Part 2

March something
 

My apartment has a front door, allegedly. I’ve used it a couple of times, like when I first moved in, or when I had to sign for a package, or when I tried to get better wifi signal one time I was really desperate. Most of the time, however, I exit through the back, out of the kitchen, into the garden (as they call the back yard area here).

In one of the sheds here, I’ve got my bike stashed away. I solicited Facebook for naming ideas and among many names, one of the first and best was “Tom” (cruiser). Being the sucker I am for wordplay, that one is what I’ve chosen to name my bike. But as it is, I haven’t been using his given name as much as I’ve just been calling him “my bike.” Sorry, Tom.

So I ride Tom pretty much every day, since we first met at a place called De Klein Fietsen, which runs along one of the canals in the city on a road called Lachappellestraat, just next to the city center. The center is easily identified from a distance by the tower of the Grotke Kerk (great church). Plenty of shopping, eating, and other stuff is available there.

My work style, when I get into it, requires a constant stream of thumping, rhythmic music. This led to a preference for thumping electronic music. I’m still exploring what works, but I’ve found Deltron 3030 and Broken Bells, and the old favorites of the Halo soundtracks to be great albums for getting work done.  It all depends on the work though – writing is near impossible if I’ve got lyrics piping in.

My first class of the week is on Tuesday, allowing for an extra buffer day to warm up to the week and finish any extra work, assignments, or procrastination that needs doing. The next day is GAMELAB. If you’re at LCAD, imagine that you’re on a team with USC, except that team is made entirely of LCAD students. Due to the all-encompassing nature of the program at IGAD, this is my reality: A room filled with programmers, designers, and artists all collaborating on their projects –as varied as you can get. I’ve seen a social music game, a strategic tower construction game, and a bird of prey flight simulator. I and many others ended up working on the bird game, called Sparrowhawk.

You might’ve seen the concept paint overs I made for this game over on Facebook. After working on some modular building pieces of an abbey, I was able to move on to the creature animations. Fortunately for me, not many others here are into animation as much as I am, so I get to try out my chops at animating a bird. What I’ve learned so far is that I do not know how birds move and that youtube is a godsend for video reference. I can’t imagine anymore searching the internet for videos before 2005.

Wednesday is a double dose of classes for me: I’ve got TEXTURE 3 in the morning (but everyone calls it World Building) and then ANIMATION 4 in the late morning/lunchish hour. The morning class is fairly short but proceeds at a breakneck speed that reminds me fondly of typing like a madman in Don’s class last year. I still use those notes occasionally… Texture here is all in UDK, using the material editor. If I had to describe it, I’d say it’s kind of like the layers list in photoshop all layed out in a 2d plane. Outside of lectures, the class has me on another team, texturing in a white-boxed (modeled but not textured) level in UDK. It’s pirate themed, and I chose it because they chose to have pirate ship rammed into the city as the big visual hook. Gotta say it works rather well.

Animation is still a favorite for me. It might sound like I’m starting to show my true colors, but fear not – all that deep inner thoughts of a character animation is still a mystery to me. I’m in it for the quick thrills. This class is equal parts animation and rigging. If I didn’t have my previous classes from LCAD, I might be struggling a bit more in this class in particular. The animation is just as tough as it was at home – and we’re doing it old school here! We animate in sequential poses till the end, then turn on that fancy frame interpolation. I’ve got to say, it really is a good system. I’ve seen the quality of my poses and gestures increase using this method. The rigging section is intense. It’s not impossible, but requires full attention. We’re making these really interesting rigs full of squash, stretch, all that. I’m turning my brain to full soak on this one.

Thursday is another day off. Like Monday, I spend my time on campus as much as possible getting work done. The environment makes it easier to get stuff done than at my desk in my room.

My last class is on Friday. ARCHITECTURE. Here, I get a crash course in VRay, a fancy renderer for maya. Press of a few buttons, and you’ve got a nice physical based lighting system. All you do is move the light and it calculates what color and intensity to do based on the supposed angle of the ‘sun’.  The modeling/texturing bit is still a little confusing. Most of that is because I’m working with someone else’s model and have to quickly figure out how it’s all UV’d and layed out. And it’s in Maya. I’m capable in most areas of Maya, but I’ve been spoiled by the workflow I’ve got for UV mapping in 3DS Max. As a result I'm figuring out all the ways to make texture effects without going out and taking photos. Turns out it's kind of difficult to take good photos of asphalt when you're crossing the street.

The  added focus on team projects with programmers and designers lets me see the full spectrum of game production – you can’t just focus on your single task and stay there for all day. For Sparrowhawk, I have to get my animations into the engine to be triggered by the player. For Shivered Timbers (the pirate level ), I have to integrate my textures and shaders into their packages and make sure they’re cohesive with the other artists’ styles and procedures. It’s an added layer of practicality that helps keep your eye on the big picture.

I’m not good at writing conclusions.