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The Right Kind of Beauty by Hayden Duvall [11.03.00] In today's world of octilinear, bump-mapping, ray tracing, real-time refractive-index-calculating hardware, a great game that doesn't deliver a sizable chunk of graphical excellence is in danger of becoming a great game that nobody's ever heard of. What can you do? There are a few general areas in the visuals department where many games can benefit from a metaphorical strategic splash of mascara, and a well-considered application of eye shadow. Moving Up in the World: How Artists Can Become Game Development Leaders by Di Davies [09.11.00] Most artists who have been asked to lead teams have experienced the growing pains of becoming an artist manager. Reconciling art and management is a challenge that every new lead artist or art director may face. As a manager, you may have to put your own ambitions aside and concentrate on the artists in your team. There is a bonus to adopting that attitude: once you make your artists look good, it reflects on you as a manager and you look good as well. Artists' Gallery: Tramell Isaac [06.14.00] Tramell Isaac is an Art Director at Kinesoft Developement, working on the upcoming RTS, MageLords. His work was also seen in Black Isle's Fallout series. GDC
2000 Keynote: The Designs of Star Wars Episode One
from GDC 2000 [05.03.00] Lessons in Color Theory for Spyro the Dragon by Craig A. Stitt and John Fiorito [05.02.00] For those of you who find yourselves in the lucky position of being game artists, one of the greatest ongoing challenges is to find ways to leverage an enormous cache of materials and palettes to create powerful, realistic worlds that draw in players. How does one do that? By educating yourself about the elements of color and production design and applying these lessons to your games -- as Craig Stitt and John Fiorito did at Insomniac Games in their Playstation title, Spyro the Dragon. Artists' Gallery: John Gardner [04.21.00] John Gardner began his career working at a TV station in Tennesse, and now, thirteen years later, he's a Graphic Artist with SouthPeak interactive. His specialty is scenery design using Softimage, and the work featured here are from his two recent games, 20,000 Leagues: The Adventure Continues, and Wild Wild West: The Steel Assassin. GDC Wrap-Up: Graphics at GDC by Bernd Kreimeier [03.29.00] This year's Game Developer Conference offered ten to twenty parallel tracks of keynotes, lectures, workshops and roundtables, complemented by up to six sponsored sessions, some of which covering a full day - and all that following two days of full-day tutorials. Such an abundance of offerings forces attendees to cull and prioritize, and Bernd Kreimeier, our graphics eyes at the conference, had a distinct preference for OpenGL. Artist's Gallery: Sergei Boginski [03.16.00] Sergei Boginski is the lead animator at Creat Studio in St. Petersburg, Russia. His specialty is Softimage character animation, and his cut scenes can be seen in a number of Activision and Eidos games, most recently Revenant and Wutang: Shaolin Style. Artists' Gallery: Tony Davidson [02.02.00] Tony has been involved with the 3D game industry for about six years, his first job being with Cyan, Inc. He was the second artist hired on for Riven and spent a good two years in overtime making textured objects, creating lit environments, and dabbling a little with designs. After Riven, he spent a short time as an art director for the Revenant (Eidos/Cinematix studios) before starting his own studio. Planning and Directing Motion Capture for Games by Melianthe Kines [01.19.00] Motion capture is a great tool for creating animation for certain types of games. Like any tool or piece of software, if you learn how to use it properly, it can make your life easier and produce great results, but if you try to wing it, chances are you'll end up wasting time and money and may come away with nothing useful. Melianthe Kines discusses motion capture in depth. Creating Character Animation Assets by Jeff Hayes [11.05.99] How can developers in today's market create enjoyable games with cutting-edge graphics and still deliver on time and on budget? Jeff Hayes focuses on some of the techniques he has used over the last ten years for creating motion assets efficiently. Implementing A Group Behavioral Control System Using Maya by Kian Bee Ng [10.11.99] Crowd scenes, schooling fish, and other forms of flocking behavior once required postprocessing techniques. However, using Maya Embedded Language, you can script these behaviors within the animation environment. Check out theory, code, and a short movie that demonstrates the technique. Behind the Scenes of Messiah’s Character Animation System by Michael 'Saxs' Persson [09.24.99] Saxs Persson waxes nostalgically philosophical about the trials and tribulations of developing Messiah's game engine. Don't expect to find any code here, but you will encounter some real-world problems, solutions, and nuggets of wisdom. Artists' Gallery: Daniel McMillan [09.03.99] Daniel McMillan is an animator and designer with Outrage Entertainment. His history includes working in TV, Film FX and stage craft - not to mention Descent 3. As he puts it, "Entertainment and escapism seems to be the worlds I consistently contribute to." Artists' Gallery: Louis DuPree [08.06.99] Dupree is a North Carolina-based 3D animator and Softimage trainer, currently working as an animator for SouthPeak Interactive's upcoming game, Wild Wild West: The Steel Assassin. He's a fan of animation, conceptual design, and Tom Waits. Check out this month's artist, some of his current work, and some of his art from way-back-when. Poser 4.0 Review by Jason Zirpolo [07.30.99] If you're trying to get into 3D or if you're a traditional artist trying to visualize your ideas, Metacreations' Poser 4.0 could be just the tool for you. If you're already a pro, however, you might be a little disappointed. See what's up with the lastest version of this character animation tool. Building Your 3D Resume by Luke Ahearn [07.16.99] Confused? Worried about not having enough experience? Desperate to show the world your gorgeous 3D work (and maybe get a job)? Luke Ahearn offers excellent advice on constructing your 3D demo reel and what to do and not do when you approach companies. Artists' Gallery: Pierre Roux [07.02.99] An avid game player since the age of six, Pierre Roux began his career as a game artist at Cryo Interactive Entertainment in Paris, France. These days he’s with Quantic Dream, and continues to work primarily on landscapes and settings. Animating the Run Cycle by Jason Zirpolo [06.18.99] Want to animate a character's run cycle? Need real-world tips and tricks for Lightwave or 3D Studio MAX? Look no further. Jason Zirpolo takes you through the steps of creating a game character and modeling realistic running movements for it. This article is based on a lecture that he gave at this spring's Game Developers Conference on the same subject. Artist's Gallery: Joel Boucquemont [6.04.99] Drop into the Artists' Gallery to view the work of our most recent addition. Joel Boucquemont is a french-educated digital artist and painter currently living in San Francisco. His past work includes game art for Papyrus, EA, Psygnosis, and now Akita Software - not to mention promotional work for a tattoo artist. Artist Gallery: Todd Siechen [05.07.99] Just in time for Starwars: The Phantom Menace, Gamasutra presents this month's featured artist.Todd runs RealEyz Imaging and does effects for film as well as web design, game design, and 3D animation and modeling. Artists' Gallery: Spencer Lindsay [04.09.99] Spencer Lindsay is a 3D Artist and realtime database engineer who just completed his five year stint with Atari Games in Milpitas CA. Video In Games: the State of the Industry by Ben Waggoner and Halstead York [02.26.99] Video is one of the most commonly used and least understood elements of modern computer games. When used well, it can create mood, set up game play, introduce characters and foward narrative. When used poorly, it can rip you out of the game faster than a direct rocket-launcher hit during a deathmatch. Anatomically Correct Character Modeling by Stefan Henry-Biskup [11.13.98] Studying human anatomy can help you improve both your aesthetic quality and the technical functionality of your character models. Creating Backgrounds for 3D Games by Gavin Bell [10.23.98] Creating backgrounds for 2D games is easy. You create a bunch of bitmaps in your favorite paint program and you're done. 3D backgrounds are another matter, though. Here Gavin Bell of Wasabi Software provides a complete tutorial on creating backgrounds for 3D games. Artist Gallery: Don Barnett [07.24.98]Using inks and oils alongside the typical digital artists' toolset, Don has produced a body of work as varied as the historical framework (Renaissance Italy, modern art, the jurassic era) from which he draws his inspiration. Artist Gallery: Lee Moyer [06.12.98] Drawing inspiration from American illustrators like NC Wyeth and Maxfield Parrish, Lee conjures stunning, and sometimes frightening visions. Artist Gallery: Eni Oken [05.15.98] As an accomplished artist in the world of 3D gaming environments, Eni creates the worlds in which many of us wander aimlessly for hours. Interview with id's Kevin Cloud by Alex Dunne [01.23.98] id Co-Owner/Project Director/Artist discusses the "id"-eology of everything from the creation of Quake II's textures and models to the implementation of successful project management. The Artist Synapse by Josh White [09.19.97] Josh White's definitive study of the game development environment as relating to the visual artist. Game Artist Survival Guide by Josh White [06.19.97] Josh White's been through his share of hellish projects. But now he's discovered a secret to which relatively few artists have given much thought: It's called Planning. A Few Good Colors by Dave Pomeraz [06.19.97] Transferring 24-bit digitized images to 256 colors can be a bit of a headache. Enter a a computer algorithim thats better than any aspirin. Ten
Techniques for Faster Image Drawing by Matt Pritchard
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