Just saying Hello
polycounter lvl 18
Im here, just poking in wondering if after the treatment I got working for Collision Entertainment, and taking ayear off, if I should step back into the industry...
The problem is I realize now that I will never be the ARC level realist that he next gen demands, never had the time dor money for the extre education to get to that, Buit I still think I am a decent animator. So.. what now, and is anyone hiring fo Wii titles or old school pixel pushing?
Is the economy going to crater this industry, and should I continue schlepping Cameras to Trucks to deliver to the studios down here. What's it like in other cities now, and after a stint working for FEM in Houston recently, Texa is seeming to be a viable option tomove to.
Art wise I a still drawing a little but most of it is building and textering WW2 planes in my spare time on Second Life. Still trying to keep current in 3D, and Flash as well but Flash is kind of sparce for FREE tutorials on advanced Animation techniques)
SO how are you all I haven't popped in in a long time. Is the Mod community killed by closed architecture and Romero's elitism? How are things going?
Scott
The problem is I realize now that I will never be the ARC level realist that he next gen demands, never had the time dor money for the extre education to get to that, Buit I still think I am a decent animator. So.. what now, and is anyone hiring fo Wii titles or old school pixel pushing?
Is the economy going to crater this industry, and should I continue schlepping Cameras to Trucks to deliver to the studios down here. What's it like in other cities now, and after a stint working for FEM in Houston recently, Texa is seeming to be a viable option tomove to.
Art wise I a still drawing a little but most of it is building and textering WW2 planes in my spare time on Second Life. Still trying to keep current in 3D, and Flash as well but Flash is kind of sparce for FREE tutorials on advanced Animation techniques)
SO how are you all I haven't popped in in a long time. Is the Mod community killed by closed architecture and Romero's elitism? How are things going?
Scott
Replies
If something happens to me here, I'm seriously thinking about going back into IT myself. with everyone averaging new jobs every 2-5 years and possibly having to move across country that just might not be for me.
When I get home from work I usually don't feel like doing any 3D but I've done some experimenting with normal maps and UT3 and it's not as hard as you might think it is, the highpoly mesh just has to look good, it can be a jumble of intersecting greebles with horrible mesh flow, etc...
I think you should have a go at doing a WWII plane and getting it into UT3, sometime the hardest part is starting.
That said casual games still have a lot to be tapped into, we had a studio opened here for that.
Scott, have you looked into things like Papervision3D? Might hit the spot for both your 3D and Flash interests. That'll probably be the biggest growth area for interactive work through the next few years.
Eric, I do want to continue to animate, We shall see if I can get some specialist work there. but I'd even go back to pixel pushing if need be. Just long as it's stable.
Justin it's not that I don't understand the concepts of low/high poygons and generating normal maps, it's that I'm not good at it. It'education and skill deficit rather than any lack of knowledge. That "every vein in the eyeball, every pore in the skin, all in its place" sometign I never mastered.
Still plugging away wih Flash, just the freedom to actually Draw with a open and not have to worry so much about relaism for a change. Anyone know of any head hunters that work for less that AAA companies?
Scott
Scott
well that whole, sculpting every pore/vein, thing is mainly artist masturbating
look at this piece of crap I used to generate some normals from:
here's the quick image I did with it:
Well if I was there, it would b, even a regular job, the problem is the expense of moving there. Tha'tsthe problem. I was in Houston last week doing some contract work for FEMA, and I hate the weather, but the rent and the people were extra nice. a HOUSe can be rented for what I am paying for a one room but mving my stuff would take 5000.oo minumum, and that's the problem with owning a lot of fat , glssy coffe table books.
Scott
edit: actually, just one brick, as far as I'm aware. Not only can you rotate, you can flip it horizontally and vertically.
Yeah, I was just thinking there were tons more jobs in CA, even though it's higher cost of living he's already there. He'd have to move to TX and find a job, or find a job then move. There's opportunities in TX, but by looking at job sites, the vast majority of them are in CA compared to TX.
Just a quick search for videogame jobs in CA for creativeheads.net shows 49 jobs. For Texas it shows 10.
terrible.
Watch it skankerzero. Some of us were born in Houston. Thems be fightin' words.
When it comes to Flash these days, it's all about the programming. Don't try to get contract work doing traditional IDE-based Flash work. Most companies seriously undervalue that kind of work, and you will end up doing way too much work for way too little money. Providing back-end programming support for flash-based on-line applications is the right way to make money in Flash these days. A lot of sites are getting into making on-line applications that are largely database driven. They often use Flash as the front-end for rendering.
If you want to work on your Flash, pick up a book on Flex 3 programming and Actionscript 3. Then download the Flex3SDK and get to coding. You'll be building entire data-driven sites in Flash in no time. I've built full sites with video streaming and 3D rendering with just a text editor and the FlexSDK. (and a command prompt of course) This is also the best route to take if you're interested in making your own Flash games.
Scott