You know what really grinds my gears???
polycounter lvl 20
...about art in videogames, being an 'artist' in videogames, POLYCOUNT or any other related topics?
I'll start:
I'll start:
- Co-workers offering critique on work I am doing when I literally started an hour ago.
- Great, thanks, I could cut more geometry in to the object I am making. Why don't you let me actually get this thing to a state at which I am looking for critiques and let me do my job?
- Fellow artists (work or online) that are after critique/praise after every poly they push.
- I know of at least one person that needs affirmation about 3 times a day and it drives me mad.
- Max's cut tool making cuts along the line I have NOT drawn but instead cutting in the complete opposite direction.
- Fuck you, Max.
- Perception in this business.
- It's a fucking cunt.
Replies
only real thing that bothers me is when people give crits when I just start, as you mentioned. sometimes it actually comes in handy, most of the time it's stuff I plan on doing anyway but I'm just not at that phase yet.
Know it alls who think they know better because they spend all their time on CG Talk, and call the visuals in Gears of War and Blur cinematics "shit", then go on to blame the rendering engine for mangling their own art
Modelers who break approved rigs and shader trees for the sake of aesthetics, then take off to play Soul Calibur while some poor programmer or animator cleans up after them.
Passive aggressiveness at the workplace (oh the irony)
This really grinds my gears.
-The feeling of someone looking over your shoulder, and not saying hi or anything....just standing and staring. especially annoying in public places like coffe shops....yes i know im on a yellow laptop, yes i know im drawing or sculpting on the yellow comp... piss off!
- And finnaly, people that smack when they eat....really really loud. makes me wanna choke a bitch. My ipod cant possible reach a decible that will drown out that sound...
Holden sneaking up on me and scaring me
Tracy jumping out of a closet and scaring me
people who have no reason to be asking me to make a 2x2 pixel area more round.. without anti aliasing. You wouldn't believe how many times I've gotten this or something similar.
Max's superpower ability to create duplicate overlapping edges/verts... drives me up the wall.
That stupid stuck vert in the UVW unwrapper.... I HATE YOU.
the question "can't you just press a button to..."
"optimize that mesh?"
"make that texture"
"create that sprite"
"upsize that sprite while maintaining quality"
"downsize that sprite and not distort pixels"
"do your job"
Don't get me wrong, I love working here, but sometimes... just sometimes...
I had more from the animation studio... but vented most of those in other threads
Oh and ubering someone who doesn't get the hint till youve wasted 1/2 the charge standing infront of him hoping he'll get the idea.
Yeah, part from that can't think of much else off my head even though i generally have so much pent up hate too! Har!
the fact that it's all about who you know. and even if you know people, lots of people, there isn't a position open, because the company refuses to fire the worthless folks who spend their work hours checking facebook.
leads who tell you to look busy while they're watching youtube.
being aware of what software is best for results (for me), and what software is best for finding a job...and knowing they're not the same.
business talk from people who know nothing about what games people want to play, or how they're developed.
always listening to people tell endless stories about their epic WoW/EQ/DnD adventures...very little to say about their real life.
edit:
how everyone here curses Max, new Max version threads turn into lots of griping, but I can't even vaguely mention my personal opinion of the software I prefer to use without someone trying to correct me.
You can receive valid crits when you've just started -- obviously if they're saying 'not enough polies' you can reply, politely, that you're still blocking things in. If they crit overall proportions or make a useful suggestion, take it.
And Ely, xsi is not always the best software for results, seriously, they all have strengths.
not getting a studio bowling meet or anything like it, even though you work for mega richo company
The constant *flick* of a keyboard because someone has to make it known "I'M WORKING! *FLICK* *FLICK* I'M PRESSING BUTTONS! *FLICK* *FLICK*".
The inconsiderate asshole in the white Escalade that takes a left out of the *right turn only* exit of my apartment complex, making me wait an extra 2 minutes for traffic to be clear enough for her to make said illegal turn....only to return later and double park in my small parking lot, leaving me to park in the next lot over...after working 12 hours during crunch!
Being forced to purchase albums online because the Best Buy's and Target's of the world have forced all the great indie shops out of business and refuse to carry the same quality of music because they need to make room for a thousand copies of the latest Hanna Fucking Montana bullshit.
People who come to my desk and stick their face right in my monitor to get my attention then ask me a question that could have been asked over MSN. Grr..
People, who after having been asked not to touch my screen with their oily fish fingers, touch my screen with their oily fish fingers a second time...
So far from my little time in the industry, being asked to redo stuff time and time again by people who assume its just a few clicks away ^^
Another is not being kept in the loop, like when the Game designers have already decided there going a completely different direction with something but let us poor animators muster on getting it right with the old style/art/goals
Bla
You might want to start carrying a flashlight at work and maybe put some mirrors around your monitor...just a heads up. Oh, and what's that behind you?!!!
- Per.
getting bitched at for being late to work, or from lunch...while the smokers take 10 minute breaks every hour...and all gather at the door everyone uses to exit.
-Having to share a cubicle space with an old washed up wannabe graphic designer who couldnt design himself out of a paper bag
-Having that same dude always trying to make me look like an idiot infront of our boss b/c he's insecure with the fact that I'm 10 years younger then him making the same salary as him
-Working w/ people who ask what you make...it aint yo' damn business, if it was...I'd write it on a post-it note, fold it into a little paper airplane and throw it at your damn head.
-Getting bit by a spider on my ankle and hobblin' around like a drunk hunch back.
That's about it...other then that life is great :-)
I used to call management on that shit all the time and it shut them up every time.
'Maybe I should take up smoking then so I can get multiple 10 minute breaks a day? Do you suggest that?'
etc.
- Interupters. DEAR GOD it's horrible in Seattle. Nobody lets anybody else talk! I hear people behind me talking to each other, and they carry on entire sentences while the other person is still talking! WTF MANNERS PLS
- Political rambling. Opinions are awesome, I love hearing them and counterpointing. But please, if you're going to start on a very loud rant about the president or whomever else, be aware of the political affiliations of the people around you, or offer apology after the remark is made.
- Egos. FFS already. This is the video game industry. Stop fucking whining about it when someone touches your work, tweaks your texture or deletes parts of your mesh. Things get reworked all the time. If you can't take it, get the hell out.
"Modelers who leave their creativity at the door and need a concept artist or art director to decide every last detail for them". Sadly Snowfly, I'm somewhere like that. I don't need someone to dictate every last detail by any means, but I DO need a catalyst. In the case of Unearthly Challenge, we had a concept to go from, which was enough for me. But I can't go from nothing, sadly.
Portal jokes. -leave it to the man-children of the office (and internet) to latch onto a catch phrase, and regurgitate it ad nauseam.
Drivers who don't turn on their lights when it's raining. -fuck you guys (and girls)
The term "bro". - people who say this deserve tasing.
The term "prolly". - This is not a word. Get punched in the face.
That's all I've got right now, I must not be as crotchety as usual today.
edit: ooh, sentence interupters, good call. These people are scum.
In a previous job a lifetime ago I got so fed up with it (my boss was a smoker at the time) that I started taking 10 minute fresh air breaks. When I was eventually told by my (smoking) boss that I couldn't do that, I pointed out that the smokers took several breaks a day, so I was doing the same.
She was pissed off, but couldn't do a thing.
Then I set her on fire and pissed on her.
we have a no smoking policy at work. if you want to smoke, do it on your lunch break, and away from the building. you get no extra breaks for fags.
there was a concept dude there....and he once said to me "you wish you were as good as me"
so my two cents in this thread...."what grinds my gears"? is:
people you have to work with that are cocky as hell....confidence is good. cockiness(a word?) grinds my gears to a pile of sand.
'One of you keeps coming back drunk and yelling and waking us up. Therefore, none of you have leave.'
Here's an idea, fucking get with the program and do some work to find out who is actually doing it and not just be lazy and fuck everyone because you wear your rank as a fucking badge of honor, and every just thinks you are a fucking joke. Get over it, you are shit, and it is only a matter of time before the people who you fucked on outrank you, because they are better than you, and start repaying the favour.
Fucking cunts.
People who'll walk up to out of the blue with "Hi!" and before you can ever reply, proceed to tell you (in detail) what they've been working on, how long it took them, how most people couldn't have done it that quickly and it's probably the best thing ever created.
I'll usually just reply with a nice odd silence or maybe an "ohhhh", then start talking about street fighter politics or something equally awesome and unrelated to their ego. They loose interest and wander off to annoy someone else pretty fast.
Game developers who don't play games.
The response "Yes and no." to a yes or no question.
Leaving it 'til 5pm to tell us that this evening's build goes infront of the publishers tomorrow morning.
Unwrapping in 3DS Max.
If you don't like games, get the fuck out of the industry, PLEASE.