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ShadowHawk posted:How much of 3d modelling is photogrammetry of physical objects these days vs pure computer designs? I'd say most realistic-styled games use at least some photogrammetry these days, be it full object scanning or material scanning. Some games like the Battlefront and Battlefield series games as well as RDR2 use primarily photoscanning, but not many. I haven't heard of any games sculpting miniatures and them scanning those, though, and that's probably for the simple reason that if you're going to make something from scratch in miniature just to digitize it, you might as well just make it digitally from the get go! The only photoscanning that really goes on is digitizing things and materials that already exist in the world, and even that is limited because you need to build a team and procure equipment and then you need to physically travel to the stuff you want to scan, or have the things shipped to you. It makes more sense for a series like Battlefront since they could just go to Skywalker Ranch and scan all of the actual on-screen miniatures that already exist or go to the actual old filming locations and scan poo poo there. The other digitizing that goes on even more than environment and prop assets, of course, is human scanning, and that happens a TON on realistic games. Between scanning people's faces, expressions, and bodies and performance capture, a huge majority of that info is captured from irl sources, again especially for realistic styled games. Now, that said, I think there's a cool potential for a game to make the stylistic choice to build and scan miniatures, but that would be doing extra work to achieve a unique visual style.
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Jan 5, 2019 06:18
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Gerblyn posted:Aren't most miniatures first modelled in a CAD program before manufacture, though? So you'd go Digital -> 3D print -> Digital? Yeah, nowadays most toy/miniatures are all done in 3d digital first, 3d printed, and then molds cast from there. Also Mortal Kombat and the like derived character sprites from photos of costumed models. That's basically like 16 bit performance capture, right? 
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Jan 5, 2019 15:55
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Hey, thread, I'm starting livestreaming stylized 3D environment art for games again this year, if anyone is interested. I talk about concepts a bit at the beginning, work for a while, and then I'll probably start doing some kind of critique/feedback at the end. https://www.twitch.tv/mutatedjellyfish https://instagram.com/mutatedjellyfish/
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Jan 9, 2019 04:21
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Whether or not that happens depends on a lot of factors but it begins and ends with whether or not the IP holders even WANT to license their IP at all. I see this on Wikipedia, though : "Towards the turn of the 21st century, the Carmen Sandiego property passed through a series of five corporate hands: Broderbund (1985-1997), The Learning Company (1998), Mattel (1999), The Gores Group (2000), and Riverdeep (2001–present). Subsequent acquisitions and mergers of Riverdeep led to the franchise currently being in the possession of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. For the next 15 years, the series would become mostly dormant despite a few licenced games. In 2017, soon after Netflix commissioned an animated show based on the property, HMH hired Brandginuity to reboot Carmen Sandiego through a licensing program built around the show and the franchise as a whole including toys, games, and apparel.[6] HMH Productions, established in 2018, is currently the content incubator, production company, and brand manager of Carmen Sandiego and has three Netflix projects in the works: season 1 of an animated show (January 2019), an animated interactive special (Late 2019), and a live-action film.[7] The 30th anniversary of the first Carmen Sandiego Day took place on January 8th, 2019. " So it looks like they're planning on taking a crack at it at some point, but I bet whether or not those other things happen hinge on how good the Netflix show goes. Out of all of the things they could do, though, game dev is probably the most risky financially. IP licensing can be a fraught path, though, as we're seeing with Star Wars.
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Feb 2, 2019 05:55
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RazzleDazzleHour posted:What's the demand like for 3D modelers/animators? I feel like there's a million concept artists out there and I started using Maya recently and it's pretty fun Demand for 3d artists varies by emphasis where environment artists are always in a steady mid-level demand and character artist jobs are harder to come by. Animation jobs pop up often enough but it seems to me like those are harder to land since the quality bar for entry is higher than other 3d artist jobs.
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Feb 18, 2019 19:01
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There's more talk and more of it out in the open than I've ever seen in my almost 10 years in games. I don't think the layoffs and the abuse are happening more frequently necessarily but they are happening bigger, more visibly, and for stupider reasons. There's definitely chatter online about it and the kids coming from game dev school programs are more likely to be carrying that with them too. We'll see what happens at GDC this year and what kind of press it gets, I think that will be telling as to where we're at, but it is absolutely going to be a huge process here in the states.
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Feb 19, 2019 08:45
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I'm not gonna speak to much of that except that I agree that about now is the time that organizers need to shift into education mode and start rolling out solid platforms and practical data.
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Feb 21, 2019 00:02
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This is also a good resource for general salary research. Search by company and sort by title. Big companies will yield more results: https://h1bdata.info/
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Feb 21, 2019 03:37
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It's generally true across the board that your salary will go up much much faster by switching companies than by working your way up at a single company.
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Feb 21, 2019 22:08
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A majority of devs use Maya these days. I'd recommend against learning 3dsmax. If you get into a decent school in a hub that feeds into large studios then school can be an ok place for getting a foot in the door, but that's a big if. Given your fundamentals and relatively affordable current location, my advice would be similar to the above: dig in, take out a small loan (if possible/necessary, sub-$10k) to refresh your hardware, get the software you need, and buy some quality online training and professional mentoring and build up your portfolio in-place. Once you have some qualities work that seems to be well received, then hit GDC for interviews.
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Feb 26, 2019 04:21
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Hyper Crab Tank posted:Nah. But if you're going to start learning from scratch, might as well learn the more likely one to be immediately useful, right? Was gonna post literally this. At the end of the day, most companies will be happy to give you allowances for learning new software, but everyone's gotta start with something. The only time I've seen a software package come into play in hiring decisions is when the company needs someone FOR A THING RIGHT NOW GOTTA HIT THE GROUND RUNNING, but that's fairly rare.
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Feb 26, 2019 17:55
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Obviously there are lots of case-by-case discussions to be had about lots of grey areas. Lots of people are happy to do X thing by choice. But one of the factors in play is that for any individual to participate in exploitative or abusive behaviors even by choice (or even against the wishes of management!) is to move the needle towards normalization of those behaviors. Norms shift and become expectations. "Well Bob sleeps under his desk to work here, I'm just sayin'!" Etc. Like, I have no issue with people doing the thing that makes the dream work for them. I've done some stuff like that in my career. But in my opinion, it's weird and not normal and not really valid in a general-advice setting. Devs get dinged enough without us doing it to each other.
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Mar 5, 2019 03:54
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Sounds good let's move on choo chooooo! 
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Mar 5, 2019 04:23
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Yeah, I was gonna suggest the old idtech stuff since those are sufficiently retro but also open source.
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Mar 7, 2019 22:45
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Yeah all of that sounds like a dream. I have a defacto mobile health care benefit insofar as we get our insurance through my wife's employer which is extremely stable. It makes a HUGE difference, especially with kids. I've been laid off twice, worked a year of freelance, and was just generally able to make more decisions for better reasons since our health care is decoupled from my employment.
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Apr 15, 2019 02:31
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Also: feel free to ask for elaborations other follow ups to previous questions!
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Apr 27, 2019 02:29
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That depends... What, in your opinion, is EA doing to games?
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Jun 2, 2019 03:26
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Hand placing rocks and shrubs on a 100 sq mile empty map can go away, no problem.
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Jun 8, 2019 15:46
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Companies want people to work for peanuts. Don't take the bait and pitch them your real rates and say no thanks when they inevitably offer you half.
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Jun 25, 2019 17:19
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cubicle gangster posted:I think you are underestimating the number of people who will take a paycut because they think 9 months of 'sacrifice' on a AAA title will benefit their career in the long run. Oh, I'm not I assure you, which is why I'll shout the above advice from the rooftops forever and ever. Even looking at it selfishly, it's in my best interest that everyone else demands a fair wage too.
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Jun 26, 2019 19:27
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I have gotten paid my full rate plenty of times. Always ask for your full rate. Do what you have to do, but you can also say no to clients. You can even laugh a little when they offer you their ridiculous, offensively low rates.
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Jul 5, 2019 04:57
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That's fair, but salary or rates also depend on context. Junior or senior roles, my software/hardware or the client's, on site or remote, geographical location and cost of living, for example, all contribute to pricing a rate. GENERALLY speaking, though, a contractor (in the US, at least) should charge twice what they would make in an equivalent position as a salaried employer since they're on the hook for self-employment taxes, overhead, health insurance, etc. As a contractor/freelancer you're running a business so you need to be acting like a business and factoring for overhead and expenses, etc. NOW, yeah, this probably means companies will laugh at you and they're wrong. You'll also lose cool clients. You'll also have to work outside of the games industry. You're also free to negotiate downward from time to time, but hopefully you can do that in exchange for something else like a high profile client or a cool project. You may also live in an area or situation that is so expensive that you can't afford to be a freelancer full time. But you should always ask for your full rate. Here's a rate calculator that takes some of those things into effect. (Save a copy to your own Google Drive to edit the values): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XrsFYPUCNDa1ykUyHCzW2EkjDQiigKyGAl_JPb5RVEs/edit#gid=0
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Jul 5, 2019 17:02
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Stick100 posted:FYI you can get Senior devs in most non-San Fran/Seatle/New York US markets for ~$60/hour most mids are happy with $40/hour. These are not good rates. Everyone at these levels should charge above these rates.
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Jul 13, 2019 06:17
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I'm sure companies can find contractors for those rates but those rates are bad if you're on a 1099. What I'm saying is contractors need to he asking for more. W-2s account a bit differently, though. I work primarily remote from Salt Lake City as a senior level 3d artist on 1099s and ask for and get rates higher than $60/hr and I'm not "the best of the best" or whatever. I'm also just an artist so if you're an engineer you should be asking for more as well. You can negotiate downward, of course, and I often do, but plenty of companies just don't want to pay fair rates and I'm happy to not have to deal with them as clients. Some teams are indie or small and just don't have any budget, which I understand too. I don't blame them for not being able to match full rates. On the other hand, I have 2 kids and a mortgage so while I wish them well, if their passion project isn't also my passion (and even if it is!) I have to wish them well and move on. mutata fucked around with this message at 17:07 on Jul 14, 2019 |
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Jul 14, 2019 16:39
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Stick100 posted:Yeah those were W-2 rates working for an agency rate so more like ~$100-~$150/hr 1099. Ah, gotcha! Understood. Yeah, that washes with my math, too.
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Jul 14, 2019 20:01
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Disney Infinity used an in-house engine that had it's own node based scripting system.
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Jul 25, 2019 16:18
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I've always signed an employment contract, they just have always had the at-will garbage denoted in them (along with all other info like salary and benefits and such). I've definitely signed an agreement every time though.
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Jul 31, 2019 15:35
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Not really? Contracts are contracts signed by both employer and employee before work begins.
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Aug 3, 2019 22:40
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Ah, fair enough. Yeah the US is bad in this regard. 
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Aug 5, 2019 07:58
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When people take these deals, though, the only(!!) thing Epic asks for in return is times EGS exclusivity so there presumably won't be any Steam keys to generate as they won't be on that store until exclusivity ends.
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Aug 6, 2019 19:11
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Rage Gamers are out of order and gross, but plenty of Indies have accepted similar deals and handled it WAAAAY better than the Ooblets people have. Their announcement and subsequent back and forth absolutely made things infinitely worse for themselves and others. Tim Sweeny also escalated the situation for no reason. This particular situation is a quagmire of bad and no one is being healthy about it.
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Aug 6, 2019 19:40
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Discendo Vox posted:There's not real parity between what the devs or Sweeney did and what Gamers Rising Up are doing to them, though. You're right, and just to be clear, I never claimed (nor will I ever claim) there was parity. I only said that the way they handled things actively made the response worse and has made the entire Toxic Gamer Tribalism situation worse. Edit: If a year from now I'm reading an article all about how in retrospect this was the right way to go about it, then I'll happily eat crow, though. mutata fucked around with this message at 22:16 on Aug 6, 2019 |
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Aug 6, 2019 22:12
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Discendo Vox posted:Sorry, I'm hypersensitive to it because so much oxygen is spent on the right way for the devs to speak, versus really digging into the preexisting, root cause Toxic Gamer Tribalism. That's fair. Personally, that's a big takeaway for me because that's a thing I can actually control and apply to my life. It's obviously a really gross state and affects lots of innocent people. That said, I see a strata of folks in enraged group. Some are hornets looking to sting and further cement for themselves a gross, wrong, and dangerous worldview that makes them feel powerful. Others, though, are merely customers who don't understand the practical reasons for making such a move and why they're being inconvenienced. Some are literally just Steam fanboys who are loyal to a brand. There are others, obviously. I have a couple reasons for bringing up the behavior of the devs in particular. One, I can expect and rely on this behavior from the hornets in the group. They will always be there doing this for the foreseeable future and I don't have much to say other than gently caress that poo poo forever and ever. Two, I think it is super important to this overall situation to not convert more people into the hornets group. Coming out swinging at your own customers communicates pretty clearly that you consider them an enemy first. At the very best, it is perceived as some kind of posturing challanege or attack and these people will naturally feel slighted and they will naturally seek out others who feel the same and, yeah, the Gaters will happily welcome them into their ranks. Once they feel a shared experience with that group I believe they will be much more susceptible to other things they have to say. So I don't advocate good PR for the sake of the assholes who are going to be toxic no matter what. gently caress them. I do have concerns that coming out swinging like this makes things worse in the short-, medium-, and long-term. As good as it feels to post poo poo like the Ooblets guy did and like Sweeny did, in my opinion, it only ever makes things worse. It's counterproductive. It's toxic in its own right and it plays so very easily into the toxic story lines.
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Aug 6, 2019 22:59
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That depends on what you're being targeted for, but in the instance of an indie studio cutting the EGS deal, I know companies in the past have had success with (A) Clearly explaining why they're making the deal, including the financial reasons, survival reasons, "the end result will be a better game than without this funding", etc. Basically telling the truth. (B) Trying their best to do right by previous statements (re Patreon or Steam preorders or Kickstarter rewards, etc) or barring that, at least specifically acknowledging them. (C) State the updated current plan for production and release reiterating platform, dates, and pricing (if applicable). (D) Ignore the vocal minority and move on as there's nothing more to say about it. Personally, I've also been interested in finding some PR training or training materials. If ever I decided to strike out with an indie project, I think I would find some kind of professional training in that regard before running into a situation like this. Like I said, it depends on why you're being targeted by the Assholes, though. If you're just out on Twitter saying opinions like everyone else and the Eye of Sauron shifts its gaze to you randomly, then I don't know what to do about that other than going dark is certainly an option. If you're running a business online, though, it's my opinion that you DEFINITELY need policies and plans for PR and social media, whether you're an individual running a single-person project or if you're a company. I think that's just the reality of the current landscape. An indie dev can still have a personal, personable public face and cultivate that online following that's so important while still adhering to plans and policies. From what I've observed, winging it is dangerous. mutata fucked around with this message at 23:46 on Aug 6, 2019 |
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Aug 6, 2019 23:28
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Edit: You know what, nevermind! I already said my thing up above. I was just (probably obnoxiously) restating things.
mutata fucked around with this message at 05:16 on Aug 7, 2019 |
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Aug 7, 2019 05:09
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Yeah, there's for sure multiple angles to take, but none of them are really meant to change anyone's mind, especially those who are already ready to rage. Whatever statement you make should be straightforward and provide you a statement to point to and say "Here's the reason, we have no further comment." Or better yet, make the statement and then just move on to posting about the game again. mutata fucked around with this message at 18:56 on Aug 8, 2019 |
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Aug 8, 2019 18:52
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Sounds like it's time to move on from this particular topic. Regardless of what's been discussed, though, the Rage Culture Mouthbreathers are out of order and need to shut the gently caress up. No team of devs deserve death threats or disgusting harassment for any reason.
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Aug 8, 2019 20:59
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I've been working remote for the past couple years and guess what: It's very possible and work gets done just fine!
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Aug 12, 2019 18:43
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Anyone who starts a company in a major metro area and cannot pay them a reasonable liveable wage is unethical. Also they're going to go out of business.
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Aug 13, 2019 00:21
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It's a shame that they're desperately trying to turn the Salt Lake City metro area into a silicon valley step child because man it was super reasonable here for a good long while.
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Aug 24, 2019 09:05
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