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From what I've seen, one of the most popular uses of HDR images is to compose live action plates with 3d models (matching light, reflection, etc). They capture it with a chrome ball in the time of shooting to later unwrap it and apply to the 3d scene.
My question is: if I want to create a HDR image from a 3d scene, should I create a chrome ball inside the program and render it?
There is an option inside mental ray that allows me to define the output format as a .hdr, but the result is horrible...

Hi,

We are looking for artists to cooperate with us in a great shmup for the iPhone, for profit share.

Here is a video demonstrating the gameplay:


if interested, please send email to:
asmcoder1@gmail.com

Thanks.

YAGER seeks the talents of a passionate Concept Artist to work on an awesome and exciting unannounced AAA project. We’re looking for people who love working in interdisciplinary teams with a flat hierarchy and in a fast-paced and professional environment. So if you are excited about working in a strong team culture where your voice counts, are organized, have excellent communication skills, we have a great opportunity for you at YAGER.

As a concept artist on one of our project teams, you use your artistic skills to help establish and advance the design of the game you are working on. You are responsible for creating the imagery that defines the visual direction of the project while ensuring that the work clearly communicates visual cues that deliver the subtext of the project to the player. Additionally, you share with your team the responsibility for adapting your concept art into comprehensive and cohesive sets of drawings that artists and animators will depend upon to build the respective elements of the game’s 3D assets.

Responsibilities

• Create concept art for characters, weapons, props, architectures, environments, ambience situations (mood boards), both traditionally and digitally based on the direction set by the art director
• Support level design and level art teams in creating unique and rich environments
• Report directly to the Art Director and work closely with other disciplines in small interdisciplinary teams

Qualifications

• 2 years+ experience in the production of CG illustration
• You have shipped at least 1 successful entertainment project
• Ability to work within a style including a style set by another artist/art director
• Outstanding traditional illustration and coloring skills
• Strong knowledge of color theory, human anatomy, architectural, industrial & military design and art history
• Ability to range across numerous genres and to adhere to creative direction
• Strong verbal and written communication skills in English
• Excellent ability to communicate, visually and verbally, complex mechanical and emotional concepts
• Takes feedback constructively, works well under pressure, strong team player
• Passionate about videogames

Desired Skills

• Storyboard and thumb nail drawing skills
• Matte painting skills
• Texturing skills
• Material/Shader creation
• Unreal Experience is a plus
• Additional skills such as modeling, lighting, or FX are beneficial

Employment details

• Full-time and on-site
• Status: Employment
• Start: as soon as possible

Join Our Team!

If this sounds like you, and you love to work in interdisciplinary teams with a flat hierarchy, please send us your application using our online form.
http://www.yager.de/career/index.htm...9&af=1&agid=30

Hi There,

we are looking for skilled gameartists with at least 2 years of experience in the industry.No Characterartists needed...

Please send us your portfolio at:

kontakt[at]polygonfabrik.de

Kind Regards

Hello guys! im new here :D. I working on some characters. And i need some help :D I tried SSS for first time. And this is the result. Its not final :P
So if there is wrong looking things just tell me. Blame me say whatever you want :D

+ i learned this myself.
[sorry for my bad english] Thank you :)

I need a 3D artist to make some models based on concept art provided, I have been getting into it myself but the environment work has chewed up all my time.

I’m building a game prototype that will be used to secure funds for a future project. I will pay but funds are limited!

I think this work best suites a creative 3D artist that wants to create strong work for their portfolio and get early involvement in a unique project.

If you are interested then please drop me a link to your work, with an idea of cost for one of your models.

Thank you for your time,
John

Hi everyone, I am primarily a 3D artist and texturer with a big interest in technical stuff that relates to art.

some of you may know my dissertation on batching - I found this highly interesting and found out more stuff that was unrelated and thus not needed.

this included the transform bottleneck of transform bound or fill bound and LOD systems

when an object gets too many vertices/polys per screen size (set of pixels) or too few then performance is effected.

something that I have also looked into a lot is LOD systems in the past - with the understanding they work on distance - a quick and simple calculation.

So I have just been talking to a friend about LOD systems and was thinking how it would be great if it also included objects that scaled in real time (so may be big at one point and small at another, yet be the same distance from the camera)

to alleviate the amount of polys in view and also the transform and fill bottleneck I thought of a different system this is especialy true in games that are now using tessellation - with tessellation based on a per object distance.
The only reason LOD works is due to when an object is in the distance it takes up less pixels, making it less noticeable when it does change LOD form - something that scaling also does!


so with all this in mind I thought about a new system that would not be based on distance, rather would be based on screen space% - there is only one aspect that I am not sure about in performance terms - which I hope someone may be able to rule in or out.

my theory is to get the rendered scene stripped of textures and lights (re-use the already transformed scene) assign each object a number, then fill that object with a fill colour from a 32 bit greyscale, allowing for over 2 billion objects per level, jigger it around some more (64bit?) if you need higher numbers (or assign each object in view dynamically but this may be more costly, but I can never imagine you ever wanting 2 bill objects in view at any given time! meaning this would be future proof)

This is the performance aspect I am not sure how costly it would be:-
each object would then have its unique reference number/colour (filled in and then used like a post process effect)then using this texture of the scene in greyscale with each objects unique number, using the same/similar math as photoshop does when you use the magic wand tool, picking by colour with a tolerance of 0 to calculate how many pixels on screen that object is taking up! (taking an average game now running at 1080p, this is a maximum of 2073600 different selections on screen - for higher res than this, they will have higher end gpu's)

With this information, knowing the pixel count and the object colour/reference, base its LOD from this figure so
low pixel count = low LOD
High pixel count = High LOD

if the object is taking up less than a pixel (incase it still needs to be rendered with AA is it may effect the surrounding pixels) to render at its lowest LOD if its in view (no difference here to a standard LOD system as they will render the lowest LOD at the furthest distance)

this could even then create a better LOD system where it could possibly automatically adjust the LOD based on its known poly/vertex count and its pixel useage to drop the transform or fill bottleneck (the model itself would need to be still made with this limit in mind too as usual... if people even do this in industry)

The only potential issue I can see is transparent objects, like windows, someone much cleverer than me probably can factor in an alpha cut out - again possibly a theory killer here again...

what do people think, not being e programmer I have little real world experience/knowledge of really technical stuff like this and was just curios to see if this would work - and how performance costly it would actually be.

I'm working on an indie game called Conscience, and I'll use this thread to post everything I'm doing for that project.

My most recent prop is a high res pencil to be used in a cinematic. I have very little zbrush experience and I'm just developing my workflow around it.






My process here was: base mesh from maya, bring it into zbrush, detail it, decimate and export back to maya, retopo in maya as best I could, bake the normal, use ndo to rip the AO out of the normal, make the diffuse from the AO (essentially putting the AO as multiply layer on top and having color layers underneath), and then I made the spec from my diffuse.

My main question is what else can I do to push this simple prop? Was my process optimal/efficient? ...am I on crack?

I'm so used to doing hand painted textures that I get lost around texturing something I've sculpted..I feel like I shouldn't paint in any lighting information because that's what my normal and spec is going to take care of, and I also feel like all details I would usually put in my hand painted textures should have been sculpted in the first place (again taken care of by the normal/spec), so I just lay in flat colors and call it done -- then proceed to feel strange. I had a handful of students around me say that's all I need to do and I don't believe them.

Comments and feedback welcome.

[Before starting, I'm sorry if the question doesn't even belong to this thread section or forum as its not about art but the game design.]

Background:
We are making a RPG game, and I am the environment artist + few more task handler.. Anyways, we somehow got problem with the previous skill balancing system. I have no idea about skill balancing for RPG thing, but somehow have to find it and do it.

Main Question:
How/Where do I even start ? There is all this attributes player's attr., enemies , weapon attr. , armor attr, enhancements, special skills... We'd like to make it simillar to that of Dragon Age in terms of skills and balancing.
Do you guys have any idea , suggestion, links resources, tutorial videos ? Anything is hearty welcomed .

Thanks,

So I'm trying to import an object into UDK from Maya that has a lot of materials attached to it. I exported the model shown below as one FBX file with "embed media" and "smoothing groups" checked off, as well as having each texture saved as a .png file in each material. The only problem is that most of the textures don't import, or are not linked with the material that is created from the FBX file in UDK. The material will be there, but instead of the texture attached to the diffuse channel, its just a parameter node. If anyone can help at all, I would be immensely thankful.

Hey all,

I am a 3D artist, and I have gotten involved with a small 2D animation studio (in Australia) for some prospective work. I am a recent graduate, so any sniff of work has been jumped upon, and it's quite hard to come across in this part of the world.

Anyhow, the studio want me to make a kind of ... proof of concept, a fully modelled character (fur covered), and preferably with some animation (I am not an animator by trade, I have done some but I haven't pursued it). They want this asset to use as a pitching device to for the production company, so the production team can choose between 3d or another format, so if the 3D is a no go, then I won't get any work out of it anyway... but if I they like the 3D then this could be a big job.

The head of this group is one of those "I'm a creative" type of creatives; as in he doesn't give any logical deadlines or information, knows nothing of 3D animation or production cycles. His timeframe deadline was "yesterday/tomorrow". So in other words, useless. Plus this fully modelled, textured and covered in realistic fur, and preferably rigged/animated character is being done for free... at first. I am only going to send footage of the character, and frames, thus proving the concept is sound.

I am not parting with the asset until I get paid (This seems like the right plan. They don't have an animator anyway, I know a guy who can animate in Modo, which is the software I am going to use and I am going to see if he wants to do the animation side.).

Now I was wondering if any of you fine Polycounters had experience doing freelance character work, what were your timeframes? What did you charge for your work? I am in no way a veteran or heavily experienced 3D artist, but I know I can achieve this. My problem I have little clue about the ways of being a freelancer, and what my time and effort is worth. Pretty much I'd like any advice on what's a good stance to take with an offer like this, I am keen for any work I can get, but I don't want to get screwed too savagely.

I wanted to get some advice from people more in the know. The character will be cartoony, the only difficulty will be the fur, and the rigging animating if I am forced to do it.

I will be working in Modo, any fellow Modo users got tips for the Fur pipeline for Modo? Or just any advice at all, I dig Modo, but changing my workflow has been a bit staggered, I got too used to 3DS Max... love 3DS Max.

Any and all help and advice is welcome and very much appreciated!

Thanks for your time!

Jarv

Hey Polycount,

Some of the Dota players here at Weta Workshop have been working on item submissions. Our first one had a mixed response, so we've gone back and worked on a redesign.








Compared to the Team Fortress 2 items we did, Dota 2 has been more challenging in terms of nailing the look and feel. Any feedback or comments you folks have would be most appreciated!

We've also blogged about the process and what we've learned here: http://dota2.wetaworkshop.com/

Hey guys! I've been looking for something like this for a while, and thought I would ask around here as well. I'm looking for a program in which I would be able to 'pin' various reference images for a model. Basically just making a collage of images to look off of while creating a model. I also use reference planes in 3DS Max but I find having other shots, 3/4 views, style references etc can help while modeling something, especially if it's a technical model. Having to click through image after image in the windows preview pane just doesn't cut it.

I've used Microsoft OneNote at work before, and I was able to do it there, however I don't have OneNote at home, so I was hoping to find a cheaper alternative. I'd really love to have a nice collage of several images on my other screen that I can just glance over to while I'm working. Thanks guys.

Hey guys! Frozan here. wondering how many peeps here work in Sweden or have been to Sweden.

My girlfriend and i have been watching from afar (Seattle) for quite some time and finally have decided we want to check it out.

Just wanted to see if anyone had anything they would like to say about it or experiences with the country and its great people :)

We will likely be taking a trip in the near future (next few months) and im also looking into the industry as well for possibly staying in Sweden for an extended time (Forever?) for work.

Anything you guys can do to help me out with learning or connections would be awesome!

also in the midst of updating my website but you can see some of my work in the recent Forza M otorsport announcement trailer! :) cheers guys and hope to hear something from any of you awesome polycounters!