Other games
1999 - 2004
I was fortunate enough to work on many games from pinball simulations through shoot'em ups to tactical shooters. Unfortunately most of them got canned after a while (and I can't show ingame shots due NDA limitations). Nonetheless I learned a proper workflow which made level and game design work easier as well as content creation.
The first step is always a plan of the map I want to make, like these:
Rendering a flyby (like this) is useful if the game engine is not in the condition to run the game even with standin assets. (The numbered pins in the animation indicate key events/objectives.)
After the basic structure of a level is defined, the next task is placing stand-ins of the most critical objects and implement gameplay. I love to experiment with stuff at this early stage of the map, because I can really focus on gameplay.
The workflow is similar when I'm making art assets. Although I'm not so great drawing freehand, but I still used to sketch up things like this spaceship for a sidescroller:
Modelling is the easier part.
When it comes to texturing I like trying out new methods. Back in 2000, when surface baking wasn't common practice I made a script which turned a UV into actual geometry. I put details to the geometry, rendered it and tweaked in photoshop.
Which looked like this on the actual model:
Of course making art assets is not just about texturing solid objects: making special effects is a very interesting task. In UnrealEd testing particle textures and tweaking emitters are easy. Sometimes we need fancy dynamic effects like in MetaBall:
Other times the challenge lies in making a rich but efficient foliage:
I used to model and texture objects in Lightwave and Modo, but moving art assets to 3DS Max and Maya is no problem. I used 3DS Max primarily as a level editor. I designed a series of max script system which turned 3DS Max into a quite sophisticated, specialised level editor. In Lightwave I did the design and the implementation as well.
Good ol' times... Finally here is a building I modelled back in 2001.
And no, I can't explain the reflective ground. :)