dmu

Just realized I can post in here! I've been at Bongfish as Level Designer with @Roald and @poLemin since February and it's been fun!

Still working at EA Full Circle, but just got promoted to Surfacing Artist II.

One of the projects I worked on after I made de_austria.
Yeah, I know the timing is really bad (CS2!), but can't change it... 🙁
In general a lot went wrong during this project. Had a lot of problems with the layout, but I think I found a good compromise in the end. Also learned many new things. Maybe I would even be ready to create a really good map now after all, but I think that it's gonna be the final one. I really like making maps, but it has become too time consuming over the years for just being a hobby. Unfortunately I never managed to get a job in the games industry. So that's it. I hope it's a worthy ending of 20 years of making maps for me. 🙂
Shore is a bomb defusal map for CS:GO that takes place on Lofoten Islands, Norway. (Also have a Hostage version of this that works well imo)
Workshop link: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2955084102
I took some inspiration from this place in Norway:

Layout:

Some pictures:

It's out!

I hope you all will give the mod a play!

sitrep: ramp island

Progress so far

We had the honor to cap the PC Gaming show, here's the footage we showed
 

Coming out of my long state of lurking to share the state of Classic Offensive. In short, ZooL is extremely depressed and is borderline ready to cancel the whole project. Hopefully Valve will consider us one of the exceptional cases to get a license, but ZooL doubts it. I'm doing my best to stay positive, as we truly have a new spin worked on by many many talented people. If you guys haven't checked on CO in a while, 3kliks recently made this video highlighting our current state.
So yeah, hopefully Valve does not kill us c;
 

Coming out of my long state of lurking to share the state of Classic Offensive. In short, ZooL is extremely depressed and is borderline ready to cancel the whole project. Hopefully Valve will consider us one of the exceptional cases to get a license, but ZooL doubts it. I'm doing my best to stay positive, as we truly have a new spin worked on by many many talented people. If you guys haven't checked on CO in a while, 3kliks recently made this video highlighting our current state.
So yeah, hopefully Valve does not kill us c;
 

Coming out of my long state of lurking to share the state of Classic Offensive. In short, ZooL is extremely depressed and is borderline ready to cancel the whole project. Hopefully Valve will consider us one of the exceptional cases to get a license, but ZooL doubts it. I'm doing my best to stay positive, as we truly have a new spin worked on by many many talented people. If you guys haven't checked on CO in a while, 3kliks recently made this video highlighting our current state.
So yeah, hopefully Valve does not kill us c;
 

Two new asset releases!
First up is Basalt. Sadly I can't release all of the assets as some of the nature stuff is from Megascans and can't be redistributed. Also only includes the assets I've made.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/e86kdqwpvhhs5x6/Basalt.zip?dl=0
Second one is assets I've made for Pitstop. A small release that includes some road and concrete trim textures, a bunch of sponsors and some skybox buildings that might be useful.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x6tn3b6nfo2u77d/Pitstop.zip?dl=0
As always, free for non-commercial use with attribution. 

Hi Mapcore,
Hoping for this to be the end of the line for Paradise. I'm happy to announce that this is the "final" update, or at least what I'm planning and hoping to be the final one. This has been a year and a half journey having worked on this level and very happy to show it off. I've learned a lot having worked on this and it's definitely time for me to move on and let this one go, probably for good.
Workshop link: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2538231993
 








 
Bon voyage, everyone enjoy your vacation!
-Will "celery" Granda

More HD stills 
















 
 
 
 
 
 
 

With UE5, the boundaries between real and CG are becoming pretty slim



 

I have returned with some updated San Juan

A final version of the cinematic is done. Im planning to release the environment on January 12th. Probably there's gonna be a playable demo aswell. 
 

Got promoted to Senior Level Designer at Splash Damage last month. Ain't that something?

Getting close to finishing the project. Mostly fixing the performance right now. here's some recent screenshots 

More to be shown soon. Here's a tiny sneak peek of the bombsite.

lol, haven't updated this thread in a long time  I've been working on this on and off throughout the year and I'm getting close to calling it done. The architecture is about 90% done, then it's time for the backdrop, foliage (all temp assets now), set dressing and polish... well I actually still have quite a bit left to do, but feels good to be over the most critical part (architecture).
Here are some pics of where I am at:

I'm now a Principal Environment Artist at Lightspeed LA (updated the board to reflect it). Last time I started a new job was 10 years ago, this is very exciting!

For me the pandemic was a major puch in the gut. I would have been in a very different place right now had it not been for COVID. Even before the pandemic, mapping had grown to seem like sort of an escapist thing so I had decided to take a break from it and make some major life changes to figure out why I am so inefficient at inter-humous relationships.
So here I am, all out of my comfort zone and walking through this swamp, fighting unseen creatures, stress levels through the roof, when all of a sudden the sky gets dark.
And then the COVID storm hits and trips me over. I manage to crawl my way underneath the roots of a tree, where I feel relatively safe. Problem is, now I can't go forward. The swamp is eating up my legs, mosquitoes laying eggs inside my ears while I sleep, and the eggs are hatching faster because of the moisture from the storm. Also the wind was brushing up swamp water onto my legs, which was catalyzing with my peasant clothes. I felt trapped and my condition was getting worse. I thought to myself, my legs are under-leveled, I cannot resist the entropy. Then I heard a voice from the sky and I looked up.
"You have some fine legs, son! You are on teh path to cerebro-fuego". "Thank you, Mufasa! You are truly as brilliant as they say!" This elevated my spirit and I decided to keep looking for whatever the hell he was hinting at. I would rest to gather up strength during the day and then leave at night to hunt for small swamp creatures. Then one night I hear footsteps, I look outside and I see the legendary meat-man. He was traversing the swamp with such elegance as if he was skating on ice. Enthralled by his magestic movements, I called him out and asked, "legendary meat-man, how come the swamp is not eating up your legs?". To this he replied, "It is because my legs are covered in meat, young padowan. You should try this too."
I thanked him and the next day I did what he'd suggested. (he also taught me martial arts) I covered my legs with meat and voalha! I could now walk through the swamp as if it wasn't there. This is great, I thought. At this rate I can make up the time I lost hiding from the COVID storm. So I kept walking until I reached the swamp cave. And in the swamp cave lay the swampnauceros.
It was sleeping and I was all pumped up, adrenaline drooling out of my mouth, my muscles all tensed up, so I pull out my knife and charge directly at it. Then out of nowhere comes legendary meat-man. He speaks to me, "Yo, amigo, stand back! This is not you amigo, you cannot defeat this beast at your level, even though you know karate! You have to visit mountain level and acquire the money printer from the traveling salesman so you can shoot the beast with money. "But, mr. meat-man! How can I find this traveling salesman?" "Oh, you'll eventually find him, the mountain level is walled-off. He can't run away." "Okay, mister meat-man. Thank you for your precious advice! Bye-bye!"
So here I am trekking through the forest, approaching the village at the root of the mountain-level. In the village I find a guide, named Fuejo. And naturally the first thing I ask him is, "Fuejo, man, why be the mountain so green and mushy?" "Oh, you don't know, amigo? The mountain is covered in swamp!" "This swamp...it's unlike other swamp. It's very thick and hostile, it won't let just anyone through." Stealthily, I looked around the bar to ensure no cats were around, then I spread my coat for Fuejo to see my meat armor. "Oh, I've seen this type of armor. It will protect you, but it is not enough. Here, take this..." He passed me a dirty jar with some white powder in it "What is this?" "It's called diezo-diazo. You snort it up your ass and it will inflate your armor." "Is this safe to use", I asked him. "Well, if you take too much, your armor will explode and cover you with blood, which will attract the swamp sharks."
So here I am crawling through a swamp once again, when suddenly I realize that I would need something to trade for the money printer. After all salesmen tradesmen aren't called tradesmen for nothing. So I dig into my pockets and pull out this half complete wooden house that I'd been chipping away at before I started my odyssey through the swamps. But I had not tool. I looked around and I saw this man who was carrying a wood-chewing tool. I had no choice. There was simply no other way. I stabbed him in the back of the head with my knife, then after the sharks devoured him, i came back to scrounge the remains. Freshly nutrified, I managed to complete the wooden house.
And lo and behold, I found the traveling salesman. "Here, take this house, travelling tradesman. All I want in return is the money printer." "Okay, here you go." "nice, I can defeat the swampnaucerous now. Thank you traveling salesman! In return, I shall build you a big house on top of the hill." "You already paid me with the wooden house model". "Oh, ok".

If you're 17, you're still in your mid teens. Your brain doesn't stop developing until you're around 25.
Your body and brain chemistry is booming right now, and it's a complicated age for everyone, you're not a special flower struggling with life. We all go through that. Some people get heavy insomnia, others sleep for 18 hours in that age. It doesn't necessarily mean you're fucked for life... you're just turning into an adult. You'll be alright.
There's no reason you should listen to me, but what I would do is to revert back to stuff that a 17 year old should do and has been doing for millions of years. Go out and get sun in your skin, exercise and/or do sports, lift weights, eat natural foods and stay away from processed shit, drink water, socialize, find a community, stay away from the fucking news, get laid, be with friends, be a rebel, read books about stuff you like and finally.... Create! Whatever that is, just create something, even if it's just a few lines in your personal journal.
I sense every teenager nowadays keeps trying to find "happiness", and that's really weird to me. Nature has no concept of happiness, stop! Find something that gives you meaning instead. We're all so addicted to the "likes" we get on social media our brains are flooded by excess dopamine, a natural drug better saved for rewarding hard work and other achievements. Focus on what is within your power.
Be well!