Textastic for iPad

... is Textastic!

On the iPad I need an easy way to review scripts and Textastic makes this very easy indeed.
Syntax highlighting works well, as does indentation (especially useful for python scripting) and files are cleverly listed and easily managed through FTP, Dropbox, etc.
An added bonus: it knows MEL out of the box.

Check it out:
http://www.textasticapp.com/

Character Modelling Projects

Personal Character Modelling Projects
All created in ZBrush

Male Pedestrian

Goblin

Sea Creature

Female Character

The Hulk

3D World: Rendering Wireframe in Maya

I wrote this short article in early 2008, after I was approached by an editor of 3D World magazine.

Part of a Q&A session, the question I answered was: How can you render wireframe in Maya?

I solved this by using Maya's vector render and explained some basic compositing steps in Photoshop using the depth channel of the render.

Responsibilities
Negotiating brief
Setting project schedule
Creating content for half-page article

Link to 3DWorldIssue103.pdf

Character Shaders

Create shaders for skin, eyes and cloth.

Examples coming soon...

Car Paint

Imitates behaviour of car paint, ambient occlusion on vertex colours with multiple tints, with the added benefit of blending dirt.

FaceFx

Set up FaceFx workflow and create data for lip-sync and face and upper-body gestures of non-player characters.

I created one male and one female FaceFx actor, that were driven by bone poses and morph targets. Our characters used 52 blendshapes and the jaw, head, eyes and upper body were reference posed through Maya.

Batch processing tools made it very easy to process large amounts of dialogue. I created an analysis actor especially for our project, so we could customise events that controlled the gestures.

© OC3 Entertainment

"FaceFX is OC3 Entertainment’s cutting edge solution for creating realistic facial animation from audio files. FaceFX is the culmination of years of experience working with lip-synchronization, 3D graphics, and facial animation. The product makes it easy to batch process thousands of audio files for your game, add expressions to a single animation without ruining the lip-synchronization, tweak an animation to perfection, or integrate the entire solution into your art pipeline."

FaceFx | OC3 Entertainment

3D World: Turtle Review

We were using Turtle on one of our projects to render AO maps and create surface transfers of normal maps. In Turtle this worked really well and was quicker than other packages we tried. I wrote this review to give an impression of what Turtle was capable of and how render times compared with other renderers.

Responsibilities
Testing software
Reviewing software, based on game-art specific functions like:
• Ambient and Reflection Occlusion
• Surface Transfer
• Normal Maps
Writing review
Creating example renders

Link to the PDF: 3DWorldIssue81.pdf

3D World: Built for Speed (Part II)

In autumn of 2006 I was commissioned to write a two-part vehicle modelling guide. This is the second part and focusses on texturing and shading the vehicle.

Responsibilities
Negotiating brief
Setting project schedule
UV unwrapping vehicle model
Texturing vehicle model
Planning step-by-step guide
Arranging scene & collecting screenshots
Writing introductory text, description for each step & expert tips
Arranging & rendering opening high-res image (two-page spread)

Link to the PDF: 3DWorldIssue85.pdf

3D World: Building for Speed (Part I)

In autumn of 2006 I was commissioned to write a two-part vehicle modelling guide. This is the first of the two-part series focussing on modelling in SubDivision Surfaces.

Responsibilities
Negotiating brief
Setting project schedule
Creating vehicle blueprints
Creating vehicle model using Sub-D surfaces
Planning step-by-step guide
Arranging scene & collect screenshots
Writing introductory text & description for each step
Arranging & rendering opening high-res image

Link to the PDF: 3DWorldIssue84.pdf

Eight Days

Responsibilities
All aspects of vehicle pipeline

The Getaway 3

Responsibilities
All aspects of vehicle pipeline

Gangs Of London

Responsibilities
All aspects of vehicle pipeline, including:
R&D for vehicle technology
Setting & documenting vehicle specifications
Scheduling/Project Management
Creating all vehicles
Creating all icons for front-end
Simulating particle FX (in-house tool)
Creating particle textures

VW Golf V

Personal Modelling Project

Created in Maya using SubDivision Surface modelling techniques.

Rendered with Turtle 3.1

TT Superbikes

Responsibilities
Modelling in 3ds max 5
UV mapping, creating, applying textures
Creating low level traffic cars

Need For Speed - Underground

Responsibilities
Creating cars from the “ground up”
Modelling in 3ds max 5
UV mapping, creating, applying textures
Creating three additional “Levels of Detail”