Special Guest: Wes Parker, Character Modeler

(In Photo: From Left to Right (Special Guest) Wes Parker, (students) Josh Carpenter, Richard Smith and David Maske)

On Friday, we had a special guest Mr. Wes Parker from Gearbox Software. Wes is a Character and Prop Modeler. We were classmates at the University of Texas at Dallas, as I was in the middle of getting my Master's degree he was finishing up his undergrad. He has been in the industry for over 7 years. He has worked on mobile games (before they were called apps). Currently he is one of the character Modelers for Borderlands 2.

He discussed how it was to go from a small size company to the size that Gearbox is now. How he went from a lead at his previous company to starting over as an intern to prove himself. As he continued his talk the fire alarm went off, we had to exit the building. He picked up us talk as we were standing in the adjacent building that we were escorted to (10 feet from the building we just exited). Once we returned to the building, he used a students prop to demonstrate the proper way to UV unwrap. His demo was with 3D Studio Max and Photoshop (the software(s) they use at Gearbox). Along with this demo of uv unwrapping, he also showed some of the ways he likes to texture. After the texturing demo, he had some time to show use his sculpting skills in zbrush. Some of his models have 250 different pieces to it or tools, I believe he called them. Very impressive work. He does a weekly video cast of his sculpting/modeling abilities. Click here for the link to his video cast The majority of the class uses Maya, but I believe after his talk they went home and fired up 3DS.

(In Photo: From Left to Right: Back Row - Anil Ghale, David Maske, Garrett Spurgeon. Middle Row - Richard Smith, Wes Parker, David Rodriguez. Front Row - Josh Carpenter and Richard Wilprit)

PS. I am sorry for the lateness of this post, I typically post the day of. But got behind in some work. I truly respect all my special guest and want to show them the appreciation and admiration I have for all of them.

The Mechanical Mouse

Here is my call out sheet of the mechanical mouse, As I finished with the concept art on paper i scanned it, and edit it on Photoshop.

PC Tower - WIP

Here is my WIP of the PC Tower. This is another prop for the classroom and lab areas. I used my "holy trinity" of software packages. Built the model and UVed in MAYA, textured in Mudbox and Photo shop. I was having some issues with the edges being too sharp.  Russell recommended that I adjust the normals.  I did that, and the result is much nicer.

Computer Monitor - WIP

Here is my WIP of the computer monitor.  This is a prop for the classroom and lab areas. Built the model and UVed in MAYA, textured in Mudbox and Photo shop.  Initially had over 4000 polys.  Was only able to decrease poly count to 1634 with out losing too much of the overall geometry.

Special Guest: Matt Charles. Producer

Today's class had special guest Mr. Matt Charles from Gearbox Software come and speak. Mr. Charles is a graduate from University of Texas at Dallas and a former student of mine. He now is working as a producer on Borderlands 2. he discussed with the class how he went from Q&A to Producer while at Gearbox. Sharing with the students that it helps to have a programming and art background to be producer, so that you know the lingo for both sides.

He went on to say how putting up your best work first, with the amount of hours it took you to make it, your poly/tri/vert count. Displaying your high poly and low poly along with wire frame was needed in your portfolio and always put up your different maps. He said its not necessarily important to learn several different modeling packages, but actually learning how to be a great modeler is.

He discussed what it is like to be a producer and how rewarding it is. One of his questions to the class was what is the number one reason why most projects fail? The answer was lack of knowledge in requirements needed to complete a task. For example if a modeler is told to go make something from their lead but never asks what the lead wants in it and has to go back to ask. Well multiply that by the number of employees and their ya go.

Being a producer he was able to cover a wide range of topics, which really benefited the students since not all of them want to be Modeling/Texture Artist. Some of his important lessons for my students is to make sure that you communicate well and manager your time wisely.

PS. I will try to bring a better camera than my iphone for my special guests.

Computer Table - WIP

Victorian table asset to be used as the computer tables.  Created model and UV'd in Maya and after initially creating a model that contained over 1600 polys, finally got it down to 705 polys.  Imported obj of asset into Mudbox to start of texturing and completed green leather top with gold embossing in photoshop.

Teddy Bear- WIP

First asset for the semester.  This teddy bear is a close item of XOi and will be displayed in his room.  I started with a simple zSphere base mesh in Zbrush and then cranked up to a couple of sub-divisions.  After some minor sculpting to get it's major forms, I used a base texture and alpha to pull out its normals, spotlighted the button and added in the patch and heart.  Once all that was complete, I made the low poly mesh in Topogun, baked the textures, and then used Photoshop to clean up any artifacts.  I also used hue and saturation to try and break up the form of the body, take away some of the uniformity.

GDC 2012

More information has been released about the developer days during the GDC 2012. I encourage my students to try an attend any local conventions and conferences. This particular GDC seems like it will be amazing to attend. With Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Unity doing talks (according to GDC website and Gamasutra).

I think attending the Star Wars Old Republic postmortem talk would be every interesting. Back in my college days, I had wished that I would have attended more of these. You get a lot of information out of them and they are great opportunities for networking.

Steampunk Mask: WIP

Base mesh and sculpt of the first asset I am working on for the game.  Created the base mesh from a front view and three quarter view in Maya then took it to 6 mil polys in zbrush to sculpt the leather seems and to alpha in the rivets. Not sure how the mask will work with it but for the final texture and normal bake i plan to use topogun but not sure how the eyes will work with it, but if it doesn't work out then i will just transfer the maps inside zbrush.

Special Guest: Steven Strobel, Visual Fx

I am going to start off this blog with the special guest we had today in class. We were privileged to have Mr. Steven Strobel, one of the very talented Technical Artist from Gearbox Software, come and talk to the class and present a demostration. The demo that Strobel, as he wants to be called, went over with the students was how to create particles inside the Unreal Engine (UDK). His talk was very interesting and provided the students with some additional knowledge of Cascade, the particle tool set inside UDK. His final product was spheres bouncing/colliding with multiple surfaces, exploding and then producing other spheres. This was to show that you could take a mesh and have it be the look of the particles, them collide with what is in your level, and then have 2 additional sequences happen. Like an explosions and then dust. He then discussed the importance of networking, what its like working in the industry, spending as much time learning your craft. Last but not least, being a nice person to other people, even when you are in school, because you never know who might be in on your interview.

"This industry is really small" he said, in reference to how quickly your reputation can spread to a whole industry with a close knit community.

Thank you Mr. Steven Strobel, aka Strobel, for coming and talking to my students. I know that they got a lot out of it. I also imagine some of them spent a few hours after class creating particles.