Posts by Bl1tz

  • [UT2004] DM-Heartbreak

    Probably still a little too early in development for you to get any really helpful feedback, though I will say to your "making cuts in 3dsmax" problem that the cut tool is not the ideal way to add more faces, as you said you get weird orphaned vertices, etc. You should also probably finalize your layout completely before turning it into anything organic so you don't have to drag that beast of a mesh back and forth between the editor and Max.

  • MapCore Job Census

    Ken!!!!!

    (this is Tom H, obviously you can tell from my avatar which looks just like me in real life (IRL))

    Also, might as well use this post to update my status...I'm no longer at Monolith, I'm now at The Amazing Society.

  • Levels and some Vegetation models

    Some cool lookin' stuff there

    The trees look pretty good, my only complaint is that in some of the closer screenshots, the tree trunk texture doesn't hold up so well. It looks sort of rubbery and too gray...almost like a tire or something. It could just be the screenshot though...

  • Abandoned Shack in Progress

    What game is that model supposed to be for? Hard Drivin' on Sega Genesis?

    I suggest that you load up any recently released big budget game and look at the environment art. Take a good, long look at the textures and models in whatever game you choose, take screenshots of the art, and then try to come as close as possible to the quality and fidelity of those screenshots as you possibly can when you make your own art. Once you do that successfully, I'd say you're on the right track to becoming an environment modeler.

    edit: for reference http://www.mobygames.com/game/genesis/h ... creenshots

  • Jonathan Sabella - Character Artist

    Right off the bat, I had problems accessing your stuff. I'm using the latest Firefox so it's not on my end. You should expose the links to the .mov files in case the person viewing the portfolio has embedding disabled. It wouldn't hurt to have some pictures of the models in addition to the movies for quicker digestion. Also, a lot of the links (like your blog) opened in a size-restricted window which is pretty annoying when providing a normal link would let someone open it in a new tab or a full screen window. Regardless of the quality of your work you should make your site more accessible.

  • ZeniMax Media (Bethesda) Acquires id Software (PR)

    It sounds like id was in an awkward position, in that they were successful enough to stay independent and self-fund development but lacking the desire or capital to publish their own games. It had to be annoying for publishers to deal with a company like id since the majority of independent devs are usually hanging on by a string, willing to make bad deals that will keep the lights on from project to project, giving the publishers all the leverage.

    I think it's great for the industry as a whole that a relatively new publisher has studios like Bethesda and id to keep the cash rolling in. Hopefully it'll enable a lot of new IPs (like Brink!) to develop there.

  • [UT3] CTF-Strand

    Tremendously badass, I love it. Even though subways are done to death in games, this looks unique in the way that you've done the curved arched tunnels and opted for a more fantastical style as opposed to trying to make it 100 per cent realistic.

  • I need some feedback

    Hey, welcome to mapcore

    For the character models:

    Half of the renders are blurry or out of focus for some reason and the models aren't really posed optimally to be shown off in screenshots. You're really not presenting yourself well by doing that.

    The environment art:

    It looks pretty low-res & low-poly which can be OK if, for example, you want to show a good range between really high poly and really low poly, but in this case it seems like this is all you have to show. Again, you're really not doing yourself any favors by taking screenshots like this:

    [Blocked Image: http://www.timcoolmode.com/images/Church2212.jpg]

    The textures themselves seem decent when looking at the sheets but the way you've rendered them just looks really bad. The same goes for the "London" shots.

    [Blocked Image: http://www.timcoolmode.com/images/Streetpost5%20copy.jpg]

    Judging from your site it looks like you're trying to focus more on environmental art so I'd say start finding the websites of some professional environmental artists for examples of the sort of quality you need to match with your work as well as to get a good idea of how to present your work.

    Here are a couple of mapcorians who have some nice environmental art portfolios:

    http://www.thiagoklafke.com/

    http://www.philipk.net/

    I hope this helps

    P.S. I looked at your resume and saw that you wrote:

    "Able to communicate in speaking and writing – clearly, concisely and effectively."

    That is about the least clear and concise way to say that phrase, so you might want to have someone proofread your resume as well.

  • WIP in WIP, post your level screenshots!

    Nurb that stuff looks good. I do think it's a bit odd that you're doing custom assets that look so close to assets they have in UT3 already. Is it required that you have to make your own textures for the project or something? Because otherwise I'd say save some time and use the stock brick/concrete stuff they have.

  • Originality in mods

    Quote from R_Yell

    There are many factors to take in consideration: everything has been done twice, unfortunately original ideas don't grow from trees, engines are more complex but kids aren't smarter than 10 or 5 years ago, chemtrails, jews, etc.sorry if it's not funny but I had to try, nothing personal against the jews just a joke

    I laughed Glad you posted because I think Fistful of Frags is actually one of the more original and well done mods out there. How bout that Koko?

  • DM-Grand-Diablo [PC/PS3] 100% Custom Content

    Still doesn't work for me but I found a working mirror here:

    http://www.utzone.de/include.php?path=c ... entid=7316

    Really awesome theme...I can tell you love to make city maps like you did with de_wanda. It's a nice change of pace from the typical cliche deathmatch style so many people (like myself) fall back on. I only played with bots for a little while but the gameplay seemed fine. Obviously gameplay isn't the main focus on a map like this but it's nice to see that it plays well enough.

    Couple of really minor nitpicks:

    - Texture scaling was kind of inconsistent...I'd see a nice sharp ground texture for example and then a blurry, scaled down wall texture. Kind of minor and tough to avoid in some places but it still bugs me a little bit.

    - The burning building fire FX looked a bit funny up close.

    - Weird texture warping on some ascending spiral roads and ramps. Again, that's really a small nitpick because it's such a bastard to unwrap/map stuff like that and have it be perfect but it looked a little weird.

    - Stuff popping in and out. I think this is an engine thing but there were a few spots where I could see prominent props go back and forth from visible to invisible.

    Overall:

    Kick ass map with great style, unique theme, and impressive scale. Warby owns. Hessi owns. That's all.

  • Calling those in the Industry

    Quote from tommy

    What are my chances of getting employed in North America as a EU citizen nowadays?

    )

    Zero without any degree (unless you marry an American or something.) Slightly better (but not by much) with an advanced degree. It's a bad climate for coming here to the US these days. There's even been talk lately of making the H1-B visa more restrictive due to fraud.

    Plan on sticking in the EU for now. If you do well there, you'll have a much better chance of coming over here later. Sounds like you're from Austria? There's at least a few companies there... http://gamedevmap.com/index.php?query=A ... mit=Search

    As for the rest of your concerns all I can say is focus. Focus on what you enjoy the most and everything else will fall into place.