Environment Art Portfolio site now up!

I've got my game art portfolio up online now - check it out here: link

I have extensive experience using Valve's source engine and some experience using the cryengine2 and unreal3 engines  (the image above is taken from the cryengine2 sandbox editor).

(If you can't view the portfolio site for any reason, please let me know. Thanks.)

Cloudwright plug-in Open Alpha

This great new plug-in has arrived as an open alpha from http://www.simul.co.uk/. You can download the installer from here: http://www.simul.co.uk/cloudwright/plugins.

What's really cool is the realtime preview from the standalone app is available in the XSI viewport by choosing the Cloudwright_directx 9 option from viewport "realtime shaders" menu. This makes previewing the overal look of the final effect amazingly fast, allowing instant feedback on most of the cloud generation parameters.

dxf importer and sun position plugins updated for Softimage v7.5

Yep, to celebrate the release of Autodesk Softimage 7.5 (I still can't believe I'm writing those words :( ) I've recompiled the famous dxf import and sunpath plugins for AD's newly acquired 3d package. (Eggh!) I will continue to update this plugin until AD add these features to the program or make Softimage to expensive to upgrade - I'll release the source code in that case.

You can get the dxf importer (plus most other versions) here.

You can currently get the new sunpath plugin here. At time of writing, nothing has changed except compatability with v7.5.

Black Mesa Official Trailer

Yep. It finally came out today and the reception has been pretty good so far. 

Many thanks to monkey junkie for recording inside the source engine and editing the trailer so brilliantly.

Downloadable versions:

rapidshare

http://games.rapidshare.com/gamesnew/detai...&rubrik=trailer

http://www.blackmesasource.com

2009 is gonna be a busy one.

Enjoy!

Articles/News:

http://digg.com/

http://kotaku.com/

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/

http://www.joystiq.com/

http://www.ausgamers.com/

http://www.hlportal.de/

http://darkdiamond.net/

http://www.n4g.com/

http://csnation.totalgamingnetwork.com/

http://www.fz.se/

http://www.pcgames.de/

http://www.gamestar.de/

Happy 10th! Black Mesa Media Release Nov'08

First things first - happy 10th birthday Half Life!

Been a pretty heated 3 weeks working towards this media release, although there wasn't much need for new prop art for these shots, just some UV mapping and skinning. Some of my own work goes public for the first time in these shots.

It's been a pretty successful release and we've received a lot of attention on forums and on a couple of websites, Kotaku being the most notable -  Google "black mesa media release 12".

http://kotaku.com/5093811/unofficial-half%20life-remake-looking-prettier-by-the-year

And PC Games, Germany : http://www.pcgames.de/aid,667633/Bildergal...ue_Screenshots/

Prop Art by me appeared in these Nov'08 media release shots:-

http://www.blackmesasource.com/media/c2a5_release12_001.jpg

Cactus furthest away (modelling/texturing)

http://www.blackmesasource.com/media/c2a1_release12_001.jpg

Green Electric Equipment behind fencing to left (remake of CS:S prop) (modelling/texturing)

http://www.blackmesasource.com/media/c0a0_release12_002.jpg

Electric Transformers beneath tram platform (texturing - two diffuse maps - one visible)

http://www.blackmesasource.com/media/bounce_release12_001.jpg

http://www.blackmesasource.com/media/bounce_release12_003.jpg

Impeller pumps in area beneath rocks directly left of the tower (torus shaped items) (texturing - 3 diffuse maps/one normal map, minor modelling tweaks to fit in with other props)

http://www.blackmesasource.com/media/bounce_release12_002.jpg

Rusty Pipes (top centre - some modelling and texturing)

Dxf importer for XSI v6 & v7

Here is the permanent link at SI NET for my dxf import plugin for XSI 6 & 7:

http://community.softimage.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=208

As far as I'm aware they should work with x32 and x64 systems. I'd like to thank all the people that helped with general testing of the dlls at the SI NET thread:

http://community.softimage.com/showthread.php?t=2473

Please use this thread or the comments box on the download page to post any issues you have regarding the plugin and I will do my best to answer them.

New ICE compounds

There seems to be a nice momentum building with v7 now.

A couple of interesting free ICE compounds have been announced recently:

Eric Moootz's emNewton

http://www.mootzoid.de/html/XsiCorner/emNewton.html

He also assures me that he is currently working on an ICE node for his emFluids

plugin. I think he will get a much better take up with this.

Guillaume Laforge's Procedural fluid flow

http://community.softimage.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=207

http://frenchdog.wordpress.com/ <-link to video

Thiago's Function graph node

http://thiagocosta.net/?p=157

http://community.softimage.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=200

And the first commercial one I've seen: Gerstner Waves

http://www.xsi-blog.com/0001-purchase

Pigeon Impossible

...is a short animated film directed by Lucas Martell. You can see the website here , his excellent blog here or subscribe to the podcast (all full of good advanced animation/character rigging/animation tips for XSI) here.

I wish him all the luck in the world in making the project a success.

XSI 7 shipping! Redmotion plugins do not work in v7 yet

XSI 7 shipped last week. (There is currently a 'do not disturb' sign on my door)

I've evaluated all the current redmotion compiled plugins. None of which actually load into v7. I will upgrade to v7 very soon and update all the plugins at some point. The best workaround currently is to continue to import dxf files into XSI 6 and then open the saved scene file in v7.

Fluids with Ice? (XSI 7)

metaball animation XSI v6 from Jason Wells on Vimeo.

People keep asking whether fluids will be possible with ICE in XSI 7. I think they will, but perhaps not right away. Why? Because stuff like this (video above) is already possible. This is half the battle. The other half is getting the particles to behave correctly. This is sure to be an ICE compound sooner or later.

Morgan Cheetham Chair Visuals

These images are based on a furniture design by a work colleague of mine, Sam Cocker. You can find more info at his website - http://www.morgancheetham.co.uk/. Its been something bubbling under for a few months but I'm quite pleased with how they've turned out so far.(HDRI added to all objects with environment node, FG, AO shader on camera, architectural shaders, XSI 6.02 FND - rendertimes about 15 and 20mins at 2000x1500pixels).

EDIT : 30-04-08 - updated to show correct rear feet.

Redmotion plugin development update

red_Dxfimporter goes 3d (again)
Finally got around to redoing my old vbscript as a C# dll (something long overdue). This time there will be more useful import options plus each dxf layer will be assigned a seperate, appropriately named material. (Image below shows 8000+ individual polygon cubes on five seperate layers imported in about a minute.). I've noticed that there are memory issues in importing huge DXF scenes (my computer crashed out after reaching the 2 gb limit) using the dotXSI format and I'm looking at some work arounds (each layer is loaded as a seperate dotXSI file).

I'm mulling over some improvements for the 2d plugin as well.



red_Archtools
Been developing quite a few new extras for the Archtools plugin including some tweaks to the existing toolset (all these are hacks are possible using sequences of existing XSI commands but the procedures are scripted to speed things up):

Primitive > Camera > Fixed Polygon Camera ( creates a standard orthographic camera locked exactly perpendicular/parallel to a selected polygon - helps with the accurate and fast trimming of meshes.)

Trim trim away.. (Use the knife tool to cut polygons accurately \/ )


Get > Property > Measure (this is a modification of Isner's original measuring tool but it gives you the option to copy-paste a measurement to another place (perhaps the windows calculator) and also to set a scale (SI units to mm) so that the readout can be displayed in equivalent units (like mm,  cm, etc.) Its applied to the scene root as a property.


Transform > Transform by 2 points (move a object by snapping two points: start position and end point only. No need to go through the whole moving centre routine everytime.)
Transform > Scale by 3 points (unchanged)
Transform > Align to Polygon (align an object (position and rotation) to the centre of a polygon witha few clicks)

Transform > Mirror by 2 points (this is a classic cad tool. It  mirrors an object over an arbitary line)
Transform > Rotate by 4 points (precision rotation of multiple objects - same as before)
Transform > Align to edge (similar to Align to polygon but moves and rotates an object to an edge)
Edit > Instances on a curve  (Will include this - its handy - see post below)

(May tweak these commands listed below)
Primitive >Polygon mesh > Draw Box
Primitive >Polygon mesh > Draw Cone
Primitive >Polygon mesh > Draw Cube
Primitive >Polygon mesh > Draw Cylinder
Primitive >Polygon mesh > Draw Sphere

red_SunPosition

I'm in process of TRYING to update the plugin to read a text file into which you can place cities, locations of your choice and select them through the sunpath interface to get the correct longitude, latitude, timezone, etc. I've tried this before and but have had technical problems with the combobox.

Sunpath tutorial video

This is a quick video to demostrate the Sun Position plugin in use. Download from here.

Instance on a curve (XSI)

This is command primarily for doing balustrades quickly. Although, I guess it could have other uses...

1. Create a model from the baluster item you wish to use.

2. Run the command with: Right hand EDIT > Instances on curve

3. Select the model and then the curve.

4. An options dialogue will appear. The number of instances evenly placed on the curve is determined with a slider and their tangency by checking one or more checkboxes. (eg: how they relate to the curve)

In the image, "X" tangent was used.

Get it here.

Archtools for XSI

This is a plugin with a number of little tools for modelling with more precision:

Draw Box, Draw Cone, Draw Cube, Draw Cylinder and Draw Sphere enable the user to pick 2-3 points to define the size, position (and rotation in some cases) of the standard polygon primitives. Draw box requires 3 points (corner point, length, width) , the others two (centrepoint then size).

The two transform tools mimic common cad tools: the 3 point rotate and the 3 point scale.

1. Select an object or or number of them.

(Use CTRL to snap to elements, Left-click to select all points.)

2. Pick the origin about which the scale or rotation will be done.

3. Pick the reference point (usually on the object to be transformed) that will be used for scaling/rotation

4. In the case of the rotation, pick a point which defines the axis of rotation.

5. Finally, pick the new position for the reference point. Right-click to exit when finished.

Click on this thumbnail to see 4 point rotate in action.

EDIT: (link updated. - download and replace file from .txt to .xsiddon) here.

Black Mesa: Source

At the mo' I'm just pushing forwards with some prop skins for Black Mesa: Source. Thought I'd link to this image at moddb which shows my DNA texture sitting in the foreground.

Sunpath plugin - alternative download

If you are having trouble getting sunpath plugin to run you can get a non-xsiaddon version from the link below. It also contains instructions on how to install the plugins manually and usage tips.

http://files-upload.com/333993/SunPosition-beta0.2-26-06-07.zip.html

IES Lights in XSI

This is something I posted at XSIbase on June 8, 2007, I'm putting it here for ease of finding:

I started playing around with the IES plugin for Softimage XSI from Ctrl studio called ctrl.light profile and wanted to establish a workflow that yealded some good results. (see link to original post for download: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=24&t=300617&page=1&pp=15)

Anyway, Ctrl.light profile does seem to display a reasonably accurate visual appearence of a luminaire, if used correctly:-

To get a hold on how to use the plugin do the following:-

1. Firstly: find a light fitting that you know about, it helps to have
photographs of it installed and working. I chose some uplighters from Erco;
(Erco are good because provide both 3d meshes and IES data for all their
products as well as comprehensive brochures.)

2. Then: Get > Primitive > Geoshader and add the plugin to the
Geoshader.

3. Import the appropriate IES data into the IES filename section.

4. Create a point light. Important: Reduce the intensity of the point light
you are going to use as an IES to 0 or you will not get a correct result - you'll end up getting light from the pointlight as well as the IES shader (which is extra bad if you are using GI or/and FG.)

5. In the light part of the plugins ppg attach the new point light.

6. Now do a test render of the light positioned near a surface and go
forward from there.

7. Important: DON'T rotate the point light. After all, there is no logical reason to. IES data for an uplighter will automatically cast light upwards, a downlighter will always cast light downwards. Just placing the pointlight above or below a specific light (depending on the type) is all you need to do.

Finally, if you need more than one light of the same type, use Instances. Create a model from the light mesh object (if used), point light and geoshader, then instance them around the scene - Works well.

3rd place - T-Gen Competition Entry

I was very pleased to get third place with this entry into the T-Gen competition:

Redmotion XSI plugins - now packaged addons

I've decided to package all my plugins as .xsiaddons. This should now allow them to be installed in a workgroup and easier to uninstall.

2d Dxf importer for XSI v6 - here
(No Change)
3d Dxf importer for XSI v5/6 - here
(No Change)
Sun Position plugin - here
(Now features Primitive > Light > Sun and Property > SunPosition menu items. The Sun primitive features a "distance" parameter for moving the light clear of the scene.)
Four point rotate - here (Post coming soon about how to use this plugin - it's a CAD style precise rotation tool.)