tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33341355422185349652024-03-05T19:10:46.635-08:00Steve Rakar Art BlogSteve Rakarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00729554481173025021noreply@blogger.comBlogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334135542218534965.post-6156352716486119252022-12-31T14:54:00.000-08:002022-12-31T14:54:03.615-08:00Hello Friend. I'm Still Here: A Recap of the Past 3 Years<p>Hello friend. It's uh... been a while, I know. Just about 3 years in fact. Probably the most world altering 3 years in recent memory. Knowing what I know now, it's almost comical to look back at my last post and see how optimistic I was to be entering the 2020s. This decade certainly didn't start off how most people imagined that it would. I'm sure you're sick of talking about it so I don't need to provide a ton of commentary on current events. But I will say, like most people, the atmosphere around me has caused me to behave differently. It's like there's been a dark cloud surrounding everything, and with that looming in the air I haven't felt as motivated to share my art. I haven't been going out and doing things as often as before. I haven't been posting on social media much these days. Life has just been different. </p>
<p>But after 3 years, I think it's finally time to move past this. I'm not saying that "we're out of the woods" and everything is back to normal again or anything. But it's time to start looking forward to the future again. It's time to get back to improving myself. It's time for me to get back to doing the thing that I love - making art and sharing it with the world. </p>
<p>Maybe that was a bit overly dramatic, but the point is that I plan to post more regularly here again. Probably just my yearly recap posts, but who knows... maybe I'll go deeper into some of my processes like I've always wanted to as well. So that's this year's resolution. Nothing crazy, just: <b>I am going to share my artwork again.</b></p>
<p>So let's kick things off with sharing some of the stuff that I've worked on during my absence. Even though I wasn't posting it on here, I've certainly still been creating art.</p>
<span style="font-size: large;"><u>2020 - 2022 Art Summary</u></span><br />
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<p>I continued my new love of traditional art. The first one that you see here is a piece showing off characters from the Sega Saturn game <i>Soul Hackers.</i> This one was mostly created using the new watercolor markers that I bought. They work a lot differently than regular watercolor paints do, and this was my first time using them so I hadn't quite gotten the hang of balancing some of the rich, saturated colors. I do like the way that I blended them with traditional watercolors to get the skintones though.</p>
<p>And speaking of traditional watercolors, that's how I created the second one. It's the character Abby from Great Pretender. I think it might be my favorite watercolor painting that I've done yet! I've gotten a lot better at blending colors, and I'm proud of the way I achieved the water droplets running down her skin. I've added a few more traditional art supplies to my arsenal (Posca markers, some skin tone markers/pencils, etc) so expect to see more pieces like this soon.</p>
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<p>This is a random assortment of things, all pictures of The Nays. Doodles that I did as gifts, a scene from an Eventure that I wrote, and a continuation of The Worlds Portrait Project.</p>
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<p>This is from December 2020. I drew portraits of my sister's main characters, the M Nays, and had them printed out on a physical canvas. I'm not sure if I have a photo of the actual canvas on hand, but once I get one I'll share that as well. </p>
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<p>This one's still a work-in-progress, but I'm not sure when I'll ever get around to finishing it so I wanted to post it even if it was unfinished. It's a digital painting of Rosie Redknees managing her bar. I like that I managed to get lots of process shots of it. Hopefully I can finish it at some point.</p>
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<p>An assortment of prompts about The Nays. We have Topaz drawn in Ghibli style, Chiz drawn in shoujo anime style, Kaenah, Yaro, and Elfno drawn mimicking some concept art from the Venture Bros art book, and a couple of characters from our old " Channel 6 TV shows" that we used to make with action figures. </p>
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<p>These next 2 were part of a similar event where we tried to depict scenes from The Nays in the style of various classic video games. I've done a few of these in the past but these were done in more of a "speed" method where I tried not to take too long. It's Gojo in Suikoden 2 and Animale in Toe Jam & Earl. </p>
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<p>One of my favorites of the bunch. For this activity, I drew each Nay in the style of a manga panel from current-ish Shonen Jump series. There are quite a few of these in the collage that I'm really happy with. </p>
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<p>I normally don't share these much outside the family, but I did some pretty interesting stuff with a few of these so I thought I'd put a few together. For every major holiday (birthdays, Christmas, Mothers/Fathers Day), my sister and I make photo compilation videos for my parents. I usually put together some kind of interesting title sequence in Cinema 4D and After Effects, and these were a few of my favorites over the past few years. I'm especially happy with the last one. I tried to make it look similar to the 2D-HD style seen in Live A Live on the Switch (even parodied the logo for the ending sequence).</p>
<span style="font-size: large;"><u>Animation Scenes</u></span><br />
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<p>These are from an animation that I made for my sister called Ralphie and Ted's News. I recently learned how to use Adobe Character Animator for a project at work, so I decided to take those new skills and make a 2D rigged animation about a newscast set in The Worlds. The characters are lip synced and animated like puppets. I also made a short "commercial break" a hypothetical new video game with a parody DLC character pack. It was a fun little project to work on.</p>
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<p>So one thing that happened during this time period was that Final Fantasy 7: Remake finally got released! I got really into that game for a while, so a gift that I made for my sister in 2020 was a parody animation of a few scenes from the original PS1 FF7, using our characters in their place. It's pretty goofy but I really enjoyed replicating the original PS1 style. </p>
<span style="font-size: large;"><u>Global Game Jam</u></span><br />
<p>Lastly, we get to our entries to the Global Game Jam. I've participated in this event for the past 9 years and I intend to keep that streak up for 2023! This is one of the few things that I actually posted about on social media during the year, so I'm not going to devote too much time to it here. I'll just link to each of their project pages if you want to check them out.</p>
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<p><a href="https://thegek.itch.io/the-note-competition" target="_blank">2020: The Note Competition.</a> This was a tower defense style game where you rapidly try to build up your base before your opponent. Game mechanic-wise, I think this is one of the more fun ones to play.</p>
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<p><a href="https://thegek.itch.io/slumbered-apart" target="_blank">2021: Slumbered Apart.</a> This is an adventure style game where you switch back and forth between two characters, Pam-chan and Gojo, to solve puzzles and progress through the story. I really like the look and feel of this one. It feels like one of our most complete games that we've worked on!</p>
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<p><a href="https://thegek.itch.io/prisoners-of-time-fabric" target="_blank">2022: Prisoners of Time Fabric.</a> Probably our best GGJ project yet! It's based on an Eventure about alternate realities, which is represented by two parallel worlds - one modern and one in the style of an old Gameboy game. This game has a hunger system and crafting mechanics, so it's one of the more technically advanced projects that we've put together as well.
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<p> And on the topic of Prisoners of Time Fabric, this is a big project that I put together for my sister's birthday in 2022. It's probably the highlight of this whole blog post for me. So I built a diorama out of an old shoebox based on elements of the game/eventure. Megumi (the girl in front) is double sided so you can see her from multiple angles. As is Gregorn (the man in the suit). In the story, the timelines split based on whether he wears a green suit, or a brown suit, so I put him on a rotating chopstick so you can spin him around in both directions. On the right side, you can open the time traveling refrigerator to find Clove inside eating popcorn. Pressing the corner of the door will play a sound byte from Clove and then part of the music from the game. This is a recording that I did with a little microphone. On the left side of the diorama, there is another sound device, but this one is loaded up with an mp3 file. It plays music from Chrono Cross, which was a major inspirationn for all of these alternate reality ideas. This was a pretty involved project but I'm really happy with how it all came together.</p>
<p>And that's just about everything! Thank you so much for reading this novel of a blog post. The next one will definitely be less than 3 years from now, so it should be considerably shorter and easier to digest. I hope everyone has a wonderful and productive 2023. Until next time... Adios!</p>Steve Rakarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00729554481173025021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334135542218534965.post-90971036198428390692020-01-05T21:03:00.000-08:002020-01-05T21:06:22.023-08:00Welcome to the 2020s - A Look Back at 2019Hi everyone, it's once again time for my annual New Year's post. We've officially entered a the 2020s and we don't even have flying cars yet! Not exactly how I pictured it back as a kid, but there are still plenty of cool things going on to be excited about. It's hard to re-examine the 2010s as a whole because there was just so much that happened during this decade. Crazy to think that in 2010 I was still an inexperienced college student who had barely even ventured far beyond the confines of Ohio. Since then I've started a career in 3D animation, attended tons of conferences around the country, traveled to many different cities to teach students, and even made my way to Japan. It's been a great 10 years and I'm even more excited about the next 10!<br />
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Focusing in on 2019 though, I had a few goals that I set for myself and I'm pretty happy with how much of those I accomplished. Let's take a look at the breakdown.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u>2019 Goals Review</u></span><br />
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<b>Draw more personal illustrations</b><br />
I didn't really do a great job at this one. I did some drawings throughout the year and even did a few traditional watercolor pieces, but I think the overall frequency was a bit less than some past years.<br />
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<b>Continue studying Japanese</b><br />
This one has been pretty successful. I have continued learning a lot of Japanese grammar and vocabulary and I've managed to brush up on it fairly frequently. I mainly use the app LingoDeer and to date I have completed 50 modules which consist of 137 lessons in total. I've still got a long way to go and probably couldn't even hold a conversation with a Japanese pre-schooler yet. But I'm steadily making progress. Onto kanji in 2020!<br />
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<b>Take the stairs more often than the elevator</b><br />
This goal has been a huge success! I originally wanted to take the 5 flights of stairs at work 3 days a week but instead I managed to take them nearly every day of the year! I took the stairs going down 100% of the time and of the 213 work days in 2019, I climbed them 197 of them, or 92% of the time (the original goal was 51%). That's only 16 days of using the elevator, and nearly half of them came in January when I was slightly less committed to the idea of just doing it every day. Honestly, at this point it has just become second nature to avoid the elevator. Aside from days where I'm sick or carrying something heavy, I plan to continue taking the stairs all through 2020 as well.<br />
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<b>Vegetarian week</b><br />
Another goal that I one-upped the original plan. Instead of spending a week as a vegetarian, I took it one step further and went full vegan. It was a fun challenge and I discovered a lot of tasty new recipes. <a href="https://nimbustravels.weebly.com/blog/vegan-week-2019">I wrote up a post with lots of pictures over on my travel blog.</a> I definitely want to do this one again in 2020 and I'm hoping to find some fun way to add another spin on it.<br />
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All in all, I'd say it was a very successful year. I might not have done anything extraordinary in terms of art skills, but I went above and beyond on some of the other life goals so I feel pretty accomplished overall. In addition to continuing on the stairs and vegetarian challenges from this past year, my biggest New Year's resolution for 2020 will be learning Kanji. I still have a few more modules to go in LingoDeer until I reach level 2, but as soon as I hit that level I plan to jump right into studying kanji characters. I'm also hoping to be better about getting a full night of rest. It's far too often that I go into work on only 5 or 6 hours of sleep and that will definitely catch up on me sooner or later. That's why in 2020 I want to get more sleep. Not setting any strict rules or tangible goals on this one, but it's a mantra that I will keep in mind throughout the year.<br />
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So... 2020 goals: <b>Learn Kanji</b> and<b> Get More Sleep</b>. I think that sounds pretty reasonable.<br />
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Before I wrap up this post, I want to share a few pieces of artwork I completed in 2019 (this is supposed to be an art blog after all!). Most of them were simple sketches or concept pieces for The Nays, but I also did 2 different watercolor pieces. Here are some of the various things that I worked on this year:<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u>2019 Art Summary</u></span><br />
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Starting in January, I took part in my 6th Global Game Jam. My sister and I had one weekend to create a game centered around the theme "Home." Naturally we decided to base it on The Nays and we came up with a pretty cool little project. It's honestly probably our best one yet. <a href="https://thegek.itch.io/">Head on over to our itch.io page</a> if you're interested in giving it a try.<br />
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These were some of the backgrounds that I drew for our GGJ game. Not bad considering I did a few of these after 36 hours of no sleep!<br />
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This was the second of my ink and watercolor drawings of the year (you can see the first in a previous post on this blog). I backed the fabulous crowdfunded project Indivisible and had a great time playing the game when it finally released a few months ago. This is my favorite character from the game, a small little botanist with his trusty living turnip buddy. It's got some really unique character designs!<br />
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I bought a brand new water color set for this project. It definitely has a lot more colors than my previous one so I didn't have to do as much color mixing. It's nice to step away from the computer and do some art on paper every now and then.<br />
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Just a quick little doodle. I re-read the Scott Pilgrim comics earlier this year and felt like replicating one of the covers with my characters Shaw and Megumi instead of Scott and Ramona. Nothing crazy but it's always fun emulating other unique art styles.<br />
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This is just a few random drawings that seemed too minor to get posted on their own. The three on the left are character concepts (One-Sixteenth the cyborg, Punchy and his new ninja outfit, and Copit the Zargo family limo driver). The next two are more major characters from The Nays, Summer and Chozu. That one was from an activity that involved drawing familiar characters in different outfits than they usually wear. These are the kind of things I had in mind when I wanted to do more personal drawings, so I definitely need to do more in 2020!<br />
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Shifting gears a bit, this is a 3D character from a game I worked on with the crew at Endless Terminal. This creepy looking creature is called a NasNas and it's one of the first enemies you see in the game. Planning this out for rigging and animation was certainly a challenge because it has such different anatomy from real-world animals. It is fully rigged and game ready though, so I stuck with it through the whole character pipeline.<br />
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Here's a quick turn-table of the NasNas from different angles. If you're curious about the game, be sure to <a href="https://twitter.com/endlessterminal/">check out Endless Terminal on social media</a>. They're posting lots of progress shots and scheduled work streams, and the game should be pretty cool once it all comes together.<br />
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This was a short animation that I created for my sister's birthday called Chozu Versus Cimc. As you can likely infer from the "remastered" in the title, this is a remake of an animation I made a very long time ago. Like... "back when I still drew things with a mouse" long time ago. Thankfully I think this version looks quite a bit better than the original.<br />
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This was new to the remastered version. I created a simple 3D version of Chozu's house and rendered in C4D using the toon shader. Most of it has really simple geometry but creating it in 3D allowed me to do some fun camera rotations without having to draw so many background frames.<br />
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Speaking of animation remakes, this is a scene from my big project Nays 2018. One of my favorite animations that I've ever created was a 5+ minute one called Nays 2008 (which I ironically didn't actually finish until 2009, hence why I let the remake spill over into 2019 for the 10 year anniversary). I didn't have the time to fully remake every single scene shot-for-shot, but I gave the visuals a much improved overhaul.<br />
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I used tons more real world references and tried to make the backgrounds a lot more interesting than the original. I'm really happy with how some of these shots came out and I'm very excited to post some comparisons.<br />
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I want to go further in-depth with the comparison analysis though, so I'm going to save that for a full post of its own some time in the coming month. Ideally I'll edit a video cut so both animations can be watched side-by-side simultaneously. Overall, this animation was definitely the most elaborate project of the year for me, so I want to do it proper justice with a full blog post.<br />
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And with that, my 2019 review post comes to a close. I felt like I was kind of inactive art-wise, but when going through and gathering things for this post, it turns out I did a bit more than I realized. In a perfect world I would post these things more frequently throughout the year, but I've grown to like this year-long recap approach. Maybe 2020 will bring a few more posts on this blog than past years. Either way, thanks as always for reading this far and I hope you have a wonderful year/decade. Until next time... Adios!Steve Rakarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00729554481173025021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334135542218534965.post-86731681997431107982019-01-23T15:58:00.001-08:002019-01-23T15:58:53.884-08:00Fun with Watercolor and InkHey guys! This week, my sister and I decided to do a little experiment with watercolors. After watching the new DBZ movie, I've been looking at a lot of artwork from the series and I'm always impressed with the traditional old animation cels. When I was in Japan, I visited the International Museum of Manga in Kyoto and picked up a few new art supplies that we've been wanting to try out. So I figured a watercolor and ink version of Gohan's Super Saiyan 2 transformation would be a fun project.<br />
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I don't delve into traditional art very often (I like being able to ctrl + z!), so this was a pretty unusual experience for me. So my sister brought out her old watercolor set and we both got to painting (<a href="https://michellerakar.blogspot.com/">you can see her results over on her blog</a>). The white watercolor tube was all dried up so we had to substitute in some acrylic... which was kinda weird but still worked well enough for color mixing.<br />
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First I drew out a sketch. I normally do this on a layer underneath the drawing in Photoshop, but since I didn't want a mess to erase, I did a practice doodle on a separate piece of paper. From there I did the line art in pencil on the full sheet of paper. <br />
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The watercolor process itself was pretty slow and tedious. I don't know how people manage to mix their colors consistently for an entire painting! I felt like it was really hard to repeat the same color again once my brush dried up. But it was an interesting process and I was pretty happy with the results.<br />
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After letting the watercolors dry overnight, it was time for the inking! This was my first time ever using a manga pen and inkwell, so it was definitely a learning process. I found <a href="https://www.jetpens.com/blog/how-to-use-manga-pen-nibs/pt/901">a great guide</a> that walked me through the process. I would have never thought to clean the nib off with rubbing alcohol before starting, so it was good that I did some research first!<br />
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Even with the guide, the inking was a bit unexpected. I never knew if I had the right amount of ink on my nib and sometimes the lines would get a bit scratchy (could have been from my low quality paper!). But when it started flowing smoothly, I really loved the pen! I was able to get some really fine lines that are nearly impossible with a regular ballpoint pen.<br />
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Without the crutch of an undo button I was constantly afraid I was going to mess something up. I managed to avoid any big mistakes for almost the entire process until I was nearly at the very end... and disaster struck! I must not have wiped enough ink off my pen because a huge gob dripped down right onto Gohan's forehead. Luckily it was close enough to the blood spot that I could kind of make it look like it belonged, but I was pretty bummed out when it happened.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGIlRm3-cWpKp0rsxBR6pd3yLUSh3f3TPD_5Gwo9AIOl8CAf4fCWwE70EB9dy-vL7z2W4a-rqvw5p_7mpUN46AQghr5ahTbmAZshUvH1Pg9GkKVPjeqDSWpB653Edq_lYxqHcBQidaL9I/s1600/Gohan-Inked.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1196" data-original-width="1600" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGIlRm3-cWpKp0rsxBR6pd3yLUSh3f3TPD_5Gwo9AIOl8CAf4fCWwE70EB9dy-vL7z2W4a-rqvw5p_7mpUN46AQghr5ahTbmAZshUvH1Pg9GkKVPjeqDSWpB653Edq_lYxqHcBQidaL9I/s640/Gohan-Inked.jpg" width="640" /></a> <br />
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Lastly, I filled in the word bubbles with his dialogue from the Japanese manga. It says "mou yurusanai so omaetachi" which translates roughly as "I will not forgive you." I thought it sounded a bit cooler than the English Viz translation (plus I wanted to practice writing Japanese kana) so I went with the original.<br />
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And that is the finished version. I feel like digitized images of traditional art usually don't do them justice, but my new camera captured it pretty nicely. Overall, this was a really fun project (and it counts towards my New Year's resolution of more personal art projects!). Hope you enjoyed seeing the process behind it. Until next time... Adios!Steve Rakarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00729554481173025021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334135542218534965.post-77712542578428221762019-01-04T16:11:00.001-08:002020-01-05T19:01:35.327-08:002018 - The Year of Fullfilled DreamsHey everyone, Happy 2019! I know I'm a few days late, but I spent the last few days of 2018 out of town so I didn't get the chance to write this up before the end of the year. I always like doing a recap around this time of year though, so today I'm going to take a look back at my 30th year on this planet of ours.<br />
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2018 was an incredible year for me, probably one of the best ones ever. I did a lot of traveling and throughout the year I made my way to Toronto, Chicago, Vancouver, and Lexington KY. Most importantly though, I achieved my lifelong dream of visiting Japan! You may remember from last year that my big goal for 2018 was to start studying Japanese in hopes of making my way to the Land of the Rising Sun some time in the future. Back then I viewed it as a crazy pie-in-the-sky goal, but I turned that crazy possibility into a reality this past September with a 2-week adventure to Tokyo, Hakone, Osaka, and Kyoto. It was an amazing experience, and you can read all about it over on my new travel blog, <a href="https://nimbustravels.weebly.com/blog/japan-2018-trip-to-tokyo-kyoto-and-osaka">Nimbus Travels.</a><br />
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Speaking of which, this past year I made a travel blog! (I know, I barely manage to post on this one. How am I going to update TWO blogs!?). I think that one will be a bit more casual than this blog, so it will mostly just be full of goofy photos from all of the places I visit. I definitely want to go on more crazy adventures in the near future with hopefully some more trips abroad, so <a href="https://nimbustravels.weebly.com/">keep an eye on the blog to follow along</a>.<br />
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That said, it's time to evaluate my overall goal for 2018. While I originally hoped to learn enough Japanese to play Pokemon Green (a Japan-only Gameboy game), I don't think my reading skills are quite good enough for that yet. I did master the Hiragana and Katakana alphabets however, plus I actually bought a copy of Pokemon Green from a used game store in Japan. Couple that with my real world experience of practicing Japanese with locals and navigating the largest public transit system in the world... I think I more than met my expectations.<br />
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For 2019, my goals are a little bit less tangible. Mostly just little personal guidelines to keep in mind throughout the year.<br />
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<b>Draw more personal illustrations</b> - This seems to be a goal every year. But as someone who does art professionally 40 hours a week, it's important to remember to draw for myself as well. Hopefully 2019 is full of lots of drawings and animations of The Nays!<br />
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<b>Continue studying Japanese</b> - Even if I learn this at a slow pace, I really want to keep up my Japanese studies. Hopefully I learn more useful phrases this year, and maybe even move onto the dreaded Kanji at some point.<br />
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<b>Take the stairs more often than the elevator</b> - I work on the 5th floor of an office building. I usually try to take the stairs one day a week but I want to bump that number up to 3 days a week this year.<br />
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<b>Vegetarian week</b> - For one full week in 2018, I followed a strict vegetarian diet. It was a fun challenge and helped me discover some new healthy foods that I enjoy, so I'd like to try that again in 2019.<br />
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And there we go. Should hopefully be pretty realistic new year resolutions. Before I wrap it up, I want to leave you with a handful of drawings I did in 2018. Not a ton of fully detailed, "finished" pieces but I did come up with a bunch of character designs and other related concept work for The Nays. If you're interested in reading more about this ongoing story that my sister and I have been working on, <a href="https://thenays.weebly.com/">check out our website</a>. <br />
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This past year, one of my favorite Twitch streamers (Kyle Bosman) played a weird old Gameboy game called For the Frog the Bell Tolls. He encourages viewers to send in fan art each week, so I made this little animated gif.<br />
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Inspired by a scene from DBZ World's Strongest. I always thought that movie had a weird art style so I animated my character Coyote making strange faces while getting zapped (a scene from the Aiml World Eventure).<br />
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Speaking of unique art styles, this is Gojo in the style of one of my other favorite anime films, Tekkonkinkreet.<br />
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Just a few concepts trying to figure out what Malik looks like. He's the creator of The Worlds and is pretty much the most powerful character in The Nays. <br />
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This is a locale from a new place that The Nays went to called Psyciao World. Everyone in this place is obsessed with taking spoon baths because they grant you mystical powers. <br />
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A scene from a recent eventure I just finished, the Ziroma Eventure. As The Nays go on their first big mission, they discover a giant mech emerging from the forest beside the Party TV broadcast station. <br />
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Concept design for a character that helps The Nays out on their mission during the Ziroma Eventure. She actually appears much later in the story as well, but I went back and did this earlier introduction story for her.<br />
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These are characters from an Eventure that's still in progress. I don't want to go into too much detail yet, but I liked their designs a lot so I wanted to include them in the post anyways.<br />
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Just a random activity with my characters wearing the outfits of different characters. (We called the event the "Clothes Chamber of Secrets"). Aquina dressed as Ralphie, Summer dressed as Scott, Gojo dressed as Spicco. I also tried to color them in a style reminiscent of colored pencils. <br />
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Speaking of colored pencils, I decided to make my sister's birthday present entirely in that style. I made an animation about the aforementioned Psyciao Spoon Bath Eventure, all in the style of a colored pencil story book. It was a pretty fun project. <br />
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Another shot from the Spoon Bath project. This is Urom celebrating her victory in the contest. <br />
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Another fun project that my sister and I did was re-creating scenes from Eventures in the style of old video games. If you couldn't tell, this is in the style of the original Legend of Zelda, depicting Iggy in his first visit to The Worlds. <br />
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Yet another weird drawing activity we came up with. For this one, we watched a random episode of a new anime we had never watched and tried to draw a Nay in the style of the animation. It was a fast, messy project as the goal was to finish the drawing throughout the course of a single episode. <br />
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I can't even remember the names of the shows that I watched, but this one was about a military and had a pretty neat art style. We also plucked quotes from the episodes so we tried to tie that into the fake screenshot as well. <br />
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Over the summer, I got really into Octopath Traveler for the Switch. Alfyn was one of my favorite characters, so I decided to do this quick doodle on my Cintiq during a lunch break. <br />
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Last but not least, this was my Christmas present for my sister this year. We both played a lot of Persona 2 this year so I thought it would be fun to make an animation in the style of the game. <br />
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I based the story of the animation on the Dusty Dimes vs Bleeding Libras Eventure where Yaro faces off against Lonny's gang. <br />
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I tried to make the style as close to the game as possible, using very similar sprite poses and UI elements.<br />
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At the end it is revealed that Topaz was the one playing this game on his PSP. It was fun contrasting between different styles.<br />
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And that's about it when it comes to 2018's 2D drawings! As always, thanks for reading my crazy ramblings. I hope you have a
great 2019 full of completed goals and fulfilled dreams. Until next
time... Adios!Steve Rakarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00729554481173025021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334135542218534965.post-70911722963077125522018-09-12T19:09:00.000-07:002019-10-26T12:11:49.169-07:00Greetings from SIGGRAPH 2018<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hey guys! Long time no see. Today I wanted to share an account of a very exciting trip that I recently went on. I was fortunate enough that my company sent me to SIGGRAPH in Vancouver. For those not in the know, that's the "Special Interest Group on Computer GRAPhics and Interactive Technology" (quite a mouthful, eh?). It's pretty much the premier 3D graphics and animation conference. In addition to meeting a bunch of really cool people and attending some amazing parties (more on that later), I also learned a lot of new techniques. I took tons of notes while I was at the conference, and I thought I'd compile some of that into a blog post. Buckle in!<br />
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Above is a list of all the different talks and panels that I attended. I found almost all of them to be very interesting and valuable, but the Production Sessions were the clear winners. From hearing Rodeo FX describe how they create destructible environments for Game of Thrones to industry super stars touting the values of Houdini in their pipeline, it was an awesome experience to be able to absorb knowledge from some of the best 3D artists in the world. I tried to ask as many questions as possible, and I was actually kind of proud of myself for how pro-active I was in starting conversations with other attendees.<br />
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Another huge highlight for me was Substance Day, an all-day event where Allegorithmic dove deep into the ins and outs of Substance Designer and Substance Painter (two fantastic texturing programs that have become a staple in my design process). Here are some of the highlights from that event.<br />
* Subsurface Scattering<br />
- They showed off the new subsurface scattering techniques for Substance Painter. Very useful for achieving soft clay-like materials and realistic human skin.<br />
- 0.2 to 0.4 is a good scale for humans<br />
- Maps can be exported to other software (like C4D) that also support SSS<br />
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* New Image Projection Tools<br />
- 2D Gizmo for improved projection. Can change position, rotation, and scale of references<br />
- Can edit the tiling of projection images for any resolution (not just squares)<br />
- Drag and drop materials (while holding Ctrl key) to drop on a single UV shell<br />
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* Support for .GLTF files<br />
- Format the provides better PBR texture quality<br />
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* Optimization Techniques to cut down on processing power and improve efficiency<br />
- Re-Use noises wherever possible<br />
- You can switch between CPU and GPU<br />
- Work in greyscale for as long as possible<br />
- Pay attention to 8 bit vs 16 bit<br />
- For gradients, you don't need the entire length of repeating patterns. Can often get away with 256 x 2048 instead of full 2k<br />
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* DNEG & Pacific Rim<br />
- Double Negative talked about how they used Substance in their workflow for Pacific Rim Uprising<br />
- Had 1 year to make 11 Jaegers, 8 Kaiju, 6 destructible environments<br />
- A single Jaeger model is comprised of 30 million polygons<br />
- They do their rendering in Clarisse<br />
- Still use Mari for some of the texturing process because they like that it has UDIM support<br />
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In addition to the amazing talks, there was also a massive expo hall with representatives from about 100 companies. In typical conference fashion, a number of them were giving out free drinks, snacks, and t-shirts! Of all the booths, I probably spent the most time at the Cinema 4D one (as that is the 3D software I use every day at work). They had the folks from Greyscale Gorilla there to demonstrate all of the new features in for the R20 release that just dropped a few days ago. They were really excited to talk about the new Mograph Fields functionality. It gives a lot of new falloff controls and a really advanced layering system (with blend modes!) that look to make booleans a little less sloppy. They've also re-tooled the entire material system to allow for node-based authoring. I don't know that I would replace Substance Designer with this built-in editor, but it's cool to see node-based shaders catching on across the field.<br />
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Also of note was NVIDIA's keynote address, where they unveild the new RTX graphics cards. If you follow computer hardware, you likely already know all about them at this point. But they firmly made it a point that real time ray-tracing is a really big deal. They say it's the biggest jump in graphics since CUDA in 2006, and the new cards are apparently 6x as powerful as the current gen. They're a bit too pricey for me at the moment, but I'm sure I'll end up with a 2080 at some point. Speaking of RTX, I was lucky enough to get in to the big NVIDIA party at the Hyatt hotel. They had an amazing arrangement of food (turkey carving, build-your-own tacos, and even homemade donut holes!). But best of all, the bar had a huge ice sculpture shaped like the new RTX card. When you ordered a Moscow Mule from the bartender, he would pour it through a little tube in the ice block and the drink would dispence from a spicket near the bottom. It was pretty amazing.<br />
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I had mentioned it earlier, but the highlight of the show for me was really the VFX Production Sessions. I got to listen to Rodeo FX go through their process of using Voroni fracture and model swapping to create believable destructible assets. They also touched on their use of practical effects, which includes setting people on fire! The folks at Pixar shared some insightful rigging techniques that were used on Coco and Incredibles 2. One of my favorites was their advice for hand rigging - splay the control fingers outward and use a deformer to thicken the fingers when balling into a fist. I've often struggled with getting good looking fists, so it was cool to hear some good workarounds. Weta talked about their hair and muscle systems that they used on Rampage. I was a bit skeptical on that movie, but after hearing the crazy design process that went into developing those furry creatures, I kind of want to watch it. ILM held a session about Ready Player One (which was one of my favorite movies of the year despite what people said about it!). I found it interesting that Steven Spielberg actually did all of his camera directing on the film through an HTC Vive. They also rendered much of the world of OASIS in Unity. Crazy how much film has changed over the years! It was also really interesting to see the fluid dynamics in their breakdown of The Shining scene. <br />
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And speaking of fluid systems, the Houdini panel offered some amazing insight from head of ILM Rob Bredow. I was absolutely enthralled by the stories that he told of the early days of computer graphics. One story that really stood out for me was when he talked about his team's development of ocean wave shaders. His team and some of their colleagues from a rival VFX studio were both working on ocean-heavy films at the same time, so they had a bit of a friendly competition to who could create the better looking water physics. His team pulled ahead and stunned their rivals by creating something that looked amazing in a very short time... only to realize that it looked like absolute garbage when you moved the camera. His friends at the other studio asked him "well, did you read Tessendorf's Papers?" His response was "no, we didn't have time for that. We just winged it." Well it turns out a guy named Jerry Tessendorf wrote a bunch of great documentation on simulating ocean water back in the 90s. After diving into that research, the rival studio produced a much better ocean effect because it followed all of the correct math algorithms. So the lesson of Rob's story is that you should always do the proper research to actually understand the techniques that you're using. Having a solid grasp on the documentation is more important than quickly making something that looks cool. I found that to be very profound advice and it really inspires me to continue to thirst for more knowledge.<br />
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Wrapping up the Production Sessions, here are a few more quick facts that I found interesting:<br />
- Incredibles 1 (2004) used 1500 CPU cores in its render farm. Incredibles 2 (2018) used 80,000 cores.<br />
- Pixar listed caustics and crowd generation as the two biggest rendering advancements that helped to improve the look of Incredibles 2<br />
- The entirey of the project files for Avengers: Infinity War total over 1.4 Petabyes of data. That's 1400 Terabytes!<br />
- While mocapping for Thanos in Infinity War, Josh Brolin wore a giant cardboard cutout of Thanos above his head so his co-actors would know where to look when they wanted to make eye contact with the large character<br />
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One last thing I wanted to touch on were two hot topics that I heard mentioned very frequently throughout the conference: UDIM and USD. I had never heard of either of these so I did some research on them. U-DIM stands for U-Dimension Mapping and is a slight variation on typical UV mapping. Rather than containing all of your UVs in a single space on the grid, UDIM allows you to put each shell in its own square of the grid and assign them their own unique texture. In a way, I had inadvertantly been doing something like this for a while now. But the reason it comes up in discussion a lot nowadays is because some texturing packages now give you the ability to paint on your models seamlessly across multiple UDIMs. Improves texture quality and efficiency when things get their own textures like that. As for USD, we're not talking about US Dollars. USD is an abbreviation for Universal Scene Description, which is a new file format developed by Pixar. It is a universal way to store models, scenes, and animations non-destructively and transmit them between different applications. It is an open source format that allows multiple artists to work on the same files without erasing another artist's work (and provides an audit trail to see who did what). From the folks that I talked to, this is a really big deal in film because they are often working on massive set-pieces and need tons of people to work on them at once. <br />
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And that about sums up time at SIGGRAPH. In addition to all of the great sessions at the conference, I also went to some fun receptions. I met a wide spectrum of creative people - from programmers at Bungie and 343 Industries to industrial designers from my hometown of Cleveland; from young game design students to professionals working on full scale films like Deadpool. Possibly most interesting of all though were the two fellas I met from a VFX studio in Germany (shoutout to Jakob and Kai!). I had a really amazing time and I'm very grateful to my company for giving me the opportunity to attend such a valuable event. ...even if I did fall off a bike and dislocate my toe on the last day. I hope you enjoyed reading about all the cool stuff I saw at SIGGRAPH. If you're interested in hearing more about the "touristy" part of my Vancouver trip and want to see some of the non-SIGGRAPH photos, <a href="https://nimbustravels.weebly.com/">head on over to my new travel blog</a>. Thanks again for reading. Until next time... Adios!Steve Rakarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00729554481173025021noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334135542218534965.post-80441668058817648272017-12-31T13:06:00.001-08:002017-12-31T13:06:31.510-08:00Onward to 2018!Hey guys! Happy New Year! I may not write a ton of blog posts throughout the year but I always find the time to do a reflection of the past year. I set quite a few goals for 2017 and I want to take a moment to look back and see how I did. I see a lot of people talk about how they can't wait for the year to be over, but 2017 was actually really good for me. In addition to a bunch of really great games releasing across the industry, I went to California 3 more times (February Break Camp, Spring Break Camp, full summer at Stanford), I went to my first ever E3 in LA, I went on a fun trip to Las Vegas, and I got a full time 3D Multimedia Designer job. It's been quite the year!<br />
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I also created a bunch of artwork. Working 40 hours a week in a creative
position, I haven't been doing a ton of freelance jobs lately. But I've
still gotten around to doing quite a few fun personal projects. Here
are a few of the drawings and renders that I neglected to post
throughout 2017.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_eS8oHVsOc__JlHX9awTUCFe2cU1Ij9Kl8xhl9MQbou3uW3DCewz_A19BFecVMkUk5lN_CMi7aeCMxy5xgDursPmgtGAV1urKFxWo2Ft4qhcoaWubUY6BTVAmq37ORV8mN2PgYNtPzSk/s1600/Sargent+for+Blog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1493" height="460" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_eS8oHVsOc__JlHX9awTUCFe2cU1Ij9Kl8xhl9MQbou3uW3DCewz_A19BFecVMkUk5lN_CMi7aeCMxy5xgDursPmgtGAV1urKFxWo2Ft4qhcoaWubUY6BTVAmq37ORV8mN2PgYNtPzSk/s640/Sargent+for+Blog.jpg" width="640" /> </a></div>
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This was a self-imposed art test that I did when applying to my current job. Tooling-U focuses on a lot of manufacturing equipment, so I grabbed something from my Dad's inventory to model. It was a fun project that seemed to really help my portfolio. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkanxT0YjeK4u3v-f3ApvYbwuHGE8FJvVXG0057cirRzdevWaGLo-ajbGCZSbepYcDNuFlVNvCLIA5ZyYmyIH88sCtxjERIT8FMfr9OP7pbkYa7R09RSIMfYnB4cf2OWypMsh8MO9bhO4/s1600/Shaw+Concept.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1600" height="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkanxT0YjeK4u3v-f3ApvYbwuHGE8FJvVXG0057cirRzdevWaGLo-ajbGCZSbepYcDNuFlVNvCLIA5ZyYmyIH88sCtxjERIT8FMfr9OP7pbkYa7R09RSIMfYnB4cf2OWypMsh8MO9bhO4/s640/Shaw+Concept.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Back in the Spring I was putting together the concept for a UE4
action game about The Nays. I did a lot of research into cel shading and
managed to incorporate some neat game mechanics like character
swapping. It's still just a prototype so there's not a lot to look at,
but this was one of the model sheets that I did for the main character. I
wanted a more anime look than my normal style.</div>
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Next we have a bunch of The Nays character designs and sketches I did
throughout the year. Going through these now makes me realize just how
many drawings I did that never made it onto this blog (or anywhere on
the internet, for that matter). In 2018 I definitely want to do a better
job of making sure I post everything that I draw, whether that's a
formal blog post, in my deviantART gallery, or simply in a short tweet
on Twitter.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXBUcO9x6PPUg3_ULmxYo9cetkIvbT8tSMxW3aHXYQyUxbvE27uNsc3tQLlILCUwapAJYHaatRc1un_aosDXUDR9F8XzsO6j7zt7u_we4hE8vXtvUGFgsiSYYrSkecn6ABsCZGRS8oIjM/s1600/Nay+Automata+Doodles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1461" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXBUcO9x6PPUg3_ULmxYo9cetkIvbT8tSMxW3aHXYQyUxbvE27uNsc3tQLlILCUwapAJYHaatRc1un_aosDXUDR9F8XzsO6j7zt7u_we4hE8vXtvUGFgsiSYYrSkecn6ABsCZGRS8oIjM/s640/Nay+Automata+Doodles.jpg" width="584" /> </a></div>
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Just some doodles of The Nays.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim_RApMAmTaCb6ve6GQ1Cz4vq3LBdH_jx20yNFp0uJ6DZWM-r4-v8eM5fC9Jmah7QCuR60mTAIIa-om8pizTxJyyewU_QY5bBzWr2Y9PW71l__iGzMf2Vab2FgER_EQbCIacrr5NSFXw8/s1600/Scroll+the+Wannabe+Boxer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="880" data-original-width="1355" height="414" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim_RApMAmTaCb6ve6GQ1Cz4vq3LBdH_jx20yNFp0uJ6DZWM-r4-v8eM5fC9Jmah7QCuR60mTAIIa-om8pizTxJyyewU_QY5bBzWr2Y9PW71l__iGzMf2Vab2FgER_EQbCIacrr5NSFXw8/s640/Scroll+the+Wannabe+Boxer.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Scroll, a character that The Nays met on the Color Tribes Eventure. He eventually becomes a Nay himself.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv2i4M7fsxbQHUGRXwpMzUJIrhmLiOXd6x4Ay9P1pFHVy2dkV8GG2oBUxO7fH44lVT9cXQFqEj3EiRDDdhG8v9uCxiBtFdA4qm7ErxEpaFBYaPXs98jns8HjnDVq7C0fQyTz-k6RQ6sTs/s1600/Red+Moon+Chars.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1454" data-original-width="1567" height="370" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv2i4M7fsxbQHUGRXwpMzUJIrhmLiOXd6x4Ay9P1pFHVy2dkV8GG2oBUxO7fH44lVT9cXQFqEj3EiRDDdhG8v9uCxiBtFdA4qm7ErxEpaFBYaPXs98jns8HjnDVq7C0fQyTz-k6RQ6sTs/s400/Red+Moon+Chars.png" width="400" /> </a></div>
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A couple of antagonists that The Nays encounter during the Celedel Ruins Eventure. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2zaZY5zyFEx8ILXLO6Z4OS1oM0wdjwUQo38emEc2fEnBe8TcTiB6V39VDQwFHHCh4Sjs6GLrsxZBqgHG-3z730uBjSk6rfW-G5lM-pwhLdazjfanRK3vsTKRpGKibSb3smHY-YhR2uJw/s1600/KeroGero+Troupe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="848" data-original-width="1600" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2zaZY5zyFEx8ILXLO6Z4OS1oM0wdjwUQo38emEc2fEnBe8TcTiB6V39VDQwFHHCh4Sjs6GLrsxZBqgHG-3z730uBjSk6rfW-G5lM-pwhLdazjfanRK3vsTKRpGKibSb3smHY-YhR2uJw/s640/KeroGero+Troupe.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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A comedy troupe / undercover activist group that some of The Nays meet in Aiml World.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOdYbq5RSl2AEPioUb6uYOsLNN59V2ippKuqaw9Z_BBe-3ogsgIyq_0hCYDEDh4oUdwdoHMMFD1zilaAFocaYTZzO1adDitqPkqlGZF54gwHoMD0U4AmV-QoeNgSUZQ_-G96jjoYdLmF8/s1600/Sennabe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="890" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOdYbq5RSl2AEPioUb6uYOsLNN59V2ippKuqaw9Z_BBe-3ogsgIyq_0hCYDEDh4oUdwdoHMMFD1zilaAFocaYTZzO1adDitqPkqlGZF54gwHoMD0U4AmV-QoeNgSUZQ_-G96jjoYdLmF8/s400/Sennabe.jpg" width="222" /></a></div>
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The antagonist from Inferno Colony No. 3. For a fun comparison to his old design, <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveRakar/status/930276401344843776">check this out!</a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEMBXsC7DLchfHgmi1NwgZZA2EkkE0KvxopRcafHKQjSmkQP_Ag0vNv1Wn6NfU6f3UNq002o0Via4hzVX_kyYEr8N6DBHnd3H80JL9VTfwnHVLAfgjEc9bqpG0auZMlJ1EhNv0Ikkh11E/s1600/JrTr+Hair+Style.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="873" data-original-width="1600" height="348" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEMBXsC7DLchfHgmi1NwgZZA2EkkE0KvxopRcafHKQjSmkQP_Ag0vNv1Wn6NfU6f3UNq002o0Via4hzVX_kyYEr8N6DBHnd3H80JL9VTfwnHVLAfgjEc9bqpG0auZMlJ1EhNv0Ikkh11E/s640/JrTr+Hair+Style.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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JrTr is one of the main characters of The Nays and he has been in need of a redesign for a while. These were a bunch of concepts I did when trying to come up with his new hair style. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE4G6HRxP83cwsvjUVm_xaqAX7ve3OIzZ9X06G0qjZg1y7nwlhfGqdB_UdDIxj_MQvnEsU2gx68_XqNH478bj2XQ9zWmPzDyI9S0UHwJPknhds9METYFYMRo0RfiAQY1Fa1jLtm4SP74g/s1600/Summer+for+Devant.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="859" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE4G6HRxP83cwsvjUVm_xaqAX7ve3OIzZ9X06G0qjZg1y7nwlhfGqdB_UdDIxj_MQvnEsU2gx68_XqNH478bj2XQ9zWmPzDyI9S0UHwJPknhds9METYFYMRo0RfiAQY1Fa1jLtm4SP74g/s640/Summer+for+Devant.jpg" width="343" /></a></div>
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Summer is the newest Nay that I created for the Aiml World Eventure. I spent a lot more time designing her than I do for most characters, so it was a pretty intense process.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMnPkeO7XzqF_iYr-FUA2_DbDRJHqMBUbMWhehR2KU3Jyw_j34wxqRb8VO_EFIR6oAjqGOudDmz0aEB7FQJRslu7g9MtzfUDLhRAXaQv2zBuVXpAxEokbp9CmMdxz60U_8jWgcQTODwuI/s1600/Topaz+Screenshot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMnPkeO7XzqF_iYr-FUA2_DbDRJHqMBUbMWhehR2KU3Jyw_j34wxqRb8VO_EFIR6oAjqGOudDmz0aEB7FQJRslu7g9MtzfUDLhRAXaQv2zBuVXpAxEokbp9CmMdxz60U_8jWgcQTODwuI/s640/Topaz+Screenshot.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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For my sister's birthday, I made a Persona 5 inspired animation about The Nays since we were really into the game at the time.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg95K-R8NgcFPYACR4_mbWzURIBFrqkK96tFrTDSYmYdg9KA8QKQ4CZ57wFn8WCMG2OqB5_ZSyG3sjr_S2qIScAcodlD0yQlWKUyxN1sxmCUDv_yl-dO8HhMT5_F4Zt3cnQksb4GvReXM8/s1600/Ice+Cream+Boys.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg95K-R8NgcFPYACR4_mbWzURIBFrqkK96tFrTDSYmYdg9KA8QKQ4CZ57wFn8WCMG2OqB5_ZSyG3sjr_S2qIScAcodlD0yQlWKUyxN1sxmCUDv_yl-dO8HhMT5_F4Zt3cnQksb4GvReXM8/s640/Ice+Cream+Boys.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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A still from another animation. This one was about the very first Nays story, The Gek Eventure. All of The Nays journey inside The Gek's Coat, which is a giant gravity-less fun land with ice cream and a casino.</div>
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I'd say that's a pretty good summary of the year. Now let's take a look back at my goals.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u>2017 Goals Review</u></span> <br />
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<b>More Tutorials (Success!)</b><br />
I did a ton of tutorials throughout the year! Between my SNES tutorials, learning about Genesis music, and my new love for Cinema 4D & After Effects, I learned a lot of new stuff in 2017. <b><br /></b><br />
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<b>ZBrush / Substance Painter Combo (Somewhat Success)</b><br />
I didn't spend quite as much time as I thought I would on this, but I still spent some time using the pipeline so it's a partial success. Bonus points for the all of time I spent learning Substance Designer! <br />
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<b>More Rigging (Somewhat Success)</b><br />
Like the last goal, I wouldn't say I spent an extraordinary amount of time rigging, but I still spent a good bit of time on it in 2017. I'll share some of the cool rigging experiments that I did in a future post.<b></b><br />
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<b>Overhaul My Website (Failed)</b><br />
I did the opposite of this in 2017... my website actually completely broke. I haven't had the time to really dive into this and it's clear that I still need to do a TON of work on re-coding my site so this is a major goal for 2018.<br />
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<b>Shorter, More Frequent Blog Posts (Failed)</b> <br />
This is post number 7 of the year, which falls pretty close in line with my average yearly blog post count. I started off strong in January but tapered off pretty quickly. I expected this one to be the toughest goal though so I'm not too disappointed in myself. I'll try this one again in 2018.<br />
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Overall, I don't think I did too bad with my goals (especially considering there were 5 of them). I think the tutorials one was the most important so considering how many new skills I learned, I feel that the year was a success. I still need to post that SNES Programming tutorial that I keep mentioning so look forward to that next year. Speaking of next year, let's move on to...<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u>2018 Goals</u></span><br />
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So my goals for 2018 are going to be a bit different. Yes, I still plan to fix my website and yes I will always be trying to post more on this blog. But my official goal for the year is something unusual and not even art related at all.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV8bMe8iF907WGrniahFqQMpfIDvrIHiiymW5FnpmuMQFXtNIpZK48pXQ2O-Jdfx-JLSqJDxxODSMi2GSWGkpiu8VuQYfboMJxJOhh6w41REFhyFvrs3G2Bg8KMBYGv2hoXP5YbOgXtSM/s1600/P_20171231_143846.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV8bMe8iF907WGrniahFqQMpfIDvrIHiiymW5FnpmuMQFXtNIpZK48pXQ2O-Jdfx-JLSqJDxxODSMi2GSWGkpiu8VuQYfboMJxJOhh6w41REFhyFvrs3G2Bg8KMBYGv2hoXP5YbOgXtSM/s640/P_20171231_143846.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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In 2018 I want to learn how to read Japanese! A good portion of the games and TV shows that I enjoy come from Japan and I can't even count how many awesome things I've had to miss out on because I don't know the language. So I want to finally do something about that. Over the past month or so, I have begun learning Hiragana. It has been going pretty well so far but I still have a long road to go before I become even close to fluent. <br />
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So by this time next year, my goal is to be competent enough in the language to at least play through an entire Pokemon game in Japanese. I hear those games use pretty simple language so it will be a great beginner test. If all goes well, I also plan to take a trip to Japan at some point in 2018. Wish me luck on my studies!<br />
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And there we have it. Another year in the books, another year of lofty goals and self improvement. I hope all of you enjoyed 2017 as much as I did, and I hope you have an even greater 2018. Thank you so much for taking the time to read all of my ramblings. Until next time... Adios!Steve Rakarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00729554481173025021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334135542218534965.post-12635435154443263022017-10-19T17:03:00.001-07:002017-10-19T17:03:20.000-07:00Website DowntimeHi guys! Mini update time. Yes, I know that my website is currently having issues. As far as I can tell, one of the scripts that my website was depending on seems to have gone offline. I was planning on doing some changes to my website design in the near future anyways, but this means that I'll have to do a major overhaul of the backend. As I plan how I want to redesign everything, it may be a few weeks until the site is fully operational again. For now keep an eye on this blog for updates and if you need to contact me feel free to send an email to steverakar [at sign] gmail [dot] com. <br /><br />In other news, I recently started up a new fulltime 3D artist job at Tooling U in Cleveland! I have been doing a lot of work in Cinema4D which surprisingly has a few advantages over Maya. I can't post a ton of the art that I do at work online, but expect to see at least a few renders in the near future. <br /><br />(And I know I keep saying it, but that SNES development post really is coming soon! I have a lot of it typed up (and even saved on blogger!) but I still need to format it and make it easier to read. I definitely intend for it to be my next post)<br /><br />Anyways, just wanted to post this short update for anyone who comes across my website and wonders what's going on. Until next time... Adios!Steve Rakarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00729554481173025021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334135542218534965.post-9808269428009232942017-09-07T15:33:00.000-07:002017-09-07T15:50:24.035-07:00Learning Music Production with Blast ProcessingHey guys! Long time no see. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about this blog. I've been busy working on a super long tutorial post that I hope to share with you very soon. If you've been <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveRakar">following me on Twitter</a>, you'll notice that I have been spending a lot of time learning about ASM and programming games for the Super Nintendo. I have been organizing all of my findings into a mega post that both shows off what I have created as well as teaches people about SNES development themselves. So that should be done soon.<br />
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I also spent another summer working as the Assistant Director at the Stanford iD Game Academy. Since most of what I would share about that would be similar to my post from last summer, I'm not going to go into too many details. Just know that it was a lot of work and a lot of fun! <br />
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In the meantime, I want to share a fun little project that I have been working on the past few days. I took a brief side quest from SNES development to spend some time on the dark side and try out a little Sega Genesis development. It all started when I stumbled upon <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEvnZRCW_qc">this excellent video</a> about how Genesis music was created back in the 90s. I was curious, so I decided to download the GEMS software that musicians used back then.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-KsU1PLJLZmcZsbXRevAxS0KcWwAXaU_1bv6i6BW5ArB45QG5phOktHQK872URkvrfLgwCN-dlUHEJZXIMABlInnZqmnl6Udj31Q1vcRWC2sXOTRFFq-CvrNZyj4_J-kCbKbLfhYvaus/s1600/GEMS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="709" data-original-width="891" height="508" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-KsU1PLJLZmcZsbXRevAxS0KcWwAXaU_1bv6i6BW5ArB45QG5phOktHQK872URkvrfLgwCN-dlUHEJZXIMABlInnZqmnl6Udj31Q1vcRWC2sXOTRFFq-CvrNZyj4_J-kCbKbLfhYvaus/s640/GEMS.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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As expected of a pre-Windows program, it was very clunky and hard to use. I had to load the software in DOSBox and even then I couldn't get it to actually function correctly. Based on my research, it seems that GEMS needs to be connected to physical Genesis hardware before you can really do anything.<br />
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Just as it seemed like I was about to reach a dead end on this little adventure, one of the kind folks over at romhacking.net suggested that I check out a more modern program called <a href="http://www.deflemask.com/">DefleMask</a>. This awesome software can emulate the soundchips of many different retro consoles, including the Genesis, NES, GameBoy, Master System, and more.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxZHcetjQeTU4BuhJzEPDiErLGG47rwelOisycr1yGjoxr5w1EdtjCInax8bZcWq89SW8pRAfoWTkE6qYQZ2VUbiP57DTNbzM6xWa1g60pXhBqsJgnKcwHEcVo2zR9YKpS5fkwRRQed0o/s1600/DefleMaskLayout.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1042" data-original-width="1181" height="564" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxZHcetjQeTU4BuhJzEPDiErLGG47rwelOisycr1yGjoxr5w1EdtjCInax8bZcWq89SW8pRAfoWTkE6qYQZ2VUbiP57DTNbzM6xWa1g60pXhBqsJgnKcwHEcVo2zR9YKpS5fkwRRQed0o/s640/DefleMaskLayout.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Unlike most music production software, this one scrolls vertically instead of left to right. You have multiple channels that can each store its own sound. You also segment the song into sequences that each contain a particular beat. The software comes preloaded with a lot of instruments, many of which come directly from Genesis games. If you're feeling adventurous, you can also make your own. It is a much more technical approach to sound production, but I actually found that to make more sense to me than traditional music software. <br />
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I don't know the first thing about creating music, but I played around with the program for a few days and put together something that sounded decent. Instead of just uploading the music by itself, I also ended up creating a short animation to showcase the song. Check it out!<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/232890835" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="640"></iframe>
<a href="https://vimeo.com/232890835">Streeka Unchained - Sega Genesis Intro</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/user12923478">Steve Rakar</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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The goal of this animation was to emulate an opening title sequence for a Sega Genesis game. I tried to pick colors from the actual Genesis palette. I also used an old school dithering style for most of the shading. The fonts came directly from the Genesis logo itself, and I added a very 90s themed metal gradient to it.<br />
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I created the text reveal animation in about 12 frames for each word. I actually worked backwards from the last frame and erased the letters as I went, adding in erratic lightning bolt squiggles with the pencil tool. As for the thunder sound effects, I sampled from both Jurassic Park and Gunstar Heroes on the Genesis, tweaking the pitch and tempo in Audacity.<br />
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Overall it was a fun little project that took me back to the days of funky basses and blast processing. It was a great way to jump back into retro game development after a summer of teaching modern software. I would love to learn more about music creation someday, so this was a nice first step. Anyways, hope you enjoyed this post and feel inspired to try out the software for yourself (DefleMask is free!). My next post should be that meaty SNES tutorial that I promised so stay tuned. Until next time... Adios!Steve Rakarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00729554481173025021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334135542218534965.post-31690006049536939152017-03-06T16:09:00.000-08:002017-03-06T16:09:01.678-08:00Digimon, Digital Monsters!Hey guys, two weeks ago I got the chance to teach the first 3D printing course of the year at iD Tech's February Break Camp. I had a lot of fun and brought back a bunch of cool 3D prints... but I also brought back a nasty cold. While recovering last week, I watched a lot of old Digimon episodes and played Digimon Cyber Sleuth on PS4. And so I thought a fitting project to get me back into my regular schedule would be a simple Koromon model.<br />
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It's fun to view the process of how things are made, so I'm going to quickly walk through each major step below.<br />
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I started things off with a simple sphere. Gave it a decent amount of geometry so I would have enough polygons to work with comfortably.<br />
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From there I made use of the Soft Select tool to easily mold it into shape. Koromon is wide on the bottom and a little bit flat. He is also somewhat lumpy shaped.<br />
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"Drew" out the shape of a smiling mouth with the front few faces and I extruded inwards a few times. I took some of the faces from the inside of the mouth and moved them upwards into a tongue.<br />
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Did the same with the eyes to give them their roundness. I added in a few divisions to better round out the shape.<br />
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From there I did some more extrusion magic and sculpted in the eyes. I wanted them to sort of bulge out of his head so I pushed them pretty far.<br />
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Lastly, I extruded out his little ear antenna thingies. I thought about adding in some more divisions here, but the low geometry give them a nice floppiness that actually works really well.<br />
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After that, I took him into ZBrush and corrected some of the shapes. I really like the crookedness of Koromon's mouth so I had to make sure I got the angles of his lips just right. The Move Topological tool works great for that.<br />
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After tweaking his model in ZBrush and modeling in some teeth, I imported Koromon into Substance Painter to do some texturing work. There isn't a ton of detail in his texturing, so this went fairly quickly. The eyes were probably the toughest part.<br />
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And finally, I rendered out a few shots with nicer lighting. Overall, this was a nice fun project that only took a few hours. It was refreshing to take a model from start to finish so quickly. As always, thanks for reading all the way to the end. Next post will focus on something a bit lengthier. Until next time... Adios!Steve Rakarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00729554481173025021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334135542218534965.post-75442013695873497102017-01-30T14:27:00.001-08:002017-01-30T14:28:57.051-08:00Global Game Jam '17 Writeup - SOS dot WAVHey guys, I'm here with my <i>third</i> blog post of the month. I thought I was setting some kind of personal record, but I realized I had 6 posts between February and March 2014. I guess I have a lot to live up to! I felt very inspired reading old posts and I really want to keep this frequent posting thing up throughout the year.<br />
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Today's topic of discussion is Global Game Jam 2017. For those who don't know, GGJ is an annual event held every January where developers from all around the world come together to make video games. It's not a competition so much as it is a challenge. There is a universal theme that everyone has to use in their game, and you get 48 to develop the game from start to finish.<br />
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This was my 4th time participating in the event, so I had a pretty good idea what to expect. This year, I collaborated on a project with my sister, <a href="http://michellerakar.blogspot.com/">Michelle Rakar</a>. We developed a short adventure-puzzle game called SOS.WAV using RPG Maker MV. (<a href="http://globalgamejam.org/2017/games/soswav">You can check out our submission page and download the game right here</a>) Our project last year had some complex mechanics with a lot of maps and the framework to be a pretty large game. Although the idea was cool, as a prototype it wasn't all that nice to look at. So this year, our goal was to create a more compact yet polished title with all of our own art assets.<br />
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The theme of this year was "Waves." We figured most jammers would make games about the ocean or even the act of waving, so we tried to think of an outside-the-box way to approach the theme. We came up an idea centered around the computer extension ".wav" and made sound files an integral part of the game. (Kinda punny, but it was a pretty unique interpretation).<br />
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SOS.WAV takes place on a remote island from our fictional universe, <a href="http://thenays.weebly.com/">The Nays</a>. You play as Mr. Dude, who is taking a break from all of his stressful duties as World Leader. He comes across a mysterious SD card that washes up on shore. After plugging it into his phone, he discovers that the only thing on the SD card is a single file named 'SOS.WAV.' Listening to the sound clip reveals that someone nearby is in danger and needs his help. The sound file also gives hints on how to solve the puzzles of the island.<br />
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We created an interesting mechanic in order to deliver help to the player. You can listen to the sound file at any time, but some of the hints are too fast, some too slow, and others reversed. You won't be able to understand the hints until you unlock the proper playback upgrades for your phone. This took a bit of sound editing to create, but it was really fun to see the mechanic come together.<br />
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Overall, there are 4 puzzles (well 3 and a half, the first one isn't very difficult) on the island, and it is mathematically very hard to solve them without first hearing the audio clues. This provides a nice gating feature to prevent the player from breezing through everything, but also gives the player the freedom to try and solve the puzzles by guessing. I think the puzzles are pretty diverse so I'm happy with the interesting designs we were able to come up with in such a short time.<br />
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The majority of my time was spent drawing out the backgrounds. As you might imagine, making a bunch of full blown tilesets in a single weekend is virtually impossible, so I instead created parallax images in Photoshop that could then be placed in to RPG Maker as a single image. The style is a bit simple, but it was the perfect amount of detail for the time constraints. Even with the shortcuts, it still ate up most of my time. I also worked on design elements, puzzle mechanics, and sound editing. Michelle was responsible for character animation, character portraits, dialogue and all of the UI elements (plus a lot of the design brainstorming too!). I think we split up the work pretty well.<br />
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To better suit the parallax background style, we also tried out a plugin that breaks free from the grid of RPG Maker. One of our goals was to avoid that stigma of being "just another RPG Maker game" so we really wanted to push it as far from the stereotypical RPGM look as we could. This multi-directional movement script helped a lot with that and setting up collisions wasn't as difficult as I expected.<br />
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All in all, I was really happy how our game turned out. I dare say it is the most complete and polished Global Game Jam project I have submitted so far! GGJ is a great event and every year that I participate, it reminds me of how much I love developing games (...even if it means not sleeping for an entire weekend...). <br />
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Words and screenshots only tell you so much though. To really experience the game, you have to play it for yourself. A download of SOS.WAV is available on our <a href="https://thegek.itch.io/soswav">itch.io page</a>. It is completely free to play, can be completed in roughly 15 minutes, and should run on just about any Windows machine. Give it a try and let us know what you think!<br />
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Hoping to continue this schedule with another new post soon. I have a few ideas brewing about what to cover next, but I'm not sure which one will be next yet. Right now I'm thinking about either explaining the cel shading techniques I'm using for a current UE4 project, talking about my adventures in SNES programming, or trying my hand at a process video where I demonstrate how I develop 3D characters. Let me know if any of these topics sound interesting to you in the comments section. Until next time... Adios!Steve Rakarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00729554481173025021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334135542218534965.post-37905387983770097162017-01-11T19:14:00.001-08:002017-01-11T19:14:38.655-08:00Sculpting Francisco LindorWhat's this? Two blog posts in one month? I promised more frequent posts and I'm going to stick to it! Rather than a big dump of lots of different projects, I'd like for my next few posts to be more in-depth pieces where I walk through my process for a single project.<br />
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<span id="goog_692671939">So the first of this series is a sculpt that I created of Cleveland Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor. If there's one thing I love as much as game development, it's baseball. I picked Lindor not only because he's one of </span><span id="goog_692671940"></span>my favorite players, but also because he has unique facial features.<br />
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Starting things off... this doesn't look very much like him. I started off with a very basic human mesh in Maya with plans to tweak the facial features in ZBrush. I have used this base on multiple projects since I like the way I set up the geometry and it works as a starting point for lots of different characters. The bust is quite low poly, weighing in at 3216 tris.<br />
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The UV mapping on this is a little different from my usual approach. I wanted to make sure that the mouth had plenty of room for detail (especially because I planned to sculpt in the teeth). So I cut the mouth area into its own shell. Normally I would try to only have seams in less visible areas, but since I planned to do all of the texturing in Substance Painter, I knew I'd be able to effectively hide those seams. At this point the eyes were actually part of the head mesh, but in order to expand the detail, I eventually cut the sockets open and created new meshes.<br />
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After modeling the initial base mesh, I took it into ZBrush for some refinement. As you can see, I made major structural changes to the face. Francisco Lindor has a very unique lip curl when he smiles, so I wanted to make sure to capture that. Since this sculpt isn't intended for animation or game usage, I can go all out in sculpting the facial expression.<br />
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After a few hours of sculpting in ZBrush (about 6 and a half, in fact), the face is starting to take shape. Even though ZBrush has tons of interesting brushes, I do almost all of my work just using the Standard, Clay Buildup, Dam Standard, and Move Topological. For the hair, I switched my brush style to "spray" and used one of the busier looking alphas. Since I gave a lot of space to the hair on my UV map, I was able to get some good detail in that portion of the sculpt.<br />
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Next comes the surface details. For this, I experimented with the layers function in ZBrush (possibly the first time I've ever touched it!). It was super handy in letting me keep all of the changes on a separate area that could be hidden or adjusted. As you can see, I added in the skin pores and lip cracks at a very high intensity. With layers, I could then tweak that visibility to get it down to a more subtle and realistic rate.<br />
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This is usually the tedious part where I have to bake out maps and retopologize the model to get it game-ready. Again, since this isn't going to be animated, I get to skip this part and continue working with the high poly model. For comparison though, I did export out the low res version to compare it with the base. Both models pictured above are using that same 3216 triangles, but as you can see the shape is now much different.<br />
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Now comes my favorite part - texturing the mesh! From here I bring my model over into Substance Painter to paint on all of that texture detail. I start things off by creating a fill layer across the whole model that will be my base skin layer. (I can't find the exact link to the one I use, but it should be linked in the official Substance tutorials if you're interested)<br />
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After the initial base layer is down, it's time to start adding some variation. I paint in the temperatures of the face. Generally the cheeks, nose, chin, lips, and throat have a warm reddish hue. Cold parts like under the eyes, under the nose, and under the lips get blue. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4ClZplU-SDobawnko1ID2cz1KHWmQusiewEb4y_IOadclOOunxChF1u4ygSvqLe90LJRtBv8SaZs1ubnK58FkR90FJQYM7xx0jyfCMhKtyH8be6EIw1lubBxuWlOkm4zKDnENBQYBfVu2/s1600/MartinGuldbaek_Agent-0047_FaceColors_WIP.jpg">Here's a good reference</a> from Martin Guldaek that might help. After painting in those colors, it's important to blend them. I make another new layer with a slightly lighter skin color and start painting all over the face with a scratch alpha. This is referred to as "noodling." Once I'm satisfied, I fiddle with the opacity sliders until I get something that looks nice and blended.<br />
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Once the skin starts coming together, I go to work on the mouth. I make sure to paint the gums before the teeth so I can be a little bit messier with them. The teeth are nearly a pure white with a super low roughness to get that shininess to them. Finding the right color for the lips can be a bit of a challenge, especially with a male character who is not wearing lipstick. You want something that stands out from the skin, but not too much that it looks unnatural. I used a pressure-sensitive opacity and blended a lot of colors together to get that nice salmon hue.<br />
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Now it's time to fill in the hair. Like the skin, I first put down a very basic fill layer. Frankie has pretty dark hair, but I used a slightly desaturated brown just so all of the details didn't get too washed out by the blackness. After that, I created an alpha of the part of the mesh colored with hair and used that as a mask. On my new mask I used a repeating curly hair texture and set it to my height map. This adds in a lot more fine details without having to physically go in and paint them by hand.<br />
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Once I toss the hat on and give the uniform some color, he actually starts to resemble the ball player we know and love. This part was a bit tricky to paint as there wasn't a ton of geometry detail down in his shoulders. Had this been a full character I wouldn't have ran into this challenge, but since I put most of the detail in his face it was a bit hard getting sharp lines on the shirt divisions.<br />
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It was a tough call deciding which uniform colors to go with. I'm not terribly fond of the block C logo, but I like that off-grey color of the away uniforms so I went with that 3rd color scheme.<br />
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Next I went back and worked some more detail into the skin. Something really important in PBR texturing (physically based rendering, not the cheap beer) is the roughness map. Painting this gloss texture in allows you to see all of the really fine details when the light passes over them. I made sure to plug in my roughness layer with my skin pores so that you get the really nice fine detail when you move the light around.<br />
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At this point, it's basically just putting in the finishing touches. After painting Lindor's facial hair, I went in and gave him eyebrows. (Amazing how alien a character looks without them!) I also painted some darkness onto the eye lash area, but I was careful not to go overboard and make him wear eyeliner. Lastly I pushed some of the shadow areas around the eyelids and in the nose crevices. I generally try to avoid painting in too many shadows unless I'm specifically going for a hand-painted look, but a little bit of darkness in these indented areas goes a long way.<br />
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Added the logo to the cap, modeled in Frankie's signature necklace, and added in a few more clothing seams. At this point, I decide to call him done. I could probably still tweak this thing for hours and hours, but it's important to know when to call something done. I wanted this model to have a quicker turnaround, so at this point I export out all of my textures and finish up.<br />
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After exporting everything out of Painter, I bring the model into Marmoset Toolbag for some fancy rendering. Toolbag has a lot of excellent lighting presets to view your model in different environments. I would definitely recommend it as a good way to showcase your models without dealing with lengthy light setups and rendering times.<br />
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It also has a lot of fun post processing effects that I like to play around with. It can be useful to view your model in different lighting, but most of all it's just plain fun to check them out.<br />
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All in all, I spent about 18 hours on this model. I didn't set a strict timer like I do with my freelance work, but I wrote down estimates at the end of each day. Here is a basic breakdown if you're interested:<br />
<ul>
<li>Maya base modeling: 1.5 Hours</li>
<li>ZBrush sculpting: 6.5 Hours</li>
<li>Substance Painter texturing: 9.5 Hours</li>
<li>Toolbag/Photoshop Rendering: 1 Hour</li>
</ul>
Overall, this was a very refreshing project to kick off 2017 with. It had a pretty short turnaround and it was a great re-introduction to some of this software that I haven't used in a few months. It got me super motivated for what comes next and I already have a few ideas for similar projects I'd like to do in the coming weeks.<br />
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I know I wanted to keep things short and offer more blog posts, but I think this in-depth description of my process is useful as well. I plan to do something similar for the next project I post about, and I might even make a video. But speaking of videos, I'll leave you with a short turntable of this model. Thanks for reading my post. I hope it was informative and you enjoyed. Until next time... Adios!<br /><br /> <iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dz_UWIDs2nBquGwbi3BLrOVwdmo09e6isAL48s0fALI-XpLLRgKMoqTAMvjDV3vd9Op0Py3lDxVXNqIs51pVg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe>Steve Rakarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00729554481173025021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334135542218534965.post-70582543464945998472017-01-04T14:01:00.001-08:002017-12-31T13:07:11.807-08:00My 2016 Wrap Up and Goals for 2017Hey there! It's that time of the year again. Time to reflect on the past year and talk about plans for this upcoming 12 pages on the calendar. I spent a good deal of my posts this year going into detail about my 2016 adventures, so I don't want to write too much more about it. I do however want to show off some illustrations. My 2016 New Year's resolution was to spend more time on personal drawings with a goal of finishing one per month. While I didn't necessarily get the chance to draw one in each month (summer was really busy!) I did manage to create more than 12 illustrations. Some of these are animation stills or character sketches, but they all fall pretty closely into my personal illustration requirement.<br />
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<b>January: Chozu Horror Comic Pen & Ink</b><br />
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At the start of the year, I got really into pen & ink and comic styles. I found a bunch of great references and decided to try my hand at it. It felt really good to work in a different medium and achieving those super dark blacks with a sharpie was very satisfying. <br />
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<b>February: Pokemon 20th Anniversary Drawing & Team Slurpy Drawing</b><br />
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I already talked about this in length in my Leap Day post. Long story short, February was Pokemon month (though honestly, I've been pretty into Pokemon throughout this whole year). I decided to draw my teams from my Fire Red and Crystal playthroughs.<br />
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<b>March: Stardew Valley Quickling</b><br />
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Really simple one here. In March I got a new Wacom One tablet and I wanted to try it out on a quick painting. I was obsessed with Stardew Valley at the time so it seemed like the perfect theme! After a few more months, I have to say that I am loving this tablet and I don't know why I put up with my off-brand one for all of these years. Definitely recommend it.<br />
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<b>March: "Lonny Hacks the System" Animation Still Frame</b><br />
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This is a still frame from a short animation about Lonny and Gair. It is part of the Nays Gif Compilation project that my sister and I started in 2015. I should probably post the animations themselves at some point. For each one, I gave myself a strict time limit of 2 hours to complete them. It was a fun way to experiment with different animation styles.<br />
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<b>May - June: Nay Drawings</b></div>
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These are all drawing that I've posted before as well. They were drawn in late May / early June when I realized I was falling behind on my monthly goals. They all depict different characters from The Nays. <br />
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<b>September: Pearlies Character Lineup</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb54eIoccXx_nEY4FIpkrcB0oI-nKz8uPpGmCcTRoBtD_LpUtleqaT-Kw_MOq5BKoI-Zm2HOUsSXLcjKAKEu51e41HoTBT9LkKdvtHKLw09VmDHricaVG13El9X1Z6g9GzH_AcAKLxX1A/s1600/09+Pearlies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb54eIoccXx_nEY4FIpkrcB0oI-nKz8uPpGmCcTRoBtD_LpUtleqaT-Kw_MOq5BKoI-Zm2HOUsSXLcjKAKEu51e41HoTBT9LkKdvtHKLw09VmDHricaVG13El9X1Z6g9GzH_AcAKLxX1A/s640/09+Pearlies.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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This is a gang of characters I created many years ago. They finally showed up in the recent storyline of The Nays, so I figured it was time to give them new designs. From left to right: Grellno, Poncho, Rocky, Bleek, and Capilstation. They all work for the World Leader of Compass World, Pearly Johnson.<br />
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<b>November - December: Nays Gamishness Fake Screenshots</b><br />
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This is a really fun project called Nays Gamishness. I decided to take scenes from The Nays and recreate them as fake screenshots from various games. The first one is the scene in Chozu's past where his Uncle Moz gets hauled off for cheating a casino. It's in the style of Final Fantasy IV for SNES. The second scene is from the Return to Muko Inc Eventure when Elfno encounters a family of boxing-loving dolphin people. This one is done up in the style of Suikoden V for PS2. I've got a whole bunch more of these planned so I'll most certainly be sharing them into 2017.<br />
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<b>December: "New Comp Returns" Animation Still Frame</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8kZopa2ToKRD8fZ07IBmw7CRT9rhKqNaCGkFo0z6NiYioewu3HDHZrmX49wvdvwckTgfTjREPyBZQFym5rp59HeepszKoNz8Eeg6OZkLvNoNoyRJz-DWPf_fKH6wRcYXIHJeN2Am_bo8/s1600/11+Chair+Floaters.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8kZopa2ToKRD8fZ07IBmw7CRT9rhKqNaCGkFo0z6NiYioewu3HDHZrmX49wvdvwckTgfTjREPyBZQFym5rp59HeepszKoNz8Eeg6OZkLvNoNoyRJz-DWPf_fKH6wRcYXIHJeN2Am_bo8/s640/11+Chair+Floaters.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Lastly, another still frame. This is from the Christmas present I made for my sister. The Nays are all lined up on their various devices, getting ready to join Yoisuf's new server. <br />
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Overall, this was a fun year-long goal. Working as a professional artist, it's easy to get caught up in working for clients and creating portfolio pieces without simply taking the time to draw for yourself. Even though some of these are pretty simplistic and not necessarily the type of work I would put in my portfolio, it felt good to just go back to my roots and draw for fun.<br />
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That said, it's time to plan out my goals for 2017. Rather than set an unrealistic specific goal that is destined to fall short (do X amount of Y each month... my schedule just fluctuates too much to dedicate to monthly goals), I'm instead going to set general guidelines that I would like to work towards.<br />
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<u>2017 Goals </u><b><br /></b><br />
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<b>More Tutorials:</b> It's important to keep learning new software and techniques, even out of school. I learn a lot from tutorials, so I want to make sure I keep expanding my skills. I was originally thinking of shooting for 1 tutorial per week as my overall resolution, but I don't want them to feel like a chore. With that number in mind though, I plan to learn a lot this year!<br />
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<b>ZBrush / Substance Painter Combo:</b> These two programs are becoming more and more integral to my process. I plan to further improve my comfort with this pipeline and really make these tools feel like second nature this year.<br />
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<b>More Rigging:</b> Rigging was something I used to hate in college, but in recent years it has become one of my strong suits. Artists with good rigging skills seem to be in demand, so I want to improve these skills even more and learn some useful new rigging techniques this year. I'm currently working on adding more non-humanoid rigs to my portfolio so more on that soon!<br />
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<b>Overhaul My Website:</b> It feels like I just redesigned my website recently but it has actually been over 2 years now. While I'm still a fan of the overall theme of the website, the functionality and ease of editing could use some work. I plan to rework a lot of the code, especially in the gallery section.<br />
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<b>Shorter, More Frequent Blog Posts:</b> I have a bad habit of trying to write an entire novel each time I make a blog post (just look at how long this post has gotten already!). That expectation that I have to write a ton of interesting information each time is always a big hurdle to updating my blog because I have to dedicate a lot of time whenever I post. I really want to get in the habit of writing much shorter posts so that I can update more frequently than a few times a year. This one is probably the toughest goal, but maybe this will finally be the year that I manage to get in the blog posting habit!<br />
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Thanks for making it all the way to the end of the post. I'm really grateful to have people checking out my artwork and supporting me as I do what I love. Ever since I started keeping a blog and writing down these goals, I feel like I have been a lot more motivated to stick to them. So I encourage you to share your own goals in the comments section, even if they're not art related. It really does help. Anyways, I'm planning to make 2017 the best it can be, and I hope you have a great year as well. Until next time... Adios!Steve Rakarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00729554481173025021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334135542218534965.post-79505072440147056332016-10-05T14:55:00.000-07:002016-10-05T18:28:02.595-07:00My Summer in CaliforniaAfter a long silence, I have returned from California! For those who haven't been following along, I spent the summer at Stanford working as the Assistant Director of iD Game Academy. It was an amazing experience that I will definitely never forget. We had a great staff led by an incredible director, and I truly believe that we provided the 200+ students with an unforgettable summer.<br />
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One of our Brazilian exchange students summed it up best: <br />
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<i>"I can just say that it was one of the best experiences of my life! In my opinion it is much more than game designing or coding, all the moments that I experienced here will be on my memory forever."</i><br />
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It is comments like this that make me feel like I actually made a difference, and I am so satisfied with the way the summer turned out. I have taught many classes with iD Tech in the past, but none of them have compared to the connections formed during the two-week sessions at the Game Academy.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggr-vME2H-e7Z7mGza8a9MlHjG3OAzDmqdK-CDxrwOdscyC0DUV7D3OrLR1C98Nur9W2QmCVdCxR8GPotY3bpymtPjzve98JoMiBV-IxptVFJ5vc2ygiTcpWepbCo5Cm3YNsz4k79JaJs/s1600/IMG_1909.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggr-vME2H-e7Z7mGza8a9MlHjG3OAzDmqdK-CDxrwOdscyC0DUV7D3OrLR1C98Nur9W2QmCVdCxR8GPotY3bpymtPjzve98JoMiBV-IxptVFJ5vc2ygiTcpWepbCo5Cm3YNsz4k79JaJs/s640/IMG_1909.JPG" width="640" /></a><br />
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One of my favorite parts of the summer was the industry tours that we got to go on. Our first one was at Crystal Dynamics. We had multiple speakers walk us through their daily schedules as they work on new entries in the Tomb Raider franchise. Their office is remniscent of the recent games in the series, with driftwood decor and all sorts of areas build from 'found material.' It was a very cool work environment!<br />
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We also got the chance to visit Ubisoft and Google. They offered great tips to our students on how to get started in computer science and what type of schools they should go to. Both trips were very valuable, and it was fun to see some of the crazy campuses that these companies have. Google even has a dinosaur fossil right in the middle of their courtyard!<br />
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My favorite trip though was our tour of NVIDIA. We got to see all of the new technology that they are developing to be used in self-driving cars. Our speaker explained how their machine-learning program works and even let us try it out. They had a camera set up and we could put objects in front of it and the computer could tell you what that object was just by scanning the image. It felt like stuff out of a sci-fi movie! At the end of the tour, they also had this amazing industry round-table session where 20 or so of their employees came out and sat at small tables to have casual conversations with the students.<br />
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We were so impressed by round-table idea that we later held a similar session of our own as a "career fair" of sorts. I gave a talk about being a freelancer and how to succeed in an unconventional line of work like that. The students were extremely receptive to it and asked me a lot of great questions.<br />
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I also got the opportunity to use our 3D printer when the students weren't using it. Getting the prints to come out perfectly could take some trial and error at times, but it was very neat to see our designs come to life in the physical world.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWvuojSFD1EpXFiD2_ddoLoRApJeBPNjcYXgkTkRuh0C_ZIv3pvafvAJCTZ-DYakCU2FzQWwY25-tZ0uGULzIlwMlJr7rGetxZwOySZrH4Wnz9IRi8ziwTRcQTDQpES4q9SiJ68N5lkRQ/s1600/HacaPrint.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWvuojSFD1EpXFiD2_ddoLoRApJeBPNjcYXgkTkRuh0C_ZIv3pvafvAJCTZ-DYakCU2FzQWwY25-tZ0uGULzIlwMlJr7rGetxZwOySZrH4Wnz9IRi8ziwTRcQTDQpES4q9SiJ68N5lkRQ/s640/HacaPrint.jpg" width="640" /></a> <br />
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This is my Haca Fairstalk character that I have written about in many of my past blog posts.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtGP1lpDlICpqtNdv0jGvO6ayrG_EmmUyliOxfqVxTKaBdyiDiDJwlqbXb14AiVDFzzlc_ZI0Q9NsHxjEGDP0fcnFOWl9NSxF-c4pd2VEeY5Py-_nM2AxLKsJ0xfiFl7ZgBFCXcwgn1XA/s1600/P_20160831_130334.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtGP1lpDlICpqtNdv0jGvO6ayrG_EmmUyliOxfqVxTKaBdyiDiDJwlqbXb14AiVDFzzlc_ZI0Q9NsHxjEGDP0fcnFOWl9NSxF-c4pd2VEeY5Py-_nM2AxLKsJ0xfiFl7ZgBFCXcwgn1XA/s640/P_20160831_130334.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
Once the super hectic camp season came to a close, I took a few days to see the Bay Area sights before coming home. (No exaggeration, I literally worked 100 hours each week so I had very little time to explore during work!) As much as I enjoyed the work, it was nice to have some time to unwind and visit some new places.<br />
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In my week off, I climbed Mission Peak (tallest mountain in the Bay area), I visited some of the cool sights in downtown San Jose, and I finally stepped into the Pacific Ocean in Santa Cruz.<br />
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After such a busy summer, it has taken me a little while to get back into my regular routine, but after a few weeks I've slowly eased back into my own game development again. To help me get into the swing of things, I've started up a little project involving this guy: Doduo, the two-headed Pokemon. I have been focusing a lot of my recent efforts on rigging in an attempt specialize on the more technical aspects of the character development pipeline. However I realized that most of my rigging work has been on traditional two-legged humans, so I wanted to break that up with a few unconventional bone structures. What better way to do that than to model and rig some of my favorite Pokemon!<br />
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After Doduo, I plan to move onto some 4-legged creatures like Vaporeon and Umbreon. I'd also like to do a winged creature and a swimming creature, so Mandibuzz and Seadramon (Digimon not a Pokemon, I know!) are on the agenda as well. And if I still feel like doing more after that, I plan to tackle Infernape, Ursaring, and maybe Agumon. It should be a fun project, so I'll be posting about that soon.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhETGAL1Ag3m0ShN1YEE4CApOgRfY0z1owrHQn-65k-poKq7b3K4QNumB5sKV0JteiwPRagRqVrq8cYXlr5TVkci3DNB6B4WyU1pJ0x25t7eCR2MVyGo8X9cKIE6jRNlBbKHh7wQIDQo3Y/s1600/ShionPhone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhETGAL1Ag3m0ShN1YEE4CApOgRfY0z1owrHQn-65k-poKq7b3K4QNumB5sKV0JteiwPRagRqVrq8cYXlr5TVkci3DNB6B4WyU1pJ0x25t7eCR2MVyGo8X9cKIE6jRNlBbKHh7wQIDQo3Y/s640/ShionPhone.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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I have also been spending time on a personal RPG Maker project called the Knalsy Experience. It is a remake of a game I made all the way back in RPGM2003. It is mostly just for fun, but it has been a good way to get focused on game dev again.<br />
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All in all, my summer in California was a huge success. Thanks for reading this super long post. Future updates should be shorter and more frequent again. Until next time... Adios!Steve Rakarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00729554481173025021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334135542218534965.post-71327997417111331272016-06-10T14:09:00.000-07:002016-06-10T14:09:12.638-07:00Onward... to Stanford!Not sure I've mentioned this on my blog before, but I recently got hired to be the Assistant Director at the iD Tech Gaming Academy at Stanford. Although the company isn't really affiliated with the school itself, I'm still excited that I'll be working at one of the most prestigious schools in the country. This will be my third summer with iD Tech and I can't wait for all of the exciting challenges that I'll face in my first true management position. On top of that, I'm beyond stoked to be heading to one of my favorite places in the country - the San Francisco Bay area. I'm sure I'll have lots of interesting adventures to talk about once I return from the West Coast.<br /><br />As such, I'll probably be pretty quiet on this blog for the next few months. I've suspended all freelance work until September and I likely won't have much free time to draw or model during the summer. I should still be somewhat active on Twitter though, so feel free to <a href="http://twitter.com/SteveRakar">follow me on there</a>.<br /><br />Before I leave, I do have a couple pieces of art to share. Finally got some time to do a few personal drawings of The Nays. I also made more progress on my Haca Fairstalk project. I wasn't able to completely finish it by summer like I originally hoped, but I guess it just gives me something to look forward to when I return. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbe-9qeXRmM95hH-5K40IDHPoSQTv7iQfvEJSOJCne9e4r2QxxBnQkMAdbEBwBMvWAYcR8w8LkOPmTz5YTqDSjXS4uFnqA42GXfbwfuaZUKSiqGVkND0exRBtD-Cl-Eo2DOgZ2XKCgHvE/s1600/Murou+MMO.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbe-9qeXRmM95hH-5K40IDHPoSQTv7iQfvEJSOJCne9e4r2QxxBnQkMAdbEBwBMvWAYcR8w8LkOPmTz5YTqDSjXS4uFnqA42GXfbwfuaZUKSiqGVkND0exRBtD-Cl-Eo2DOgZ2XKCgHvE/s640/Murou+MMO.jpg" width="577" /> </a><br />
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This is my character Murou. He's really into MMOs and The Nays actually first met him inside a virtual world. Pretty quick drawing but it was fun to play around with the glow of the computer screen.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7nw-JdDW-2uXSl3yS4Ij6dkAAsYra5y_S7CvkcjPSkNjjfF-hJG8FneaxbhdCVMkBMnbIcf_9YGTZs6Xn7OBNS8ojKw9iR4wm3xzHvnAvkgpCkEzz_7SVJ2JNmj4ivo8ZKucUPpsC3pw/s1600/Meushi+Surprise.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="506" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7nw-JdDW-2uXSl3yS4Ij6dkAAsYra5y_S7CvkcjPSkNjjfF-hJG8FneaxbhdCVMkBMnbIcf_9YGTZs6Xn7OBNS8ojKw9iR4wm3xzHvnAvkgpCkEzz_7SVJ2JNmj4ivo8ZKucUPpsC3pw/s640/Meushi+Surprise.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
Another one of my characters from The Nays, this is Meushi. She's an archaeologist who studies ancient Tag World technology.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkNxl9LEPLXPdbac2VLFAxNKUE1tS5fBgtjTTMVUA1EaUwkh1_nTvpa6haYushXwXDSH_89B9v-l82BfEDgha8-AuBX29XhJwRxICBBURqoIIWLvUCFPvn6alQh70xxybFMk9cDa5duxs/s1600/Spicco%2527s+Fallen+Son.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkNxl9LEPLXPdbac2VLFAxNKUE1tS5fBgtjTTMVUA1EaUwkh1_nTvpa6haYushXwXDSH_89B9v-l82BfEDgha8-AuBX29XhJwRxICBBURqoIIWLvUCFPvn6alQh70xxybFMk9cDa5duxs/s640/Spicco%2527s+Fallen+Son.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
Lastly, we've got a scene of Spicco and his adopted "son." This was based on an old drawing that my sister did when we were young, so it was fun to revisit that. Overall it was a good experience to start drawing for myself again. None of these were super detailed but it helped to get my creative juices flowing again.<br />
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<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8AP_RFjcITrfS7v0dG87hKmCzED_QI4V_JX4zMCfT_o4SJhV3dZo9CnY-Ww3dAvC6umPlaBuhE6U6j9uCyC81LJ_iHJe1d63NiqkDga2cO2bZczacgTTi8Mr3MSxLQse0coOKonWWQp0/s1600/Progress11_Spear.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8AP_RFjcITrfS7v0dG87hKmCzED_QI4V_JX4zMCfT_o4SJhV3dZo9CnY-Ww3dAvC6umPlaBuhE6U6j9uCyC81LJ_iHJe1d63NiqkDga2cO2bZczacgTTi8Mr3MSxLQse0coOKonWWQp0/s640/Progress11_Spear.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />I also had the chance to model Haca's weapon for my Unreal animation project. I modeled the spear in Maya and used Substance Painter to add in all of those texture details. I plan to animate the cloth using APEX cloth physics so it should flap around during animations.<br />
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I've been loving Substance Painter a lot lately, so I also decided to give Substance Designer a whirl. This was the result of an in-depth tutorial I followed. I really like the way the puddles turned out in between the rocks. Amazingly is is all completely procedurally generated so any aspect of the material can be tweaked and adjusted with sliders.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_qQLg-mLcdJlbtvDVtOaniiDij6YfUEbrwc_uJc3DyOfj6zoyVdi_41nnS-xX-iqcEbdAOdA4LPthHwssfgJZCLLZrB1mHxJWXwlFWtw8LO1jv1JXmAy-pvmNul_AbohBPdM4OlmHUZQ/s1600/Nodes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="340" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_qQLg-mLcdJlbtvDVtOaniiDij6YfUEbrwc_uJc3DyOfj6zoyVdi_41nnS-xX-iqcEbdAOdA4LPthHwssfgJZCLLZrB1mHxJWXwlFWtw8LO1jv1JXmAy-pvmNul_AbohBPdM4OlmHUZQ/s640/Nodes.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
This is the crazy graph network that I set up to create that material. There are so many little aspects that go into a design like this, so it took a few hours to get it all in place. It's really nice though because it works similar to the UE4 material editor and you can produce amazing shaders without having to type a single line of code.<br />
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That's about all I have to show this time around. I'll be sure to keep you up to date on all of my crazy West Coast adventures in the coming months. Until then... Adios!Steve Rakarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00729554481173025021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334135542218534965.post-17962323051777634512016-04-22T10:32:00.002-07:002016-04-22T20:06:22.485-07:00Designing New Drone Enemy [Haca Fairstalk Animation]Just got back from California and I'm ready to get back to work on
some new artwork. For those that didn't know, I spent the past week in
San Jose teaching kids about Maya at iD Tech Camp. My students were very
advanced and we got through a ton of content in such a short time. We
went over modeling tools, animation, lighting, cameras, Mudbox, and even
some UV mapping. And best of all, I got the chance to play with a 3D
printer! It was a super fun week full of friends new and old, and now
I'm even more excited to spend the summer at the iD Gaming Academy at
Stanford.<br />
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With this re-invigorated passion for 3D
modeling, I got right back to work on my Haca Fairstalk project. I
promised more frequent bite-sized posts so I'll keep this somewhat
short.<br />
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As part of the animation, Haca is running
through this tattered junkyard doing all kinds of acrobatic flips and
maneuvers. I wanted there to be some kind of conflict but creating
another full character would be too time consuming. So instead I got the
idea of some kind of small but destructive robots. I've been wanting to
create more hard surface models with complex mechanical rigging, so an
attack drone seemed like the perfect solution.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHng8b6lVtGsCn5HYgpc3BNw5QZnsOspQUfZwdTP4WGaJ8PXY_dQWyMJ_oZoFr-TtEQedvjr1hyUWL0jZcxJWJIGQ0C9DsKShVS10M6v46Pt0QpSwItsB49-JF9J2tFACfySj8ZWDERvk/s1600/DivithGeiger107Sketch.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="496" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHng8b6lVtGsCn5HYgpc3BNw5QZnsOspQUfZwdTP4WGaJ8PXY_dQWyMJ_oZoFr-TtEQedvjr1hyUWL0jZcxJWJIGQ0C9DsKShVS10M6v46Pt0QpSwItsB49-JF9J2tFACfySj8ZWDERvk/s640/DivithGeiger107Sketch.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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I
scoured the web for all kinds of references and came up with these
sketches. This drone is called Divith Geiger 107. I want it to have some
elements of horror sci-fi while still maintaining believable mechanics.
It has a hard layered shell on top which houses an eyeball camera on a
crane. Below the body, it carries a high powered rifle for picking off
its targets.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3zNeeLMlKEVhrlFo1RuuKgu9PWsFxih-G2je7-1gTXjyZyfSHoUEY9UFyBNju4j9W91fiVLpA2WTiiEiwnk9oGXKqFkMIvGZfVi-qg9-hk5ynsGp0Bz6T2DKBh294QO6DQjBMy4E0CGY/s1600/DroneRenderCompile01.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="584" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3zNeeLMlKEVhrlFo1RuuKgu9PWsFxih-G2je7-1gTXjyZyfSHoUEY9UFyBNju4j9W91fiVLpA2WTiiEiwnk9oGXKqFkMIvGZfVi-qg9-hk5ynsGp0Bz6T2DKBh294QO6DQjBMy4E0CGY/s640/DroneRenderCompile01.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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After
coming up with the design, I put together a prototype in Maya using
primitive shapes. This is to help visualize some of the movements that
the propeller makes.<br />
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Here
is a short playblast of the propeller retracting into the base of the
drone. Probably going to scale up the size of the blades.<br />
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Next
on the agenda is creating primitives for other movable parts and then I
can move on to the actual models for the drone. Next post should be a
bit more visually appealing so look forward to that. Until next time...
Adios!Steve Rakarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00729554481173025021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334135542218534965.post-57957215090467631322016-04-05T16:19:00.001-07:002016-04-05T17:33:52.589-07:00New Character Project - Haca FairstalkHey guys, today I wanted to share a project that I've been working on for the past month or so. I've been transforming one of my existing characters into a 3D model, and I'm planning to create a short animated sequence of her. The end goal of this project is a full scene running in
Unreal 4. It should be pretty cool, so I hope you'll stay tuned to check
out all of my updates. I have a ton of images documenting various stages of the process, so this will be a pretty meaty post. For future updates, I think I might try making frequent bite-sized posts every few days to show my progression.<br />
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With this project, I have a couple of major goals. For this character, I am trying my hand at a number of new current-gen techniques that big budget games usually use. For starters, I wanted to utilize Substance Painter and incorporate a PBR texture system. That means roughness maps, metallic maps, microsurface, etc. I also want to shoot for a slightly higher polycount than I'm used to. I was trained to be very restrictive with my resources, but as hardware evolves to accommodate higher polycounts, it's important to utilize those resources to improve the quality of your work. Currently I'm at 26k triangles without major accessories/weapons, so that's quite a bit higher than I'm used to working with.<br />
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Additionally, this project will incorporate various physics techniques using Nvidia's GameWorks plugins. I learned a lot about APEX cloth physics on some of my recent freelance work, and now I'd like to add it to a project of my own. I have also been experimenting with HairWorks and plan to use that on the character as well. And of course getting it all working in Unreal 4 should be a good test of creating game-ready content. Without further ado, here are some of the progress shots.<br />
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I started things off with a concept sketch. Luckily the character had
been previously designed (<a href="http://speedvore.deviantart.com/art/NAD-Haca-Fairstalk-510500680">including this awesome picture my sister drew</a>), so this stage was mostly about getting the shapes down and
creating a good reference.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1dGnVv3Rq3hyphenhyphenkmH7SR1QKpKL1ZEGQCXFE5zwLDPuhQbzZ4s06DSGtl3USVM-WWE8CiMPRWQ2rRDI5AKQL7lBkjMlIJww0jyF0RNUkJZF11oox1RELjFFkQeDUkJhr63nAcQtAqteG32A/s1600/Progress01_Torso.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="622" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1dGnVv3Rq3hyphenhyphenkmH7SR1QKpKL1ZEGQCXFE5zwLDPuhQbzZ4s06DSGtl3USVM-WWE8CiMPRWQ2rRDI5AKQL7lBkjMlIJww0jyF0RNUkJZF11oox1RELjFFkQeDUkJhr63nAcQtAqteG32A/s640/Progress01_Torso.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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From there I modeled out the torso. I took extra care to properly capture natural curves and make sure that the edge flow followed the shape of the body. This step is incredibly important, and I'm very happy with how I created the initial geometry.<br />
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Next I modeled the arms, legs, and face. At first, I felt some of these shapes looked too blocky and unnatural. Maya has some built-in sculpting tools that you can use to relax geometry, but instead I decided to toss the model in ZBrush to quickly smooth out some rough spots.<br />
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<br />
I planned for Haca's boots and shirt to be directly built into the main model, so once I finished UVing, I quickly tossed on some stand-in materials to separate the clothes. It helps to visualize the finished mesh a little more than using that standard grey material.<br />
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Next came the belt and skirt. Since the skirt will be controlled with APEX cloth physics, it has to be its own separate model. I experimented with a couple of different styles before deciding on that slightly ruffled look.<br />
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After modeling some jewelery, I took Haca back into ZBrush to add in some more details. You can see her collarbone and some of the muscles in her neck and abdomen now. I also did a lot of work on her face to make it less lumpy and more defined. For this stage I used a lot of references of real models.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE6xpyrVbKUgZTFUimcL12VXZYGAkbtzvXumuHdR4sKHVyKDZOBoiOXOzLeTHLdNikvt9OcPHlyDoHkvh5GjzLaOUkBNsNqqFBb4jHETRqeyx4MQKJpEMpw49JEBwEtbWEBEWXutzm6C4/s1600/Progress08_FirstSkinTexture.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="516" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE6xpyrVbKUgZTFUimcL12VXZYGAkbtzvXumuHdR4sKHVyKDZOBoiOXOzLeTHLdNikvt9OcPHlyDoHkvh5GjzLaOUkBNsNqqFBb4jHETRqeyx4MQKJpEMpw49JEBwEtbWEBEWXutzm6C4/s640/Progress08_FirstSkinTexture.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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At this point, the model is ready for texturing. I took her into Substance Painter and started creating a skin shader. It's not super visible in this shot, but there is a subtle layer of roughness on the skin that helps to highlight the pores on human skin.<br />
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I spent quite a bit of time in Painter to hammer out those details. From the fabric of her skirt to the edges of her fingernails, I really wanted to go all out to capture all of the minor aspects of a human character.<br />
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Those details are highlighted by things like lace holes on the boots and corset and various stitches and leather textures.<br />
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I even made sure to give texture to the strings themselves, using height maps and painted shadows. These are details that you wouldn't really catch from a distance, but they add to the overall believe-ability of the model.<br />
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For far too long, I was using a basic stand-in texture for the eyes. I think eyes are incredibly important in creating lifelike models and it is an area that I often struggle with. However with the added reflectivity and amount of detail that I painted into the cornea, I think I managed to shift this further away from the cartoony spectrum that I often fall into.<br />
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After finally calling the texturing done, it was time to move onto to rigging. To help speed along this process, I tried out Unreal's Animation and Rigging Tools. While there were still a lot of corrections to make and weight painting to do, the automation helped speed up some of the more tedious parts like plotting out the individual joints. There aren't a ton of interesting visuals to show for the rigging process, but now I can put Haca into all sorts of goofy poses!<br />
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This is pretty much the current state of the project. With the character modeled, UVed, textured, and rigged, most of the remaining tasks are animation based. I will be modeling a spear for her to use and then moving on to skirt physics and creating hair. I have already started gathering video references for a lot of her movements, so the next post should be fairly animated and exciting. <br />
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I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into my character design process. This is one of my favorite personal projects I've worked on so far, and I'm excited to see it all come together in a big game engine. For the next 10 days or so, I will be occupied with teaching Maya classes at iD Tech (working at Spring Break Camp in California again this year!), but once I return I plan to post more frequent updates of this project. Until then... Adios!Steve Rakarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00729554481173025021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334135542218534965.post-23985913454221413892016-02-29T18:32:00.000-08:002016-02-29T18:38:58.005-08:00Leap Day Art UpdateHappy February 29th everybody! I almost missed making a blog update this month, but luckily we were gifted with an extra day this year.<br />
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So far, I've been pretty good about my New Year's resolution of setting aside time to do personal artwork. I've got a pretty big 3D animation in the works for my portfolio, but that one isn't quite ready to show off yet. I ran into a bit of trouble between my tablet and Substance Painter, so I've got a new Wacom on the way. Expect a big update about that project next post.<br />
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For now, I wanted to show some of the 2D drawings that I've been doing. For my first drawing of the year, I decided to make something a bit bizarre. I was going through a list of game ideas that I jotted down one day, and I came across this idea about a 2D fighting game where everybody looks like they were made out of paper. Everyone would be drawn on notebook scraps and have a traditional style. I don't think I'm going to take on a project of that magnitude any time soon, but I figured it would be fun to draw a quick mockup character.<br />
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Continuing the traditional artwork trend, I drew this picture of Chozu one night with an ink pen and a sharpie. I've always been impressed by the amazing things that people can do with pens, especially manga artists. Having those pure blacks gives a really nice contrast, so I looked up some references and decided to create a fake comic book page. Something else should probably go in that bottom corner, but I'm rather satisfied with this one so I'm a bit scared of messing it up by adding more to it. There's no ctrl+z when you draw on paper!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_goVcUxWinb6uz4vmSCfRarqqoGuOGTvP5BPRf8jRAIifjAipcaWDiUpxQO7nrrZyOutQwLXaOSCaFRjzL3Dxyngg-o3sjj9_VCmkteo_U4E5Boj5N8-juL9B4ADiMOUmqYtBH_CU5XE/s1600/ChozuHorror_BW.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="420" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_goVcUxWinb6uz4vmSCfRarqqoGuOGTvP5BPRf8jRAIifjAipcaWDiUpxQO7nrrZyOutQwLXaOSCaFRjzL3Dxyngg-o3sjj9_VCmkteo_U4E5Boj5N8-juL9B4ADiMOUmqYtBH_CU5XE/s640/ChozuHorror_BW.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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I decided to do some more pen & ink after that with some Pokemon. I've been really into the whole 20th anniversary celebration, so I recently replayed Pokemon Fire Red. After that, I decided to draw the team that I used in the game. I did <a href="http://nimbusstev.deviantart.com/art/Payton-s-Pokemon-Pals-202049180">a similar piece with Pokemon Black a few years ago</a> when my tablet was broken, so I thought it would be nice to use a similar style. I drew this first on paper, scanned it, and colored it in Photoshop. Heavily inspired by the original Ken Sugimori concept art and his use of watercolors.<br />
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Clearly that wasn't enough Pokemon for me, as I then moved onto Pokemon Crystal on GBC. For this one, I decided to go purely digital so I could have a bit more control over things. Instead of a static team photo, I went with a full scene. This is the gang encountering (and capturing) the legendary Suicune inside the Tin Tower at Ecruteak City.<br />
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It's been a while since I did a full scene with so many characters, so this took me a bit longer than expected. Overall, it was a lot of fun though. I always love when artists show their process, so below you can see the all of the different phases I went through. That first sketch sure was messy... </div>
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Because I have different heights and distances in the scene, I decided to experiment with some depth of field. I think I could probably get this looking a bit better, but it was sort of just an after thought I decided to play with at the end.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii9ImStJ_unboUFCM-mVIKN5XIK89ew3bKegmIrLSxFnRbBjQk-8CJNVieLuiPxTMPHXSkDn4Ubywsn7MPzBiGse7Ab61d5jcWDKfbWOLHOXI8Fy8Jr2ForSUBdneXsAPuz0iXRH7r2R4/s1600/Team+Slurpy+vs+Suicune+v9+with+DoF.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii9ImStJ_unboUFCM-mVIKN5XIK89ew3bKegmIrLSxFnRbBjQk-8CJNVieLuiPxTMPHXSkDn4Ubywsn7MPzBiGse7Ab61d5jcWDKfbWOLHOXI8Fy8Jr2ForSUBdneXsAPuz0iXRH7r2R4/s640/Team+Slurpy+vs+Suicune+v9+with+DoF.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Speaking of extra features, I also thought it would be fun to animate this scene a little. This picture wasn't really made for animation, so don't mind the weird gaps that appear in some places. But I thought it might be fun to move some of the layers around to highlight the fact that it's on a bunch of different planes. This is the kind of subtle animation you might see in something like a motion comic.<br />
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Anyways, that wraps it up for this month. It has been nice to take some time to draw for myself again. I should have my new tablet this week, so expect to see a pretty big post about my new 3D project next month. Until next time... Adios!Steve Rakarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00729554481173025021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334135542218534965.post-84993511669657436942015-12-30T23:41:00.000-08:002017-12-31T13:07:41.479-08:002015: The Year of DreamsHappy New Year everybody! It's pretty crazy that we're moving onto 2016 already, but before we do, I wanted to take a moment to look back at some cool things that happened in 2015. The gaming industry as a whole had a really good year, and a lot of amazing new surprises got announced throughout this trip around the sun. My New Year's resolution last year was to write a blog post a month. As
you can tell, I fell a bit short of that goal, but I did at least manage to
keep the blog somewhat active for most of the year. Here's hoping I continue that pace going forward.<br />
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In terms of art, I had one of my most productive years yet, so I'm definitely going to file 2015 on the "good shelf." Surviving in this industry is tough, and it can be really frustrating coming out of college and facing so many hurdles and rejection on the path to starting a career. But after a long time, I'm finally starting to feel more confident in my work and develop a more positive about my future. Hopefully it only gets better from here on out!<br />
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In 2015, I traveled to California three times (once for GDC, once for PSX, and once to teach at iD Tech Spring Break Camp), I spent the summer teaching in Seattle, I worked on my first ever Kickstarter campaign, I released my first ever mobile game on iOS, I got to work on <a href="http://omniconnection.net/grimoire/">my first Steam game</a>, I got the chance to work with the wonderful folks at <a href="http://www.brightcovers.com/">BrightCovers</a>, and I worked on a whole slew of other interesting small projects. It was definitely a milestone year for me in terms of new experiences, and I'm really excited to see what comes next.<br />
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In these posts, I tend to have a lot of talking and not enough images (especially considering this is an art blog!), so I'm going to include a ton of pictures in this post. Without further ado, here's what I've been doing:<br />
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I've been doing a lot of work for <a href="http://www.brightcovers.com/">Bright Covers</a>, a local patio covering company here in Cleveland. I've been creating instructional videos for the assemblers as well as some promotional material to show off the product.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNXT1KJzL7QmI7_WcHtWaKPFh8Zp8Uyp6h4k7pbv4hqlAhexW_181qr71bPU4fmMGmUzcdNAkpIS8KImFAcH0lIVTWVRQlNx8Ii6COwMANf3QjXPPF4kyYMxnb0uwP7BQFQrn_z8OZ1VE/s1600/BottomShoeFixedScrews.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNXT1KJzL7QmI7_WcHtWaKPFh8Zp8Uyp6h4k7pbv4hqlAhexW_181qr71bPU4fmMGmUzcdNAkpIS8KImFAcH0lIVTWVRQlNx8Ii6COwMANf3QjXPPF4kyYMxnb0uwP7BQFQrn_z8OZ1VE/s400/BottomShoeFixedScrews.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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I came up with a few new rendering techniques along the way that I will definitely be utilizing again in the near future.<br />
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Here's the full animation that instructs owners how to construct their new unit.<br />
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I'm also in the process of creating some new mascot characters. This is still a work in progress, so he's not quite done yet. If you happen to attend any of the local home & garden shows though, you might be able to see the finished product!<br />
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As I mentioned, I also got to work on an early access Steam game called <a href="http://omniconnection.net/grimoire/">Grimoire: Manastorm</a>. My role on Grimoire was mostly behind-the-scenes rigging and weight painting tasks, but it was a fun job nonetheless. If you <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/335430/">follow the game on Steam</a>, stay tuned for an upcoming update that will incorporate all of the cool cloth physics I've been working on!<br />
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<a href="http://notrobot.co/images/WC_MainMenu.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://notrobot.co/images/WC_MainMenu.png" height="358" width="640" /></a></div>
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On another note, I'm not sure if I posted this on the blog, but Wave Crash is officially out on iOS now! It's completely free and available right on your iPhone or iPad. <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id908064050">Check it out!</a> We put a ton of hard work into it. Going forward, our crew has some exciting <a href="http://spacedent.co/">new plans</a> that may or may not include the use of VR headsets, but I'll talk more about that at a later date.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwp-UNDwskXu-Aljh5Zaqk6NPMw77a7PzYBaN8tf2LRpGEpqLjM2cLKTFY8UclNOlXsKfFALiUb3tg3HEweuw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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I also did a bunch of animation work earlier in the year. This is using a pre-rigged model, so the focus here is the wall running animation. <br />
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As many cool projects as I worked on this year, I feel I didn't quite make as much personal artwork as I did in the past. I'm happy that work is keeping me busy, but it's still important to continue doing artwork for my own sake as well. And so for 2016, my goal is to draw one finished scene each month. I'm leaving the specifics of that requirement a bit open-ended, but each scene should be finished enough that I would be willing to submit it to my deviantArt gallery (and not in the scraps section!). I think it's an achievable goal, and it will be fun to go back to what got me into art in the first place: drawing for fun!<br />
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On that note, here's some of the personal artwork that I did manage to do this year. It's mostly related to The Nays (the series my sister and I created), so most of it hasn't been released online until now.<br />
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This was a Christmas present for my sister. Disclaimer: I have no claim
own over any of the music, but the goofy voices are 100% mine!<br />
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These are clothing designs for two of my characters from The Nays, Shaw Braves and Chozu Eisu. They are two of the original characters from the beginning of the series, so they go through a lot of different designs.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6TM3JBHwZHSVL3H27qm8jQ3oxp93SyWkFKXMfSkEvPQG9lhkdXK7nwoYfw9IEUY-TJFUYbh6kxHurkV-0oEWgd2AYAHWDZQ4q9IDKj7YlXF1PhPRLfnepWYrWp3356AD8p4QxFts_2gI/s1600/Minor+Characters+002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6TM3JBHwZHSVL3H27qm8jQ3oxp93SyWkFKXMfSkEvPQG9lhkdXK7nwoYfw9IEUY-TJFUYbh6kxHurkV-0oEWgd2AYAHWDZQ4q9IDKj7YlXF1PhPRLfnepWYrWp3356AD8p4QxFts_2gI/s640/Minor+Characters+002.jpg" width="528" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn34LrRJIVQObh0_EZ-5Rkv5r7daQzmpkjxxrg5tfIzpiBSGofAYzRDrFtjl9BdgeaX1t-BR9qkVSB0aJW-65k6d__RQ7euMp5vTwZfn76XyFvjnweuNToh64926w_XoAFgX_S1cMb32g/s1600/Minor+Characters+003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn34LrRJIVQObh0_EZ-5Rkv5r7daQzmpkjxxrg5tfIzpiBSGofAYzRDrFtjl9BdgeaX1t-BR9qkVSB0aJW-65k6d__RQ7euMp5vTwZfn76XyFvjnweuNToh64926w_XoAFgX_S1cMb32g/s640/Minor+Characters+003.jpg" width="528" /></a></div>
And here we have a bunch of minor characters from The Nays. I've continuously been trying to draw every character in alphabetical order, but the series has quite the large cast so I'll probably be working on this until the end of time!<br />
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These are scenes from a fun 2-hour animation project I worked on back in September. The goal was to spend no more than 2 hours on each scene.<br />
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For this one, I got inspired to make something using the old Gameboy color palette. This is Mar Keys from The Nays.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqazR4Euiz3okKezXdtosjiKJgeAzUounUSJwD2mZ4KgrMXeTUsX-e_DXfiztiD6CKkutLl6msSJA69dC9cMxH3RtS0Sz3DXlB2yaVu9NXr5iK-iwUK5LYYT03VUfjTxIezWoIbAaBU5I/s1600/Shard+of+the+Orient+Chars.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqazR4Euiz3okKezXdtosjiKJgeAzUounUSJwD2mZ4KgrMXeTUsX-e_DXfiztiD6CKkutLl6msSJA69dC9cMxH3RtS0Sz3DXlB2yaVu9NXr5iK-iwUK5LYYT03VUfjTxIezWoIbAaBU5I/s640/Shard+of+the+Orient+Chars.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
These are some new characters from the Shard of the Orient eventure in The Nays. This story is told in a somewhat unconventional way, and you can check out <a href="http://steverakar.com/shard/Shard01.html">the official website here</a> (the layout and pictures are still not 100% but the story is all up there). It will probably be like jumping into a random TV show on season 4 episode 7, but if you're interested feel free to read it!<br />
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And I think that sums up all of the more significant projects of the year. I warned you it would be a long post! Thanks for taking the time to check out all of my work. I don't have a huge following online or anything, but if just a handful of people find some of these pictures interesting, then maintaining this blog is all worth it! I think 2015 was a really great year and I plan to make 2016 even better. See ya guys next year. Until then... Adios!Steve Rakarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00729554481173025021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334135542218534965.post-18929898640506671472015-12-14T19:55:00.001-08:002015-12-14T19:55:49.861-08:00RPGs and Playstation ExperienceHey guys! Been a while, and I have a lot of cool new stuff to share. I've been keeping busy with game development, 3D animation, drawings, and lots of traveling. I'll save some of the bigger news for my huge year-end post that will go up around New Year's. For this post, I'd like to concentrate on two exciting events that have happened recently: Playstation Experience and the release of RPGMaker MV.<br />
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So last week, I got to attend the second annual Playstation Experience in San Francisco. It's a huge gathering of all things Playstation and it was full of awesome game announcements, demos, displays, free goodies, and really excited people. It was a ton of fun and I would definitely love to go back again. As my friends and I described it, the convention almost felt like a mini-E3 that just focused on Sony stuff.</div>
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The event was more consumer oriented than some of the past conventions I've went to, but I still got the chance to meet up with a bunch of fellow developers. I played the new Shadow of the Beast, which surprisingly was really faithful to the original (including some of my favorite songs from the old soundtrack!). I tried Severed (new game from Drinkbox) and was really pleased with how similar the visuals are to Guacamelee. I played Street Fighter 5 and King of Fighters 14, both of which felt like really solid additions to the franchises. (I even managed to win a match of KoF, time to go pro!). </div>
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I also got to play the Uncharted 4 multiplayer which was neat. The booth was set up like a tropical oasis with multiple teams scattered throughout the area. I'm definitely more into the single player campaign than the MP though, so I also made sure to check out the panel with the mocap/voice actors. They went into a lot of detail on what things are like behind the scenes over at Naughty Dog, so that was a really cool experience.</div>
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But without a doubt, my favorite part of the convention was getting the chance to try out the Morpheus (or Playstation VR as it is now called). I've used a bunch of other headsets in the past, but none of them have given me quite as mind-blowing of an experience as the PS VR did. First off, you can comfortably use it wearing glasses! Personally, I think that is huge since taking off my glasses to use an Oculus always seems to dampen the experience for me.<br /><br />Secondly, the sense of space is incredible. I played The London Heist which made use of two PS Move controllers instead of a standard Dualshock. To anyone who still remembers motion gaming as a Wii waggle-fest, let me tell you... this is miles ahead of that! I looked down at my hands with the headset and saw my character's hands. When I pulled the trigger on the controller, my character gripped his fingers. The relationship was one-to-one! There is a part in the demo where a character hands you a cell phone. You can't hear what he's saying until you physically put your hand up to your ear. It was just brilliant! <br /><br />I know my words can't do it justice but this is something that I feel everyone needs to experience. I was still a little bit skeptical on VR but when you get the full experience with motion controls, it is completely unlike anything we've ever been exposed to before. I can't wait until this thing hits the market! </div>
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<br />I could ramble on about the conference forever (in fact, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY9w1J7LRiQ">we did over at Final Save Point</a>), but I also want to get to some of the development stuff that I've been doing. A little over a month ago, the new version of RPG Maker officially launched. Named MV, for the first time ever this version supports custom resolutions, mobile/browser builds, and a ton of amazing features through the new plugin system. As you may or may not know, I've been obsessed with the program since RPGMaker 95 and it was what really got me into game development in the first place.</div>
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Although it's certainly not as beefy as a full engine like Unity, the program has always had a special place in my heart. And with the ability to go up to 1080p, I can finally develop professional quality games in it! So far I haven't created anything in MV that I intend to release commercially, but I have put together some interesting projects.</div>
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In addition to some sample projects to try out the engine, I've created a few games about The Nays. The first is a port of a game I started in VX Ace that can now realize its full potential in the more advanced RPG Maker. The game is about a small detective agency and it's a sequel to a game I made way back in RPGM2003. I'm taking advantage of the quest journal plugin to keep track of cases, and I've already begun work on a custom UI. It's probably my biggest ongoing project in the engine.<br /><br />I also started up a goofy little baseball simulator called Biggert City Baseball. A long time ago, I used to have this electronic baseball toy that would simulate a baseball game by "spinning a wheel" and coming up with random outcomes when you press the button. I got the idea to recreate that in video game form using creatures that my sister and I designed as part of The Nays universe. I'm envisioning it as a sports/RPG hybrid where you play games of baseball, but in between you can wander around towns and increase your stats / recruit players.</div>
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I got really fired up about this and managed to program most of the core gameplay in a single day or two. When a batter comes to the plate, it cycles through a list of outcomes and stops on one when you hit the button. Depending on the batter's stats, they are more likely to get a certain type of hit (power hitter might have 5 frames to hit a homerun where a contact guy only sees it for 2 frames). I'm still tweaking the values, but technically you can play through an entire game and have most of your results displayed on screen somehow. I also drew up the entire field, so progress on this game is moving right along.</div>
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Overall, the RPG Maker MV release has been pretty amazing. I've been fairly active over on the official forums and it's been a lot of fun being so involved in the early development of the engine. If you're at all interested in game development and don't know where to start, this is a really great place to get your feet wet. <br /><br />Anyways, this post is getting pretty long so I think I'll cut it off here. I have a lot more news that I want to share, but I'll save it for next time. I hope everyone enjoys the holidays. You can expect my next post some time in the next few weeks. Until then... Adios!</div>
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Steve Rakarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00729554481173025021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334135542218534965.post-39533180195683853422015-10-05T16:45:00.000-07:002019-02-20T18:43:44.507-08:00Lost in Lie Station [New 2Dish Adventure Game]As I mentioned briefly in the last post, I've recently started up development on a 2Dish adventure game. I created a devlog over at TIGsource and plan to update that quite frequently. I should have a decent number of blog posts about this project in the near future, so I'm creating a separate section about it on the blog. I'll be posting major development updates about it right here, but if you want to see all of the shorter mini-updates as well, <a href="http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=50505.0">check out the TIGSource Devlog.</a> Here's an overview of my introduction post:<br />
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="font-size: 28pt; line-height: 1.3em;"><b>Lost in Lie Station</b></span></span></div>
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<i>Lost in Lie Station</i>
is a topdown adventure game set in a creepy old subway station. You
play as Jackie, a mischievous jackalope who gets off at the wrong stop
on the subway line. He adventures through various environments and
collects boat parts to escape this abandoned station and get back on his
journey. <br />
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<b>Backstory</b><br />
Jackie is a luchador <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackalope" target="_blank">jackalope.</a>
He is a mischievous little guy who likes to play pranks on people. He
comes from a village of equally devious creatures who dub themselves The
Liars. When the authorities learn of their troublesome ways, they
destroy their home and attempt to throw them in jail. However, The Liars
manage to escape and set off on a journey to find The Land of the
Liars, a legendary place where the inhabitants can cause as much trouble
as they want without fear of repercussions.<br />
<br />
(I know... it's a
bit of an involved backstory for such a simple game! This is actually
based on a story my sister and I created a long time ago. Lost in Lie
Station is intended to be a glimpse into the larger story, with only a
few of the major characters present. No knowledge of the lengthy
backstory will really be necessary to enjoy the game.)<br />
<br />
On his way
to find The Land of the Liars, Jackie gets on a subway. Unfortunately
for him, he misses his stop and ends up at the end of the line... Lie
Station. Stranded at this creepy station, he has to explore his
surroundings to find a way to get back on track.<br />
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<b>Gameplay</b><br />
The
game plays like a top down Link to the Past-esque game. While there is
some 'combat' involved, the game is more focused on exploration and
puzzle solving. Not to spoil anything, but early in the game Jackie
meets a friend who is working to build a boat on the nearby lake. The
goal of the game is for Jackie to collect all of the boat parts so that
they can use the vehicle to escape the abandoned station and get back to
their journey. These boat parts are scattered throughout the
environment, and each will require a certain task to be completed before
obtaining it.<br />
<br />
<b>Graphics</b><br />
I am creating the art for this
game in a somewhat unique style. I wanted this game to look and feel
like a 2D game, however (as I learned from my last solo project)
creating all of the necessary sprite animations by hand is
extraordinarily time consuming. Instead, I've decided to create a good
deal of the assets in 3D. By rendering the characters and environments
with the proper shaders, I'm trying to achieve a look that emulates 2D.
I'm also pulling a Donkey Kong Country with this game and actually
rendering out individual frames as sprites instead of directly importing
any 3D models. With today's technology, it's probably a pretty
backwards approach, but I've always wanted to do a project that way so
I'm giving it a try!<br />
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<img alt="" border="0" src="https://media.giphy.com/media/3o85xIUFyzomYAu0fe/giphy.gif" /></div>
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<b>Development</b><br />
Lost
in Lie Station is being developed in Unity 5. With the great new 2D
options, it was a pretty natural choice. I've learned a lot from the
multiple games I've developed in Unity, so this time around I shouldn't
run into as many technical issues. I've also purposely chosen to make a
game that doesn't rely too heavily around action or physics so that it
won't be as difficult for a non-coder like me to program. <br />
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<b>Release</b><br />
I'm
intending for this to be a pretty short development cycle (that's what
they all say!). I know a lot more about what I'm doing this time around,
so I should be able to keep the scope under control. The entire map is
already laid out, and there are only 5 boat parts to collect, so I think
I can stick to my goals. If all goes well and I have enough time to
focus on this, I should probably have things wrapped up early next year.
My current goal is to get at least one item off my asset/animation
checklist each day. Seeing as it will be such a short game, I don't know
that this is necessarily a game that I would charge people money for.
My ultimate goal here is to create a fun, finished project that people
can enjoy, so we'll see where it goes.<br />
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<br />
<b>Major milestones thus far</b><br />
08/25/2015 Started the project<br />
08/27/2015 Finished modeling/rigging Jackie<br />
08/28/2015 Programmed character movement<br />
08/30/2015 Finished essential animations (Idle, Walk, Run)<br />
09/09/2015 Finished environment design layouts<br />
09/21/2015 Finished Lake area assets (grass, sand, trees, water, dock)<br />
09/22/2015 Started this DevLog<br />
<br />
I
got things moving really quickly right from the start. I managed to get
the character fully modeled, rigged, animated, and rendered all in just
a few days. I also have all of the map designs done at this point, so
I'm pretty happy with how things are moving along. My time since
finishing these essential pieces has mostly been filled with creating
individual environment assets and adding them to the layout. I'm not
working on a strict grid, so lining them up can be a bit of a chore. <br />
<br />
Once
I get a few more of the essential background pieces finished, I will
likely begin work on the game's second major character, Monster of the
Lake.<br />
<br />
<b>Completion Checklist (Bound to grow as the project progresses, but here's the current status):</b> [Updated 9/30/2015]<br />
Environment Assets: 14 / 37 <br />
Character Models: 1 / 5 [+2 stretch goal]<br />
Player Animations: 3 / 11 [+1 stretch goal]<br />
Game Mechanics: 3 / 18<br />
<br />
Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more updates. Until next time... Adios! <br />
<br />Steve Rakarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00729554481173025021noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334135542218534965.post-16717971055488297282015-09-01T14:42:00.001-07:002015-10-05T17:23:16.558-07:00Adventures in SeattleHey guys, been a while! Since my last post, I've had myself quite an interesting summer. Back in June, I moved out to Seattle for my second season with iD Tech Camp. I spent 9 weeks working at the University of Washington camp as the Tech Coordinator. It was a lot of fun introducing so many young faces to the world of game development. As I expected, the demanding schedule didn't leave a lot of time for much development of my own, but it was a great experience and I'd certainly consider doing it again next year.<br />
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While I was in Seattle, I also got to see a ton of really cool stuff. I went to a Mariners game, visited a museum that had sci-fi and fantasy movie props, rode a boat to an island, shopped at Pike's Place, explored Gasworks Park, took a lot of buses around downtown, and drank way too much bubble tea. Best of all though, I went to a bunch of game developer meetups. Seattle is crawling with game devs, and I made my way to gatherings of at least 4 completely different associations. Got to see a ton of indie projects and also hear a lot of VR talk straight from the mouths of developers working on both Valve's HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift.<br />
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Also while I was away, a project that I'm involved with launched a Kickstarter campaign. The game is called <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inkhorn/order-of-ancients-the-evolution-of-footmen-frenzy/description">Order of the Ancients</a>, and it's being developed by Inkhorn Games, a game company right here in the Cleveland Ohio area. I can't say too much about it because of NDAs and all that, but I've been doing the character modeling and rigging. While we ultimately pulled the plug on the Kickstarter early, the game will definitely be back in the near future looking bigger and better. I'm really excited about it!<br />
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Now that all of my summer news is out of the way, I can talk about what I've been working on since I got back from Seattle! As a way to get back in the groove of daily gamedev, I started working on a small adventure/RPG in Unity 5. The game is called Lost in Lie Station, and it's about a luchador jackalope named Jackie that gets stranded in a subway station on his way to the Land of the Liars. ...I know... sounds weird, right? It's part of a larger story that I've been developing for years, so I'll give a more detailed rundown of it in the future. The basic gist of the game is that Jackie is scouring the station for boat parts so that his friend can build them a vehicle to get back on their adventure.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLUfHY523IMEQTaNpzlikM1D1mSdXrvaPA_z8D38O4S51OHrJfwZB8SDk2alwDW5H0rtJ0wrmbVBpknPHzU1ZlZkMD6B450kU0PtgveB2a0gj69GvvJIEKVfFFhUSkuXMlEfuOJnumGt0/s1600/Proof3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLUfHY523IMEQTaNpzlikM1D1mSdXrvaPA_z8D38O4S51OHrJfwZB8SDk2alwDW5H0rtJ0wrmbVBpknPHzU1ZlZkMD6B450kU0PtgveB2a0gj69GvvJIEKVfFFhUSkuXMlEfuOJnumGt0/s400/Proof3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I'm taking an interesting approach with this game. I really enjoy Unity's 2D functionality, but pixel art takes me a long time and I'm more adept at 3D modeling. So I'm employing a hybrid of both! I modeled and rigged the character in Maya, but for each animation I'm actually rendering out a bunch of images and combining them into a spritesheet. Going old-school Donkey Kong Country style!<br />
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It should be a fun project, and unlike my last solo Unity endeavor (Quest for Funk), I think it's a lot more manageable. Since it's more about exploration than action, I don't have to worry about any platforming physics, and the art will move along a lot quicker with this particular process. The fact that I managed to get a fully rigged character in-engine with 8-directional walk, run, and idle cycles in just a few days gives me hope! With any luck, I'll have a lot more to share about this game in the next post. So until next time... adios!Steve Rakarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00729554481173025021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334135542218534965.post-25848158121877568292015-03-12T15:43:00.004-07:002015-03-12T16:25:14.269-07:00GDC 2015 Takeaways: So Much VR!<head>
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Well the whirlwind of excitement from GDC has come to an end and I've finally had the chance to sit down and write about my experiences. There weren't as many bizarre adventures this time around, but I met a lot of interesting people and got to see tons of cool new things. As the title of this post mentions, the VR presence on the show floor this year was almost overwhelming.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTglRjrNqdiQvtQ_dofiGOcfindnCcC3KSH-dnyzeG4qIFzwFGW0Cm5qf4Lz_WD0J5aXsY4YpPke201Yqu8buGxFQXJ4tqLS3JFes_exykI-vIohblUPYl5ev47gf2KCnrKSB9D1zt36E/s1600/VR+Jam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTglRjrNqdiQvtQ_dofiGOcfindnCcC3KSH-dnyzeG4qIFzwFGW0Cm5qf4Lz_WD0J5aXsY4YpPke201Yqu8buGxFQXJ4tqLS3JFes_exykI-vIohblUPYl5ev47gf2KCnrKSB9D1zt36E/s1600/VR+Jam.jpg" height="375" width="400" /></a>
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From full body motion suits to omni directional treadmills, more than ever there seems to be a heavy focus of getting the player "inside the game." Whether we're entering the future we always dreamed of or whether it will just turn out to be another Wiimote wagglefest is yet to be determined. But this revolution is coming whether we like it or not. Personally I haven't been sold on it completely yet, but I did experience some really cool demos.<br />
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My favorite wasn't necessarily even gaming related, but it opened up the door to some really cool ideas. At Virt's VR Mixer, I tried out something called JauntVR. It uses a 360 degree camera to record live-action footage that is later viewed with a headset. The demo I tried put me on the stage of a George Harrison concert and allowed me to turn my head in any direction as if I were actually there. With the crowd cheering, the pyrotechnics going off in front of me, and surround sound blasting in my ears, it was a pretty incredible experience. There is still a bit of a disconnect when you view CG that close to your face, but with live action I think there is a bit more immediate potential. Can you imagine attending live concerts, sporting events or even conferences with this kind of technology? It sounds pretty amazing to me!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi2SPCgz7M1jpZKrsaW-cEArmwgD2Bo9EmU9DTvUyGGKQIeh9E17AyQbpBsDdi7NEmwFdWlWOwpe3BvWIBHh_fF_3LzQmd53XR1gIfGXdw7LyBWr54gWC8FIA7p-Sb9EpuDMqDLy-OKsw/s1600/BibaSwing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi2SPCgz7M1jpZKrsaW-cEArmwgD2Bo9EmU9DTvUyGGKQIeh9E17AyQbpBsDdi7NEmwFdWlWOwpe3BvWIBHh_fF_3LzQmd53XR1gIfGXdw7LyBWr54gWC8FIA7p-Sb9EpuDMqDLy-OKsw/s1600/BibaSwing.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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I also attended an art portfolio session with a handful of art directors including <a href="https://twitter.com/71shawnr">Shawn Robertson</a> (of Irrational) and <a href="https://twitter.com/SirWyeth">Wyeth Johnson</a> (of Epic). They provided a ton of amazing advice that will definitely help to improve my web portfolio. The biggest surprise was that most art directors don't like when modelers have demo reels. The main reason for this is that they can't view individual models on their own time and are instead stuck viewing what you think is important. It forces them to rewind and skip around to take another look at a particular model. I know a lot of amazing artists who include turntables and such in their portfolios, so this was quite a shock to hear from the pros.<br />
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I took a ton of notes during the session but some of the other highlights were:<br />
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<li>Render in-engine (preferably what the studio you're applying at uses)</li>
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<li>Each piece should have sketches, individual prop renders, UV layout</li>
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<li>Never be afraid to re-apply at a studio again down the road, but never apply using the same portfolio content. </li>
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<li>You <i>will</i> be judged by the worst piece in your portfolio, so everything you include should be able to completely represent you as an artist (which means I'm going to be trimming some fat from my portfolio very soon!)</li>
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<li>Most studios don't care what tools you know - they care more about your skills: <br />"We can teach you any tool in 2 months" </li>
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Hopefully some of that advice is helpful to you. I know it was to me. In addition to sessions, I also got to play some really fun new games on the show floor. Amplitude and Gang Beasts were two of my favorites. I really wanted to try Bloodborne as well, but the line for that seemed to get even longer every time I passed by! But overall the conference was a great success, and I am already excited for next year. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlKacCe6e5mx58PEPm7HoE11lsUBDGglbHqbDH2wHEoUi_0E2PRnV3CV2R1hrB1iHRfoNWamOP-bnX0IvntF8UWW2_fg6Br8wziELeDT0nVATBwaq2X_-1I1BmMiTE9UYe6a27JJ4UAko/s1600/Bloodborne.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlKacCe6e5mx58PEPm7HoE11lsUBDGglbHqbDH2wHEoUi_0E2PRnV3CV2R1hrB1iHRfoNWamOP-bnX0IvntF8UWW2_fg6Br8wziELeDT0nVATBwaq2X_-1I1BmMiTE9UYe6a27JJ4UAko/s1600/Bloodborne.jpg" height="302" width="320" /></a></div>
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Lastly, I wanted to show a bit more of the Soup Can Alley project that I put together before GDC. I was still piecing it together just hours before my flight left, so I didn't get the chance to post about it last week. <br />
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There's still a bit of work I'd like to do to it, but the video above is the general idea. I would definitely love some feedback if you have any thoughts on it. Eventually I plan to add a title screen to the beginning. These are a couple of the different concepts for that:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYVMPoECC_zYrV-1LlLK4-zj_9SmkduBJ5Cpf6wbyFnXoVljkBTLDyF4oVjYGQnheW3KQ1Iw36OEoLRtzhdt-zY4gOM7mihtZDdSOerlfwinxvMeFfjgig8P1cLgtu4njHBHsUkEtE9qE/s1600/TitleConcept_06.gif" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYVMPoECC_zYrV-1LlLK4-zj_9SmkduBJ5Cpf6wbyFnXoVljkBTLDyF4oVjYGQnheW3KQ1Iw36OEoLRtzhdt-zY4gOM7mihtZDdSOerlfwinxvMeFfjgig8P1cLgtu4njHBHsUkEtE9qE/s1600/TitleConcept_06.gif" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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While I feel that this one looks interesting, this would require animating that 2D smoke and I'm not sure it's something I want to pursue. Instead I am a bit more interested in showing slow moving 3D art with text overlayed atop it. This is the kind of title screen you see in games like MGS4, Persona 4, Wolf Among Us, and Heavy Rain. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsdiD0FpBg_s-VdFNjRrGQrDzn0fcQ0f5DeECvQoT7EUQI3moP99cc9UKDrnTxG700TfjMVDEbkuSUGCJuTP4BIils5yPhikrjqIMM89ELKvwQ0OUD4lF6IRLw3Sw7PqfLG-FYlyZKacI/s1600/TitleConcept_05.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsdiD0FpBg_s-VdFNjRrGQrDzn0fcQ0f5DeECvQoT7EUQI3moP99cc9UKDrnTxG700TfjMVDEbkuSUGCJuTP4BIils5yPhikrjqIMM89ELKvwQ0OUD4lF6IRLw3Sw7PqfLG-FYlyZKacI/s1600/TitleConcept_05.gif" height="360" width="640" /></a></div>
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The idea here is that everything in the title sequence would be in classic black & white. It would show the outside window with rain pouring down, a close up of the cigarette in the ash tray, and a shot of the detective deep in thought like the mockup above.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5FVp-0gssAxMPrfETh37AlEz80bAyNwpz0K_YObmASPBdYUAQhfhauQexXx_alOL9upIQEdAZYuKNgn44nO_qsNGgIASGexfVJrI4z0oK4ISCaAukFLbMfr9JD9N9s2hxocLmEob1v_E/s1600/Fusebox.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5FVp-0gssAxMPrfETh37AlEz80bAyNwpz0K_YObmASPBdYUAQhfhauQexXx_alOL9upIQEdAZYuKNgn44nO_qsNGgIASGexfVJrI4z0oK4ISCaAukFLbMfr9JD9N9s2hxocLmEob1v_E/s1600/Fusebox.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a></div>
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I learned a lot about Unreal 4 through this project, especially particle effects. Through the electricity, cigarette smoke, rain, and purple fog monster, this was probably the most heavily I've jumped into VFX for a single project. I also spent a lot of time in Matinee, using a lot of different camera tracks. It was definitely a good learning experience.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicd4VvFbH7jNPOvR0NnwAW2c2c4W-vi_U_3q0n5zp0GzdWbPKxmSGQ-5I7_f23alCkt34Ik6KqAE7SB9gwBtLtvFsy-0UbegHexBbaEGpFAm_c0yqUEVHynQgSiTo8YdyINqtU4T_F6qY/s1600/screenshot003.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicd4VvFbH7jNPOvR0NnwAW2c2c4W-vi_U_3q0n5zp0GzdWbPKxmSGQ-5I7_f23alCkt34Ik6KqAE7SB9gwBtLtvFsy-0UbegHexBbaEGpFAm_c0yqUEVHynQgSiTo8YdyINqtU4T_F6qY/s1600/screenshot003.png" height="360" width="640" /> </a></div>
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Without a doubt though, the most time consuming aspect of this project was the main character. There are a lot of little pieces that come together to make him work, and I'm proud of how far he has come since beginning life as a school project years ago. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUyr8_4A_ugvhyphenhyphenGi4r_Ip6u7knRvevnhGNQTjbYXcXxUotMPwViQTsDcBnY3rV4yGqwrecvAdIRBNwzOzOGJIughfWMjlnxMi3pPNNnhp-yKcW3Sru76Ip3G5LsgsfjQQzYJaqF7jVNnY/s1600/DetCompare.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUyr8_4A_ugvhyphenhyphenGi4r_Ip6u7knRvevnhGNQTjbYXcXxUotMPwViQTsDcBnY3rV4yGqwrecvAdIRBNwzOzOGJIughfWMjlnxMi3pPNNnhp-yKcW3Sru76Ip3G5LsgsfjQQzYJaqF7jVNnY/s1600/DetCompare.jpg" height="640" width="568" /></a></div>
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I love comparison shots, so I'll end by contrasting this with my old work. It has definitely come a long way. Anyways, apologies for the lengthy blog post, but I had a lot to say this time. I will probably post one more update on The Case of Soup Can Alley soon, but as usual, my head is already overflowing with ideas for my next project. I won't say too much about it just yet, but it is going to have a more stylized, cartoony feel to it. Thanks for reading. Until next time... adios!</div>
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(By the way, my website if officially live now so you can actually view this blog directly on <a href="http://steverakar.com/">SteveRakar.com</a> as well!)Steve Rakarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00729554481173025021noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334135542218534965.post-43874616742246650352015-02-20T16:30:00.000-08:002015-02-20T16:30:22.985-08:00GDC 2015 is Quickly Approaching!Hey guys. As you can probably infer from my previous posts, I had a great time at GDC last year so I'm planning to attend again this year. It's only a little over a week away, and I still have a lot to do to prepare, but I thought I'd update on some of my recent progress. I'm going in with a bit of a different mindset this year. Last year I attended as "an indie developer." I brought a working copy of Quest For Funk and some promotional materials for the game. My goal was to show off the game and get as much feedback on it as possible. It was a good experience, but I have a different goal in mind this time around. <br />
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(Side note: I haven't completely abandoned the project, I swear! I just renewed QuestForFunk.com for another year, I do still plan for a public release eventually. It's just on the back burner at the moment)<br />
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This year, I intend to go to GDC as a "freelance artist." Working on my own games is fun, but I have far more value as an artist than as a programmer. I have been taking on more freelance work as of late, and I want to continue collaborating with other talented people. So in that regard, I'm hoping to use GDC as an opportunity to find more chances for collaboration. And so my major goal for the past few months has been to beef up my portfolio. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpClLyBgyfo3W3O8ZAPQEUnz_iuE-FCIv_DDTYt-AVKhAVxcRAFZGw_ahombQS_gsR7DR1Oj2_v4cOonvUXBtfeyTGVjnG7TGv1KXatKKb-Y6jSPIFm-qR2BQB66988UYbR5_RAp4F4o0/s1600/NimbU2015Avatar.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpClLyBgyfo3W3O8ZAPQEUnz_iuE-FCIv_DDTYt-AVKhAVxcRAFZGw_ahombQS_gsR7DR1Oj2_v4cOonvUXBtfeyTGVjnG7TGv1KXatKKb-Y6jSPIFm-qR2BQB66988UYbR5_RAp4F4o0/s1600/NimbU2015Avatar.jpg" height="320" width="320" /> </a></div>
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First off, a new avatar. I've been told that I looked too grumpy in my old one, so I decided to draw myself flashing my pearly whites! I used this avatar on my new business cards, which will hopefully arrive in time for the convention (let's hope the recent snowstorms don't delay shipment too much).<br />
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I've also been hard at work redesigning my website. My current site is based on a free template that I modified a bit. It looks nice, but I've noticed lately that it seems rather slow. Not a good first impression to someone viewing my site if they have to wait 20 seconds for it to load. And since it was built using a template, I have little control over fixing those issues.<br />
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So instead I decided to build a new one from the ground up. I learned a lot about CSS in the process, and I'm pretty happy with the results. I think it fits my personal style a lot better, and it's also uses space a lot more efficiently. Instead of using lightbox like most websites, I have a little port window that displays images right in the interface. I also tried to avoid Javascript wherever possible. This heavily cuts down on a loading time.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8tQCWNF5v2eEzef9DrDxQcrsG6ZQSTFsc5yw1XBuNVLtRbRdztyewdD5FTknXcNn6mGV39hXHFxOvwhzwYSkevRQiFGl2IgL4IveTPl3MWvEUZfkKmUc0xxK9oXCPBO4TwxVrkdcJ3QU/s1600/WebsitePreview.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8tQCWNF5v2eEzef9DrDxQcrsG6ZQSTFsc5yw1XBuNVLtRbRdztyewdD5FTknXcNn6mGV39hXHFxOvwhzwYSkevRQiFGl2IgL4IveTPl3MWvEUZfkKmUc0xxK9oXCPBO4TwxVrkdcJ3QU/s1600/WebsitePreview.jpg" height="304" width="640" /></a> <br />
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I'm still filling in content and optimizing the website for multiple resolutions, but <a href="http://steverakar.com/WIP/DivTest.html">you can view the work in progress right now</a> if you're interested.<br />
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Additionally, I've been hard at work on a new animation / game project to serve as an updated demo reel. It's a classic detective scene constructed in Unreal 4. I'm building this project as a showcase of all of my different talents. Prop modeling, character design, rigging, animation, Unreal pipeline, level design, VFX, and user interfaces will all be demonstrated in this scene, so it's been in the works for quite some time. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhie3czj48npxJoJ6asJrRNf8GcQP1u3SeutMTBW5IOLP8DOBbJYXygZnMB7-4wIQTr5y0LBw41Zi5_2iOF4yM1AxT6RG9BryJ0Mybhf_akr9F6xEjTg06PkC1enyBoxr5HY4eZvoBCJ8k/s1600/DetOfficeWIP.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhie3czj48npxJoJ6asJrRNf8GcQP1u3SeutMTBW5IOLP8DOBbJYXygZnMB7-4wIQTr5y0LBw41Zi5_2iOF4yM1AxT6RG9BryJ0Mybhf_akr9F6xEjTg06PkC1enyBoxr5HY4eZvoBCJ8k/s1600/DetOfficeWIP.jpg" height="315" width="400" /></a></div>
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I have tons of images I could post from this, so I'll probably go into more detail next week. The character creation and rig setup was the biggest hurdle, but I finally got that completely straightened out last week. The majority of work I have left is hammering out more animations and setting up the cameras. Expect a lengthy post about my process a few days from now.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-9pZYy4urwIvVjsxlcXoD2dPy1NHaZifkrLWm_MMQeDcfLS5fvD1CKah0nyFiuoamxNb-CzvkgdeNBE0ufi4eOpfG1BGWdlidT0E8v28yX1wya9GSYkwdLQfG9uSZUi_RvEYC2fDakWY/s1600/BlahgDetStudy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-9pZYy4urwIvVjsxlcXoD2dPy1NHaZifkrLWm_MMQeDcfLS5fvD1CKah0nyFiuoamxNb-CzvkgdeNBE0ufi4eOpfG1BGWdlidT0E8v28yX1wya9GSYkwdLQfG9uSZUi_RvEYC2fDakWY/s1600/BlahgDetStudy.jpg" height="253" width="400" /></a></div>
Last order of business, I recently wrote an in-depth blog post over at the <a href="http://notrobot.co/blog/UI-Artist-By-Day/">NotRobot website</a>. It's an article about my experiences creating the UI for Wave Crash, and some of the lessons I've learned in the process. I'm certainly no expert, but hopefully my advice proves useful to someone. So give it a read if you're interested in UI design. <br />
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And with that, it's time to wrap this thing up. You'll definitely be hearing from me again very soon. Until then, adios!<br />
<br />Steve Rakarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00729554481173025021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334135542218534965.post-58797687887565176142015-01-30T13:57:00.000-08:002015-01-30T14:05:37.326-08:00Whoa, It's 2015 Already? Global Game Jam Writeup and This Year's PlansSo
as you may have noticed, this blog has been pretty barren for the past 6
months. I've been keeping busy with a number of freelance jobs, so I
haven't really had the time to post. But there's a whole bunch of new
artwork which I haven't shared yet, so I plan to roll all of that out
soon. I know we're already about a month into 2015, but my resolution
for this year is to make at least one blog post every month! It's not
overly ambitious and (as long as this goes live in the next 24 hours), I
think it's completely attainable.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhePVBLpImCK_0WT6vmdrujYoDr9zWOVsYI2-Kc2Y2XdblFmpmhbHZTySS2q5-NwJTYiN7lstv-jpPi1vLNWIGgVXEAmSoXGN3PD36pwXt0whT7FaIUiBb87y0Gw14tWQK7gZyMJDC2Igw/s1600/Urom-WIP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhePVBLpImCK_0WT6vmdrujYoDr9zWOVsYI2-Kc2Y2XdblFmpmhbHZTySS2q5-NwJTYiN7lstv-jpPi1vLNWIGgVXEAmSoXGN3PD36pwXt0whT7FaIUiBb87y0Gw14tWQK7gZyMJDC2Igw/s1600/Urom-WIP.jpg" height="320" width="268" /></a></div>
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First things first, this is an illustration that I've been working on for fun. It was intended to be my "first drawing of the New Year," but I've kind of been dragging my feet on finishing it. <br />
The shading and background still need some work, but I've been experimenting with some new brushes that I think give the coloring a nice feel.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0pyDjUBISAIOdEbES_D2uGZiMUbBP6PXdBGxAi78KIt5QKIl9lGvXyzGeHr1TZ6cR4f6lZLvFrKS_mY-pxN3enjBGw8zjlhB2VNri25tLyqdk2tvsmlOU_Fj5G4ciEImtVRXjWYF4B-4/s1600/Willpower.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0pyDjUBISAIOdEbES_D2uGZiMUbBP6PXdBGxAi78KIt5QKIl9lGvXyzGeHr1TZ6cR4f6lZLvFrKS_mY-pxN3enjBGw8zjlhB2VNri25tLyqdk2tvsmlOU_Fj5G4ciEImtVRXjWYF4B-4/s1600/Willpower.jpg" height="263" width="400" /></a></div>
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This one was a spur of the moment drawing I created the other night in about an hour or so. I can't really explain it, it just sort of "felt right." It's inspired by the kind of art you'd see in indie games like Hyper Light Drifter or Superbrothers.<br />
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I've got a lot more random pieces like that, but what I'd really like to focus on in this post is the Global Game Jam. I wasn't able to attend the on-site location this year, but I did manage to put together a small game in the free time that I had. This year's theme was "What do we do now?" which I interpreted as some sort of disaster scenario. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDF2zgTIh3M7DH5CvtrdB0F5MTc84M9Do8TScQvCc3ICDgkj6DP9hzs9SGJdQR7ICG-jdaPD2hfnJd0tEBPnCSsZrgzWWs3m4hic_2uBIKm_YMXqLrssDCODTL15RG1L4oGH8SjBppYPw/s1600/TitlePlaceholder.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDF2zgTIh3M7DH5CvtrdB0F5MTc84M9Do8TScQvCc3ICDgkj6DP9hzs9SGJdQR7ICG-jdaPD2hfnJd0tEBPnCSsZrgzWWs3m4hic_2uBIKm_YMXqLrssDCODTL15RG1L4oGH8SjBppYPw/s1600/TitlePlaceholder.png" height="280" width="400" /></a></div>
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And so I came up with an odd little puzzle game called All Aboard the Soul Express. In the limited time frame, I didn't get to jump into the story as much as I wanted to, but the concept is that you are a ghost riding on a train full of other ghosts. It travels between the Land of the Living and the Land of the Dead. On today's trip however, the train gets hijacked by an evil spirit and the conductor is thrown overboard. All of the passengers are in a panic, and they look to you (the eldest ghost) to lead them to safety.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2ImR9PnVzo-lFh4BVdAO9CjDMRmdZD9ZaLu8FH44QRsLmv9iXn3hSAYzb5eaAz5jtoSy_EnKcPBg_MoXr3SV89hBu5H5ExZ2PBGREQXXB54-ddkY47Ynzao006scToGGZuNuD_1lxwII/s1600/GGJScreenshot09.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2ImR9PnVzo-lFh4BVdAO9CjDMRmdZD9ZaLu8FH44QRsLmv9iXn3hSAYzb5eaAz5jtoSy_EnKcPBg_MoXr3SV89hBu5H5ExZ2PBGREQXXB54-ddkY47Ynzao006scToGGZuNuD_1lxwII/s1600/GGJScreenshot09.jpg" height="211" width="320" /></a></div>
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I created the game in Unreal 4, using Blueprint for functionality. I've been using the engine since last summer, but this is the first real "functioning game" that I've created in it, so it was definitely a learning experience. Jumping from Kismet to Blueprint wasn't quite as easy as I imagined, but the amount of freedom you have now is incredible.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilOGePr9Yla3XiHXCjUohLXQj83DxwXvd4TW1UOQ8iwc1uCzuC9pxIZh7b_3APUOVrv4TfIHQeAHcalDrV-OZ04uxFzMJXIl7GdxgbpTbkUGZj7j3FhCKeG_NZ6Q5at-AQ2IIz4I6NNCQ/s1600/GGJScreenshot11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilOGePr9Yla3XiHXCjUohLXQj83DxwXvd4TW1UOQ8iwc1uCzuC9pxIZh7b_3APUOVrv4TfIHQeAHcalDrV-OZ04uxFzMJXIl7GdxgbpTbkUGZj7j3FhCKeG_NZ6Q5at-AQ2IIz4I6NNCQ/s1600/GGJScreenshot11.jpg" height="211" width="320" /></a></div>
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The game has a traditional 3rd person camera, and you navigate your
character through mazes as you attempt to get to the front of the train.
A key element of the gameplay is having the other passengers follow you, since certain doors can only be opened if the correct NPC is placed on the corresponding switch. From my experience, programming AI is not fun, so I thought for sure this would be my biggest technical hurdle. But to my surprise, getting other characters to follow me in Blueprint was relatively easy! My game required a fairly intimidating graph network, but considering I didn't have to write a single line of code, I'd say the engine is super artist-friendly.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiZSeGwDBRc7WsQlnBYbuZMkOcKL9YJ8XwgdNopKGbPB9BdT304bTWYZLG-X0LicLeItVTCxTGLv-9RhHZ2HBjfGIbw0ZByVs2ZpZnLldfPpC75s_30LsZHbVo3-j8IewrFJoxI_bVnpA/s1600/GGJScreenshot12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiZSeGwDBRc7WsQlnBYbuZMkOcKL9YJ8XwgdNopKGbPB9BdT304bTWYZLG-X0LicLeItVTCxTGLv-9RhHZ2HBjfGIbw0ZByVs2ZpZnLldfPpC75s_30LsZHbVo3-j8IewrFJoxI_bVnpA/s1600/GGJScreenshot12.jpg" height="246" width="400" /></a></div>
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Overall, I'm really happy with how this game turned out. I only spent about 16 hours on it in total. In that short amount of time I was able to: come up with the concept, draw out some maps, whitebox the first 2 levels, model, rig, animate, and texture a full character (with about 6 skin variations), model a few pieces of the environment, and set up all of the follower / door opening mechanics. That's a lot to get done in such a short time, so I'd say it was a success. I'm pretty proud of how fast I've gotten while under a deadline.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpCAieFfG7ifcTgKqhueLZNIpw6YlsEZjVowjayO6mDNKVD0157jj36QbwOPUHurryVyILi8JxiaeZ1Q0ylNEdDUCdKaIhgcslfV_ej7DhkZqFyHqM2u7gXOJCA6TjsOQOLfNHg0U8cSw/s1600/GGJScreenshot10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpCAieFfG7ifcTgKqhueLZNIpw6YlsEZjVowjayO6mDNKVD0157jj36QbwOPUHurryVyILi8JxiaeZ1Q0ylNEdDUCdKaIhgcslfV_ej7DhkZqFyHqM2u7gXOJCA6TjsOQOLfNHg0U8cSw/s1600/GGJScreenshot10.jpg" height="211" width="320" /></a></div>
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I'd still like to polish this up for a full release in the near future. Replace all of the stock materials, pretty up the environment, add 2 more mazes, and improve the presentation of the story. But that's a story for another day. In the meantime, if you'd like to play the version I submitted to the Jam, <a href="http://globalgamejam.org/2015/games/all-aboard-soul-express">head on over to the official page</a>. I've got 2 versions on there, so it should work regardless of whether you have the engine installed or not.<br />
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And thus ends my first blog post of 2015. I apologize for neglecting you for so long, and I appreciate that you're taking the time to read all of my ramblings. I've got big plans for revamping my website and demo reel, and considering February starts next week already, I should have another substantial post very soon. Until next time... Adios!Steve Rakarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00729554481173025021noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3334135542218534965.post-88459274655410988032014-05-01T14:31:00.000-07:002014-05-31T02:29:48.883-07:00The Month that Time ForgotWell, I guess I fell a day short of making an April post. It's been an interesting month and I've got a lot of new stuff to talk about. A few weeks ago, I traveled to my first ever PAX East. It was an amazing convention that even managed to make GDC feel empty. Got to attend some cool panels, meet some totally awesome indie developers in the expo hall, and tour a city I've never been to before. If there's one thing I noticed about Boston it's that its people sure love being there. It felt very patriotic and respectful towards this country's history. Of all the places I've been, I'd say Boston best represented the true "American city." Anyways, I'm getting off topic. PAX East was fantastic and I'm hoping to attend one of the other locations some time in the near future.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrdoaBznpiCJyZhwDdhw0FWkkvnurjwCmQJMu8W0fbg0A1g1pwSbAYtuP8lAmnIVjRJotNKQvpCNdfF9FkB9NQp_fc_EKgypJi7p55sIBgOq53fqqjTQN8uSIJfZMbhFdvEZrrsF8G1L8/s1600/ShopsMockup-v5_4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrdoaBznpiCJyZhwDdhw0FWkkvnurjwCmQJMu8W0fbg0A1g1pwSbAYtuP8lAmnIVjRJotNKQvpCNdfF9FkB9NQp_fc_EKgypJi7p55sIBgOq53fqqjTQN8uSIJfZMbhFdvEZrrsF8G1L8/s1600/ShopsMockup-v5_4.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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I've also been hard at work with the team at NotRobot on our upcoming mobile title Wave Crash. I've mainly been working on the UI / HUD, and things are starting to really come together. We will be entering beta any day now, so keep your eyes on the official website: <a href="http://notrobot.co/">Not Robot</a> In addition to that, I've also worked on a couple of different projects to keep my skills sharp.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ6Fq2GdLTJqL-ON4WT_rjwHcSpLcRxrsjSlmJVpOsUSyg7XDdRNH3I8T-_eeLM9QWIfDo5U6o5FdNELy2XPICC_0K4YreX5RwuT2_2vy8Lha0IytPse4CatACFhddL1IsF9DBwsE2SpM/s1600/ChinatownAtDay.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ6Fq2GdLTJqL-ON4WT_rjwHcSpLcRxrsjSlmJVpOsUSyg7XDdRNH3I8T-_eeLM9QWIfDo5U6o5FdNELy2XPICC_0K4YreX5RwuT2_2vy8Lha0IytPse4CatACFhddL1IsF9DBwsE2SpM/s1600/ChinatownAtDay.jpg" height="317" width="400" /></a></div>
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I finally finished my Chinatown painting from San Francisco. I ended up putting a lot more detail into this than I originally expected. I spent so many consecutive hours on this that my hand started to cramp up by the time I was finished! Overall though, I'm pretty happy with the results.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3kTjDUVknc-AvHFKkAPTvy4NPV0bbx1D5RIcW_iVhBS-z5oQg2LALUPBEq3uu5Uz5EIgxXlpdosOwWL3_NOX5UpsGJCqZp2VffXDbQdaxTzgWA8mM19nZQQ3N6eD5C57asGkc3yUDsvs/s1600/Chinatown-At-Day-WIP2.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3kTjDUVknc-AvHFKkAPTvy4NPV0bbx1D5RIcW_iVhBS-z5oQg2LALUPBEq3uu5Uz5EIgxXlpdosOwWL3_NOX5UpsGJCqZp2VffXDbQdaxTzgWA8mM19nZQQ3N6eD5C57asGkc3yUDsvs/s1600/Chinatown-At-Day-WIP2.gif" height="255" width="320" /></a></div>
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I wish I had saved a copy before I detailed the pole on the left, but this still gives you a pretty good idea of my process. Blocked in everything from the start, and then focused on detailing individual sections one at a time. And finally at the end, I added in some of the top layer stuff like poles and hanging objects.</div>
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Also been working on my texturing skills a bit. I love painting textures by hand, but I know there is also a demand for super realistic textures that you can't really get by painting. So I decided to take inspiration from the amazing artists at Naughty Dog (<a href="http://lazaruz.carbonmade.com/projects/4499136">like Genesis Prado</a>) and try my hand at creating textures in ZBrush. For this texture I started with an individual brick object and placed a bunch of them in a pattern. Exported a whole bunch of different channels and did some combining in Photoshop. I really like the way it came out and I'm eager to try this method again!</div>
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Since I've pretty much made up my mind that environment art is my strong suit, I created this in my endless pursuit of adding more art to my portfolio. A lot of really good hard surface modelers seem to create these pristine living rooms with modern looking furniture. So I decided it would be fun to make one myself. I experimented with using VRay and its Sun&Sky system to get the rendering on this. This is just a simple living room shot, but right now I'm actually in the process of modeling out the entire house for my new demo reel. Hopefully I should have that done for the next post.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpnmRk5SUkTBa8MMAz1uBCiLcOMGFpiYMnZ4mJf08pphKC2MsyJHzPK0W4EKT9kGb2DGOl8x4dTiog1Amg1TNccD8Ah3bYbScWYcnBx1sTRpVGKSvQ-x1mFz1EkUAu_zZ9P0RWCgI43uk/s1600/Land+of+the+Liars.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpnmRk5SUkTBa8MMAz1uBCiLcOMGFpiYMnZ4mJf08pphKC2MsyJHzPK0W4EKT9kGb2DGOl8x4dTiog1Amg1TNccD8Ah3bYbScWYcnBx1sTRpVGKSvQ-x1mFz1EkUAu_zZ9P0RWCgI43uk/s1600/Land+of+the+Liars.jpg" height="126" width="320" /></a></div>
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This is just a quick little drawing I did when I was in the mood for something a bit cartoony. This is Cimc and Fuzzy, characters that my sister and I created a long time ago.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBa05ZCNTyAjTTJuxEAttYNjCSeZp50Knf4hyioWmhIWL0_tV4Bzd07ShsMk_QtM62e45d4miFMyfWxD_R_to5IPcqSBjc7lulS-AA_3Xk-4aktCiv-EXnlIwm7zvtdC4Q2og9STdsUto/s1600/MainUI.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBa05ZCNTyAjTTJuxEAttYNjCSeZp50Knf4hyioWmhIWL0_tV4Bzd07ShsMk_QtM62e45d4miFMyfWxD_R_to5IPcqSBjc7lulS-AA_3Xk-4aktCiv-EXnlIwm7zvtdC4Q2og9STdsUto/s1600/MainUI.jpg" height="320" width="200" /></a></div>
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And last but not least, this is a concept piece of a small mobile game I've been making in my free time. It's just a short parody game poking fun at some common themes in social gaming. The goal is for me to finish the entire game in a few weeks and get my feet wet in the Google Play store before releasing some of my bigger projects there. The working title is 'The RAM That Feeds' and it's about 40% done at this point. Look forward to an update on it in the near future.</div>
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And with that, this pretty much sums up my month of April. Like I said, it's been a pretty crazy month but I've still managed to get quite a bit of art done. Got some exciting things on the horizon, so stay tuned. </div>
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Until then... Adios!</div>
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<br />Steve Rakarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00729554481173025021noreply@blogger.com0