If you can, use the trial of turtle, its amazingly fast and easier to make lightmaps and nmaps inside maya, I´ve use it, and its simply one of the best plugins ever created for gamedev in maya
I'll be updating my portfolio soon with a slew of the weapons and props that I did. We also have Snight and GameDev here on polycount who also worked on the game...they might be updating their portfolios as well :D
Found this little gem over at gamedev. Arguably funner than Unreal 2007 and better creative direction too! http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=467483 It's only an alpha build though, so if you tab away it will crash.
Using these non-default settings that ott and gamedev mentioned are also much better for your render to texture normal / ao maps as well. The result will be much smoother. I tend to use catmull-rom and then max 2.5 or hammersley..
Indeed, it is! I've lurked sites like gameartists, cgsociety, gamedev, and the like for years, but I haven't been to Polycount in a very long time. After seeing all the buzz about it's new website, I decided to sign up.
streaming our recap episode of 2013 in a couple minutes: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niXu-4Kk3uc"]The Gamedev Cast 2013 recap: LIVE - YouTube[/ame] taking live questions, so tune in! (and share plz)
i'd agree with eq. I dont see much of a difference between using a high end quadro and nice gamer cards. However, rendering time certainly is improved with the quadro at work. but thats not so much gamedev related.
http://www.leighvanderbyl.com/texture-painting-faq/ its from vfx industry professional texture artist, but i think is applicable to gamedev. If you wanna do something stylized, paint textures by yourself and use photos for realistic work
hmm. about the 2nd option - do they offer a full university/college programm (4 years) with a diploma? or is it more of a 1year bootcamp? honestly a recently opened private programm where you dont know much info about them doesnt sound super trustworthy. It would be better if you could get more info on them i think. Also…
if I were you I'd make some awesome art, then post on gamedev and see if you couldnt find yourself a partner. Its near impossible to find someone for a giant project, but for a small possible one there are usually a few interested people.