A Grainy View

A 24 year old guy from Eastern Finland, aspiring to become a professional 3D Game Artist. Currently working as a lecturer at the Oulu University of Applied Sciences. This blog is mainly for my 3D-models, photos, drawings, game projects and such.

[agrainyview]

I just finished this project I've been working on basically for over a year, on&off because of work etc... You can take a look at my progress at my Polycount sketchbook. So, It’s a likeness study of Adam Savage (Mythbusters), in the form of an “antique” bust. If you want to take a closer look, there are more beauty shots in my portfolio at tapioterava.com, and here’s a Sketchfab link: skfb.ly/6A9zP I really wanted to finish this by 15th of July, because that's Adam's birthday, but in the end couldn't quite make it, and even managed to get myself a bit burned out a couple nights ago, due to not sleeping enough and staying up +24h.... But I guess it's better late than never. I sculpted the model in Mudbox, mostly because when I started, I was working on school computers and I only had access to that (student license). I used 3ds Max for some tasks, creating some base meshes for example, and finally for retopology and UV mapping. The model was textured in Substance Painter. I think I'm still going to make a 3D printable version of the mesh, I'll probably do that in ZBrush since it's just way better than Mudbox. Also, was thinking of making a version with a bronze material, but we'll see.

[agrainyview]

I’ve recently created myself a new Portfolio website, tapioterava.com, and repurposed my old portfolio into a “Personal website”, d4psa.com. And since my contract with OUAS ended at the beginning of June, I’ve also had some time to start working on new content for my portfolio! Currently I’m finishing up a likeness study I started way back in June last year, after which I’ll move on to something else. In the picture above you can see my current working setup - it’s a DIY standing desk, made out of a stereo cabinet and some cardboard boxes :D Not the most elegant setup, but it does the job for now - I did order a portable laptop desk to replace the cardboard boxes, so I can put the keyboard, mouse, and the laptop under the Cintiq, so the whole thing takes up less space and is hopefully a bit safer :D I do still have my desktop PC as well, but I thought that it’ll be good for me to at least work while standing, since I do sit on my computer a lot even when I’m not working. Also the desktop PC is kind of getting old, and tends to get sluggish and glitchy with all the programs running in the background, plus the several monitors I have attached to it.

[agrainyview]

As I’ve been working for the Oulu Game LAB and the OUAS for the past year or so, I’ve been giving lectures on game graphics to the OGL and Pelifarmi students.

Last week I gave a lecture on “Photoshop Workflow Optimization”, for which I created this little Photoshop exercise as an example project. The images above are not modified from photographs, neither are they 3D renders - they were made almost entirely with Photoshop effects, like gradients, blending modes, adjustment layers, and layer styles.The exercise was made using non-destructive techniques, and the file is very customizable, since it is structured so that each component of the image can be easily modified, from the shading and colors of the ball, to the color of the lighting, etc. Here’s a link to the Google Slides presentation of the lecture: https://goo.gl/QS3kkp On the last slide of the presentation there is a link to the .PSD file, and an overview video of it.

[agrainyview]

Ok, so here is my thesis, which I finally finished last week: http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2017060111819 And here is a link to the thesis presentation, which gives you a compact overview of the thesis without having to read it through (it’s very long): http://goo.gl/k4nRj7

I aimed to make the thesis so that it would give the reader a complete picture of the whole process of making 3D game characters, and the different workflows used for different types of games. I tried to write it in a way that even a person who is not familiar with game development could understand it, and so that it might actually be helpful for any aspiring game artists.

I started working on the thesis in 2015, so it has taken me quite a long time to finish it - lets just say I had a lot of motivational issues, and procrastination is a bitch. I did also have other stuff to do though, like other courses to attend, and the non-military service which I’m currently performing, but those are not really the actual reasons for the delay. I was originally going to make a case study for the thesis, but eventually ran out of time. The case study would have been that minotaur character, which I planned to make into a finished game model using current generation techniques like PBR texturing. I think I’m going to finish it now during the summer, to get some new content for my portfolio.

So I’ll be graduating on 22nd of June, and I’m still continuing the non-military service at Oulu Game LAB until the end of the year. Though after I’ll get some new stuff in my portfolio, I’m going to start applying for jobs at game companies - hopefully I’ll be able to start working at a cool company straight after my service in 2018.

[agrainyview]

Here are some pictures of the poster and advertisement campaign I did for the Oulu Game LAB application period.

The first picture is the original poster, which we ordered 50 A3 copies of from a local printing service. I personally went around Oulu to post those posters on different OAMK campuses, as well as the University of Oulu. I also made info-TV variants of the poster, which were rotating around on big info-TV screens at all the OAMK campuses, and then some variants for the social media sites. We had some troubles with the OAMK bureaucracy, since the advertising material didn’t properly match the OAMK brand guidelines, but we managed to get that fixed and finally launched a proper online marketing campaign with a budget of 200€. I also set up conversion tracking for the ads on both Facebook and Twitter.

In the end we got plenty of applicants for the next OGL semester - not necessarily because of these, but I’d guess they at least helped a bit.

[agrainyview]

Loooong time no post!

Ok, So it has been a VERY long time since I last posted here, so I thought I’d write an update on what has been going on in my life. Basically, I started my non-military service (siviilipalvelus) in January, even though I had not yet graduated from my school. The service started with a one month educational period, after which I started performing my service at the Oulu Game LAB in February.

Oulu Game LAB, or OGL for short, is a program of Oulu University of Applied Sciences (OAMK) where students can enter in their third or fourth year of studies, to develop games in small student teams for either half a year, or for a full year. The studies are divided into Demo Path (first 5 months) and Game Path (last 5 months), and the students on the Demo Path go through events called Gates, where they present their game ideas/prototypes/demos, the best of which are allowed to continue until the next Gate, and the members of the discontinued teams are combined into the continuing teams. There are a total of 3 Gates, and the final Gate 3 determines which teams can continue to the Game Path. At the end of Game Path, the teams are encouraged to publish their finished games, or they can continue the development on their own, perhaps by starting up a small start up company.

So what have I been up to there? Well, I’ve mostly been doing odd jobs, organizing things and stuff, helping out where needed, but I’ve also done some event photography and photo editing, and made them a poster and an ad campaign for their application period for next fall’s semester. I’ll put pictures of those in the next post. In addition, I’ve also helped the teams out with their game graphics stuff, and even held a lecture on game graphics, which is one of the reasons why I originally applied here for my non-military service - to teach other people game graphics. The presentation for the game graphics lecture can be found here, if you’re interested: https://goo.gl/3N8930

It has been super cool to do my service at the OGL, and the time has just flown by. The staff and the students have been really nice, and I’ve also had the chance to take part in cool game industry events and parties, and to meet up with people from local game companies, like Fingersoft, Oh, and I’ve also just finished my thesis, so I’ll be graduating on 22nd of June. I’ll make another post of the thesis once it gets properly published online.

[agrainyview]

So the Northern Game Summit is now over, and I had a really good time. I met a lot of awesome people and got to talk about many interesting topics with them. The talks given by the speakers were also very interesting, but unfortunately I missed a couple of the ones I wanted to attend. My 3D printed business cards were also received well, they got a lot of positive reactions from people, and each of the fifteen cards I ordered are now in the hands of some of those awesome people I got to meet. I also gave out four of my old cards from last year’s NGS, mostly to other students. Some of my classmates also simply asked me to show the new cards, since I had posted pictures of them on social media, and they thought they were cool.

And then about the making-of of the business cards. The UPS delivery arrived on Wednesday at two o’clock, so I spent most of the day finishing up the cards. I had to cut the halves out of the frame I made for them, similarly how you would with a miniature model kit. I then made sure the halves attached and detached with each other as intended, and when they didn’t, I had to make some adjustments to the prints with small scissors, cut out some extra plastic and print errors here and there. I also noticed that the papers with my contact info that I had made previously were both too big and too thick, since there were two of them for each card, and they were made out of photo paper. So I ended up doing a quick re-design of them, making them smaller and making the text more readable, and then printed them on regular printing paper, which I then covered with transparent sticky-backed plastic from both sides. I then glued the papers to the “front cover” of the business card, so that the color would show through the logo, and the text would be on the inside. I only had time to make ten of them on Wednesday, so I made the last five on Thursday before heading out to the NGS networking party. All in all, I feel like both the NGS event and my cards were very successful, both in terms of how fun I had, and how many new connections I was able to make. So I’d like to thank the organizers, and everyone who participated, even though I realize there’s a slim chance any of them will read this.

[agrainyview]

This is my new “business card” design I made for this year’s Northern Game Summit. It’s kind of like a coin or a poker chip, about the size of a 2€ coin. It’s made of two interlocking parts, between which I’ll add colored pieces of paper with my contact info printed onto them, so both halves have their own piece, the color showing through the holes in the chip, and the text facing inwards.

Originally I was planning to order 30 pieces (60 halves) of the “cards”, half printed in white plastic and half in black plastic, but with my selection of “UPS Express shipping” the cost of the order became so high that I decided to only order 15 pieces printed in white plastic. However, even though I ordered the more expensive and faster shipping option, Shapeways for some reason accidentally changed it to standard shipping, which means the prints may not be delivered in time, or the delivery may be very close to the actual NGS event... Well, at least they refunded my shipping costs after I notified them of the mistake.

Even if the prints do arrive on time for the event, it’s not exactly assured that the prints have succeeded, or have survived the shipping intact, since some of the engravings were a bit too detailed, making them potentially very fragile, and I’m also not entirely sure if the halves will successfully attach and detach as intended - so it’s still a bit of a gamble.

I’ll make another post once the prints arrive, showing the “finished product”. So let’s hope they’ll be delivered on time and arrive in good condition.

[agrainyview]

Blog theme update + other stuff

Last night I realized my blog theme is still using 400 pixel wide posts, so I decided to go and edit the theme html, so now the post width is 700 pixels. The added width makes all the pretty pictures and other content on my blog display a lot larger than before, so you don’t have to squint your eyes to see them, and you don’t have to click each picture open. It also makes the notorious tumblr reblog chains (like this) at least somewhat readable on my blog, whereas previously it was almost impossible to read the first posts in the chain. This update of course won’t be visible on mobile devices, since my blog uses the default tumblr mobile theme for those.

If you’ve been wondering what I’ve been up to lately, since I haven’t really posted anything for a while, well, mostly I’ve just been working on my thesis, trying to write the theoretical part of it - it’s getting there, although slowly... Other than that, I’ve tried to apply for a place to perform my work duties during my upcoming “civilian service” (Wikipedia), and I’ve finally gotten a positive reply from Oulu Game LAB. So once I get myself a cheap aparment from Oulu, I’ll be moving there somewhere around New Year, and will start working at OGL in February, after the mandatory one-month training period at Lapinjärvi.

Also, the annual Northern Game Summit event is coming up again next week, and I’ll be attending it just like last year. And in preparation for that, last week I designed and 3D modeled myself a new “business card”, and ordered 15 3D prints of it from Shapeways. I’ll be making a separate post about that soon.

[agrainyview]

My Trip To Poland (through Sweden) 2016 - Part #3 Auschwitz & Katowice (Part #1) (Part #2)

[agrainyview]

My Trip To Poland (through Sweden) 2016 - Part #2 Katowice & Krakow (Part #1) (Part #3)

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My Trip To Poland (through Sweden) 2016 - Part #1 Stockholm (Part #2) (Part #3)

[plotsjotsandespressoshots-deact]

Remember in 1993 when Jurassic Park was like…the end all, be all of special effects?

[suicunesrider]

not gonna lie that still looks intimately real

[drtanner-dickery]

I’m still somewhat convinced that someone sold their soul to create the special effects in Jurassic Park because that shit is over 20 years old and it still really, really holds up, better than the stuff in a lot of current movies, even.

Fucking witchcraft, man. 

[fanboyingoverdemigods]

fucking look at this shit though

[mauridianhallow]

Literally see this post flying around with a few different responses added to the bottom each time so I’ll say it for this one myself:

THEY ACTUALLY BUILT A GIANT MASSIVELY DETAILED FUCKING ANIMATRONIC T-REX FOR ALL OF THIS THAT’S WHY THE EFFECTS ARE SO GOOD. CAUSE IT AIN’T CGI. AND IT AIN’T GUY IN A COSTUME. IT’S A BIG FUCKING ROBOT DINOSAUR. AND EVERY PART IS DESIGNED TO MOVE. IT COST LIKE HALF THE BUDGET OF THE FILM.

[mizushimo]

amazing

[shadowthorne]

And they had the film it in small increments, especially in the outdoor scenes, because the rain fall kept soaking into the ‘skin’ of the rex and would slow down and mess up its movements. So they would stop filming and have a crew out there drying off this massive, fake dinosaur, and then they’d start filming again until it was too wet. Repeat until the end of the scene.

[mad-dyspunktional]

They used animatronics and detailed costumes for most if not all of the dinosaurs in the first movie.

The triceratops for instance, was also animatronic.

And the raptors were dudes in suits. I shit you not.

[datneeks]

One of my favorite anecdotes I’ve read on tumblr is how the t-rex robot from Jurassic park would malfunction while it was drying out. How did it malfunction, you might wonder?

Motherfucker randomly started moving.

So apparently if you were on the jp set you would sometimes hear people screaming bloody murder even though they were all well aware that it was a giant animatronic puppet and wouldn’t actually, you know, eat them.

[muck-raker-deactivated20181222]

(link to said post about malfunctioning t-rex)

[agrainyview]

Ok, as a huge fan of the Jurassic Park movies, and a huge-dinosaur-nerd-when-I-was-a-kid, I really appreciate the quality, and the level of skill and craftmanship that went into making these practical effects. They were mostly made by Stan Winston School of Character Arts, and there’s a big Youtube playlist of all the behind the scenes and making of the Jurassic Park, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEXpKda61dg&list=PLw3FQmoG4RtGfxylvr5jGC7aa4mHhEwjF

But, also as an aspiring 3D artist, I have to make it clear that no, not all of the visual effects were practical effects, a lot of the scenes, even some of the most memorable ones, were CGI, (remember the scene where the T-Rex and the Raptor are fighting in the big hall?) which at the time was pretty revolutionary. A couple of engineers at Industrial Light & Magic pioneered the making of realistic CGI animation for Jurassic Park, even though Spielberg had told them not to do CGI (he originally wanted to do stop motion animation, Gah..). And when people saw what could be achieved with CGI, they immediately chose to go with that. And you have to understand this was all new, they basically had to invent how to make realistic looking, animated animals, and they did it on computers that by today’s standards are slow as hell, probably less processing power than your average low/mid-end smart phone. 

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-cgi-works-in-jurassic-park-2014-7?IR=T

So it really pisses me of when people diss on CGI effects in movies, and glorify practical effects. Yes, practical effects have their place, and are important, but so are CGI effects. And both can be overused and done badly - remember the rubbery monsters in 80′s movies, not to mention some of the bad stop motion monsters... So to me, these guys who pioneered CGI for movies are basically living legends, because CGI at that level wasn’t a thing back then, they were the first, and basically invented it (not for JP specifically) and when people saw the results, it was like seeing real magic, and for others in the industry, the tech behind it was like black-magic.

[agrainyview]

This is the website that I mentioned in my earlier post, the one I’ve been making for a school course, and finally finished last night. It’s a Halo 5 player profile / fan website. It’s not published (and probably wont ever be) so here’s a video of how it works.

I’m pretty proud how I got it to scale to different resolutions and aspect ratios so well. I also made all of the background and button graphics myself (so not the logos, obviously, or the “hats”, and not the Halo related stuff like the spartan and the banner). The spartan and the player emblem also update automatically if I change them in-game or at halowaypoint.com.

[agrainyview]

I haven’t worked on actual game graphics or 3D (or my thesis) for a while now, since I’ve had school assignments and courses to do, and also because I’ve become very good at procrastination...

So one of my school courses is “Portfolio Practice” and its assignment is to improve your portfolio based on the teacher’s feedback, and also to make a sort of an “Offline Portfolio” that you can for example print or show off on a tablet at networking events, where the internet may not be accessible.

So that’s exactly what I’ve been doing: I’ve been tweaking my Portfolio website (http://tapioterava.weebly.com/) which I’ve tried to make more organized and easy to navigate. I took some of my old work out of there, and packed the remaining stuff tighter by combining several pics into one, so that there’s only a couple of pics per artwork. I also put some of my new work in there, including work-in-progress stuff, and put my name and logo on almost every picture on the site. Then I made the “Offline Portfolio” template, which I’ve used in the pictures above. I also made an ArtStation account (https://www.artstation.com/artist/d4psa).

I’m also doing a course called “WWW and Internet”, where the assignment is to make a website using html and css. It’s not ready yet, but I’ll maybe make another post once I get it finished.

[agrainyview]

I’m visiting my brother’s family and my godson. Carved them a pumpkin, it turned out pretty good considering this is the first time I’ve ever tried it. Happy Halloween everyone!

[laloon]

I was just trying to change the nib