Breakfast’s top tip: make 3d models of your creations out of plasticine or similar- makes it much easier to work out how they are supposed to look in virtual space if you can see them in physical space.
Possibly ot, but I feel it is quite handy…
[quote]Breakfast’s top tip: make 3d models of your creations out of plasticine or similar- makes it much easier to work out how they are supposed to look in virtual space if you can see them in physical space.
Possibly ot, but I feel it is quite handy…
[/quote]
:). Another technique that works for some people is to start with an architect’s (orthographic) projection - i.e. draw a “shadow” of the thing you want to model, then build the rest of it up from that 2D reference. This can help a lot with maintaining relative proportions.
Obviously, you need to pick a projection (or several) that lie along characteristic axes. E.g. for a horse, you would typically make a slice running the length of it’s body, to get a “side-on” view. Then you might rotate 90 degrees and do a slice perpendicular.
There is a long tradition in art of roughly sketching out the “bulk” of the thing you want to draw/paint and then using that as a proportion-guide to actually start again and draw/paint on top. e.g. works well with charcoal drawings.
[quote]IMHO and IME it’s not particularly tough at all, it’s simply time-consuming.[…]
[/quote]
“There aren’t impossible tasks, there are only impossible deadlines.”
Well, coming up with a design/layout/style, wich is really somewhat new is hard work. The stuff from designers republic for example - recreating some of their stuff could be done within several minutes in your favorite vector programm. But could you create something similar brilliant?
Recreating existing things isn’t that tough - that’s true. Building a car in 3d is just crafting… buy, y’know, coming up with something totally new’n’catchy is really hard. Your high iq won’t help you much with those things.
Long story short… pixelart isn’t about clicking with your mouse, modelling isn’t about adding points/edges and programming isn’t about typing 
[quote]Another technique that works for some people is to start with an architect’s (orthographic) projection - i.e. draw a “shadow” of the thing you want to model, then build the rest of it up from that 2D reference. This can help a lot with maintaining relative proportions.
[/quote]
That is phase 2 of my milkshaping technique - I create a model in plasticine then photograph it from several different projection type angles with my digital camera and then use those pictures as backdrops for the different projection views in milkshape. It is quite easy to do but you have to be prepared to dedicate a lot of time to it.
When it comes down to it, that’s pretty much the important thing about games programming - and almost everything else in life - you really have to put the time in if you’re going to get a good result. That is more important than intelligence, platform, language, 3d api used and whatever else.
[quote]Breakfast’s top tip: make 3d models of your creations out of plasticine or similar- makes it much easier to work out how they are supposed to look in virtual space if you can see them in physical space.
[/quote]
What is plasticine :-[ ???
And where can you buy it (I assume it’s rather cheap?) :-/ ??
Thanks.
Plasticine is kind of cheap kids modelling clay. Kind of like playdough - you can probably find it’s equivalent in most craft shops, along with the kind of pointed and edged sticks that are handy for sculpting detail on it.
i had a friend like him. Tho he was into Flash. lets face it, productivity in flash is alot higher than in Java. So I set him and myself a challenge.
Make a simple space invaders game, same features, same graphics. have 2 computers side by side, and start coding, who ever finishes first wins!
try that out for luck. I bet you would have already finished the aliens movements before he has a window up!
Edit: Hes now the biggest java fan around!
But C++ IS slow. Optimizing macro ASM is MUCH better. The problem is different processor architectures.
The problem with C++ is different processor architectures. Actually this is a problem in a lesser way (theoretically), but much more ugly one.