Programmer Art
Curiously enough, today I planned to talk about my pathetic efforts to create art assets for my game. Interestingly enough, Gareth Fouche had the same plan. And some very pretty attractive art assets to show off. I'm jealous. If you are curious about the process, you can see it in action here:

Scars of War Blog: From Concept to Game Asset

I think Gareth and I have acquired licenses to much of the same texture and 3d model assets - there may be a bit of similarity in our content, in spite of radically different generations of game engine. But you know - that doesn't really bug me. TV shows and movies often re-use props, costume elements, set pieces, and especially sound effects (and the Wilhelm Scream). Indies cannot afford to keep reinventing the wheel.

But for people interested in creating art content for games, here are some tools I use and resources I have found useful:

Blender 3D
I am a convert to the cult of Blender. Now, to be honest, my experience in other 3D modeling packages has been limited. I've only tinkered with Multigen, Maya, and Wings 3D, and while I did a bit more work in Milkshape, I was never as proficient as I am in Blender. I still have a lot to learn across the board, but it's an extremely powerful 3D modeling package.

To get you started, here's Nygel Symes' video tutorials on Blender were really what got me over my hurdles of using Blender, coupled with some of the tutorials over at LowPolyCoop. Also, check out Psionic 3D Game Resources, especially the Zombie Tutorials for making a low-poly model. It uses Milkshape 3D, and some texture unwrapping packages that aren't even available anymore, but the information and process is incredibly useful regardless of what 3D modeling packages you are using.

GiMP
The Gimp (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is open-source (free!) 2D art software. It lacks some of the whistles and bells of its bigger (and expensive) siblings like Photoshop, but there are a bunch of downloadable plugins out there for it that help fill the gap nicely. It's a pretty dang sophisticated and powerful piece of software. And the price can't be beat!

Here are some Gimp tutorials to get you started.

Quark (Quake Army Knife) & Torque Constructor
These are getting a little bit old-school, now, as Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG) levels are becoming a little passe for modern game engines. But not for me, right now. I have finally been weaned off Quark in favor of Constructor - which has become reasonably solid (finally). There are a few nifty video tutorials available for Torque Constructor now. QuArK has a lot more of a broad base of support, but in both cases there is no substitute for experience.

Genetica
Genetica is a seamless texture generator. In all honesty, the final results aren't anything you couldn't create in Gimp or Photoshop once you really know what you are doing and all the "tricks" of the trade. But Genetica streamlines and pipelines the whole process, making it pretty fast and easy. More importantly, it allows you to make a small change earlier in the process without having to repeat all the subsequent steps manually - you can see almost instantly the difference changing the noise function in step 3 would have down the line at around step 17.

The results are pretty impressive. And seamless, allowing them to be tiled and repeated / tessellated easily.

Labels: game art

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