Maya in the Video Game industry book. - Page 5

# 61 29-09-2004 , 07:12 AM

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totally

Originally posted by Pony
greatness..

Originally Posted by

totally agree with you there Pony.

Dae user added image

forgot to add that mine should be arriving early december.

"I THINK, THEREFORE I AM"
René Descartes

www.mvorster.co.uk

Last edited by dae; 29-09-2004 at 07:19 AM.

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# 62 29-09-2004 , 01:58 PM

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Thanks, guys. user added image

Cool, thanks, Dae! user added image

-Mike
The Maya Toolbelt

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# 63 03-10-2004 , 03:17 PM

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Hey Mike,

Saw your book on amazon and I have already ordered my copy. Looks great man. Nice job! Can't wait to get started on it.

P.S. I read somewhere in this forum about a level design book, is this already in the makings or should we just wait and see?

Good job again! user added image

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# 64 03-10-2004 , 03:31 PM

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Thanks, Der Kaiser! I hope you like it! :tup:

If there is a Level Design book coming out, I wouldn't be the one to write it. Not exactly my department. user added image

-Mike
The Maya Toolbelt

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# 65 04-10-2004 , 07:06 PM

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Just got my confirmation from Barnes and Noble. My copy will be here on the 3rd of December.

Really looking forward to it.

t3

All great projects succeed one step at a time. One lone step firmly placed.

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# 66 05-10-2004 , 01:02 AM

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Wow, cool, thanks, t3logy! I hope you like it. :tup:

-Mike
The Maya Toolbelt

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# 67 06-10-2004 , 09:38 PM

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If it's not too late some small requests hehe.

1) Proper geometry for 3D engines. I think you'll have this in the book, but the pitfalls and do's and dont's covered extensively. Is planar surfaces still important for 3D engines? Such things.

2) Exporters and exporting workflow. Get technical please hehe. How much can be done in maya and exported into the engine, the use of shaders and materials in maya into the game, mental ray and games.

3) If possible a chapter on the Maya gamedev SDK. Introductory, when and how to best use it. The programmers are capable of reading syntax and tutorials hopefully, so with the non-techy-artist in mind, or for those who wants to get a little more technical.

4) Good cheats (to cut time) and strategies on how to re-use art work, animation, models and so on in good ways. Bit like your alpha transparency tutorial to give the hillbilly shorts. More of it along those lines.

5) Small piece on using Maya for Isometric view. It's not dead yet and still very cool for little hobby games even though all the big studios insists on fullblown 3D although (if implemented and executed badly) it totally kills the gameplay.

Would be nice with a small intro to little 3rd party tools the game artist shouldn't be without, but I realize it's a Maya speciffic book and most studios develop their own tools to fit their own needs.

Hope any of this raised some new ideas, or others can be used in the sequel or so. If not you still have an excited customer in me lol. More importantly, thank you for writing this book.

Currently working on reclaiming Space
The Salvation Prophecy

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# 68 06-10-2004 , 11:43 PM

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Sorry, alpha, the book is already written. As it is, it is a how-to on making game art with maya. Nothing too engine or tool specific. Maybe in the next one. user added image

-Mike
The Maya Toolbelt

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# 69 07-10-2004 , 12:22 AM

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Mike, does the book go over creating hair? I've always wondered if they did the hair of the low poly models in FFX with poly planes or something more robust (like paintFX).

"Terminat Bora Diem, Terminal Auctor opus."

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# 70 07-10-2004 , 12:39 AM

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Yep.

-Mike
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# 71 07-10-2004 , 01:30 PM

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Pre- ordered it from amazon (uk)

any idea when it will be realesed over here as there was no info on amazon?

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# 72 07-10-2004 , 02:15 PM

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I have just this minute done the same.
I'm looking forward to getting my sticky fingers on it soon.

Mark user added image

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# 73 07-10-2004 , 02:26 PM

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Thanks, guys! I really hope you like it. user added image

I'm not sure if the UK release date is different from the US one... I wouldn't think books would have that kind of problem? 'Course, I'm not sure.

-Mike
The Maya Toolbelt

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# 74 07-10-2004 , 05:53 PM

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Hi Mike,

Unfortunately I'm a little late on giving you suggestions. But perhaps for the next or so.. perhaps you could have a chapter on guidelines for designing your demo reel for the game industry. Sort of a standards guide almost, the course I'm taking many of the graduates end up usually in the game industry.. unfortunately I finding the other few students who aren't getting jobs. Their reels horrendous in terms of what they place into their reel. The length of it, bad animation, too high of a poly count, just overall bad.

Now I know that every company has different modelling tests and such, but who knows perhaps they'll start using the Mike McKinley demo reel standards guide. lol user added image

Ideally for myself, I guess I'd like to know how long a standard reel should be. I've heard anything from 30sec to less than 5min. If I wanted to add music to my reel, do the companies turn off the sound while viewing them? If I'm applying to become a modeller, texturer and or dynamics artist.. should I avoid completely adding animation in my reel not to confuse the viewer?

These are just a couple suggests.. questions..

BillyZ

https://www.verticalincline.com

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# 75 07-10-2004 , 07:33 PM

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if I was going for a modeling job in the games industry my reel would be about 3 minutes my models would be fully textured and rigged showing them I am a man of many talents and that I could do the work of two people, prehaps three (modeler, texturer and animator) thus increasing my chances of get the job, as for contents, well if dont like something it wont go in, only show your best and I would try show a broad spectrum of models from character (male and female, human and non-human), structure (lamp posts to buildings), vehicles (horse drawn wagon to futuristic vehicle)

or

if I was going for a modeling job and thats all I wanted to do then my reel would reflect that and have the basic models nothing else, my content would still be the same.

oh and as for music I wouldn't bother as everybody has different tastes in music, unless its an animated scene that requires music.

You might already know all of this you are doing a course, this is how I would go about doing mine.

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René Descartes

www.mvorster.co.uk

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totally

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