Tutorial Series

Ooh, sounds interesting - what sort of topic(s) would be covered?

Well, that is in part why I wanted to ask if people were interested. Figured we could start off with the basics of shape, move into lighting, and then finish up with some color theory. Once we got the basics in place we could work on "topics" people wanted.

• Pixel Art
• 2d art
• Vector art
• Concept art
• 3d Art
• Hand Painted Textures
• Texturing of assets
• Optimization of Assets

And any other topics people might have/want to cover.

I might be wrong here, but I think the majority of people in the gamedev forums are mainly programmers, so the very, very, VERY basics might be a good theme to cover :P.

But yeah, count me in, I'm very interested.

please do... would be v interested

I might be wrong here, but I think the majority of people in the gamedev forums are mainly programmers, so the very, very, VERY basics might be a good theme to cover .

I support this approach.

As coder I think that there's a gap between common programmer art and professional art, which I would like to see filled. There are other communities which have a strong art focus and already cover most common styles (eg. retro pixel art, professional 3d art etc.) and I too think, that gamedev community have a lot more coders on board than artists. I would like a simple approaches to get some decent art on my screen and not some hi-end art tutorials which requires several years of dedication in the art department or some of the expensive tools (maya,max,photoshop).

So I vote for advanced programmer art

Hello. I'm new here at gamedev. I think it will be better for the theme to be BASICS for people who need to know a lot of things. That's just my opinion.

Sounds like a plan. I will write up some introduction stuff and make the first video this weekend. Thanks for the comments guys.

You should defiantly do one on how to talk to a coder, so your vision of, I don't know...cloud placement, can come to light

Hm... that can be a mid season segment! lolol

Yes yes yes! Visual arts & programming is my favourite crossover, I'd love to see some tutorials on this stuff.

Could animated art be involved. I'd like to see some stuff on 2d and/or 3d particle systems, drawing some complicated digital animations, and coding advanced 3d shaders (like dynamic reflections etc).

I could bring some of my primitive self taught knowledge to the table too. As I've brought some hand-drawn pictures and animations to life through code.

A lot of those topics are great. I have noted them and will start working at what we should cover and when. We want to start with the most basic and work out way up. This way we have a solid foundation to work from. Thanks for the ideas guys!

It would be very cool and useful, please do!

Sounds good...

Are you going to upload to YouTube like the "WoA II" journals ?

Because I generally don't watch videos online, I download them first and then go over them as needed

A big +1 from me!

I always like to learn something new, and as a "programer artist" :) I am always happy to learn something from real artists.

As an advanced "programer artist" I would not only like to see basics, but also more advanced topics. Of course I know that gamedev is mainly populated by programmers, and there is always polycount and communities like that for the pro artist stuff...

But often these communities deal with very specific, professional grade topics, that often are a little bit too advanced for me (I will have to do some google research on my own to be able to follow the topic). Now I am not lazy or something like that, but some intermediary tutorials would also be good.

If its not too much to ask, how about trying to make every tutorial a two-section thing: a longer section introducing a topic to beginners, step by step, and a shorter section that will show you advanced stuff, in a less step by step fashion.

That way, beginenrs who have mastered the first part can then move on to the advanced section to further improve their skills, while more advanced artists might skip the first part and see if they can still learn something from the advanced section.

As an example:

- Tutorial about rigging skinned meshes

-> Basic section shows you step by step how to rig your character in blender

-> Advanced section deals in a much shorter form with topics like differences in rigging workflow between blender and other tools (if you don't use blender or want to move to another tool), rigging a character with clothing or armour, rigging and using Inverse Kinematics, and so on

This might now be too much to cover in a weekly basis, and might be spread over a month or so. You could do the basic part over 3 weeks, and release the more advanced topics in the fourth week.

Personally I am pretty much interested in everything, both 3D and 2D. I just love to learn something new. What would be especially useful to me (As I am not that knowledgable in these topics):

- Rigging, Animation of skinned meshes

- How to animate Clothing, armour and other parts attached to skinned meshes

- New technologies, and how they could be used in existing engines and tools (I recently saw a trailer about a new Autodesk Product, were they use "stress-maps" for things like wrinkles during facial animation, or folds in clothing... I immidiatly knew that I need to get something like that working in Unity! Maybe not in this project, but this seems to be a very powerful technique with little overhead, if the shader is clever enough)...

Well, the last one is maybe too technical, but there is also the artistic side to it, how to use the stress maps to get convincing effects from it.

Either way, I am very excited to see what you coe up with... bring it on!

@ryan I could provide a downloadable version... i dont see a reason why not

@Gian I agree for the most part with everything you said. I can certainly spend some time making mid level topics as well. While making these tutorials I will do my best to focus on all areas that it might be viewed from. Keep in mind that While I am an experienced artist I am by no means the end all be all of things. There are thousands of ways to skin the same cat when it comes to game art. I will simply be showing off the things that work best for me and what I have learned throughout my time.

As for animation/rigging. I can go in depth with this as well since this is an area I have had to deal with A LOT as of late.

@Gian I agree for the most part with everything you said. I can certainly spend some time making mid level topics as well. While making these tutorials I will do my best to focus on all areas that it might be viewed from. Keep in mind that While I am an experienced artist I am by no means the end all be all of things. There are thousands of ways to skin the same cat when it comes to game art. I will simply be showing off the things that work best for me and what I have learned throughout my time.

As for animation/rigging. I can go in depth with this as well since this is an area I have had to deal with A LOT as of late.

It is always good to see other peoples workflows and what works for them, not matter what their skill level is. You can always pick up a thing or two. Usually I only have to ask other people if I get stuck somewhere, sometimes doing that I learn an extremly useful feature that helps me way beyond my original problem.

And even after using at tool for years, there might be still a ton of beginner level knowledge you haven't pick up because, you know, never needed it, never read the user manual...

So I am sure everyone will be able to get something out of such a tutorial series. Maybe it might even get other people interested in doing guest tutorials from time to time?

And if not, if it only broadens the view of some expierienced artists, helps some beginners along and maybe gets one or two programmers to try creating some art, that is also cool.

Anyway, looking forward to it.

Some traditional work with pencil to get started. The fundamentals to build on for a stepping stone to everything else. Not sure if any of this will really happen. But we will see.

Worked on getting all the topics we discussed in place. I will be aiming to have this video up and going by next weekend. We might need to change it from weekly to bi-weekly for the first few since I am in the process of moving.