Archive for the '3D' Category

jobs at amaze

Published
by
Danny
on May 24, 2006
in 3D, Animation, Game Development and Work
. Closed
Amaze Entertainment

Attention all you 3D artists and animators (working, aspiring, and otherwise)! Amaze Entertainment is looking for talented people to fill two open positions on our art teams.

The first is a general 3D artist position with a leaning towards effects work. Think water splashes, exploding boxes, breaking columns, motion trails, etc. Technical proficiency in Maya is desirable. Solid modeling and texturing skills are also good to have for potential non-effects tasks.

The second position is an animator. A strong grasp of and the ability to demonstrate the principles of animation is at the top of the list. Also important is the ability to hit different styles, i.e. cartoony, realistic, and some combination of the two. Experience with character animation in Maya is a plus. I won’t bother listing more requirements, because a demo reel means more than a resume.

These are entry- to mid-level positions. We are not looking for senior people at this time. I believe the 3D artist position is on a contract basis, and the animator is a regular full-time position, but that could change depending on who applies. Recent or soon-to-be graduates could qualify if their work is up to snuff.

For both positions, a strong portfolio and/or demo reel is of the utmost importance. Web sites are preferable, since more people can easily look at them. Game experience is a plus but not absolutely required. Other important job things include being a team player, being able to take direction/critique, being able to work with minimal direction, being able to manage your time, and, of course, being genuinely interested in making great games.

If you’re interested in either of these positions, please feel free to email me with your information and a link to your portfolio/reel. We’re trying to fill these positions ASAP, so don’t wait too long.

mid-week madness

Published
by
Danny
on February 22, 2006
in 3D, Animation, Game Development, Photography, Technology and Work
. 2 Comments

My brain isn’t quite functional, so I’m just going to spout a few random bits for tonight.

This Friday is our internal art deadline for Pirates. We’re scheduled to go beta soon, so all art assets need to be finished and ready to be put in the game well before our beta date. As such, most of the art team has been working weekends and/or late nights for the past couple of weeks to make sure everything gets done. I took Saturday off to go to the Seattle Flickr Meetup, but, otherwise, I’ve been at work doing my thing. We’re on the home stretch, but everyone is starting to go batty. I think we need to do a team beer-fest after we’re done.

Apple’s new MacBook Pros started arriving in customers’ hands this week. Early test numbers don’t look too great, but most of the major software people use have not been recompiled as Universal binaries yet, so things can only improve from here. I’d really love to get one – my 800 MHz Powerbook G4 is getting a bit long in the tooth – but I can’t justify spending the money on it just yet. Plus, none of my usual software will run natively on the new Intel Core Duo processors yet, so I won’t really gain any performance benefits. Also, this is the first revision of the new laptops. It’s probably best to wait for the kinks to get worked out of the system.

PMA is coming up, and that means all sorts of new photographic toys will be unleashed upon the world. Of course, a lot of camera manufacturers can’t wait until next week to announce things, so they’ve already started sending out press releases to induce drooling amongst photography pros and enthusiasts. Based on early reports, I’m totally digging the following cameras:

  • Canon 30D - Big, bad digital SLR based on the popular and powerful 20D.
  • Canon Powershot S3 IS - An upgrade to the already wonderful S2 IS.
  • Canon Powershot A700 - The A620 is an amazing camera; the A700 improves on that even more.
  • Casio Exilim EX-850 - I was considering getting the EX-750 as my pocket digicam last year. Looks like a new candidate is just around the corner.
  • Fujifilm FineFix F30 - This one looks really interesting - ISO 3200 sensitivity (my D70 only goes to 1600!), 6.3 MP, and a suppose 500 shot battery capacity. Could be in my pockets later this year.

Naturally, I can’t afford to get nor do I haven’t any reason to get all of these cameras. It never hurts to look around though.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted any tips and tricks, so I’ve been thinking of some good ones that I can work on after we’re done with beta at work. After spending a year doing nothing but character animations in Maya, I’ve picked up a few workflow and productivity tips that I can share with everyone. Naturally, I’ll have some more technical elements to talk about (scripting, button-pushing, options in Maya you might not have learned about, etc.). I’ll also be talking about some more abstract topics like getting weight in character movements, offsetting motions for flexibility, and using exaggeration for readability. It might take a while for me to get these going, but I am definitely working through them in my head. I just need some spare head-space to really get these fleshed out.

Final thing for tonight. Fat Tire Amber Ale is some good sh!t. Get some if you can.

blog plug

Published
by
Danny
on February 9, 2006
in 3D, Blogs and Games
. 4 Comments

A couple of new blogs from guys I know have popped up over the past couple of weeks, and I figured I’d plug them a bit here.

First up is fxCubed from my buddy John Vanderbeck. John is a guy I met in the GarageGames IRC channel, and he was recently accepted at The DAVE School. fxCubed is his blog dedicated to providing a “visual record of my journey from that of a fresh new student in the world of digital animation and visual effects to that of a professional in the field”. John’s been posting some of his recent works in progress and speed modeling practice pieces, and I must say that he is progressing quite well. I look forward to see what he can make once he starts classes.

The other blog is Make It Big In Games from GarageGames’ Jeff Tunnell. In his own words:

MBG is a place for me to help people that want to get into the game business learn how to do so, perhaps with less pain than was inflicted on me. I hope to help you with game design issues, business strategy, and even some marketing advice. I’ll cover anything that can help you realize your dream of making great games.

MBG is definitely a great read for anyone considering getting in the game development business. Jeff tells it like it is. He’s been there and done that, and his experience is evident in what he has to say. The comments and discussions following each of his posts are equally as good to read.

For those who don’t know Jeff, he’s a long-time veteran in the game industry, co-founding Dynamix and producing titles such as The Incredible Machine, Starsiege, and Tribes. He is the co-founder of GarageGames, the developers of the Torque Game Engine. They recently used TGE to develop Marble Blast Ultra for Xbox360, one of the first independent games to be released on Xbox Live Arcade.

So, go ahead and add both of those blogs to your news feed. Definitely some good reads.

3D Game Animation For Dummies Redux

Published
by
Danny
on August 15, 2005
in 3D, Animation, Books and Games
. Closed

3D Game Animation For Dummies

A couple of days ago, Benjamin Bradley of GarageGames commented on my blog entry regarding the book 3D Game Animation For Dummies and told to me later on IRC that I am mentioned in the book. He also told me that Torque was featured in the sample engine section of the book. I was pretty harsh with my review of the book, so I figured I might as well take another look and give it a second chance.

That's A Head? Animation... Right...

My second flip-through of the book was a slightly better experience. Most of the content that I read was actually pretty decent. The book is good at what most Dummies books do: introduce the basic concepts in a very simple, non-threatening manner.

Unfortunately, the “artwork” leaves a lot to be desired. Check out the example character in the above images. That’s what you’re supposed to build as you follow along with the character modeling and animation chapters. I wasn’t kidding last time when I said it sucked. Gallerie Abominate contains better artwork than this book.

Me In The Index That's My Work

My main reason for checking out the book again, of course, was to see where I was mentioned in it. The only blurb about me was acknowledgment that I wrote the dtsUtility MEL script for the Maya2DTS exporter. Nothing really special but kind of cool nonetheless. I still think the book sucks.

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