I think you also have to consider the engine that games use today. How many studios have UE3 as the engine for most current gen games (that's right, it's not next gen anymore damn it!) A ton. If it's not UE3, it's something that was made in house like Uncharted 2's game engine or Killzone. So you already have say 40-60% of…
Ok yeah I totally agree, normal mapping has ruined the industry, games just suck now because the artists failed to paint values in textures. Just take my consoles away now, I can't bear to see what DX11 and it's evil tesselation is gonna do... We won't even have to make models anymore... just put a cube in the engine and…
Sorry man, I missed your response earlier, totally agree with this too as well as your other post. I was just talking with a few fellas on MSN and it seems the way ive worded my 'argument' came out as way too 'anti normal map' and not enough anti bland art direction. I fucked up. Im 100% for seeing more TF2, More Brink,…
I think CrazyButcher explains the disconnect in the timelines best. Clearly we're not all talking about the same assets. I've not yet come across two artists of equal skill that have a 4 week difference in the time it takes them to make a character. I've made nm characters in a week before yes. Are they as good as the main…
I've skimmed through most of the thread so if any of this is running over old territory, I'm sorry. I have to agree with a number of people that your original post kinda runs all over the place. You seem to be making quite a few different arguments at once which are all rather independent of each other. But from what I…
This should explain that game graphics are only gui also, gui changes and has its styles but if you compare photoshop and artweaver 0.3 which look similar too, you would prefer photoshop because its brush engine is better and the overall awesomeness of ps... etc blah blah same comes with cames, good ui + dull story = dull…
This is not my blog. But I wanted to write down some thoughts about the advent of the normal maps and see what you guys think. ( old discussion i know, but i think its time for some reflection on this!! ) Case in Point, Old school versus New school. I'm talking, quake versus doom 3. I'm talking, World of Warcraft versus…
I agree with much of this, however as the engines and technology have moved forward and away from "hand painted" texture work you instead have to work with lots of exciting and technically oriented areas such as shaders and render methods. So there's still a lot of work involved in a game, but focus has shifted a bit. Some…