workshop - london games festival

Ruz

So yeah I am giving a workshop at the london games festival next week. Any suggestions about content. its only an hour long, so i have to get something fairly basic set up. Perhaps a zbrush pipeline thing or few simple techniques?
Any ideas anyone?
I decided that giving a speech or talk was not really me as I prefer hands on discussion , just like you have in the workplace really.

MoP

Zbrush pipeline sounds like a good topic since for a lot of people it's still fairly new and untested.
I guess then it just means you have to have a good solid pipeline yourself

Ruz

Well the thing is MoP I have developed/documented several pipelines in the companies I have worked for, and they have worked out fine:)
What I will do is describe different approaches, because there is no one set way to do anything.
Obviously it depends on the reqirements of each company.

For example some companies used the same base mesh as their final in game mesh, because they want to maintain a consistent vertex count for morph targets, other companies will optimize their meshes as they see fit, starting with the high res as the building block, building the final in game model around this. (I think we have had this debate before BTW)
Luckily I have worked for a few different companies and saw how differently everyone approached the same problems, some of them in a fucktarded way, some in a sensible easy to follow way.
I think showing people the various approaches and making them aware that each company might want something different is the way to go.
I have met art directors who are zbrush purists/fascists who want virtually every aspect done in zbrush, even the texturing.
Conversely some art directors have hated zbrush and wanted it done mainly using the nvidia plugin.

Nothing is black and white, just shades of grey
I will probably focus on my methods mainly as its my workshop ha ha

I may just focus on the art side though, as its more what I am interested in even broaching up on coloured spec/ some basic max shader stuff or some such.
Texturing could be another area As its my first love and I think there is a reluctance in some universities discuss technique as its not considered academic. That was the case when I was there anyway