Thrik

Looks really good!

Kind of brings to mind though. That was so sad, I'm sure this will be a great success though based on its licenses and backing.

Looks really good!

Kind of brings to mind though. That was so sad, I'm sure this will be a great success though based on its licenses and backing.

Gameplay trailer!

Hmm, good points. Context is it's a late afternoon scene (also has to be, couldn't change my mind on it at this late stage). Really good point about the foliage all being basically the same size. I'm using UDK's foliage system which means that the foliage is all non-solid and non-interactive, which isn't a bother when it's that all that size or smaller, but gets to be annoying on a large fern or bush. There's also interactive foliage actors but they'd be a bit more expensive and a lot more hassle to set up and place. I'll just add a few of 'em.

Heyyy posts while I'm typing. blackdog: There is some yellowish fog on there, but the start distance might be a little far out for it to actually feel foggy/dusty. I feel like I want the yellow-dusty-afternoon look even though a forest might not ever actually look like that. Come to think of it this actually might be something I fuck up on since we don't really have this type of forest at all in Australia, but it's not super important as long as it feels good.
The game is set on an island (two, technically) but the environments vary pretty wildly just because we like varied environments. Decided pretty early on not to give too much of a shit about making consistent geological sense between levels, we have a lot of improbable rock formations etc.
Rocks on the ground totally are too dark yeah. I'm not sure if I'm going to lighten them or darken the larger ones.

Here's an older screenshot. I definitely prefer the lighting/haze situation now. I think. I think I might be indecisive.



Thanks for crits everybody, bedtime for me

Hey folks, love the new look of the site and happy to see the community is still alive.

I am still at Sony (SCEE) after 6.5 years. Currently lead design on an unannounced project.

James

Lighting/fog, y/n?

yeah it's block based, would have gone wall based if I had know better when I started on this. Oblige for doom does wall based rooms which creates more interesting results imo. I didnt feel like restarting the whole generation code though , and I have it pretty much generating bug free levels at this point

Not so much updates other than behind the scenes work (tweaking, bugfixing and optimisation). I'm about to start another big pass on the graphics now, starting with a new look for items:


everything you can pick up now has a yellow outline, and I changed the hearths to health-pills =)

Well you probably didnt waited for it but after a looong time the Pvkii-devs finally got it out.



http://store.steampowered.com/app/17570

so if you like fast paced Medieval Multiplayer Combat in the Source Engine, you should check this out.
My map bt_townsquare is also released with this update and while i was lazy traveling around the other mappers and modellers made it even more shiny.
Can't play it myself as i'm still in Japan and got no pc, so no fancy screens for now :/

Short TV spot.

Take my money etc...

Probably my favourite games series, Shenmue:


Had a great time playing Banjo-Kazooie


Loved the art style in Wind Waker.


Many more too but I can't think of any right now >_>

Hey everyone !
Finally I would like to present my portfolio at mapcore:

www.mathiswidrat.com

Most images are from maps I've finished over the last years, but I'm going to update my portfolio with much more 3d content during the next months.
Currently I'm studying Game Design in Berlin and looking for an 6 month internship starting in April 2013.
Also I would like to get some feedback about my portfolio - what can I fix, add, remove and so on.

Please feel free to criticise and comment.

Thank you for reading !

Zynga needs to die... now!

I have been taking some, problem is, I don't have my computer yet. Our stuff will arrive this week, so I will be able to process some!

Well there kinda is. Look at some AAA games assets and environments. When you can do something similar in similar quality then you're good. Wouldn't worry so much about how long it takes you. As a beginner you are slow. Speed comes with experience. Focuss on the quality, get acquainted with your tools and workflow to a degree that you actualy know what you're doing.

Thing is when you can make quality stuff the job offers will come to you. The hard part is not to land a job but to become good enough for a job. For some that's easier then for others. But when you're talented it is only a matter of determination and perseverence to get there.

The mapcore community is a very good example for that. This community has been around for a while and i remember the humble beginnings of some of the guys who now work at big studios. What you got on your portfolio is actualy better then that but you need to stay focussed, work hard and steadily improve over the next couple years if you want to get there yourself.

Hey all,

So seeing Moroes and 3DNJ's work on the Siege remake inspired me to do some cs mapping of my own. Here's a few shots from my new project, a small-ish map set in a Museum, in a bustling city not unlike NYC. I'm planning some really fun stuff for the museum interior.

I'm also looking for some help from any talented 2d or 3d artists, let me know if it piques your interest.

New images will now be opened in a new/different tab if clicked.
Also shortened the descriptions/comments about the projects.

In addition I deleted the entire Source Engine section because some people said it's the worst piece of my work I've done so far (and showing only the best work is the key feature, right?). I also would like to concentrate on Udk and 3d assets from now on.
Even so it's quite hard for me to hide all my old source maps
Currently working on some more difficult 3d assets and another Udk map/project.

Thanks for the feedback again!

Point °9 by Rick is the most important one, the rest is bollocks; so think it over and over and over before anything


Still, some ideas for a 3d environment artist candidate :

- Have in mind when making your portfolio that you are showing it to someone for only 20 or 30 seconds, so make it fast clear and simple as possible. Put your best work in first and have enough side work to give the feeling of a "full" portofolio

- The ideal of any employer is to get a junior who knows as much as the guys already employed in the company (and the cool thing is that he can pay you less) he is not interested in teaching you how to do your work but assume you already know how to do it.

- If you are worried about standards and what should they be, just take screenshots of the cool looking game of the moment and see if you can do any better. If you can approach it that's already enough

- Choose the employer who is doing the same stuff you do; If you already made medieval stuff for exemple, your employer will know you will be quickly operationnal for a medieval game, and if you already made castles, he already knows what he is gonna get.

- Make assets with the quality of a modern first person shooter ( even more, but don't go too much on details or your employer will think you don't know how to optimize) your employer will assume that if you know how to do assets for a first person shooter, you will be able to make cool assets for any other kind of games.

- To render your stuff use Marmoset, UDK, Cryengine; whatever is real time, powerful and shiny ( very few people will appreciate a very well made low poly model for PS1 standards )

Ladies

Nice photo's

Nice photos thrik, hopefully you made good use of these rose petals ( not so bad in salad )

Also, you managed to make this english food looks good, which is actually brilliant

Though I should stick some of my stuff up here. Everything from airsoft to landscape, all the landscapes in this post are from various places in Ireland.

Cool stuff man, I see lots of oversaturated colors. I know it's your style and you like it so I'm silent here but... I think it's a bit oversaturated Right now I love to desaturate pics so I understand it

BTW There's a thing like "The HDR hole" that made me laugh hard

I sorted through about 100 applications recently when I was lookin' to hire a modeller (not a big deal company or anything, just an indie that got some funding), and yeah, relatively few of them showed their work ingame, which made me faaaar less likely to give them the work.
This is maybe kind of a weird suggestion (I'd hope an obvious one) but for the love of god don't use one of these awful slideshow preview things for your images. I want to just middle click a thumbnail. Probably I'm a huge asshole but I skipped most of a guy's portfolio on account of this shit.

That guy's portfolio is pretty good though.

Also, this is the Chet Faliszek talk JeanPaul was talkin' about. Definitely watch all of it.


I know so many motherfuckers who do the pencil-sharpening thing he talks about. I have also met this guy and can testify to his being rad

when rick isn't busy ranting and calling everyone scrubs, he writes very informative posts!

Ok firstly your friend probably applied to the best studios in the world and got no replies. No wonder.
I know of a few friends who took a long time to get into the industry for various reasons, the biggest seems to be setting sights too high and being unwilling to move too far. being unable to accept criticism and improve is a big problem among art students, who have big ideas but might not understand that the games industry is an industry and you don't go from studying straight into being cliffy b. you start low and work up and it takes a while.

i looked at your portfolio and there's a few things: your work is fine for a junior or an intern. your course should have an intern stage at which point they should at least provide you some small amount of help finding an internship at a studio, where you work your ass off and hopefully either land a job or improve enough, and get a real understanding of how the industry works, so that you can apply to other studios and stand a good chance.

it's my humble belief that anyone can make good art, all it takes is time, it;s like playing an instrument or riding a bike, you just practice, watch other people, listen and learn. the internet is so full of great resources to do this that nobody should be making bad art at this point. what lands you a job is having experience making games. joining a mod team or making levels/campaigns for games with an SDK (HL2, gears of war, etc etc). this shows you at least have an understanding of what it takes to create something, mods are great because they show you can work with other people - releasing it isn't as important as just getting that experience.

a small personal anecdote: my first portfolio was a piece of shit, worst art i ever made. i was proud of it though, and thought i was hot shit. i wasn't. i applied to about a hundred studios, all over the UK and Europe, i ended up getting a shitty job at a shitty studio making shitty games. but i worked hard and i learnt, and things got better, i grew as a person and an employee. i still think i'm hot shit but at least i understand enough to know that i am just fooling myself.


so, here's a gameplan for you:
1) don't worry about it
2) work hard and work outside of school - join a mod team, or make something yourself, try to work with others and get some real experience.
3) go to polycount and look, listen, learn. post your work and do what people tell you. at this stage every criticism is valid, not just the good stuff.
4) look at portfolios of people in the industry (polycount, not mapcore, everybody here sucks), see what the quality is like. your portfolio should feature the best work you have, not just the stuff you feel proud of.
5) fix your portfolio, render things in real engines (cryengine is great because it'll make everything look good regardless of whether it is or not, unreal is also good because it;s so widespread in studios). don't make me download your resume to sdee it. your about page should be called your resume page, and it should have a html resume. link to your resume in pdf and doc form. get a new email: neiljones@gmail.com or whatever. use real fonts, i can't copy/paste your resume and see what your actual name is.
6) when you're done with edumacationing, fixing your resume, and creating some pieces that showcase engine and pipeline knowledge - apply for an internship, apply for junior posiitons. there's game dev maps online - apply to everyone, send a nice email to their HR, be specific about your role, link to your website and resume.
7) keep applying, this is going to take a long time.
sign up with agencies who will seek work for you, it's not going to be the best work, but it's work and it's experience.
9) be prepared to move far away from friends and family.
10) hate your life.

Magic.