|
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
Dev: pestibug
Position: character / level modeler and concept / texture artist
Stardate… *shoots Picard* ….Pestiblog 9
New week, new blog, and what an exciting week this has been, I’ve been working on some amazing stuff.! This will blow the top of your skull once you see it! Sadly, you won’t see it now, yes, yes it’s again a ‘Don’t show ‘em anything or we’ll hang you by your figgins!’ situation. So it means I’ll have to try to entertain you with one of my freestyle ramblings (Oh the humanity of it all. Send complaints to TCOS).
So, right that was the introductory, and I actually do have a topic, yes, communication. You read it right, now, why would I want to write about that then you might wonder. Well, because communication is KEY for making sure a project like this runs smoothly. Very important that people understand what’s going on, what has to be done and when.
One of the people who does that is our beloved Lead Environment Naj-Treb.
This guy excels (the program) his way trough the planning and makes sure we have unrealistic deadlines so we’ll exhaust ourselves to death trying to get it all finished in time. Well, no wait; actually he does a really good job at it.
Anyway aside from that he also oversees the whole level art stuff. Which means, I deal with him on a daily basis (no worries, the company refunds my therapy costs for this).
So, back to communication, imagine:
Naj-treb: Yo bug, here’s the new stuff ya gotta do. Build some of this for this level, make sure it all fits and stuff. Ummm, oh yeah make it sexy too and finish it on time.
Pestibug: Yes, of course, any specific things I should pay attention to?
Naj-Treb: Oh not really, just pay attention to this one door here *flashes some stuff on screen*
Pestibug: Alright, see ya in two weeks babe!
Right, off I am with concepts and this detailed description. At home I crank open 3Dmax, Photoshop and start slaving away to make sure everything will turn out perfect. Many, many hours, tears, blood, sweat and other better not named stuff go into this. Then it’s time for the update, so back I go, show my stuff. We talk a bit about it, and then I go back home again. But not before Naj-Treb mentions I shouldn’t forget that door. It should be used to close off sections randomly. So, once at home I start to build it.
This big, beautiful, huge door. I mean this thing is the holy grail of my work so far. I know, once people see this in game they’ll stop playing, start to cry and call their mothers to tell them how they much they miss them and how sorry they are for not calling them sooner. (Well, it’s what I did when I saw it finished.)
The terrible Door of doom, version 1
But back at the office, what do I hear?
WRONG DOOR… Amazing, how do I do it? I picked the bloody wrong part of the level to build this amazing door for! So, once again Naj-treb points me out that I should stop playing silly buggers and shows me the actual proper mesh I should base the door on (bah, he didn’t even cry a little over my beautiful door.). I print this image on my retina so I won’t forget and go home to redo it.
Luckily, at home I see it’s not that bad. Some scaling, cutting, tweaking (a day’s work basically) and it should all fit in the proper mesh. Right then, that being said and done I marvel at my work. Nothing is lost, it even looks better this way and Naj-Treb will be happy! After that I go on, finish up some other stuff feeling content and pleased it all turned out well. But little do I know….
Because, as soon as I’m back in the office showing Naj-Treb the file he says: Dude… You took the bloody wrong mesh again!
Now, I couldn’t believe this. ‘Look, I said, it’s the same pillars at what you showed me, it all fits so what’s wrong?
Naj-Treb: One word. Custom pillars
Door of Doom version 2. Argh! Still wrong!
I don’t remember what happened after that. All I know I woke up again on the couch we have at the office. No one cared to explain, so I went home to work on the next project for this week. Guess what?
It’s another door…
(On a final note, it appears I took a mesh that was custom but looked deviously the same as what Naj-Treb showed me. Apparently he fixed my mistake but pulling around a single vertex, two millimeters to the right.)
This week’s music sample: Sneaker pimps! Atari Teenage Riot, Amon Tobin |
 |
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
