GREAT ARTICLE TO REFERENCE

http://www.awn.com/articles/advice/career-coach-dumb-stuff-people-do

Good stuff and words to live by

Cooley wk1

I've been waiting over 24hrs for a photo hosting site to come off maintenance so I'd have more than a little thumbnail to work with, but thats not seeming likely. Anyway, here is what i've accomplished over the week for my goblin:

The goblin is sitting at 4980 and the little scene is 5500

Nathalie Update

This week is about optimization for me. Especially with the Twisted Tales project, their is a serious frame rate issue which means I need to clean up the scene to make sure there isn't any unnecessary assets. I decided that since I will only be screen shooting part of the level I would eliminate anything we didn't see to help with the fps. I am having a real time though deciding how to showcase my work on Headcase, should I show parts of each level or just one level? I managed the animation team,l created the Microsoft Project files and helped with the excel spreadsheets... It is a tricky scenario. For Pogo, the simple game in Unity, I'll be working on fixing some of the art for the level and animation.

As for my internship work, I talked with the guys from DS3 and when the game comes out I can use video from the game but since the submission for the demo reel is that week, I plan to have some temp videos then put in more actual footage for port show. The Unannounced stuff I worked on for New Vegas is a Tricky story, when it is announced it will be up for further negotiation but at the moment it looks like I will only be able to use some screenshots at most at the moment.

All in all, I know what I want to put in my demo reel and for week 3 I will have a rough cut of my demo reel all ready to be looked at. I'll be focusing on getting all getting all the footage in class, although I will want to discuss what to do with Headcase as a top priority. I have also done revisions to my LinkedIn Page, resume and cover letter this week as well since I have already started applying for jobs.

Edit: Instead of a blog why not create a forum? That way it is more organized . It is super simple and I can help you create it if you like. :)

So here is the selection of pieces for my demo reel.

This piece is an intended re-imagining of the character "Jet" from "Avatar: The Last Airbender".

He is going to be a little bit older (and alive obv...) and wear a little more armor than in the series. Currently he is in need of some topology cleanup, I'm going to take his polys down a lot by doing a textured face rather than the current head that is modeled for animation. Then an anime-ish diffuse texture.

This piece is a basilisk monster of my own creation. It is a large slow monster. I would prefer to keep this character at reasonably low specs but it may very well look nice with a simple normal map to sell the bumpy leather scaly skin.

My next piece is a western-style character developed under my internship. Sculpt needs tweaking and a normal map needs to be baked onto the game-res model. Needs diffuse and specular maps. Not pictured due to NDA. The character is approximately 6000 triangles with 1024 texture space per map (diff, norm, spec).

 The next two pieces are characters made for the iphone game "cowboys vs zombies" from tallchair inc. These characters did not make the final cut but are rad nonetheless. Both are my original character designs, the boney-bandito and the fiddlin' devil. Bandito cuts in under 1000 tris and the devil is under 1200. Both feature a 256 diffuse map unlit.

This last piece is my most recent personal project. It's my own Sweeney Todd. The character is 5958 Triangles and comes with a straight edge razor sporting a 256 diffuse map. The Character comprises three maps total. Currently a 1024 diffuse on the body. 1024 diffuse on the head and a 512 map for hair alphas (eyebrows, chops. and hair). If I alloted a 2048 budget overall for the character I could accompany each diffuse map(character and prop(s)) with a specular and have two 256 maps leftover.

Here are some other characters that have not yet made the cut but if time allows/requires could be featured on the reel with some work. 

I got a few arms started...this is the first one thats working...

   Default position

Elongated

  Bent and clenched fist

Viking Camp/ Diorama Bases

I've almost finished the base for the Viking Camp diorama. It's entirely a combination of layered shaders and vertex painting to blend textures at the moment. I'll be adding more supplementary rock shards in the lava and the camp elements are going to be placed around once they are ready. I was debating on adding snow like the original scene had, but I think it blends better with the dark soil and moss instead.

The last one is the base for the City Props scene so far. It's going to be some blacktop pavement with a manhole cover and a sidewalk once I get to sculpting it.

So I play tested my Prison Card Game - Jailbreak (very generic name but lets just go with it), after a successful run it was terrible! It was boring, unbalanced, and lacked alot of what must games need, "fun". Anyways went back to the drawing bored and came up with a new way to make it more fun and upbeat. I know you do not know how to play so I will give you a quick run down. Object of the game is to collect all items on your given escape card. The first to aquire all 4 items wins the game. The game consists of three decks: Event Deck, Item Deck, Special Items Deck. Before the game begins, each player recieves a random Escape card, and character card. The escape card must be face down and only the controlling player may look at the card. The character card will have a special ability, and a starting weapon. Each round you will turn over an event card from the Event Deck. Each card will have a task. whether you succeed or fail, the card will specify what will happen. Most Successes will have the player recieve an item card from the Item Deck. or Special Items Deck. After the Event phase, you have a chance to fight another player for special items they may posess. If the attacker wins, he may choose a special card of his choice, if the defender wins, he may draw an item card. Defenders win on ties. Here are my changes after game play: -Cut stats on charcters from: [Fight, Quickness, Charisma, Luck] to [Attack, Defend, Skill] -Now there are 2 sets of dice to roll: Blue die have the probability of 2/6 successes Red die have the probability of 3/6 successes Edited each weapon, item, and action card to make it fit with these new dice. -Changed all events to how you succeed/fail. Instead of needing a set number of success to pass you need only 1 success. -Made Special Items in their own deck now. -Special Items are now face up. I have been thinking about making the game be set in the future, idea given to me by Sean, and have android players how can have special andriod items, and special human items. Mix the game up a bit, but before I jump to that I want to have successful game mechanics. As for Choas, the MOBA I have been working on, I have not had a chance to edit the Game Doc. But have been making drastic changes to make the game player more PvP. Here is the game doc so far: http://avd373.aisites.com/Portfolio/Game%20Design/Chaos.html -I shrank the map to a smaller size -Outpost do not attack unless upgraded -There are more outpost around the map -XP gain was increased As for balancing issues, I will address those later. I have been attempting a way to fix spawning units, but will continue scripting. As for Left 4 Dead 2: LockDown, I finsihed the entire layout on paper. I have half of the level created already, but have not had a chance to work on it. My laptop can not run L4D, and I have been home in Granite Bay for a family emergency so I have only been able to work on my laptop. I will hopefully have a FRAPS of it Monday night. So far the pacing is quite fast, because of the tight quarters, and short hallways. I think I am going to have to expand every hall double its length. And I am trying to prevent the "I can just run through the entire level with an auto-snipe or axe and GG" Because I have only recently learned Steam, I have been learning more and more so I may advance my level to a L4D playable standard. What I want to accomplish is a basic layout of the Level. As more my At War project, I have been learning Python scripting and trying to add more and more to the game I made last quarter. It was suppose to be a game where you are a soldier trying to get through the beach front to the other side. During your journey you are attack by enemies and gunners. Through the multi-level trenches, bomber planes swoop down and drop bombs down your path. Well it is nothing like that what so ever. I had a guy pushing sandbags up a screen while dodging enemy sad faces. During the break I took what I made a made a basic level, with a guy who can shoot, and falling enemies that hit you. This weekend I ended implementing: -a random level generator -2 power-ups: Tri-Shot Life bonus -Enemies have health that deplete -UI now has: Scoring system, Lives left, and enemies on screen Anyways I wish I worked more on my projects, just had to help my family out. Hopefully Monady I can bust somethings out quick before Tuesday. -V