Place to post visual effects/shaders/"tech art" for showcase and critiques
polycounter lvl 9
I am not sure where on the forums to post this so please move thread if some other place is appropriate.
Since about 6 months back I am a technical artist full time, and I have since had a hard time finding a good place for me on PolyCount. Now, the way I and probably many other see it is there are two different kind of tech artist; Pipeline/tools/workflow and vfx/shaders. On polycount there is a section called "Technical Talk" with the description "Ask technical questions about 2D/3D software & techniques & hardware, share shaders, scripts and new software". In my experience, 98% of the time it is talk about software/scripts and very little about shaders.
That is not a problem. That is perfect for those kind of Technical Artists, the pipeline guys. I am not a pipeline guy however. I work with realtime vfx, shaders and other technical in-engine solutions. A lot of particles and a lot of research for one-off solutions to specific problems.
Earlier this year I posted about how to make clouds in a game. This is a very typical task for me. There is no optimal way to go about it laid out for you, it's a process about finding out what works and what doesn't case by case. It's in these cases that a discussion with others is a great resource. What I did in my case was post about in the most fitting section on the forums, the Unity section.
My point is that this task is not specifically a Unity problem, it's more vfx technical artist oriented in general. I would love if there was a place where I could start a WIP thread for my, in this instance, clouds, and get feedback from people who work with the same things I do. And maybe I just want to post my cool foliage shader while I'm at it, and look at other peoples cool stuff and help them with their problems. Basically I want a VFX/Shader Art Showcase & Critiques section. Maybe there is not enough people working in this field? What's the deal, yo?
Thanks
Since about 6 months back I am a technical artist full time, and I have since had a hard time finding a good place for me on PolyCount. Now, the way I and probably many other see it is there are two different kind of tech artist; Pipeline/tools/workflow and vfx/shaders. On polycount there is a section called "Technical Talk" with the description "Ask technical questions about 2D/3D software & techniques & hardware, share shaders, scripts and new software". In my experience, 98% of the time it is talk about software/scripts and very little about shaders.
That is not a problem. That is perfect for those kind of Technical Artists, the pipeline guys. I am not a pipeline guy however. I work with realtime vfx, shaders and other technical in-engine solutions. A lot of particles and a lot of research for one-off solutions to specific problems.
Earlier this year I posted about how to make clouds in a game. This is a very typical task for me. There is no optimal way to go about it laid out for you, it's a process about finding out what works and what doesn't case by case. It's in these cases that a discussion with others is a great resource. What I did in my case was post about in the most fitting section on the forums, the Unity section.
My point is that this task is not specifically a Unity problem, it's more vfx technical artist oriented in general. I would love if there was a place where I could start a WIP thread for my, in this instance, clouds, and get feedback from people who work with the same things I do. And maybe I just want to post my cool foliage shader while I'm at it, and look at other peoples cool stuff and help them with their problems. Basically I want a VFX/Shader Art Showcase & Critiques section. Maybe there is not enough people working in this field? What's the deal, yo?
Thanks
Replies
Well as I said, on the technical talk forum it's almost exclusively tools and workflow tech. If you take a look in that thread you'll see there's almost only software tools or generators. There is no one posting how they did their waterfall or snow material... I am looking for a place to post your visual tech art that is used in a game
https://polycount.com/discussion/157279/the-wonders-of-technical-art-unreal-engine/p3
Unfortunately this way you will definitely have much less views than posting straight into the p and p, but well... Lot of people only watches the waywo thread. But you could do some crossposting there from time to time to draw peoples attention to your thread. Tech stuff is tecnically 3d in the most of cases so I think its ok to advertise your tech thread there sometimes.
We really don't want to fracture the community further into smaller sub-groups. I'd rather see less sections, frankly. And we pruned last year for that very reason... CryEngine? Cinema4D? They were dead and dying. I think members would rather have fewer vibrant healthy sections.
Anyhow, post and promote (within reason, don't be a jerk haha), pimp & preview! Pull in those eyeballs.
Always open to your ideas!