Game Art Complete_ All-in-One_ Learn Maya, 3ds Max, ZBrush, and Photoshop Winning Techniques

Description

The purpose of this book is to give artists and modelers who may be new to
3D modeling and animation, or who may want to expand their skill set, an
overview of the four main programs with some tutorials to get them started.
We will take you through a series of tutorials, covering the following topics:
● Character concepts
● Anatomy
● Low-poly asset modeling in 3ds Max
● Normal maps, including CrazyBump
● Creating texture maps from photographs
● Alpha maps
● Color theory
● Maya’s interface
● Creating a low-poly character in Maya
● Production pipelines
● Introduction to ZBrush
● Workfl ow
● Rigging a character
● Facial expressions
● Shading and texturing
● Low- to high-poly modeling
● Complex mapping and textures
● UVTool
I will be introducing you to a number of authors, all specialists in their fi elds,
who will in turn introduce you to Photoshop, 3ds Max, Maya, and ZBrush. These
are the four main programs used in 3D modeling, game development, TV,
design, architecture, print media, and many other industries. Understanding
the basics of all of these programs will save you a lot of time when developing
new ideas for your work.
We will be kicking off with some basic modeling techniques using 3ds Max
and Photoshop, written by myself, and by getting to grips with normal maps
with David Wilson, one of the senior lecturers from the University of Derby in
the UK. These initial four chapters take the complete beginner in modeling
for games to a competent level where they can be producing fi nal artwork for
current games.
We will then move onto two chapters on concept art and anatomy with Jason
Patnode. These chapters have been added to the book to get artists and
designers to start thinking about how they start to create concept art; in this
case, specifi cally concept art for characters. There is also a good introduction
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to anatomy to help every artist to create great-looking designs that can be
modeled.
We will discuss preparing for texture creation in great detail, with Luke Ahearn
covering all aspects including shape and form, light and shadow, as well as
the general usage and creation of game textures.
We then move onto some Maya character modeling with Jean-Marc Gauthier
and Jason Patnode, looking at some diff erent techniques and approaches,
including the introduction of ZBrush.
It’s important to know that there are a number of diff erent methods and
techniques for creating similar pieces of work in multiple software packages,
and we hope to give you quite a thorough introduction to the most popular
ones in this book.
Then we continue with some character rigging, facial expressions, texturing
and shading to almost complete the picture, with us ending with a mega
build in 3ds Max of a low- to high-poly character, including baking the
high-res details onto the low-res model and creating all the texture maps
with Tom Painter.
It was really diffi cult to pick the best parts of each software package to focus
on, so we decided upon this general approach with a slight bias to looking at
characters. It would be impossible to cover every aspect of game art creation
for every genre of game on every platform in just one book, so we have
focused on the core strengths of each software package and will introduce
you to all of them.
This book can be picked up at any chapter, so feel free to jump in and out
wherever you like. Try looking at all of the software packages and try to be
disciplined enough to continue with a good working knowledge of them all.
There are lots of diff erent game developers all over the world and they all
favor diff erent software packages. The ones defi ned and explained in this
book are the core for almost all developers, so if you can gain a good working
knowledge of all of them before you decide to specialize, you may create
more opportunities for yourself in the future.
Good luck with your modeling and development and remember to have fun
with it.
Now let me introduce you to the authors.
Luke Ahearn, 3D Game Textures: Create Professional Game Art Using
Photoshop (ISBN-10: 0240807685)
Luke has been a professional game developer since 1992. He has served in
lead positions such as designer, producer, and art director on seven published
game titles, including Dead Reckoning and America’s Army , and has worked
as a background artist at EA. He has authored numerous books on game
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development and ran his own computer game company for ten years.
Currently, he is the art director and a partner of ICPU .
Luke contributed Chapter 7 to this book.