Creative - Articles

Getting Started with Audacity

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 04:01:44 +0000

Audacity is an open source audio editing software. This means that the software is free to download, and you can use it to create items that are freely distributable. You'll learn all of the basics about creating audiocasts—or podcasts—that can be uploaded to the Web and shared with the world.

This article by Bethany Hiitola, author of the book Getting started with Audacity 1.3, will discuss what audio editing software is, who typically uses it, how you can use it, and what computer operating systems it will work on. We'll also talk a bit about how Audacity is an open source project and what that means to you and your projects, as well as the differences between Audacity 1.2 and the latest version, in case there are a few readers who want to work with the upgrade.

What is Audacity?
With the evolution of the Internet there has been a huge boom in personal websites, blogs, photo and music sharing sites, and things called podcasts. Podcasts are simple recordings of interviews, personal recollections, or entire skits, including entire entertainment "acts" that include background music and sound effects. What this change in the Internet culture has offered to the everyday person is the ability to jump into the world of audio recording. Audacity was created with this very basic need in mind.

Audacity is a simple audio editor and recorder. It can record live audio, help to convert tapes and records into digital recordings, and edit and mix a number of sound files together. What this means for you, is that you can use it to:

Create audiocasts or podcasts that can be uploaded to the Web and shared with others. Podcasts can be interviews with interesting people, simple narrations, or cute snippets of your children talking.
Record live events such as lectures and presentations. Of course, you need to have a laptop to bring along with you.
Move your old records and cassettes into the digital age and convert them to an MP3 digital audio file. With additional equipment (a cassette or record player with a line-out plug and cable), you can connect this equipment to your computer and use Audacity to make versions of your music that you can play on a digital music player like an iPod.
Edit most digital audio files, such as podcasts, to add in music, delete segments, remove unwanted noise, add in some audio effects. Audacity lets you work with audio files to make them better.
Record audio from YouTube. Have you ever wanted only the audio portion of a YouTube video? Well, now you can play the video directly from YouTube, but "strip" only the audio portion out for your own use.
Create a ringtone for your cell phone. Audacity lets you convert between audio formats. It supports Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV, and AIFF formats, and can convert between them.

It's also a great tool if you want to e-mail someone a simple audio message. Just plug in your headset, hit record, and start talking. You can have a personalized voice message that can be sent through e-mail!

Will it work for me?
Audacity was developed by a group of volunteers under the GNU General Public License (GPL), and is open source, or free software. This not only means that it does not cost anything to download, but also that you can use the program, create items with it, and freely distribute these items, modify the program itself, and share your work with others.

You can download Audacity for:

Let's briefly go over how to download and install Audacity.

Windows and Mac OS
The installation process for both of these operating systems is similar:

GNU/Linux
You can use Audacity with GNU/Linux operating systems (and other similar operating systems), but you should download the correct installation package for it. Currently, there are a number of distributions available for the following types of systems:

You can download the installation packages for these and others from the Audacity Linux or Unix web page, at http://audacity.sour...e.net/download/.

In this article, the screenshots are specific to the Mac OS X software. However, don't be concerned if this is not your computer operating system of choice. The software itself is very similar between operating systems, and any notable differences between the Audacity software screens for different operating systems, are noted, so you know what to look for.

In the interest of saving you some time, there are some things that Audacity can't do in comparison to more specialized audio editing software. Audacity:

Can't play or record files in the MIDI audio file format.
Doesn't natively play or export audio in propriety or restricted file audio formats, such as WMA or AAC. Additional plug-ins must be installed to do this.
Has less plug-ins and effects than a specialized Digital Audio Workstation (DAW).
Can't apply sound effects in realtime. This means that you have to record the track and then apply sound effects to the track.
Isn't a specialized audio editing software package, so there are some limitations on multi-track editing and mixing features.

Moving up to Audacity 1.3
Audacity 1.3 offers a lot more than its predecessor, 1.2. It has some new features, which include faster equalization and noise removal tools, a new "mixer board" view with per-track volume meters, and a fullscreen view, and in addition, some basic audio information (mute, solo, gain, and track height) is now saved when you save a project.

Common audio editing terms used in Audacity
As with any new tool, there is often some terminology that comes along with understanding how it works. For Audacity, there are audio recording and editing terms that will come in handy when learning how to use the software. Some basic terms are:

Project—when you open Audacity, you will open or create a new project. This includes all of the files, timing, and information on how you combined and edited different pieces of audio into your file or project. This term isn't specific to audio editing, but to software that combines pieces of different files into a single file in order to create a final output.
Clip—is a short segment of audio. It can be combined with others to make an audio track.
Track—one continuous audio element.
Library—a collection of audio files or tracks. These can be grouped according to the content of the audio files (like a music library) or just by the location of where they are stored.
Effect—there are two types of effects: generator and processing. Generator effects artificially create sounds using your audio track (or add it in). Processing effects work with the existing audio and edit or change it for a desired result.
Noise—is sound of any kind, especially unintelligible or dissonant sound, that interferes with the main audio that you want heard in a track. Or simply put, it is any sound that you don't want in the audio track.
Bit or Sample Rates—the number of computer bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time. This is normally expressed in kilobits per second (kbps). A higher bit or sample rate means that your track was recorded in better quality.
Export—the process of saving the audio in another format other than the format of the program that you created it in, usually so that you can play it or use it on another device or computer program. Typically, for audio, you will export files in a WAV or MP3 format.
WAV, AIFF, MP3—these are all audio file types. This means that when you export an audio track from Audacity, it can be any of these formats, or you can simply do a Save As, to save it in the Audacity format of AUP. However, then only Audacity will be able to open the AUP file to listen to its contents.

As we start using Audacity and create a project, more terms will be added and explained as we move through each step. We'll be sure to call out any new terms so you can add them to your memory banks.

Opening Audacity
No matter what operating system you use on your computer, all you need to do is find the Audacity program and open it, just as you would with any other software on your computer. The Audacity main window opens with an empty project window. This will look something like the next screenshot:

Don't be overwhelmed by this screen. Sure, there are a lot of icons and terms that might not be familiar, but we're going to review each element and how it is used. And as we begin our own sample recording session, we'll again review the icons and their use.

There are three main areas on this screen, as discussed in the following sections.

Audio controls and editing toolbars

The top portion, which includes audio controls and the many editing toolbars. These are the buttons and tools that you will use to edit and manipulate your recorded audio tracks.

Project View

The middle portion of the screen is the project view. This area will look very different when a project is open, as the timeline won't be empty. In this case it will show a digital representation of the audio that you recorded, along with some more settings that you can adjust.

Selection Toolbar

Just below the project view is the settings tool bar, which displays the frequency and bit rate information, and more timeline information, which we will cover as we start working on our sample project. But let's first discuss the main menu, and each of the toolbars on the screen.

Using the main menu
The main menu bar contains basic functionality for Audacity. You can open and save projects, add or hide toolbars in the main window, set preferences, as well as open the program Help file. This menu bar gives access to the entire program, even if you don't have all of the toolbars viewable.

The main menu appears a bit differently when using different operating systems. When using Audacity on the Windows or Linux operating systems, the main menu is seen on top of the program window. With the Macintosh operating system, it is along the top bar of the computer screen.

When we begin our sample project, you'll see the most common uses of this main menu—for opening and saving Audacity project files.

Understanding the toolbars
You'll notice that on the main screen there are a number of toolbars, each with their unique icons and uses. Each of the described toolbars are displayed automatically when you first open Audacity, but the screen can also be customized for your own use by hiding some of these toolbars from the main screen. But first, let's just review each toolbar and it's constituent items at a high level, so that you can become familiar with Audacity and it's simple interface.

Control Toolbar

Most prominent on the screen is the Control Toolbar. This should look very familiar, in that it contains common icons that are used for any audio device: Play, Pause, Record, Skip to Start, Skip to End, and Stop. These are the basic controls for recording and playing back the sound that you record using Audacity.

In fact, if you are anxious to try the software out, let's learn a bit about the Mixer Toolbar, in order to perform a simple set up and sample recording.

Mixer Toolbar

The Mixer Toolbar is all about setting the volume and choosing the recording device. On the left-hand side (the speaker icon), you can adjust the input volume levels. In the middle, to the right of the microphone icon, you can adjust the volume of the output that you'd like your audio track to have.

On the right-hand side, you can choose the device that you'd like to use to make the recording. As you can see in the previous screenshot, we use an internal microphone (the one that is pre-installed on the computer that we are using), but you could also choose to use an external microphone or other recording device as the input.

Changing any of these settings is as simple as using your mouse to adjust the volumes, or clicking on the drop-down box to change the recording device. If you want a specific value for your volumes, you can also double-click on the volume scale to open a window where you can enter a specific audio level value.

Give it a try!

Ready to try out the software? Then go back to the Control Toolbar and click on the Record button. Start speaking into your computer's internal microphone (that is, if you computer or laptop has one! If not, connect a microphone to the USB or input port). Click on the Stop button when you are finished. You've just completed your first test recording session! It's as simple as that to record voice tracks. Click on the Play button to review your first composition!

Tools Toolbar

The Tools Toolbar gives you some control options in the recorded audio's timeline. It is not as complicated as it sounds. When you record some audio, the digital translation of that appears in the project view portion of the Audacity screen. Then select one of these tools and you are able to manipulate the recorded audio track. You can select specific sections of the audio track, zoom into the details to delete any unwanted noise, fade in and out at the beginning or end of tracks, shift audio clips on the timeline (which is particularly important if you are adding an introduction or exit), and work to select and replicate certain sounds.

Let's give it a try. Use the Selection Tool to "highlight" a portion of the test track that you sampled when you first opened the program, as seen in the next screenshot:

All you need to do is use your mouse to activate the Selection Tool, and then click-and-drag the mouse across the timeline, releasing the mouse button when you want to stop selecting. The "selected" portion of the audio track will appear in a darker shade of gray, as seen in the previous screenshot. Try it a few times to get a feel of how you make selections.

You use selections to make changes to only a specific portion of the audio track. For example, if you wanted what you selected here to be louder than the rest of the track, keep this portion selected, and then go to the main menu and select Effect and then Amplify. You'll see the audio waves in that area increase, indicating that the volume of this portion is now much higher.

Let's also give one of the other edit tools a try. Select the Zoom Tool, and drag your mouse over the area and click on it. The timeline intervals decrease to show you even more detail of the audio waves that were recorded.

You can also select any of the other tools and perform the same action (clicking on the audio track).

Meter Toolbar

Simply put, the Meter Toolbar displays the mono or stereo channels of your audio track. As an example, when recording a song, different instruments are placed in different channels. So in this example, there are mono (1) or stereo (2) channels in which we can record audio for our tracks.

You can select preferences, and even disable certain inputs, by clicking on the down arrow icons near the microphone or speaker settings. However, the inputs (and outputs) listed in these fields are dependent on what hardware or peripheral items you have connected and installed on your computer. Feel free to take a look at what settings are available here.

This toolbar also displays input levels. The green bars move during recording or playback, to show the volume levels. So they move higher (to the right) when the recording or playback is louder. Peaks in the volume, or the highest volume reached when recording are also indicated here, by a small line. This can be useful when editing later, if you see a peak point, but if most of the volume levels are below that point throughout the rest of the track, then you might need to normalize the entire audio track.

Edit Toolbar

Probably the most useful toolbar is the Edit Toolbar. This will be one of the most used toolbars when we work through our sample project.

Once a track has been recorded and is displayed in the project window, the items on this toolbar become active. You can cut pieces out of the audio tracks, paste new items in, trim, link, and silence any unwanted noise. This toolbar also lets you undo your last editing option, zoom into a certain area of the recorded track, and adjust the viewing window so that it works with your preferences. You can even fit the audio tracks to your window size.

For example, with your test recording, use the Selection Tool from the Tools Toolbar to select a small portion of the audio track. Then select Cut from the Edit menu. Did that portion of the track disappear? If so, select Undo, and you should see the selection re-appear in your audio timeline.

Transcription Toolbar

A toolbar for more advanced editing features is the Transcription Toolbar. This toolbar helps you to speed up or slow down playback for the the selected audio in your timeline.

Using this toolbar is as easy as using the Selection Tool to highlight a portion of an audio track, and then using the scale to slow down (move the marker to the left) or speed up (move the marker to the right) the audio. Conveniently, you can also use the green Play button to play back the selected portion, to check if you have the correct playback speed.

Again, if you'd rather set a specific value for the playback speed, double-click the scale and a window is displayed that lets you you enter a number for the playback speed.

Selection Toolbar

The Selection Toolbar is at the bottom of the Audacity main window—just below the project window. Its most common use is to set the Project Rate (commonly measured in Hertz). Technically, it measures the number of computer bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time. The higher the sample rate, the better the quality of the recording. The sample rate used by audio CDs is 44100 Hz, and this is the default in Audacity and is by far the most common sample rate for most audio recordings.

You can also use the Snap To feature, which allows you to have specific settings for when a new clip of audio starts. So, for example, if you wanted this audio track to align with some video content, then you can exactly match the visual frame timing with this audio. This is an advanced feature of the software, and can be adjusted for various time formats and settings.

When the Snap To box is checked, it is considered active, and the remaining fields also become active. You can choose a particular unit of measurement (in the example, the format is in hours : minutes : seconds), and the format is changed for all three display ranges at a time. You can choose between End and Length for the second field. Audio Position is shown in the third field, and shows the current cursor position, and also allows you to manually set it.

As you work more with Audacity and you need to do more precise audio editing, these Snap To fields will be important in creating a clean audio track.

Understanding projects
To start working in Audacity, you must open a project. By default, when you open Audacity for the very first time, it is a new project—and the screen looks noticeably blank. But before we start jumping into the details of project creation, it is important to understand what a project is.

A project is not the end-product or output from Audacity. It is actually a working draft of all of the work that you have done on the collection of files that you imported and used in the creation of a final file.

Project files, when saved in Audacity, are AUP files. AUP is the default file format when you choose File and then Save Project from the main menu.

A project encompasses all of the clips and files that you have already imported into Audacity, the timing, silencing, and other editing that you have spent time to create. All of this, is stored in a way that Audacity recognizes. So the next time you open your AUP project file, it's all there, just the way you saved it.

If you were now to save the test sample recording that you made at the very beginning of this article, by selecting File and then Save Project from the main menu, then you would be prompted for a file name, and would notice that the file will be saved as an AUP file. You could then reopen this file, edit it some more, fade in the sound, cut or trim the clip, and then save your changes. The next time you open this file, all of those edits would still be applied.

Pointers for working in Audacity
Whenever you work with Audacity, there are some rules that you should remember that will make your projects run a little bit more smoothly. These include:

There is one audio clip per track. Remember that a clip is simply a piece of audio that is imported, recorded, split, or duplicated from another track.
A track, on the other hand, is one continuous piece of audio (as shown in your timeline). This means that it can only carry one piece of audio at a time. You can add to an audio track by pasting audio into it, inserting silence, or cutting a piece away, but it will always be one continuous piece of audio.
Audacity always records to a new track. When you click on Record, this will always be a new audio track to work with. The new track will appear at the bottom of the project view. Sometimes you may need to resize the Audacity window, or scroll to the bottom-most audio track in order to see what was, or is being, recorded.
Audacity references the original audio until you actually perform an edit, cut, silence, or apply some sort of audio effect to it. But note that if you are ever unhappy with an edit, you can always undo (and then, if necessary, redo) all of the edits that you have made, even after you have saved your project.

Using the best equipment
To get the best sound, you need a good microphone. But let's keep this in perspective. It is your first time using Audacity and creating a podcast, right? So our project doesn't need to be professional in its quality of sound. Any microphone will do the trick, including any internal microphone that your computer may have. However, it is worth recommending some microphone options that will make editing and cleaning up the vocal tracks easier. For any future projects, you may want to upgrade your equipment—because a better microphone, sound card, and audio setup will record your audio with much less degradation up front. When you compress your recording to create an MP3, your recording will sound better, and will also require less of your time for post-production.

Generally, here's what you'll need:

A computer (or laptop) with a sound card
A microphone
A microphone stand, or something to secure the microphone while you are recording, may be useful, so that you can avoid any additional interference

Sound cards
The sound card allows your computer to record audio. There are hundreds of sound card varieties, some with many "lines in" for recording multiple items at once (say, if you're part of a band and want each instrument to have an individual microphone) or just one input. Others have microphones bundled with the product, and there are even a few that include additional useful software packages, including Audacity. Again, for our project, any sound card will do, as long as it has a line-in and is functional. For ongoing projects, you should research the best sound cards for the best recording quality, depending on what will best fit your needs.

Microphones
For the microphone option, there are several different types to consider in the long run, depending on what you are recording, your other equipment, and the purpose that your audio track will serve. Your range of choices is as follows:

The most inexpensive option is to use your computer's internal microphone (if it has one). This is definitely enough to get you started on our sample project.
The next least-expensive option is a simple headset of the kind that are easily available in most big department stores, and are used commonly by computer gamers. The headphone portion uses your computer's sound card and lets you listen to stereo sound from music, games, movies, and more. The microphone, is usually incorporated into the headset, is often noise-canceling, and generally offers decent quality sound recording. With a headset, no microphone stand or other equipment is required to get started.
The next best choice is a dynamic microphone. They are durable, with few moving parts, and are ideal for someone who wants that little bit of extra quality when recording vocals. No additional power source is needed, but a microphone stand is recommended.

In addition to these basic options, there are several other varieties of microphones that vary in both price and the quality of sound that they record. However, many of these will require even more equipment to work effectively. Hence, sticking to the basics will get you through your project.

Summary
In this article you've learned what audio editing software is, and about Audacity in particular, its capabilities, and what it can (and can't) do for your audio projects. We've also covered how to download the Audacity software, what operating systems it works on, and what version is best for you.

We even covered the basics of the Audacity main screen, the main menu, each toolbar, an overview of each button, field, and setting, and have learnt about Audacity projects. You were even able to test some of the buttons and menus, when recording a very simple test audio track. Also, we covered some basic pointers, or things to remember when working with Audacity (all the little details about how we can or can't manipulate an audio track) and a handful of equipment pointers.

Raw Meat: Game Design Tips from Team Meat's...

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:15:52 +0000

Edmund McMillen is one of the most popular indie game designers of the past 5 years. From his early award-winning work on Gish, through the mega-popular Super Meat Boy, and now his personal project The Binding of Isaac, his games have exhibited truly brilliant design and a unique visual style. Check out some of his tips for designing your own games, highlighted here, and be sure to watch the full video interview for even more valuable info.

Just minutes after Edmund McMillen strolls through our front lobby, and exchanges greetings with design3 interviewer Ben Mears, they’re already in the midst of a discussion of various game publishers and their assorted crimes against indie-game humanity. Edmund is the art and design half of Team Meat, creators of the hit game Super Meat Boy, with Tommy Refenes making up the programming half. Edmund got his start in the game industry by working on the award winning game Gish and hasn’t looked back since. He has become a hugely popular game designer, and is most recently known for the roguelike game The Binding of Isaac. He is also famously known for saying what’s on his mind, and not taking crap from anybody; be it measly internet hecklers or mighty corporate giants such as Microsoft. He is self-taught, both in art and in game design, and doesn’t worry about adding offensive or controversial content to his games.

The Binding of Isaac

That being said, and disclaimers aside, his advice is straight as an arrow regarding video game design. His first tip is to pay more attention while you play the games you enjoy. For example, “Question why, in the latest Mario, coins even exist when lives are pointless? What does it matter? You’re gonna get a continue and then continue again?” Good game design, to Edmund, involves not letting any aspects of your work go unquestioned. “What should I add here and why? What worked back then that doesn’t work now, why doesn’t it work now, and how can I make it work?” All very important questions to ask when designing and planning your own games, because unlike many other artistic works, most games involve some kind of repetition. During repeated attempts at achieving the particular goals in your game, aspects of gameplay that were underdeveloped or ignored can become highly noticeable and frustrating to players.

Super Meat Boy

“How can I avoid frustration? How is frustration created in Meat Boy?” Edmund recalls asking himself. “Frustration is created by having a penalty....what’s the penalty in Meat Boy if there’s no lives system? Well, the penalty is how much time it takes to start playing again. So if we take that down to nothing...what do we have penalty-wise? Well, the penalty is how long it takes for you to go from start to finish...It’s little stuff, but you’re chipping away at it until it becomes close to perfect.”

Much like determining the theme when writing an essay, finding ‘the core’ of a game helps you stay focused during development. It also helps greatly when making gameplay decisions. When asking if a certain mechanic should be implemented, you can determine which answer best supports the ‘core’ of your game. Edmund continues, “That’s basically it, you just chip away at it logically, with one set goal. Like with Isaac it has nothing to do with frustration lacking...my goal [was] to create a unique experience every time you play...I wanted the game to trick myself, I wanted it to fool me...Okay so, I make it so ten percent of the time maybe the enemy is a little bit bigger, little bit tougher, but gives a bit more of a reward, and so on. So when you’re starting a new game, you’ve got to find it’s ‘core’; with Meat Boy it was ‘difficulty without frustration’ and with Isaac it was ‘replayability’. You find the core, and you just chip away everything else until it’s very prominent. Even like, Jonathan Blow’s latest game The Witness, I know he’s doing the exact same thing because the core is ‘puzzles.’ And you can see that he’s chipping away, and there’s puzzles within puzzles within puzzles and then there’s puzzles outside of puzzles...he found the core foundation of what he wanted, chipped away until it was perfect, and then built around with the same theme.”

Gish

In short, Edmund’s advice to you when approaching your first video game design project is to “find out what your goal is, and interweave every aspect of your game into that goal.” While playing his games, one can easily see this philosophy in action. Approaching your own game projects this way will greatly improve your future results.

Check out the full video interview with Edmund here:
https ://www .design 3.com /industry -insight /item /2387-interview -with -edmund -mcmillen -of -team -meat

Edmund McMillen:
http ://edmundm .com /

Team Meat:
http ://supermeatboy .com /

Pat Flannery is currently a Production Assistant at design3 and has been busy shooting and editing lots of interviews with game developers and industry professionals. Find him on design3.com as “pflannery” or follow him on Twitter, @design3video.

The No Twinkie Database!

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 06:42:37 +0000

The Tao of Game Design

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 06:39:42 +0000

Grand Theft Auto Design Document

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:10:51 +0000

Once you land the gig… | Madsen Studios LLC

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 06:17:14 +0000

The Chemistry Of Game Design

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 04:49:38 +0000

What actitivies can be turned into games? (Lost...

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 04:45:11 +0000

Tech Artist Bootcamp and Interviews

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 19:06:58 +0000

Introducing Tech-Artists.org

We are the premiere (and only!) community focused on tech art for games and film. Whether you're looking for tips on creating tools and pipelines, help with using a language or API, or just want to hobnob with some of the best technical artists in the industry, tech-artists.org is for you. Anybody who's anybody in the tech art world - and plenty of people outside of it - are a part of our great community.

-Rob Galanakis
Founder, tech-artists.org

I came to this site through good friend and tech artist evangelist Bill Crosbie and was delighted to find a community that reminded me so much of GameDev.net in its early years. This is another one of those niche sites focusing on a game development field and actively run by those actually in that field, so you know you're getting content that's beneficial to you as an aspiring or active tech artist. We look forward to working more with them in the future, but for now check out what they've done at the last GDC!

Drew Sikora

Executive Producer, GameDev.net

GDC '11 Tech Artist Bootcamp

This past GDC, Jeff Hanna from Volition organized with various other technical artists a "bootcamp" tutorial session with the focus of educating instructors, studio management and other technical artists about the role of TAs and the skills needed to be proficient in this field of the games industry.

Tech-Artists.org has the compilation of slides and videos that came out of this session:

.zip with all 8 talks (No videos)

Keith Self-Ballard “In Advocacy of Tech Art”
Scott Goffman “Making Tools Your Artists Will Use”
Rob Galanakis “Ending The Culture War”
Seth Gibson “TA Personality Assessment”
Steve Theodore “Epic Fail”
Adam Pletcher “Tech Art and Databases”
Bryan Moss “Using Sim Data In Realtime With Video Textures” (Videos)
Bronwen Grimes “Shader Techniques in Portal 2”

You can also visit Tech-Artists.org for additional notes and discussion on the session.

Recently an email was sent out by Jeff to begin discussing details for another bootcamp at GDC 2012 - so keep your eyes peeled both here and over at Tech-Artists.org for more details as they become available!

Technical Artist Interviews

Bill Crosbie from the IGDA Educational SIG spent some time at GDC '11 interviewing a number of technical artists, 18 in total, and has posted these interviews on his YouTube channel. The goal was to talk to both professional tech artists and students to get a better understanding of what was needed for a more formal education in the field of technical art.

He's selected 5 of his favorite for us to feature below. Check them out for a revealing look into what it means to be a technical artist in the industry today and how people would like to see their field evolve in the years to come.

Jeff Hanna

Jeff Hanna, Senior Technical Artist at Volition and leader of the Technical Artist boot-camp at GDC11, describes what it means to be a technical artist in the games industry.

Rob Galanakis

Rob Galanakis, TA for CCP Games, talks about the importance of programming and why a TA must learn to be 'ruthless' to help better the production environment. Don't miss this one!

Craig Goodman

Craig Goodman, Insomniac Games, shares some laughs and really deep concepts about the need for TAs to be broadly educated, perpetually asking questions about the world and always learning. This video is a little longer, but stick with it to the end. It's worth it.

Bronwen Grimes

Bronwen Grimes, TA for Valve Software, discusses why it is important for a TA to have flexibility in both education and job structure.

Ben Cloward

Ben Cloward, TA for Bioware Austin, talks about how a TA can solve huge problems or automate complex tasks quickly through the power of scripting, resulting in more time to engage in other creative work. Also, he gives a stern warning for students looking to enter the industry with work that is 'good enough' in school.

Concept Art with Photoshop - Characters

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 22:44:57 +0000

This is an affiliate program banner - registering for design3 will also help benefit GameDev.net!

Concept Art With Photoshop – Characters

In this tutorial we'll cover the steps on how to create an orthographic character rendering in Photoshop. We'll begin with a line drawing of half the character then refine the edges as we fill it in. Next we'll continue working in grey-scale while adding shading and lighting to bring out the character's form. Then using simple Photoshop techniques we'll go on to create symmetrical front, back and side renderings. Finally, we'll add a color overlay to give our character a unique look.

Chapter 1 - Introduction

In this introduction we'll briefly describe what will be covered in the following tutorial.

Chapter 2 - Line Drawing

In this chapter we begin to fill in the line drawing with a solid tone.

Chapter 3 - Shading

In this chapter we'll merge the line drawing and fill layers together then begin shading in details.

Chapter 4 - Rendering

In this chapter we'll start to add definition and depth to the shaded outline.

Chapter 5 - Duplicate & Flip Horizontal

In this chapter you'll duplicate the rendered half of your drawing, then flip it horizontally to create a full character.

Chapter 6 - Backside

By duplicating our front view we'll quickly paint the back view of our character.

Chapter 7 - Sideview

In this section we'll create the side view of our character using the front and back views as guides.

Chapter 8 - Color Overlay

In this chapter we'll finish off our character with some color. First we'll create a new layer and fill it with color then we'll set the blending mode to overlay.

The design3 Training Center offers training for a variety of game development and 3D animation platforms and tools including Unity, UDK, Source, Blender, 3ds Max, Maya, Softimage, Photoshop, Substance Designer and more. Sign-up for a free membership to get updates on the content New tutorial content is added to design3 weekly.

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Maya Entertainment Creation Suite 2012 Review

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 21:30:51 +0000

Introduction (4.7/5.0 stars)

The Maya Entertainment Creation Suite 2012 includes new versions of Maya, Mudbox and MotionBuilder. There is also a Premium edition that adds the latest version of Softimage to the suite. All of the suite packages have been updated for 2012 and the list of new features and improvements is amazing.

Autodesk has done a great job in making the process of working between the different suite packages as seamless as possible. Included in the File menu of Maya are commands for automatically sending the current scene file to Mudbox, MotionBuilder or to the ICE interface of Softimage. Once connected, changes can be made to either application and updates can be quickly sent to the connected package. Similar commands are also found in the other packages as well.

Working with Characters and Animation in Maya

The Maya development team has put a lot of effort into improving its character animation features and Maya 2012 continues this effort with several new features that make it easier to rig and animate characters.

Many of these new features have been borrowed directly from MotionBuilder and take advantage of Autodesk's Human IK framework. The commonality between Maya and MotionBuilder make the integration between the two products stronger than ever.

When defining a skeleton rig, Maya 2012 includes a new Characterization Tool with a pop-up panel that lets you quickly map and identify the hierarchical relationships between the various bones, as shown in Figure 1. The tool also includes a mirror matching mode that only requires a single leg or arm to be mapped and a naming template that automatically applies a defined naming scheme to the rig. It is also quick to identify any errors or problems associated with the skeleton rig.

Figure 1: The Characterization Tool makes defining bones in Maya easy.

There are also a robust new Character Controls panel that provides an easy way to quickly select any bone or IK end effector in the rig. With this panel, you always know which bone is being keyed. It also lets you pin and unpin bones for precise placement of your character's hands and feet. There are also commands to let you retarget a rig to work with another control rig and eventually bake the entire animation down to the target rig. The interface also lets you load and use motion capture data to animate your character and the software includes several test rigs and motion capture data files for you to test out new characters.

The idea of editable motion trails isn't new to Maya 2012, but they have been significantly improved. Motion trails appear as a path when enabled showing each key as a separate point. Using the standard transformation tools, you can move keys, edit their In and Out tangent points and even control the timing between keys without having to open up the function curves graph panel.

The Camera Sequencer includes a command for combining all camera shots for the current scene into a single sequence. This is great for quickly verifying all the various scene cameras without having to select and view each independently. There is also a new Shot Playlist panel that lets you access and edit different aspects of the camera shot.

Maya Modeling Improvements

On the modeling side, Maya 2012 includes a new Interactive Split Tool. This tool lets you make precise cuts on the surface of a mesh object. The tool lets you enable and place several snap magnets to keep the cuts localized to the mesh surface, as shown in Figure 2. You can also specify colors to identify edge, face, vertex and snapped points and the split lines. There is also an option to constrain the cut points to mesh edges. There are also new commands to project a curve onto a mesh surface or to split the mesh along the projected curve, which is great for cutting holes or making precise indentations in objects.

Figure 2: Maya 2012's new Interactive Split Tool lets you make precise cuts on the surface of a mesh object.

If you regularly use the Show Manipulator tool when modeling, you'll be happy to see three new attribute sliders that pop-up next to the selected element for certain edits like extruding. These sliders let you interactively change the Thickness, Offset and number of Divisions for the edited elements. Changes to the slider values are displayed immediately in real-time and let you visually judge at the correct value.

Rendering Passes in Maya

The big news in rendering for Maya 2012 is the ability to create render passes in the Hypershade and to pass these nodes onto the Render View to see the results. With several render passes created, you can use the Layered Texture node to composite the various render passes together and see the results in the Render View panel. This provides a simple, compositing method directly in the Hypershade for quickly verifying render elements without having to export and load all the render passes to a separate software package. There is even a lock button to prevent having to re-generate all the render passes while trying different compositing combinations.

Once all the render passes nodes are establish, you can quickly re-render the entire scene from a different camera angle without having to redefine all the render passes again. This workflow is a huge time-saver for users that probably already have the Hypershade open. Within the Hypershade, Maya 2012 includes support for vector displacement maps generated from Mudbox.

Viewport 2.0 Improvements

Viewport 2.0 was introduced with the last version of Maya and in Maya 2012, more features have been added to the system including the ability to view motion blur, screen-space ambient occlusion, and gamma correction directly in the viewport. All of these settings are located in the Render Settings panel when the Render Using Maya Hardware 2.0 option is enabled.

The viewports can also display a depth-of-field effect using the Camera Attribute Editor. The new viewport 2.0 system also supports X-Ray and X-Ray Joints modes, as well as, support for CgFx shaders. This lets game assets be viewed directly in the Maya viewports without having to export them to the game engine to see their results.

Improvements to Mudbox 2012

The big news on the Mudbox front is the availability of Mudbox for Linux. Mudbox 2012 also includes editable stencils. These stencils can be drawn using the various Mudbox drawing tools or any external image editing package. The stencils can then be projected onto the model surface, as shown in Figure 3, or used to indent the mesh surface. New custom stencils can be saved in the Stencil tray.

Figure 3: Mudbox 2012 allows you to create and use custom stencils while painting and sculpting.

In addition to the Paint Selection tool, there are now Region and Lasso Selection tools. There are also two new Grab options for Grab Silhouette and Follow Path. The Follow Path option makes the mesh surface follow the stroke path. There is also a new falloff option for brushes. The Falloff Based on Facing Angle option is useful for faces around the edge of an object.

The Mudbox 2012 interface has also introduced Hot box list of commands that appears when the spacebar is pressed just like the one in Maya for quick access to the most relevant commands. Mudbox now offers multiple layer masks and the ability to use the same blend modes that are available in Photoshop to combine the various layers.

When posing characters in Mudbox, there is now a Normalize button that normalizes all the weights for all skin vertices. There are also a bunch a pose presets that you can quickly apply to a character.

When painting on a mesh, you can now paint directly on the surface even if UVs aren't applied. The completed texture can then be exported as a PTEX file including all the various paint layers. Ambient occlusion, displacement and normal maps can all also be exported as PTEX files. For models without UVs, you can use the new Create UVs menu option to quickly create a basic set of UVs. This provides a good starting point for textures.

Improvements to MotionBuilder 2012

The first apparent change to MotionBuilder 2012 is the darker color scheme that it uses. The interface panels have all been freed to be positioned wherever you want by simply dragging and dropping them to a new location. It also has three new layouts for Editing, Scripting and Preview.

The function curve editor has been overhauled to match the features available in Maya and 3ds Max including multi-point editing, the ability to isolate selected curves, and the new Auto tangent type. MotionBuilder 2012 also includes support for point cache data.

The new MotionBuilder release also includes the same Characterization Tool and character controls that are found in Maya 2012. Synchronization between these two packages makes it so much easier to work with characters between the two.

MotionBuilder 2012 also allows you to stream into the software any video reference files taken during a motion capture session. This provides another helpful reference that animators can use to aid them when animating.

Improvements to Softimage 2012

Softimage 2012 includes a number of key improvements to the Schematic View, Weight Maps and UV relaxing and pinning. Another huge improvement is the ability to use 32-bit versions of Quicktime on 64-bit machines. It also supports the latest FBX version for importing and exporting data including stereo cameras, multiple UV sets, CgFx materials and neutral poses.

The Interactive Creative Environment (ICE) has been updated in 2012 to allow procedural modeling. Using the node based interface, you can programmatically create and edit polygons and apply materials. This lets you create a detailed landscape by extruding and applying materials to specific areas in a plane based on a defined set of rules. Figure 4 shows a road scene that automatically places and textures the building panels along the length of the road.

Figure 4: Using Softimage's ICE interface lets you automatically create and texture polygons to fill out a scene.

ICE has also been endowed with procedures that let you work with Syflex cloth. The interface can apply forces, collisions and constraints to a working cloth simulation.

Summary

Another new feature across the entire suite is the placement of help files on the Autodesk web site. The Help menu now opens and displays the help files in a web browser. Although this allows users access to the latest updates in the help files. I found it frustrating to have to wait for specific information to load when I needed a quick answer. The search feature is especially slow. If the wait time is too much, you can download a local copy of the help file, but the local file won't have access to the latest updates.

Across the suite products, I found the single-step interoperability to be a huge time saver, but it does require a machine with lots of available RAM to have several products open at once. I was also impressed with the new Character Control and Characterization Tools found in both Maya and MotionBuilder.

Overall, each of the new versions are as strong as ever and work together as a suite better than ever before.

Maya 2012, MotionBuilder 2012, Mudbox 2012, Softimage 2012 and the Maya Entertainment Creation Suite 2012 are all available for Windows, Linux, and Macintosh OS X. For more information on any of these products, visit the Autodesk web site located at www.autodesk.com.

Adobe Releases Creative Suite 5.5

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:50:58 +0000

Introduction

Usually when software has an intermediate release between major versions, it is to fix some glaring problems with the last major release, but in Adobe's case this isn't the issue at all. Most of the new features included in Creative Suite 5.5 are focused on supporting the latest round of hardware, specifically the new collection of tablets and touch sensitive devices that are becoming available including Apple's iPad, the various Android devices and Blackberry's Playbook.

Less than a year ago, when Adobe released Creative Suite 5, they made a strategic decision to not wait for the tablet market, but now that tablets are becoming ubiquitous, Creative Suite 5.5 offers the support that these devices need. Another major development that is also supported in CS5.5 is the release of HTML5 and CSS3. Support for these new standards let you create web pages that use advanced design elements such as transparency and rounded corners.

The CS5.5 release also allowed Adobe's development teams to include many additional features that weren't quite ready for the CS5 release, but have now had the time to be completed and integrated. Included within the latest CS5.5 release are a host of new features, especially in the video and audio production products, that push the software forward. CS5.5 also includes the latest version of Acrobat, titled Adobe Acrobat X. With all the improvements, Adobe's latest release feels like another major release and not just an intermediate one.

Photoshop Touch

In order to support the array of new touch-sensitive devices including the various Android devices, Blackberry's Playbook and Apple's latest iPad, Adobe has developed the Photoshop Touch Software Developer's Kit (SDK), which allows apps to be built for these devices that use and integrate with Photoshop CS5. To showcase the SDK, Adobe has announced plans to release 3 Touch applications including Adobe Color Lava, Adobe Eazel and Adobe Nav. These iPad apps are available for purchase through the Apple App Store.

Adobe Color Lava lets you mix and blend colors using the tablet interface. The new colors can be instantly transported to Photoshop using a network connection. Adobe Eazel lets you paint using the touch screen with your fingertips acting as brushes. The app gives you complete control over the color, brush size, opacity and other settings. If you like the navigation features on the iPad, then you'll love using Adobe Nav. It lets you preview image files and select which ones to open in Photoshop. Figure 1 shows the Adobe Color Lava interface.

Figure 1: Adobe Color Lava is a simple app that lets you mix colors on your
tablet device and transmit the mixed colors back to Photoshop.

Acrobat X Pro

The one lone holdout in the Creative Suite 5 release was Acrobat. The Acrobat development team took the time it needed to get the latest version right and the newest version of Acrobat, called Acrobat X Pro, is now an integral part of the suites.

Acrobat X Pro lets you quickly create a custom PDF Portfolio of work with layout templates, themes and colors. Figure 2 shows a sample portfolio created easily using the available wizard. Once created, you can use the links at the right to add new content, or change the layout, theme or properties.

Figure 2: Custom portfolios are easily created using the wizard located in Acrobat X Pro.

The new Action Wizard in Acrobat X lets you automate multiple steps into a single action that can be run on a batch of PDF files. Common tasks can be saved as an action and distributed to coworkers to make certain tasks easy.

The new Quick Tools bar holds the tools that you use the most without having to hunt around for them. Acrobat X Pro also has a new Reading Mode that maximizes the display areas by hiding most of the interface elements. Integration with Microsoft SharePoint ensures document consistency across an entire organization. Another great new feature is the Compare PDFs command that identifies and highlights changes between 2 different PDF documents.

Acrobat X is available in both Standard and Pro versions and also in the new Acrobat X Suite, which includes Acrobat X Pro, Photoshop CS5, Captivate 5, Presenter 7, LiveCycle Designer ES2 and Media Encoder CS5.

Acrobat.com includes a new service called Adobe SendNow that lets users send and receive large documents. Each document can be tracked and has a proof of receipt.

Dreamweaver and Flash CS5.5

The latest version of Dreamweaver includes support for HTML 5 and CSS 3. It also includes a new Multiscreen Preview panel that is customizable letting you view your results in several different resolutions at the same time, so you can check your design for desktops, tablets and smartphones all at once. There is also a new Media Queries dialog box for creating multiple queries across a page or an entire site. Dreamweaver CS5.5 also includes jQuery support with several mobile device starter layouts to help you get up to speed quickly.

Included with Flash Professional CS5.5 is Adobe AIR for iOS Support that allows ActionScript to be compiled for native iPhone apps. There is also support for touchpad input and gestures available as code snippets, so you can build Flash apps that run on various tablets and smartphones including Android 2.2 and above. You can even build Flash apps for Internet-connected televisions via Adobe AIR for Digital Home.

Another new feature in Flash Professional CS5.5 is the ability to scale all design content when changing the size of the stage. You can also control which elements get scaled using locks and visible layers. This makes it easy to quickly resize a design for different devices by simply entering its resolution. The Layers panel has also been improved allowing you to copy and paste layers to a different timeline or to a completely different document.

Video and Audio Product Improvements

Premiere Pro CS5.5 includes an enhanced 64-bit Mercury Playback Engine that is accelerated using NVIDIA's latest graphic cards. The engine now runs more effects and transitions on the GPU than before. It also has included support for more graphic cards including mobile video cards for Windows enabling you to use the engine on a laptop. This combination allows real-time playback with effects on a broader set of hardware.

Another cool feature in Premiere Pro CS5.5 is the new Merge Clips feature that lets you combine a video asset with up to 16 separate external audio streams into a single track. The audio and video may be synched using in or out points, markers or timecode and once merged can be moved and edited as a single easy to use track. Figure 3 shows a sample video that includes several merged clips.

Figure 3: Combining video and audio into a single track makes them much easier to work with.

Premiere Pro CS5.5 has gives the option to switch the interface to use the same keyboard shortcuts found in Avid Media Composer or Final Cut Pro. This makes the transition from another editor to Premiere Pro easy.

Within After Effects CS5.5 is a cool new feature called Warp Stabilizer. This feature lets you take the shaky effects out of a handheld camera. But, it does more than just steady the camera's default location by removing those areas that are missing. Using the Warp Stabilizer feature, you can eliminate the parallax effects, correct for camera rotation and actually replace the missing footage. You can also smooth out the results and crop or fill the in the missing areas using pixel analysis.

Along with the video product improvements, Adobe's audio offering, Audition, has also been improved. The big news here is the introduction of Adobe Audition for the Mac. The Mac version of Audition makes all the multi-track mixing and editing features available in a package that integrates seamlessly with the other Adobe video and graphics products. For example, audio files in Premiere Pro can access Audition's cleanup and processing tools for quick roundtrip editing. The new version also includes several new DSP effects including DeHummer, DeEsser, Speech Volume Leveler, and Surround Reverb.

Creating eBooks and Digital Magazines

New features included in InDesign CS5.5 let you create eBooks with consistent typography and images. They can also be enhanced with audio, video and linked indexes and exported to the EPUB format. This lets you re-purpose documents designed for print to be delivered as an eBook or a digital magazine for a host of different devices including tablets.

The new Overlay Creator panel lets you mark specific images as interactive elements that show up as a slideshow, pan and zoom image, 360 degree rotating objects, video, animation, or even a panoramic scene when viewed on a touchscreen device or tablet. Figure 4 shows an interactive map in InDesign that changes the image when different dots are clicked on a mobile device. Using the new Article panel, you can define the exact order that elements appear on smaller resolution devices.

Figure 4: InDesign documents can be overlaid with interactive elements that are active when viewed on a mobile device.

InDesign CS5.5 also includes a new Linked Text feature that lets you copy and paste sections of text that maintain a link to the original. The pasted text that has these links can be updated if any change is made to the original text making it easy to update repetitive text throughout the document.

Summary

If you are worried that several of the key Creative Suite products weren't mentioned including Photoshop, Fireworks and Illustrator, it is because they haven't changed from the CS5 versions.

Because changes in the industry are moving so fast, Adobe is planning on making these milestone releases regularly between major releases. This is great news. Adobe is committed to updating their packages to follow the industry changes. They have also announced a new subscription model that lets you pay for the software using a monthly pricing scheme that includes the latest updates.

Overall, there is a lot happening with this intermediate release and a large number of the new features are coming directly from user's requests. Highlights for this release include the latest Acrobat, broad support for tablets and touch-sensitive devices, support for the latest Web standards and some amazing new video and audio features. All of these features make it easier to get your designs seen. It is great to see a company so committed to their users.

For more information on any of the upgraded CS5.5 products, the various Creative Suites and the other CS5.5 products, visit the Adobe web site located at www.adobe.com.

Game Pitch - Bioshock

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 08:18:16 +0000

About Game Pitches

Welcome to Game Pitches! This site serves to be a free resource to game designers offering them the web’s largest single collection of game design documents and game pitches. Be they famous or obscure, big or small, successful or not, this site is intended to be a resource for learning how better to design and pitch games in the spirit of sharing information and improving the state of the art through freely available knowledge. Let’s make great games!"

- Jon Jones
Founder, GamePitches.com

Here is yet another really cool online resource we're happy to feature by reposting one of their more popular design pitch documents here on GameDev.net for everyone to check out. There's plenty more over on GamePitches.com and new ones are being added constantly. It used to be that design documents were the popular thing to post online for budding developers to read through and see how a professional game was organized on paper, but once you get the hang of that how to you seek out financing from a publisher to produce your game? Now you can see how well-known studios have convinced people to give them money to make their now well-known games. Learn by example with this great resource!

- Drew Sikora
Executive Producer, GameDev.net

Irrational Games - Bioshock Pitch Document

Blender 2.5 - Interface Video Tutorials

Sat, 02 Jul 2011 17:22:09 +0000

This is an affiliate program banner - registering for design3 will also help benefit GameDev.net!

Hello from design3!

design3 is happy to feature another tutorial series here on GameDev.net – this time our focus is on Blender. Blender is a great open-source 3D graphics application. We love the tool, but know that the interface can be a bit tricky to master. That’s why we’ve selected to feature our “Blender 2.5 – Interface” tutorial series this time around.

The design3 “Blender 2.5 – Interface” series covers interface fundamentals and is perfect for developers who are new to the tool. The series contains 12 tutorials, which are featured below.

About Blender

Blender is great for creating interactive 3D applications, including video games, animated films, or visual effects. Blender's features include advanced simulation tools such as rigid, realistic body, fluid, cloth and soft body dynamics, modifier-based modeling tools, powerful character animation tools, a node-based material and compositing system and Python for embedded scripting.

Blender is useful for:

Modeling
UV Unwrapping
Texturing
Rigging
Water &Smoke Simulations
Skinning
Animating
Rendering
Particle Simulations
Non-Linear Editing
Compositing

Blender 2.5 – Interface Tutorials

Chapter 1 - Introduction

A brief introduction on how to locate and download the newest version of Blender.

Chapter 2 - Menu Navigation

Review the many hotkeys that make up the Blender interface and their functionalities.

Chapter 3 - Camera Navigation

Learn to navigate your camera throughout 3D space in Blender.

Chapter 4 - Camera Options

Learn to properly use the camera object in Blender.

Chapter 5 - User Preferences

A quick lesson on the options that make up the User Preferences window.

Chapter 6 - Viewport Organization

Blender has many default window layout options, in this chapter you'll learn to change your window layout and also create your own custom one.

Chapter 7 - Hierarchies

Learn to control the parent child hierarchy relationship in Blender.

Chapter 8 - Transformations

Learn to move, scale and rotate objects in Blender.

Chapter 9 - Modes

In this chapter you'll learn about the different modes that Blender offers.

Chapter 10 - Origin Manipulation

Learn several ways to manipulate the origin of an object in Blender.

Chapter 11 - Joining & Separating Mesh Objects

Learn to join and separate a group of objects.

Chapter 12 - Layers

Learn to control what objects are visible in the viewport using Blender's layer system.

At design3.com you can view additional Blender tutorials including: “Blender 2.5 – Modifiers”, and “Blender 2.5 – Modeling Introduction". “Blender 2.5 – Texturing” and “Blender 2.5 – Lighting & Rendering” tutorials are coming soon!

The design3 Training Center offers training for a variety of game development and 3D animation platforms and tools including Unity, UDK, Source, Blender, 3ds Max, Maya,Softimage, Photoshop, Substance Designer and more. New tutorial content is added to design3 weekly!

For instant design3 updates: follow @design_3, “like” design3, and subscribe to the design3channel.

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Softimage 2011 Review

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:56:34 +0000

Introduction (4.2/5.0 stars)

Autodesk has acquired several different 3d packages in recent years including SoftImage, one of the first and best-received 3d packages. But, rather than kill off a competitor's package, Autodesk has kept the package and its developers mainly intact. This is great news for existing users and good news for the rest of us, because innovation that exists only in the Softimage package doesn't go away, but can now integrate with and slowly gravitate to the other Autodesk packages.

I've worked with SoftImage in the past, but its been several years since I've spent any time in the package and upon reviewing the latest release was interested to see how the package has progressed since the last time I used it. Softimage is very good at giving you access to many features under the hood via its ICE interface. It is also has great support for character animation and rigging.

One of the first apparent changes to Softimage 2011 is the retiring of Softimage Advanced. Softimage is available as standalone and network versions and makes all its advanced features available to all users including hair, cloth, simulation and Face Robot, which was previously only available as an add-on system. The network version includes 5 batch licenses.

Within the General Preferences is an option to Check for Announcements and Updates. Using this feature, you can quickly check for new updates and keep up to date on important news regarding the software. Softimage 2011 also lets you join and be part of the Customer Involvement Program which logs error and crash information with the development team to help them improve the software. It also lets you provide feedback directly to the development team.

Face Robot

One of the coolest features in Softimage is Face Robot, which lets you animate the emotions and speaking motions of the face to correspond with an existing audio track. Relying on speech recognition technology, Face Robot automates the animation process using defined phonemes. It includes support for both English and Japanese. Face Robot isn't turned on by default, but can easily be enabled using the default installation.

Face Robot in Softimage 2011 includes a new Automatic Lip-Synching Tool. With this tool, you simply need to load a head model, import a set of visemes, load a WAV audio file and click Create. The Face Robot system automatically analyzes the audio file and matches the different visemes to the recognized phonemes contained within the audio file. The results can be refined as needed, but since Face Robot has markers for the face mesh, the jaw and the tongue, the default results are surprisingly good.

Face Robot also lets you manipulate the applied face markers to blink the eyes and raise the eyebrows among other motions. Figure 1 shows the default Rock Falcon character synched to a simple audio file.

Figure 1: The default Rock Falcon character is easily lip
-synched using the new Automatic Lip-Synching Tool.

Camera Improvements and Multi-Pass Cameras

Camera viewports can now be set to XRay Display mode. There is also an Opacity property for making objects transparent in the viewport. This setting only affects objects in the viewport and not rendering, but it helps you isolate objects while modeling from the rest of the scene.

By grouping several cameras together, you can render the scene from each of the cameras in the group in a single-pass. This can save a lot of time and allows multiple views to be rendered in a batch render cycle.

Viewport and Render Slates

Custom data tokens and strings can be added to a rendered image using a Render Slate. This adds data directly to the rendered image, which can be helpful in identifying and locating precise frames at a later time. Token data can include camera information, render settings and project data. I was hoping to see a token for passing the number of polygons in the current object or selection, but regrettably I didn't see one. You can also enable a Viewport Slate to display this information within the viewport. Figure 2 shows the Viewport Slate for the loaded model.

Figure 2: The Viewport and Render Slate options let you place scene
data within the viewport or on the rendered frame.

ICE Kinematics

The Interactive Creative Environment (ICE) in Softimage is a node-based relationship editor where you can link and connect different behaviors quickly and easily. These ICE trees don't reside as part of the geometry, so you don't have to worry about them going away when the geometry is deleted. ICE trees are a simple and effective way to package specific functionality and effects. You can also experiment with the ICE tree as it is being built. Figure 3 shows a rabbit that is controlled using the designated ICE tree.

Figure 3: ICE trees allow you to program the behavior
of scene objects without having to work in code.

New to Softimage 2011 is the inclusion of kinematics nodes within ICE. Kinematics have been added to ICE allowing complex rigs to be created using ICE trees. Softimage 2011 also includes many new compounds taken from Phil's ICE Pack, a popular third party set of ICE trees. These new compounds include Dual Quaternion Skinning, Verlet and Hull Deformation and Strand Dynamics.

Lighting Improvements

Ambient lighting can be easily added to any scene using the new Flat Light type. Softimage 2011 also supports photometric lights using the IES profiles for accurate realistic lighting based on manufacturer specifications. Figure 4 shows a creature rendered with the new Flat Light type.

Figure 4: Flat lights add ambient lighting effects to the scene.

Area lights can be either Object or User based allowing lighting cards to be created to illuminate the scene from a custom object. There is also an option to change the softness applied to ray-traced shadows.

Crosswalk Version 5.0 and Caching

Crosswalk is a valuable toolset that automatically detects different versions of Softimage, 3ds Max, Maya and MotionBuilder and lets you move data seamless between these different packages using the FBX format.

Using the new Cache Manager, you can keep track of all the cached data for the current file. Cache data can be used to record the positional data for all points in the current model. It can even keep track of animated point data over time. The Cache Manager reads, writes and creates cache data for simulations.

Dynamic Shaders

All shaders in Softimage use a new dynamic shader definition system. This system can integrate existing CGFX and FX shaders or they can be authored directly in Softimage's interface using a new Realtime Shader Wizard. Softimage automatically builds the interface for any existing shaders that are loaded in. There is also a Shader Library with over 100 different mental ray shaders.

Latest PhysX and mental ray

Softimage 2011 includes the latest PhysX library for rigid body dynamics. Version 2.83 includes support for springs and dampers for creating jelly-like ripples and motions. The performance of the new version has been improved giving you faster results.

Softimage 2011 includes mental ray 3.8. This is the same version of mental ray that is included in 3ds Max 2011 and Maya 2011. It also uses only one license per machine. This version is more stable and faster with the inclusion of BSP2.

Improved Unfolding

The Texture Editor for applying textures has been improved with greater control over symmetrical unfolding for local UV islands. There is a button to Unfold and Pack the UVs and a separate button to Update No Pack that simply updates the unfold based on new seams. You can also Ctrl+click on a set of UVs to make them non-editable. This is used to help prevent accidentally changing the UVs that are correct while editing others.

When copying and pasting UVs in the Texture Editor, you now have the choice to paste using Source UVs Indices or Target UVs Indices or you can use the existing Paste UVs, which makes its best guess on which indices to use.

Craft Director Plug-In

Softimage 2011 includes a plug-in version of Craft Director Studio that can be installed along with Softimage. The Director Studio includes Craft Camera Tools, Craft Vehicle Tools, Craft Accessory Tools and Craft Freeware Tools.

Python Scripting

Python is installed by default and used within Softimage 2011 as the scripting language.

Summary

Softimage is a professional level tool with strong support for creating effects and rigs using the ICE interface. It also has a powerful set of simulation tools that make it ideal for dynamic animation needs. Add to these great modeling, texturing, lighting and rendering tools and the results are nothing short of amazing.

Additions to the latest version work to strengthen the feature set even more. The inclusion of Face Robot even sweetens the deal providing the best available solution for lip-synching characters in the industry.

Softimage 2011 is available for Windows, and Linux. For more information on any of these products, visit the Autodesk web site located at www.autodesk.com.

Softimage 2011 Review

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 00:49:35 +0000

Figure 1: The default Rock Falcon character is easily lip
-synched using the new Automatic Lip-Synching Tool.

Figure 2: The Viewport and Render Slate options let you place scene
data within the viewport or on the rendered frame.

Figure 3: ICE trees allow you to program the behavior
of scene objects without having to work in code.

Figure 4: Flat lights add ambient lighting effects to the scene.

3ds Max 2012 Review

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 16:54:02 +0000

Introduction (5.0/5.0 stars)

Autodesk recently released new versions of their popular 3d packages including a new version of 3ds Max. 3ds Max is available as a stand-alone package or as part of the Entertainment Creation Suite bundled with Mudbox, MotionBuilder, and Softimage. Now that 3ds Max is available as part of suite, we are starting to see features that make it easier to work across the suite packages. Within 3ds Max 2012 are several options in the File menu that let you send the current scene to Mudbox, MotionBuilder, or to the ICE interface of Softimage. This is a huge efficiency gain for artists that use these packages.

Another big change for 2012 is that 3ds Max has adopted the darker color scheme as the default. This darker scheme provides less eye strain when using the software over an extended period of time.

Nitrous Viewports and Non-Photorealistic Rendering

One of the biggest initiatives that the Max team has been working on lately is to increase the speed, features and ability of the viewport rendering system. If details such as textures, shadows and even ambient occlusion can be rendered in the viewports, then there is no need to do repeated test renders, thus saving time and processor cycles.

The new Nitrous display drivers are optimized to take advantage of the new accelerated GPUs and multi-core processors by threading the rendering process independent of the interface, which results in much faster renders than the older DirectX drivers and they enable a host of features including unlimited lights, soft shadows, transparency and ambient occlusion.

The Nitrous drivers also use a progressive refinement technique that quickly updates the viewport with a close approximation as you navigate the scene and then refines the display quality when you stop or pause. By displaying even the approximated view, the scene maintains its visual fidelity and lets you make informed decisions without having to wait for a complete render.

The new Nitrous drivers also let you select and render directly in the viewport several stylized, non-photorealistic rendering options including Graphite, Colored Pencil, Ink, Color Ink, Acrylic, Pastel and Tech. Figure 1 shows a rendering using Color Ink and Colored Pencils rendering methods.

Figure 1: Using the Nitrous display drivers, you can switch to stylized rendering options like Colored Ink and Pencil.

PhysX's MassFX Tools

The new MassFX rigid-body simulation system is based on NVIDIA's PhysX engine and replaces the reactor physics system found in previous versions of Max. The benefits of the MassFX system are better accuracy, improved integration with Max's existing animation features and the ability to see the results directly in the viewport.

The MassFX system supports static, dynamic and kinematic rigid bodies, which makes it easy to integrate with existing keyframed objects. It also supports a large number of constraints including Rigid, Slide, Hinge, Twist, Universal, Ball & Socket, and Gear. Each constraints is positioned and oriented using visual gizmos that make it easy to place them just right.

The system also includes a Freeze mode that prevents the objects from settling when the simulation starts. This is helpful to keep rows of dominos from accidentally starting before they should and eliminates the need for exact precise placement.

Figure 2 shows a brick wall in the desert created using the MassFX system. A cannonball is fired at the wall and rigid body dynamics control where the bricks fly during the simulation.

Figure 2: The destruction of this brick wall uses the MassFX simulation system to animate the brick's movements.

Substance Procedural Textures

For 3d graphics and models intended for the Web or for games, the Substance textures are very helpful. These procedural textures can be used to texture a scene with infinite variety without the overhead of large bitmaps. Substance textures are only a fraction of the size of normal textures, which makes them easier to download and use without sacrificing quality. And since the textures are procedurally based, you can quickly randomize any applied textures to add variety to the scene without having to create or load an entirely new bitmap.

3ds Max ships with 80 custom Substance textures including asphalt, concrete, corrugated metal, grass, road, bricks, stones, wood and diamond plate. More textures can be purchased from the Allegorithmic web site, the company behind the Substance technology.

Allegorithmic also makes a middleware utility, called Air, that can export Substance textures to the various game engines including Unreal Engine 3, Emergent's Gamebryo and Unity. Figure 3 shows several of the default Substance textures.

Figure 3: Substance textures are only a fraction of the size of normal bitmap textures

Redesigned UV Editor and the Peel Tools

The UV Editor in 3ds Max wasn't the easiest of panels to figure out, but the new redesigned panel is easier to grasp with buttons and icons instead of menus. It also includes the new Peel tools for unwrapping complex models quickly.

The new Peel tools are based on the Least Square Conformal Maps (LSCM) unwrapping method. They work by letting you drag and stretch out areas of the mesh and all attached polygons follow and flatten out like laying a fishing net out on the ground. You can also place pins to hold certain areas while moving others.

The UV Editor also includes some new grouping tools that let you group sets of UV spaces together so they move, rotate and scale as a group.

iray Renderer

The mental ray renderer is a great addition to 3ds Max, but it can be a real chore to configure for good results. 3ds Max 2012 also includes the new iray renderer as an addition to mental ray. This renderer was also created by mental images, the company behind mental ray, and it takes the guesswork out of configuring the renderer.

For iray, you simply tell it to start and it automatically processes the final gather and light bounces to give it the best results given the time that it has. The settings for iray are simple: tell it how long to render, how many iterations (or passes) to make or just set it to unlimited and stop it whenever it is good enough. The iray renderer continually refines the image until the designated time or passes is reached or until the user stops the process. The iray renderer is especially great for scenes including multiple lights, reflections, radiosity and bouncing light effects.

The one drawback of the iray renderer is that it can only use a specific set of materials including the Autodesk Material Library, and the Arch & Design materials. Any other materials will only show up as default gray. It can take some time to retrofit any existing scenes with the right materials, but for new scenes created with the right materials, it renders great results automatically.

Figure 4 shows two snapshots of an iray render. The left image was displayed after only a few seconds, but letting the render continue for several minutes resulted in the render on the right.

Figure 4: The iray renderer progressively improves the result given the amount of time

The iray renderer will take advantage of multi-core processors and has been optimized to be accelerated when used with an NVIDIA CUDA-enabled hardware.

Other Improvements

Another change for 2012 is that the 3ds Max help files are now posted in HTML format on the Autodesk.com web site. This ensures that the latest information is available to users. It also reduces the install size by not requiring the help files to be included. And if you still want a local copy, you can download a version to your hard drive. Although I appreciate the updated information, I found it a pain to have to wait for each help page to be downloaded when accessed during busy times.

Another key improvement is that the Slate Material Editor now includes undo and redo functions and can be navigated using the keyboard. The Viewport Canvas has been updated with a Clone tool that lets you copy textures from anywhere on the screen.

The Track Editor includes a new Region Tool that makes scaling and moving a dragged over section of keys easy.

On the modeling side, the Conform brushes are new to the Graphite Modeling tools. These brushes let you transform one object to conform to the surface of another and are great to adding details to objects such as a scar to a character's face. There is also a new Constrain to Spline option that deforms only areas adjacent to a selected spline. Finally, the ProOptimizer has been improved to be faster and more accurate. It also offers normal and UV interpolation.

Summary

3ds Max 2012 is another huge leap forward for the software. Over time we are seeing that revolutionary features like the reactor simulation system and the viewport rendering are being phased out in favor of even better, more robust systems such as the MassFX simulation system and the Nitrous viewport display drivers. This evolutionary track is great news for users.

In addition, 3ds Max continues to add the latest and greatest new technologies to the software such as Allegorithmic's Substance textures. In this way, the software improves using internal and external sources.

3ds Max is available as a stand-alone product or as part of the Entertainment Creation Suite, bundled with Mudbox, MotionBuilder and Softimage. For more information on 3ds max 2012, visit the Max product pages on Autodesk’s web site.

How Can We Solve the "Pacing Problem"?

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 08:38:00 +0000

I haven't exactly had my ear to the ground when it comes to the philosophy of game design/writing, so my apologies if I'm being redundant. I want to share my thoughts on what I call “the pacing problem.” I'll elaborate:

First of all, I'll acknowledge that it isn't the ambition of many games to have a good story. Either they don't need one in the first place by nature (Minecraft) or else they are just kind of mindless fun and they're ok with that (Doom). "The pacing problem" doesn't really apply to these types of games. I played Alien Swarm (a really great freeware game on Steam) and others like it, and I realize that they don't want or need a "good" story. The gameplay is enough.

But other games do want a story, and oftentimes they have ambition to have an original and thought-provoking one on par with literature or film. For instance, it is explicitly the case with Bioware games (to name an example), and it is implicitly the case for a wide variety of other triple-A titles to have a good story. Even games that most people don't buy for their enlightening narratives at least make token attempts, employing writers to varying effectiveness (Borderlands or S.T.A.L.K.E.R. for example). This category of games is very much concerned with telling a rip-roaring tale (or a more cerebral one?), and that's the focus of this article.

My goal here is to express some thoughts about one big stumbling block to good story telling in games. As you've figured out by now, that stumbling block is pacing. In literature and film (the other media I'm most familiar with), pacing is a refined practice. Films obviously have complete control over the pace at which the audience digests the content, and literature does to some extent (more on that later). But in video games, pacing is thrown for a loop. The typical formula for story-based games is to reward meeting challenges with new story content. The major problem with this is that different players take wildly different amounts of time to meet those challenges. Whether it be a difficult firefight or a tricky puzzle, some gamers will spend minutes on a particular stretch of the game while others will spend hours. In fact, sometimes it's so difficult that gamers put down the game in frustration. In other words, video game writers are expected to craft a compelling narrative when the best they can do is to transfer a random amount of words at unpredictable intervals to their audience. No wonder video game story-telling is the laughing stock of other media!

What are some paths to solving this that have already been partially beaten? I'll mention a few, starting with one derived from the media of prose.

Literature has a similar “pacing problem” as video games do. Different people read at different speeds, and they also split up their reading between multiple sessions. Writers have found ways to circumvent this problem. For instance, they can use chapters to provide coded instructions to the reader about where it is best to start and stop. With that in mind, the writer will shape their narrative so that it achieves the desired affect with those stoppages in mind. They also frequently shift perspectives between multiple story lines and then weave them together. This means that even if a reader jumps out and then jumps back in, a shift in perspective can allow the writer to sync up with their reader and build the proper intensity for the narrative.*
What is an analog for chapters within video games? The obvious answer is levels. In fact, a lot of story-based games from the past through the present have actually called units of time in their game "chapters" (from Betrayal at Krondor through Metro 2033). Thus, writers for video games already have something like this solution in place. Breaking up the action into chunks like levels (and offering up bits of cut scene between them) is a tried and true formula for video games. I don't see any particular reason to meddle with it (just like I don't see the idea of chapters going away anytime soon in literature).

So, the first method of dealing with the pacing problem is breaking up the game into digestible chunks called levels. Before moving on I'll just say that there is room for more subtlety on this point. For instance, Mass Effect allows you to go on "missions" that are levels in disguise, and lets you have a semblance of control over where to go next. It amounts to the same purpose, which is to allow the creators to imbue each chunk ("mission") with its own pacing in order to draw you in, without worrying about the player getting up and leaving or getting stuck for some other reason. Obviously this isn't perfect, for within missions there are the same problems I mentioned above: meeting challenges means that different gamers reach story points at wildly different times. Wouldn't it be nice if there was some way to integrate plot developments and characterization into the very game experience itself?

That brings me to my next point: the idea of inserting story into the challenging portion of the game. I can think of two differentiated examples: the logbook and party banter. There are many examples of each, but I'll just name one game apiece here. For the logbook idea, I'll point out Bioshock. While exploring Rapture, the player comes across lots of tape recorders with messages from their owners. These are either diary entries or audio messages to loved ones or something like that. More archaic phenotypes of this idea used text logs, with the consequence that hardly anyone ever read them. They reveal, bit by bit, something about the world and what happened to it. For the banter idea, I'll name Dragon Age: Origins. While journeying with your party of four characters in this game, they will occasionally talk amongst themselves. This typically reveals something about the characters' personality and past. Whereas the logbook reveals information about the overall plot, the banter device reveals information about the characters. Either way, I think this is a promising development in development of pacing for video games.

Finally, I'll mention a more primitive method employed by game creators to bypass the "pacing problem". That's not to say it's not effective. Some games just make certain sections so easy that no one will mess them up. In effect, this makes the game more like a movie, but it typically remains interactive enough that we can comfortably say that it is still a video game. The quickest example to come to mind is MMO storytelling. Since MMO's seem to be designed with the lowest common denominator in mind, I find that their plots frequently involve instances where the character just kind of follows NPC's around and watches the story unfold. At worst they have to fight some monsters that aren't particularly hard (a concrete example of this method is the freeware Lord of the Rings Online). Like I said before, this method is...effective. But I think that if game writers lean on it too heavily, the plot might start to feel hollow to the player, and thus it could backfire.

To sum up, game writers are not ignorant of the pacing problem, and in fact have already been employing several ingenious solutions. My goal in this article was to make crystal clear the problem we have in front of us. I hope that I've spurred your thoughts on the subject.

*In fact, I often find myself annoyed at this. In all the Dragonlance books I read as a teenager I would always get really involved in some storyline, only to have the author completely jump away at the start of the next chapter. It sort of felt like the wind had been taken out of my sails, because I now had to slip into the shoes of some new batch of characters. But now I know why it was necessary: teens have short attention spans, and "restarting" at frequent intervals allowed the writer to keep some control over the pacing.

Autodesk Previews a Games Production Solution

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 19:25:25 +0000

It's GDC time again and in response to the conference Autodesk, like many other companies, is gearing up its media machine for a flurry of new announcements including new versions of its various Digital Entertainment Creation (DEC) packages. In order to grease the skids, Autodesk proactively invited an entourage of press power to their Montreal offices for an event coined as the Backstage Pass Media Event.

The event featured familiar faces using the standard keywords about best of class tools and improved workflows. Included in this year's presentations were the typical introduction of the new 2012 versions of their popular packages including 3ds Max, Maya, Softimage, Mudbox, MotionBuilder and the combined suites. The new versions boast time-saving enhancements and dazzling new features that promise to make artists more efficient than ever.

New Product Features

One of the coolest new integration features for the suites is the single-step interoperability between the suite packages. This enables a model in Maya to be transported over to Mudbox for some detail work using a single click, as shown in Figure 1. Another click in Mudbox moves the model with its changes back to Maya. You can also single click between 3ds Max or Maya to Mudbox, MotionBuilder and the ICE interface of Softimage.

Figure 1: Single step interoperability allows a complex dataset to be instantly loaded into another Autodesk product with a single command.

The Autodesk development teams have also worked to build common functionality between their different products. The new F-Curve Editor, found in 3ds Max, Maya, MotionBuilder and Softimage is a great example of this. This editor window has the best aspects of all the different products and has been updated in all these packages to be similar, so that the interface is familiar and easy to use regardless of the package.

The new features and improvements in the individual packages are also very interesting. 3ds Max 2012 has a new Nitrous display mode for amazing model previews directly in the viewport using the video card's GPUs. There have also been improvements in the UV Unwrap workflow, the painting tools, and non-photorealistic rendering. Rigid body dynamics in both 3ds Max 2012 and Maya 2012 have been updated to use NVIDIA's PhysX engine (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Physics in both 3ds Max 2012 and Maya 2012 now use NVIDIA's PhysX engine.

Maya 2012 also has viewport enhancements that make effects such as motion blur, depth-of-field and ambient occlusion visible without having to render. There is also a new Motion Trails feature that lets you edit animation paths in the viewport without having to open the graph editor. Maya 2012 also includes a new Digital Molecular Matter plug-in for creating realistic shattering of objects. The Maya fluids module has also been updated to simulate complex motions like boiling, pouring and splashing.

Softimage 2012 includes new nodes in the ICE interface that lets you work with Syflex cloth simulations. Also new is the inclusion of the Lagoa Multiphysics framework that lets you simulate the motion of liquids, cloth, foam, plastic and rubber.

MotionBuilder 2012 uses a new unified HumanIK interface that works better across all the products using a more consistent workflow. It also has support for stereoscopic camera rigs that are easily transported to Maya, Flame or Smoke.

Mudbox 2012 has a new UV-less painting mode that lets you paint directly on objects without having to establish UVs first. Its posing tools have also been updated to allow pose pre-sets to be created and any changes are automatically propagated to the saved poses. Mudbox 2012 also allows you to work with large textures for even more detail.

The event also included a discussion of the various middleware offerings available from Autodesk including Beast, for enabling global illumination within game engines; Kynapse, for AI solutions; HumanIK, for realistic character animation; and Scaleform, the new kid on the block, for user interface design. Autodesk announced its intent to acquire Scaleform and to integrate it into their middleware offering.

Technology Preview of Project Skyline

These announcements and the marketing presentations were typical to what we've seen in year's past, but what made this event unique was the technology preview that was described as "ground-breaking." It is statements like this that make a journalist sit up and listen. The project has been coined Project Skyline and I believe it is something to write home about.

The games industry has recently been impacted by the sluggish economy and studios are finding that they need to develop games with greater complexity on smaller budgets with less time. The answer to this dilemma is to be more efficient and that is the specific issue that Project Skyline is addressing.

Project Skyline was presented by Eric Plante, Product Manager for the Games team, a face new to Autodesk, who was specifically brought in because of his extensive game experience having worked at EA for many years. Eric knows firsthand the pain of trying to build games with inefficient pipelines.

Eric began the presentation by describing the current efficient workflow for adding 3d assets to a game production. This workflow takes an artists work and throws it over a wall to the programming team. The programmers then integrate the game asset into their code and test out the results in the game engine. Many bugs and problems with the art assets are only discovered after the asset has been placed and manipulated in the game engine during a test cycle. By this time, the artist is working on another piece of the game and if there are problems, he has to interrupt his current work and take time to fix the problem asset. Any fixes can only then be verified once the asset has been re-integrated into the code again.

Because this is such an inefficient workflow, many companies have invested a huge amount of time in modifying the pipeline by creating art asset libraries that the code automatically pulls into the engine during integration runs. These systems are much better, but they still don't provide the immediate feedback that the artist needs while building the asset and they require many hours of programming time to implement and customize.

Project Skyline addresses these inefficiencies directly using a system that gives immediate real-time feedback to the artists from within their tool. This allows the artist to try out the asset they are currently building within the game engine while building it. Problems with the assets and its animations can be immediately identified and corrected without having to wait for an integration build.

Eric showed a working version of Project Skyline in action. The demonstration extended the Maya tool with live links into a working game engine that allowed the artist to move and control the character in a game environment and see the animations in real-time. Each keystroke for controlling the character was detected and processed to play a different animation, as shown in Figure 3. The artist could then use Maya to tweak the various animations as needed and see the results right away.

Figure 3: As the character is moved in the game engine, each animation is displayed within a timeline interface in Maya.

Such a system allows the artist to check and double check their assets before sending them down the pipeline. It also saves the programmers time from having to check all the assets in regular integration builds. The results would be a much more efficient pipeline and less headaches all around.

Included within the Project Skyline tools is a visual node-based programming interface that lets technical artists build all the links between the character and its control keys without any coding, as shown in Figure 4. This also frees up programmers to focus on their own work.

Figure 4: Technical artists can use a Maya tool to define the interactions of the character in the game engine.

Project Skyline also frees programmers from writing low level animation code and data translators because it includes an animation engine that is easily integrated with the game engine. The tools allow artists to validate their character is a working game environment and it eases the burden on programmers thus making the entire pipeline more efficient.

Summary

It was great to see the new product features and to see Autodesk's ongoing commitment to making their products meet their customer's needs. Rob Hoffman, Senior Product Marketing Manager for the 3D team, mentioned that 100 percent of the product updates are customer driven. The success of these products is directly tied to a company that cares about its customers.

Project Skyline is another great example of how the teams at Autodesk are looking for ways to make their products indispensable. Seeing how Maya can be used to address one of the most common pipeline bottlenecks is truly inspiring.

Kelly L. Murdock works as a freelance consultant and author. He has written extensively on 3D graphics including Maya 7 and 8 Revealed and several other titles.

3D in Photoshop: The Ultimate Guide for Creativ...

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 04:11:35 +0000

With the introduction of 3D capabilities starting in CS3, concept artists had the potential to introduce 3D models into their concept scene. It was best at that stage of development to texture the 3D model in its native program and allow Photoshop to simply read what was already created. Then CS4 came along which made some great improvements in how well it handled 3D geometry. Its ability to use its painting tools directly on the 3D object was a feature that artists greatly appreciated, but even then there were limitations.

Now we are going to explore what are, in my humble opinion, some great improvements in CS5’s 3D texturing engine.

Texturing infuses character into the 3D object to bring out the personality needed to tell a story. Without this your object is naked and lifeless. Texturing is an art within itself and some artists will specialize in just that. A great amount of time can be invested into this e days or weeks depending on the demands of the creative director.

Real-life objects absorb light to some degree and what we see is the results after absorption. If you look at objects around you, whether they are fabric, water, leaves or even a mountainous landscape, it is important to break down what we are seeing into their surface types. Basically, 3D programs identify and manipulate objects as several surface types by breaking them up into materials. For more information on materials, see Chapters 1 and 4.

Keep in mind that this chapter is written for the artist who has little or no knowledge of 3D creation; however there is the desire to add 3D content to their workflows, to introduce eye-catching effects as well as greater flexibility with their designs. We will accomplish this through the use of an online database that will provide quite a bit of the 3D content that we can use for our personal projects. Although we will provide a few companies for you to consider, we will focus on one online company that has created a plugin for CS5 that will import 3D objects directly into the 3D layers. The company is 3DVIA (www.3dvia.com).

We are going to illustrate a common compositing concept in this chapter. We will import a concept car from 3DVIA to use as the main character in our scene. We will illustrate it by showing it speeding through the wet streets of a downtown area of a city block that we will also download through 3DVIA database.

Note: This tutorial requires some basic knowledge of Photoshop tools such as the Clone Stamp, Transform, Various Shape Tools, Gradients and more. If you are not familiar with these tools, you should first learn these before proceeding.

Ok, let's start creating!

10.1. Importing 3D Using 3DVIA

We are now going to look at some possible online databases where you can download the 3D object that you require and import and texture it to your needs. There are a few companies for you to consider that use 3D content. Most have online databases where you would download the 3D object in your required format through their websites. Some of these include: 3D Via (www.3dvia.com), Artists 3D (http://artist-3d.com/), Quality 3D Models (www.quality3dmodels.com/), 3D Content Central (www.3dcontentcentral.com/) DAZ 3D (www.daz3d.com) and Content Paradise (www.contentparadise.com/) to mention a few.

The one that we will focus on for this tutorial is 3DVIA. 3DVIA is owned by Dassault Systems (www.3ds.com) which specializes in CAD based products. Seeing the need for an extensive 3D database similar to what Corbis & Getty Images has done for photography, Dassaut Sytems created 3DVIA. We will use their 3D importer plugin for Photoshop to import the models for this tutorial. You can find their plugin on 3DVIA's website at http://www.3dvia.com...adobe-photoshop or on my personal website at http://www.chromeall.../tutorials.html. Please download the plugin and install it. The plugins are designed to function on versions CS3 through CS5 so download and install the one that matches your version of Photoshop and let's begin the importing process.

We are going to create a scene with a concept car speeding through the wet streets of a downtown city.

Note: You can follow along with this tutorial by downloading the content files from http://www.chromeall.../tutorials.html so look for the section titled “3D IN PHOTOSHOP EXTENDED”. Download and expand the zipped files into a folder titled “downloads” and we will refer to this for any content files that you will need for this tutorial. By the way, the 3D files used in this tutorial are included in the content files as well. So, let's download a 3D city and a sporty car through 3DVIA.

Step 1: Access the Import command (File > Import) and select “search 3DVIA” (Figure 10.1).

Fig 10.1

Step 2: The “search 3DVIA” importer will open the model search dialog box that will allow you to search by model type as well as by the name of the model. You will also be given options to search through the store where you will usually find some of the better models; however, I have found that the Community models are quite detailed. In this example the UCI Concept car is chosen (Figure 10.2).

Notice that the format of this model is 3D XML. This is a proprietary format by Dassault System's designed for a seamless transfer from their web based system (3DVIA) into Photoshop's 3D layers. After you have imported the concept car, browse through the database to acquire your city titled “City Block.” We have provided both files for you in a PSD format so, if you like, access your downloads folder and open “skyscaper. psd” and “UCI Concept car Materials_AllCATPart 3D XML File.psd” (Figures 10.3 and 10.4).

Fig 10.2

Fig 10.3

Fig 10.4 Open “skyscraper.psd.”

10.2. Creating the Layout

Now we are going to position the 3D models to be in line with the concept of the car speeding through wet streets.

Step 1: Create a new document with the dimensions of 8” x6” with 150 ppi resolution. This resolution is just for tutorial purposes so that we can work quickly together.

Step 2: Place both the car and the skyscraper objects in the new document. Each 3D object will occupy its own layer as shown in Figure 10.5 .

Step 3: Access the 3D Mesh panel (Window > 3D) (Figure 10.6). Along the top of the panel click the first icon on the left to display the 3D Mesh options. On the bottom right of the panel click and hold on the icon on the far left to see the visibility options for the varied 3D components. Select “Show All” and instantly you can see outlines that represent 3D Axis, 3D Ground Plane, 3D lights and 3D Selection. This will help you to keep track of where things are as we navigate our scene to compose and texture it.

Fig 10.7

Zoom out of the document just to observe the changes to how we view our 3D space. CS5 will keep all 3D elements visual even beyond the borders of the document (Figure 10.7).

Now zoom in a little closer to get a better view of the streets. We will set up the scene for the car to be placed on one of the roads surrounded by the buildings (Figure 10.8).

Fig 10.8

Note: CS5 has the ability to merge both objects into a single layer using the Merge 3D Layers command so that both can be lit with the same light source, with the shadows and reflections affecting one another. However, third party models created by a community of artists are not always reliable. This could be due to how well the mesh of a 3D object was constructed, so to keep matters simple let's keep each object on its own 3D layer.

Make sure that the skyscraper layer is selected and navigate the Camera (N) so that it is close to street level with the front of the buildings in the background, as shown in Figure 10.9 . Select the Camera Zoom option on the options bar. This is where we will set the focal length of the camera. To consolidate the field of view for both you will need to adjust the focal length of the camera toward a unified focal length so set the Focal Length to 100 for both objects. Now select the car layer and access the 3D navigation tools (K) and navigate the 3D object itself to be positioned over the street. Try to get something close to what you see in Figure 10.9 .

Fig 10.9

Note: As with many Photoshop tools, the Shift key can be used to limit interaction to one axis at a time. This will help you better control the interaction when getting used to the 3D tools.

Step 4: CS5 generally allows for the shadow of the 3D object to appear on the ground plane of the 3D model. But keep in mind that this is not always the case with third party 3D objects like the ones that we have just downloaded from 3DVIA. These models have been created by individuals and submitted to the website so, depending on the settings as well as the 3D application that created the objects, CS5 may or may not recognize the ground plane as in this particular case. So, to give our concept car a sense of placement on the ground plane, add a shadow on a separate layer beneath the car as shown in Figure 10.10 . Change the layer's blend mode to Multiply and reduce the opacity a bit and let's continue on.

Fig 10.10

Step 5: Now let's add the sky to the background. This is done with gradients situated on their own layers; and initial light to darker blue is established on one layer. On top of that create a reddish gradient that falls off to 0% Opacity toward the top of the composition. Create another layer on top of the red gradient and create a dark blue to 0% Transparency toward the lower 3/4 portion of the image. Use Figure 10.11 as a guide.

Fig 10.11

Step 6: Next, let's add some clouds to add some interest in the sky. Access the downloads folder and open the clouds.jpg and place it above the blue gradient. Resize and place them into the sky behind the skyscrapers and reduce the opacity to allow some of the sky colors to come through. In this example a duplicate is also applied and resized larger to imply depth (Figure 10.12).

Fig 10.12

Step 7: Now, focus on the layer titled “City Block” and take notice of the textures associated with it. If you place your cursor over the second one down, with “road straight” in the title, you will get a thumbnail view of the texture (Figure 10.13). Double-click this texture to edit it.

Fig 10.13

Step 8: By default, many of these textures will have a resolution of 72 ppi. To get more details we should redefine the texture to be a higher resolution. Change the Resolution in the Image Size properties (Image > Image Size) to 200 ppi instead and save the document (File > Save) (Figure 10.14).

Fig 10.14

Step 9: When we resized the texture in Step 8, we have essentially interpolated the image giving it a low resolution look. This is okay because we are now going to customize this texture at the higher resolution, starting with vector shapes.

Fig 10.15 Place “concrete.jpg” into a new layer.

Recreate the orange and yellow paint guides using the rectangular vector tools (U) (Figure 10.16). Simply match the original lines colors. In this example, each vector shape is on its own layer. Select File > Save to see the 3D model update.

Fig 10.16

Fig 10.17

Step 11: Use the Stamp Tool and the Patch Tool to get an even consistent texture (Figure 10.17). Select File > Save to see the 3D model update.

Step 12: The goal is to use the new texture to match the size of the texture information in the base image. So, use Free Transform (Ctrl-T/Cmd-T) and resize it, and then select it and create a new pattern as shown in Figure 10.18 . Select File > Save to see the 3D model update.

Fig 10.18

Fig 10.19

Step 13: Fill the layer with the newly defined pattern and add some noise (Figure 10.19). Select File > Save to see the 3D model update.

Fig 10.20 Change the blend modes of the vector shapes to Overlay.

Fig 10.21 Apply dirt to the road.

Step 16: We are going to use another texture to add more detail to the street. Open “wall texture 002.jpg” (Figure 10.22).

Use the Patch Tool to make a seamless texture similar to what was done in Figure 10.17 (Figure 10.23). Select File > Save to see the 3D model update.

Fig 10.24

Change the blend mode to Overlay to increase the contrast so that the texture integrates with the road harmoniously underneath it (Figure 10.24). Place the texture to one side of the composition and duplicate it to cover the other side. Use layer masks to seamlessly blend the two. Select File > Save to see the 3D model update.

Step 17: The car will be driving along a rundown part of town and the roads will be in need of repair so let's further illustrate this. Select a portion of the “wall texture 002.jpg” that represents the long crack and place it in a new layer of the street texture. Change its blend mode to Hard Light and place it along the double yellow line (Figure 10.25). Select File > Save to see the 3D model update.

Fig 10.25

Use the layer mask to soften the edges to blend into the scene (Figure 10.26).

Fig 10.26

Fig 10.27 Apply additional texture to road.

Now, click Ctrl-S/Cmd-S to save the texture (Figure 10.28) and take a look at the 3D object to see the result.

Fig 10.28

10.3. Texturing the Walls of the Buildings

In this exercise we will add a little more character to the building.

Step 1: Select the City Block layer and access the sixth texture from the bottom that has the title of “texture 21” in it. You will see what is displayed in Figure 10.29 .

Fig 10.29

Note: You can also use the Material Select Tool

and click on the canvas where this texture is. You will see the bounding box drawn around this material if you have the overlay turned on and the material should now be selected in your 3D Scene panel.

Step 2: Open the “wall texture 001.jpg” and place it above the background layer of the building. Use a layer mask to show through the windows from the base layer. To enhance the shadow details on the window sills use another layer with a Multiply blend mode and paint with black into the shaded areas (Figure 10.30). Select File > Save to see the 3D model update.

Fig 10.30

Fig 10.31 Add “wall texture 004. jpg” to enhance image.

Step 4: Let's add two more texture details to bring the wall to life. First, we will add some grunge detail to the wall. Open “wall texture 005.jpg” and set its blend mode to Darken. This dirties up the wall a bit giving a sense of age and neglect (Figure 10.32). Next, open and add the “wall texture 004.jpg” again as another layer and increase its contract using Curves. Change the blend mode to Overlay (Figure 10.33). Save the texture and let's go make changes to the lighting.

Fig 10.32

Fig 10.33

10.4. Lighting the 3D model

One of the significant additions to the CS5 3D engine is the ability to use IBL (image based lighting). That means that you can take any photographic image and utilize its Color and Luminance properties to light the scene so that your models will actually look as if they were photographed within the same environment. For more information on image based lights, see Chapters 1 and 5. Let's start with lighting the car.

Step 1: Click on the “add new light” icon and select “New Image Based Lights”. Now that the light has been added to the scene, all we need to do is select the image that it will use to light the model. If you select any light tool, take note that a 3D navigational sphere for the IBL light will be displayed for you to facilitate navigating the light.

Note: Although it is customary to add 360 degree panoramic HDR images, it is important to know that you can use any bitmap image; that is what we will do in this situation.

Inside the 3D Lighting panel click on the add image icon that is next to the “Image” title located below the color swatch. Navigate to your downloads folder and select “ibl lightsource.jpg.” This is the merged imagery of the background scene as shown in (Figure 10.34).

Fig 10.34

Step 2: It is a good idea to match the ambient light in the scene. If you like, select any color so that you can see how this feature will affect the car; however the reddish bluish horizon was chosen in this example (Figure 10.35).

Fig 10.35

Step 3: Let's take a look at the actual surface properties on the concept car. The 3D Materials panel will display all of the separate 3D surfaces that are attached to this model. As you can see there are quite a few (Figure 10.36). Through the 3D Materials panel you can select each 3D mesh and view its surface. In this example “mesh643-geometry” is chosen and below is its surface titled “Gris_argent_Rendering.”

Note: These titles were the originals given when the car was created in its native 3D program. However, you can change them by double-clicking on their titles and typing in the new name.

Fig 10.36

Step 4: Now we are going to add some ambient lighting to the City Block so select that layer and this time choose a more bluish color within the clouds (Figure 10.37). Since this portion of the buildings is mostly in shadow we will allow it to be dominated by the bluish temperature that often dominates shadow regions of a photographic image.

Fig 10.37

Next we will add a wet looking surface to the street.

10.5. Adding the Wet Look to the Street

The car will kick up water as it is speeding through the streets. But first let's give the road a wet look. Essentially we are going to affect the Reflection properties of the street. Let's get started.

Step 1: Make sure that the City Block layer is chosen. With the 3D Materials panel open select the material for the street which is “GraphicMaterial-32.”

Fig 10.38

Note: Materials can also be selected using the Select Material Tool found in the Material Tools slot on the 3D panel . From the Reflection texture popup menu, choose Load In A New Texture as shown in Figure 10.38 .

Fig 10.39

Next, navigate to your downloads folder and select “ground reflection. jpg.” We are using a B&W image to define the reflective characteristics of the model. The brighter the tones the more reflective the object will be and the darker the tones the less reflective it will be (Figure 10.39).

Adjust the Reflection intensity to 80% so that you can get a feel to what this texture is doing to the surface of the street (Figure 10.40).

Next, adjust the Reflection intensity to 30%. This is more of what we are looking for (Figure 10.41).

Fig 10.40

Fig 10.41

10.6. Adding Localized Bump and Reflective Characteristics

Now we are going to finish up a few details to the cityscape behind the car. We will add localized bump and reflective details to the buildings as well as the setting between the buildings.

Step 1: Turn off the visual aspect of the car temporarily to have less distraction on the city (Figure 10.42).

Step 2: Just as you did in Figure 10.38 you are going to find the surface in the 3D Materials panel for the tallest building in the rear (GraphicMaterial_10). Again, you can use the Select Material Tool to select it directly on canvas; once selected, load the file “build reflective map.jpg” into its Reflection map (Figure 10.43).

This image is the B&W version of the original color image. The window regions were selected with the Polygonal Selections Tool and filled with white on a separate layer. The background layer was then filled with black. This ensures that only the windows will have reflective properties.

Step 3: We will create the bump map in a similar way. Figure 10.44 is a B&W version of the color map. Just like the reflective map, the white areas will rise to display peaks and the black areas have no effect. Now, load “building 2 bump map.jpg” into the Bump map of GraphicMaterial_10.

Fig 10.44

In our 3D Scene panel (Window > 3D) access the Quality drop-down menu and select Ray Traced Final to see the results. You will initially see a square grid pattern moving across our image. This is simply making several passes to improve the render by minimizing noise. You should now see the reflections from the surfaces of the neighboring building only within the glass windows as a result of the reflection map. Also, the white colored supports appear to rise forward, which is the white colors in that region of the bump map (Figure 10.45).

Step 4: Now do the exactly same thing to the building in the foreground for “GraphicMaterial_8” and use “building_reflect 1.jpg” for the reflection map and “building 1 bump map.jpg” for the bump. Adjust the intensity sliders to your liking. You should have something similar to Figure 10.46. Finally, to add some last minute feature that will hold our interest between the foreground and the background, place the “sunset.jpg” below the City layer and position it so that the sun is positioned between the buildings (Figure 10.46).

Fig 10.45

Fig 10.46

10.7. Adding Depth of Field and the Splash

We are about to do something really fun and add the splash that is caused by the speeding car. In addition we will use the new DOF (Depth Of Field) features in the Camera Zoom Tool to limit the focus on the main character, which is the concept car.

Step 1: Let's start with the Car Layer to apply the new DOF feature. Select the 3D Zoom Camera Tool. On the options bar there are two variables that we are interested in. One is the “DOF Blur,” which establishes the strength of the blur and the other is “Distance,” which will set the plane of focus. In this example the Distance is set so that the rear of the car begins to blur into the distance (Figure 10.47). With the 3D Zoom Camera Tool you can Opt/Alt click on the rear of the car to set that as the focal plane (distance parameter in the options bar).

Step 2: Do the same thing for the City Layer but set the Distance so that the rear of the image is blurred and the foreground is more in focus (Figure 10.48). Also apply some Gaussian Blur (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur) to the sunset to honor our chosen depth of focus.

Step 3: A brush is created to start the initial stage of the splash. Figures 10.49 e 10.51 show the brush properties that were used to create the brush for the splash.

Fig 10.47

Fig 10.48

Step 4: Apply a purplish color for the foreground color and a dark blue for the background color. These two colors reflect the two extreme ambient light colors in the scene. Now apply the paint effect to a separate layer above the car. Use Figure 10.52 as a guide.

Step 5: To get the splash started give the paint some Motion Blur (Fillers > Blur > Motion Blur). A distance of 34 is used and leave the angle at “0” (Figure 10.53).

Fig 10.53

Fig 10.54

Step 6: We will now give this paint stroke the glossy properties of water to apply the Plastic Wrap filter (Filters > Artisic > Plastic Wrap) as shown in Figure 10.54 . Experiment with the settings till you find something to your liking.

Step 7: Now apply Motion Blur (Filters > Blur > Motion Blur), again with a greater distance (Figure 10.55). Now we have our initial splash.

Fig 10.55

Step 8: Duplicate the splash to add a stronger effect. Then give it a drop shadow underneath to show depth from the ground. Also, to further harmonize the colors in the overall scene use a Radial gradient to add yellow to the sunset and a bluish hue to the foreground (Figure 10.56). Now it's time to render the car with ray tracing. In the 3D Scene panel (Window > 3D) select the scene slot on the scene graph area, and under the Quality drop-down menu select “Ray Traced Final.” You should see that the reflections in the windows are now rendered.

Fig 10.56

Step 9: Duplicate the car layer and change it to a Smart Object (right-click on layer > Convert to Smart Object). Add a Motion Blur with the Angle set to 70 degrees. Here the Distance is set to 41 but you can experiment with this to get a look you like. This gives the car a sense of motion and up and down movement (Figure 10.57).

Fig 10.57

Step 10: Edit the mask of the Smart Filter so that the Motion Blur is mostly applied to the rear of the car instead of the front end. In addition, create an additional layer above the car and fill it with 50% gray. Add to this gray layer a Lens Blur (Filter Render > Lens Flair) and then change the blend mode to Hard Light to make the gray pixels transparent e leaving only the lens flair. Place the flare over the headlights to accentuate the glare (Figure 10.58).

Fig 10.58

With a little more enhancements to the headlights as well as a light spill onto the street (separate layer set to Overlay with white added to the street), Figure 10.59 shows the final render.

I really do hope that you enjoyed this chapter. For more information on myself and my art please go to www.chromeallusion.com

Fig 10.59