nothing works. The story elements can be weak, the acting can be horrible, the effects can be less than believable, the music can be inconsistent with the action, etc. It might get panned by the critics or go straight to video but it can still be released. If a game has even a single crash bug, however, it can’t be put on the shelf. It can be very frustrating for an artist to see his work sit and wait for months and months while the technical glitches are addressed. Of course, it can be equally painful for a film artist to pour his heart and soul and the highest level of his aesthetic skills into a production during a year of 14-hour days only to find his work attached to a poor story that gets reamed by the critics and falls out of the theaters after only a few days.
Bottom line
In games the journey is more satisfying, in film, it’s the destination.
In games, you have more creative input, more variety in the work, generally less (and more flexible) hours, however, the end product is often very small, with limited detail, low poly-count, lower resolution texture mapping, and is often only seen by 14 year old boys.
In film, you’re often pigeon-holed into a single discipline, you have very little if any creative input, the hours can be very long and structured. However, the end product is on a forty-foot screen, and a much wider section of the general public will recognize your work.
An Artist’s Perspective
Jeremy Cantor ~ Character Animation Supervisor ~ Sony Imageworks
Keep in mind that the ideas and opinions below are merely based on the experiences of a single artist and are not meant to be regarded as hard and fast rules. Remember that all rules have exceptions.
Variety vs Focus
During the course of a game production, you often get to wear many hats. You might find yourself doing any number of the following: character & vehicle design, modeling, texture mapping, background painting, character setup, FX animation, character animation and perhaps even level design and box cover art.
In the films industry, you are usually pigeon-holed into a single discipline for the duration of a production. This singular focus has the advantage of accelerating your improvement in a specific skill- set, but the lack of variety can become tedious.
Many VFX companies offer their employees the opportunity to “try out” for different departments between projects.
And of course, the variety in your work very often depends on the size of the company and production. Smaller companies and productions tend to expect wider skill-sets from their artists.
Creativity
In general, working on a game will give an individual artist more creative input than that of a film production.
On the higher-profile film productions, individual artists usually have very little if any creative input.
In games, the opinions of even the most junior members of a team will usually be given as much consideration as the lead designers or company presidents.
On a film production, however, an animator’s great idea often gets lost in a hierarchical maze once it gets filtered through the sequence lead, the animation supervisor, the visual effects supervisor, the producers, the director, and the director’s on-set psychic advisor.
The last game company I worked for had a great saying:
“The idea doesn’t care where it came from”.
I rarely see such a philosophy in the film industry.
Who’s Leading the Charge?
When an artist works on a visual effects shot, he is basically leading the charge.
It is a VISUAL effects shot after all. The technicians are generally there to support the art on such shots. Many times, it’s the character performance that is telling the story of the shot. Modelers, physiquers, programmers, cloth/hair/particle FX artists, lighters, compositors, rotoscopers more or less follow the lead of the animator.
In games, however, the art/animation always plays second fiddle to the design & programming. When a game artist has an aesthetic reason for wanting to make an asset larger, but the programmer has game-play and memory reasons for wanting it smaller, guess who wins? Many games contain some really outstanding visuals, but when you get right down to it, the art/animation in a video game is really just a glorified status report. It is pretty much there to tell you the condition of your character and whether or not you’re wining. Simply improving the art in a game rarely improves the game experience, unless doing so directly adds to the realism and immersive quality of the experience.
Is Tetris more fun when the blocks are 3-dimensional and cast shadows?
The visuals in games are indeed very important, but they always take a back seat to game-play.
Technical Restrictions
In games, the artist will work within a box of technical restrictions, including polygon count, number of joints, frame rate, texture resolution and memory. Film artists have less technical restrictions (but often more creative restrictions). These technical restrictions force game artists to tackle what we call constraint-based-design, which often demands a higher level of creative problem solving prowess.
Technical Knowledge
Game artists are generally expected to be technically savvy.
It’s easier to get away with being 100% right-brained in the films industry.
Innovation
The science of interactivity is still in its infancy. Knowing just what makes a game fun is still an evasive target. A good plot with well developed characters, solid acting, strong cinematography, intelligent directing, appropriate music, and decent FX will result in a good movie. The same rules do not apply in games. Make a strong plot and interesting characters for a video game, and junior will usually just ask you which buttons to press. A game must be easy enough to be fun yet difficult enough to be challenging. This is a fine line to walk and there are no formulas that can be implemented to arrive at a perfect balance between these two extremes. Game-play must be constantly tested and evaluated. Games offer more opportunities for experimentation. However, they also offer a lot of opportunities for failure. Films often fail as well, but it’s generally easier to figure out why.
Attention to Detail
Film work tends to demand a higher level of attention to detail.
However, a game artist will finish a production with a larger quantity of work.
An animator on a film production is usually given on average two weeks to complete a shot. A game animation is usually expected to be delivered in a matter of hours.
When working on a composite film shot (where a CG element is combined with a filmed background plate), a great deal of attention must be paid to matching the lighting and physics between the real and the invented elements. Games are rarely assembled this way, therefore, it’s usually more acceptable to bend the rules. However, internal consistency is an important element in both mediums.
Playing to Camera
In film, we have a saying:
“It doesn’t have to BE right, it just has to LOOK right.”
An animator can cheat a pose so that it looks perfect in the camera view, even though it might be totally off-balance if seen from a different POV.
Most games are 3D these days, therefore the animations need to look good from every possible angle.
Global Fixes
A film animator’s favorite two words are “paint fix”. This means he doesn’t have to go in and fix that technical glitch. Rather, a 2D artist will touch up the final image later. No matter how many complex elements it takes to get there, the end result of a visual effects pipeline is a series of 2 dimensional images. There are many different opportunities along the pipeline to repair and improve a given shot. Furthermore, specific puppet setups and technical solutions can be applied to individual shots. A game, however, is an interactive experience. If you make a puppet change, it had better work for every animation in every scenario. And of course, there is no such thing as a “paint fix”.
Learning Potential
The film industry has been around a lot longer so there are more “seasoned” veterans around to learn from. However the potential to wear more hats in the games industry opens up a wider spectrum of potential instructors. Both industries can suffer from politics and ego problems.
Budgets
Film work tends to be more expensive than game work.
The fact that more money is at stake is often the reason why there tends to be less opportunities for creativity and experimentation.
However, the larger budgets in film productions often provide the artists with newer and better tools.
Scheduling
Games are very difficult to schedule because they are new, innovative and the work is cumulative.
Scheduling a film FX production is usually much more straightforward. When a shot is done, it’s done.
Size
An average game production team is usually smaller than an average film FX team.
This generally supports a more collaborative atmosphere.
Impressing your friends and neighbors
Films tend to have a wider audience. More of the general public will recognize your work. Being a game artist will make you a hero to your kids and their friends, but your Grandmother probably won’t think you have a real job.
Hours
Game artists probably work just as many hours as film artists, but the smaller teams and budgets tend to allow for more flexibility. The work hours on a major film production are usually very rigid.
Job Security
At present time, the games industry seems a bit more stable.
Most game artists are hired into staff positions where they expect to be employed at the same company long after the current production wraps. Many film artists, on the other hand, are “production hires”, where they expect to be looking for work during the final stages of their current project. Many film artists prefer the variety of bouncing around this way.
Money
Salaries vary widely in both industries, but the film industry generally pays a bit more. This is mainly because the production budgets are usually higher.
The Finish Line
A broken film can still be released, even if nothing works. The story elements can be weak, the acting can be horrible, the effects can be less than believable, the music can be inconsistent with the action, etc. It might get panned by the critics or go straight to video but it can still be released. If a game has even a single crash bug, however, it can’t be put on the shelf. It can be very frustrating for an artist to see his work sit and wait for months and months while the technical glitches are addressed. Of course, it can be equally painful for a film artist to pour his heart and soul and the highest level of his aesthetic skills into a production during a year of 14-hour days only to find his work attached to a poor story that gets reamed by the critics and falls out of the theaters after only a few days.
Bottom line
In games the journey is more satisfying, in film, it’s the destination.
In games, you have more creative input, more variety in the work, generally less (and more flexible) hours, however, the end product is often very small, with limited detail, low poly-count, lower resolution texture mapping, and is often only seen by 14 year old boys.
In film, you’re often pigeon-holed into a single discipline, you have very little if any creative input, the hours can be very long and structured. However, the end product is on a forty-foot screen, and a much wider section of the general public will recognize your work.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
dear dumbasses
eh i think ive mentioned before about the joint deformation thingy..... like how to strengthen it and so. aniways i found the site. yall can check it out when modeling. http://www.pig-brain.com/tut02/tut02_02.htm
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
dear dumbasses
if yall are having trouble matching colors and all. do check out http://kuler.adobe.com/#
its an awesome site with tons of color palettes to choose from..
its an awesome site with tons of color palettes to choose from..
Sunday, March 14, 2010
dear dumbasses
found this cool lil pic which i think would be awesome to share. do study it and apply it properly to your models. all the best hombre
Friday, February 5, 2010
Marketing Notes Week 2
1.Due to changes in consumer taste, technology and competition companies must develop new products and services
2.Post purchase behavior occur after purchasing the product consumer will then see if they are satisfied or dissatisfied with the product
3.Each culture contains group of people with shared value system based on common life experience and situations
4.Lifestyle is a person’s pattern of living as expressed in his/her psychographic
5.A perception is a specific mix of human traits that maybe attributed to a particular brand. However a motive does not occur when consumer are highly involved in an expensive, infrequent or risky purchase with very little brand difference
2.Post purchase behavior occur after purchasing the product consumer will then see if they are satisfied or dissatisfied with the product
3.Each culture contains group of people with shared value system based on common life experience and situations
4.Lifestyle is a person’s pattern of living as expressed in his/her psychographic
5.A perception is a specific mix of human traits that maybe attributed to a particular brand. However a motive does not occur when consumer are highly involved in an expensive, infrequent or risky purchase with very little brand difference
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
10 reasons why ur rendering looks nt perfect
I'm sure I'm only scraping the surface here, so I thought I'd ask the community, what are the key problems you see time and time again in 3d art?
Here we go...
1. There’s no point It doesn’t tell a story, it’s not advertising anything and it’s certainly not pretty. What exactly is the viewer getting from this? Nothing makes me close the window faster than a piece of art with no clear objective.
2. You use pre-made content Stock models are great for studios who want to save time and money by purchasing a pre-made model. But it has absolutely no place in your portfolio. Personally I find no pride in showing someone a render that I haven’t created entirely by myself, but that’s just me. If you don’t know how to model it, why not learn?
3. You’re copying something far more successful I love Wall-E as much as the next guy, but that doesn’t mean I try to mimic what a professional studio has slaved over for years on end. Why? Because unless it’s an uncanny comparison (which it won’t be) viewers will only spot it’s flaws.
4. You didn’t plan it on paper first It’s easy to tell when an artist failed to put their idea on paper first: it’s a confusing mess. They started with an idea, skipped the planning stage and jumped straight to their 3d program. Most artists cannot model/texture/render in 3d at the same speed as their imagination. The best thing you can do is put it on paper as soon as the idea strikes you, that way you have a reference in 2 weeks time when you’re sitting at your computer and asking, “what was I making again?”.
5. It’s cliche If I see another cave troll or big breasted warrior I’m going to puke. Be original and create something that everyone hasn’t already seen a thousand times.
6. It’s a test render Hey cool, you just got your head around the new array modifier! Don’t post it on the net. Test renders are exactly that. Tests. They are a learning experience that should remain on your hard drive.
7. It’s poorly lit Let me say this once and for all: Dark is not moody. If you want to create a moody atmosphere there are plenty of ways of doing it, but making your scene dimly lit is not one of them. Pick up a copy of Jeremy Birn’s Digital Lighting and Rendering to learn how to light your scene like a pro.
8. You don’t realise it sucks No one likes receiving bad feedback on their artwork, especially after you’ve spent weeks creating it, but to tell the hundreds of posters that they “just don’t understand it” is like throwing salt on the wound. If you want to progress as an artist you need to be able to take critiques on-board and learn from your mistakes.
9. It’s boring architecture Archiviz is great skill to have under your belt. There’s a lot of work available and it pays quite well, but that doesn’t mean it has to be boring and emotionless. Read my post on 10 Architectural renders that break the mold or watch Alex Roman’s amazing short The Third and the Seventh and you’ll pick up dozens of ways to make still architecture interesting.
10. It’s overly post-processed There’s nothing wrong with fixing the colour levels or altering the contrast in Photoshop, but when you start adding filters and chromatic aberration to hide your own incompetencies there’s a problem.
Here we go...
1. There’s no point It doesn’t tell a story, it’s not advertising anything and it’s certainly not pretty. What exactly is the viewer getting from this? Nothing makes me close the window faster than a piece of art with no clear objective.
2. You use pre-made content Stock models are great for studios who want to save time and money by purchasing a pre-made model. But it has absolutely no place in your portfolio. Personally I find no pride in showing someone a render that I haven’t created entirely by myself, but that’s just me. If you don’t know how to model it, why not learn?
3. You’re copying something far more successful I love Wall-E as much as the next guy, but that doesn’t mean I try to mimic what a professional studio has slaved over for years on end. Why? Because unless it’s an uncanny comparison (which it won’t be) viewers will only spot it’s flaws.
4. You didn’t plan it on paper first It’s easy to tell when an artist failed to put their idea on paper first: it’s a confusing mess. They started with an idea, skipped the planning stage and jumped straight to their 3d program. Most artists cannot model/texture/render in 3d at the same speed as their imagination. The best thing you can do is put it on paper as soon as the idea strikes you, that way you have a reference in 2 weeks time when you’re sitting at your computer and asking, “what was I making again?”.
5. It’s cliche If I see another cave troll or big breasted warrior I’m going to puke. Be original and create something that everyone hasn’t already seen a thousand times.
6. It’s a test render Hey cool, you just got your head around the new array modifier! Don’t post it on the net. Test renders are exactly that. Tests. They are a learning experience that should remain on your hard drive.
7. It’s poorly lit Let me say this once and for all: Dark is not moody. If you want to create a moody atmosphere there are plenty of ways of doing it, but making your scene dimly lit is not one of them. Pick up a copy of Jeremy Birn’s Digital Lighting and Rendering to learn how to light your scene like a pro.
8. You don’t realise it sucks No one likes receiving bad feedback on their artwork, especially after you’ve spent weeks creating it, but to tell the hundreds of posters that they “just don’t understand it” is like throwing salt on the wound. If you want to progress as an artist you need to be able to take critiques on-board and learn from your mistakes.
9. It’s boring architecture Archiviz is great skill to have under your belt. There’s a lot of work available and it pays quite well, but that doesn’t mean it has to be boring and emotionless. Read my post on 10 Architectural renders that break the mold or watch Alex Roman’s amazing short The Third and the Seventh and you’ll pick up dozens of ways to make still architecture interesting.
10. It’s overly post-processed There’s nothing wrong with fixing the colour levels or altering the contrast in Photoshop, but when you start adding filters and chromatic aberration to hide your own incompetencies there’s a problem.
By :Andrew Price
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Good model to share with u guys
Girl reference, i think it's quite nice.
make sure ur model has this kind of quality ^^
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Recommended Website : Parka Blog
http://www.parkablogs.com/
Wanna buy a book?Wanna know wht inside b4 buying?Here it is : Parka blog , a artbook review blog
Friday, January 15, 2010
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Group Project for Marketing & Consumer Behaviour Class
Guys & Girls, do choose ur group members for it :)
4-6 persons a group ;D
i asked the lecturer earlier, we will need to do alot of write up from research n personal opinions.
So pick ur group mates wisely. All the best :)
4-6 persons a group ;D
i asked the lecturer earlier, we will need to do alot of write up from research n personal opinions.
So pick ur group mates wisely. All the best :)
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Wazzzzzzzaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa :(P
Hey guys welcome to DG085-1
It's bout time our class have our own blog for updates and sharing. Anyone from DG085-1who has an account on blogspot, please feel free to let me know I'll allow you to post on this blog.
Help each other with sharing, tutorials, outings and updates.
But seriously do refrain from posting things that may deem offensive, inappropriate, retarded stuffs :)
And please don't show off your work here, you can post it in your blog and we can link your blog here ;)
Have a nice day. Happy sharing.
It's bout time our class have our own blog for updates and sharing. Anyone from DG085-1who has an account on blogspot, please feel free to let me know I'll allow you to post on this blog.
Help each other with sharing, tutorials, outings and updates.
But seriously do refrain from posting things that may deem offensive, inappropriate, retarded stuffs :)
And please don't show off your work here, you can post it in your blog and we can link your blog here ;)
Have a nice day. Happy sharing.
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