A new day, a new theme

Well folks, I am trying out another new theme. The last one looked cool in the editor but was a bit of a "miss" with you folk. If you want to view static pages like my show reel images, or see how I created the lobster pot helmet for the Monarchies of God book cover, there is a much more obvious list widget to the right (if you are on a computer). I hope you will agree that navigation is much more obvious and easy

Once again, please feel free to rummage around the posts and pages and let me know what you think!

Its been a long time since I Blog and Ro-o-old

Apologies to Robert Plant for that paraphrase!

Well, for the last 16 months I have been managing outsource for Evil Genius 2 which can be both challenging and rewarding at the same time. This does mean that I have not created anything that you will see in the finished game. Lots of 2D and 3D that has enabled others to build finished props, but so far there is only one piece that I have managed to sneak through as a demo asset.

So with that in mind, here is some old work to show that this dog can still do tricks!

Alien Bound:

A side project I did with my friend Darren Clarke to make a simple platform jumper game with a chilled feel. Darren did all the code, I did all the art including bitmap font creation. All animation was code generated and procedural.

Menu screen: Level chooser

Li'l Fella low poly and untextured

Hand painted normal map

The Mother ship

Mother ship self illumination map

 Title screen

Li'l Fellas flat - well, wouldn't you want to go out exploring if you lived here?

Ha lo weee (n) again

I was going to put up some images from Evil Genius Online of the minions in their halloween outfits but I cannot find them, so here is a a menu mock-up featuring standard and zombie minions. And yes, I did put them into "Thriller" poses... Well, you have to really, don't you!

In other news, I have started pre-production on Evil Genius 2. I cannot tell you anything about it as everything has to be cleared by Rebellion, but I can confirm it is genuinely happening :-)

In other, other news, it is time to plug Margaret Cooper Evans' three Halloween Overdown Mystery books.
The first two books are photo based with 3D elements combined in Photoshop. "Evil" is fully 3D with the hair comped in in Photoshop afterwards. You can read about how I created the cover for Evil in Overdown here
http://andyevans-art.blogspot.co.uk/p/making-face-of.html

If you fancy having a good read for the weekend why not try them on Kindle here (paperback coming out for Christmas).
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Margaret-Cooper-Evans/e/B008MUN09S

Game engine to television VFX work and Rogue Trooper Redux work

NDA's really do get in the way of updating your blog, don't they!

I finished on Sniper 4 a looooong time ago and have been working on two other projects.

The first was running concurrently with Sniper and that was to help Gelato FX use our Asura game engine to produce over 160 shot and three hours of television footage for National Geographics second series of WWII's Greatest Raids. It has not been aired yet so there is next to no info on the internet at the moment. I believe it is due out in America in the autumn of 2017.

The next project was Rogue Trooper Redux and I have been working on it for well over six months now. Since the game has been announced I can say that art wise we are nearly complete and one heeeeeell of a lot of work has gone into it in a very little time. By the end of June I will be on a new project. As ever in the games world I wont be able to tell you what it is until it is officially announced. If it is the one I am hoping for all I can say is I am very excited at the prospect.

Once I get permission to use the images I'll add some images for Sniper 4. Then in a while I'll be able to put up Rogue Trooper images.

See you soon!

Many faces of Evil

I have now written a page on how I did the Evil in Overdown cover image as folks seem to think that the phrase "entirely computer generated" means "a photo cut out in Photoshop".
Here is the direct link http://andyevans-art.blogspot.co.uk/p/making-face-of.html

After several hours work here is the texture map used on the character. the texture is made up of many photos from the 3DSK human reference website which were stitched together and merged in Photoshop
3DSK is a great resource, here is the link https://www.3d.sk/

The head with mesh overlay to show the polygons and with the texture applied to show the polygon count

The head lit and renderd (from a different angle) there is also a low poly hair mesh to give an idea of head shape and a basic black biker jacket (not used) for the body.

The face of Evil (in Overdown)

Really happy with the latest Hilary Long mystery book cover.

The initial idea for the woman was to either use a stock image (couldn't find the "right" one)  or photograph a soft, innocent looking 20 something woman, but the only person we found that fit the bill did not want to be on a book cover, so... 3D C.G. to the rescue!

The head was made in 3DS Max. The skin texture was composed in Photoshop from several photos from the 3D.SK human photo library. The skin texture was then de-saturated and the irises and lips re-coloured red before being mapped back onto the 3D head and then under-lit.
The hair was comped in afterwards and if you look closely it is a bit poor in the cutting out department.

Initially Margaret thought the face was too pointy and hard looking so with the aid of soft selection and several ffd modifiers the lower face and nose was shortened, the jaw line softened, the face shape made more round and "innocent" and the lips were reshaped.

I hope you will agree the end result was worth all the effort.

Here is the link to the book. Its a good one :-)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Evil-Overdown-Hilary-Long-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B01M9HP0EF/

More covers here
http://andyevans-art.blogspot.co.uk/p/book-covers.html

Max 2 Maya II

Well, it had to happen. I have become a Maya head.

We are working on a Redux (HD update) of a previous Rebellion game at the moment and I have had to go back to using Max... and I keep getting all the keyboard shortcuts wrong, have forgotten how to navigate and keep looking for tools that aren't there and forgetting about the ones that are.

On a more interesting psychology note, I am slightly ambidextrous due to RSI in the past and it turns out that if I work right handed, my muscle memory is Maya but if I go left handed (never operated Maya left handed) it turns out I automatically use the Max keyboard shortcuts so if I flip my brain my muscle memory is Max.

How weird is that!

Anyhoo I will be updating the Max 2 Maya page with some more hand hints.

Goodwood 2016

Hip hip hooray and aPip pip to you all!
I have finally started to procass the photos from Goodwood 2016. I have put most of the half way decent aircraft photos up, the cars and re-enactors will follow soon.
The Battle of Britain Memorial flight photos cam out rather milky but the Blenheim Mk1 P51D and Spitfire Mk IX ones came out well.
For more information

http://www.arc-duxford.co.uk/restorations/blenheim/
http://www.flyingwithspitfires.com/product/p51-mustang-display-miss-helen/
http://www.mh434.com/history/index.html
 
Here is a taster of a few of what is on the photos page.

Sniper 4

So, now it has been announced officially I can let on that for the last year I have been a level monkey (yup, that is what we call ourselves) on Sniper Elite 4 Italia - or Morally Bankrupt Shoot 'em in the Head 4: Italia as I like to call it.

I have been working on the final level with two other artists; Wiggz is lead and Andrea is texture and materials genius. Apparently I still cannot show any images of my work "in case you get poached" - like that is gonna happen... I am not being down on myself or my skills its just that I have also been working with a very talented VFX house called Gelato FX based in Manchester who have been using the Asura game engine for sequences in the upcoming "Greatest Raids Series 2" telly series that is going out around Christmas I think on the National Geographic Channel.

Series one had the CG bits done by Antimatter Games in Cornwall using an old game engine, for series 2 they wanted a new effects house and an engine that was a little bit more up to date...

I have worked in TV graphics in the past but spent the last 15 years in games. It was intriguing to find how much the technique and tech of VFX and Games has diverged even though they use the same basic tools.

Some giggles

As you may know, I sometimes have issues with dear old Maya. Our T.D. at work knows this and sent me this mime...
It is so funny because it is true... ;-)

Here is the link  http://cgmemes.blogspot.co.uk/

And my favourite

Fourth paperback book cover

Good News Everyone (as Professor Farnsworth of Futurama would say).
I now have four cover designs in print.
"The Women of the English Civil War" by Margaret Cooper Evans is now available in paperback.
Margaret was photographed over 3 hours in four different 17th Century guises, I then used Photoshop to combine the best images, scale, colour balance and add sunlight and shadows to the two images that were taken when the sky went out. The shadow is faked in Photoshop and the background is a photograph of a painting of the Great Fire of London that can be found in the Museum of London.

There are 40 images inside. Most are photographs taken by myself or the author. I then touched them up and made them print ready.

For those interested there are the three covers for Abbadon called
"Century of the Soldier" and "Monarchies of God" by Paul Kearney. I also created the elements for "Uprising: Heirs of the Demon King" by Sarah Cawkwell (though a designer at Abbadon put them together in a better arrangement than I did, so kudos to them!)

Just realised. I didn't blog about that cover, so here it is.

The crown is a computer graphic made in 3DS Max. The flag was originally created by Abbadon and given to me to make a high res version then I put it on a latice and used a cloth simulation and wind effector to get the ripples (that can barely be seen)

Halloween in Overdown: The fifth Hilary Long book cover

Halloween in Overdown (Part 1)

We took a range of photographs at Charlecote House a month before Easter. There was a range of brilliant squashes and pumpkins in the garden shop and it is one of those that makes the background.

There was quite a bit of re-touching and copying of pumpkin elements from some of the other photos.
On a separate image of a skull (cribbed off the internet) I drew over it to make an evil skull. This was then copied over the pumpkin and the blending mode changed so that it darkened and made it look like the pumpkin had been carved but not lit from the inside.

Since the character this represents smokes a cigar, the last element is a c.g. cigar and smoke effect done in 3DS Max with the smoke being comped from a photograph.

Movember time again!

So I had this great Dick Dastardly / Laughing Cavalier type moustache and then Movember rolls round again and I had to shave it off (yah boo sucks!)
Anyhoo, here is an animated gif of the disappearing 'tache...

If you would like to donate I will promise not to send this animated gif to your work email account (see, I told you it was a Dick Dastardly tache !)
If you don't know what Movember is all about, shame on you! It is kind of like the male version of the womens "Race for Life" but with much less effort and a lot less pink.
Here is my Mo page
http://mobro.co/andrewthechapevans
Here is the Movember info page
https://uk.movember.com/about/foundation

Women in the English Civil War Book Cover

Very happy with how my latest commission came out. It took a half day photo shoot of the author in four different guises and many different poses. The best one of each was then carefully cut out, exposures and white balance corrected, then highlights were painted on the two that were taken when the sun was behind the clouds. Can you tell which ones they were?

Then they were sized and arranged, the shadow created and then places on the background which is a photograph of a painting in the Museum of London that is actually of the Great Fire of London, but I think it suits the “world in flames” feel of the English Civil War.

The book is called “The Women of the English Civil War” it is by Margaret Cooper Evans, and will be on Amazon soon as both a Kindle e-book and a real life paperback .

Links here

Margaret's Amazon Author page is

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Margaret-Evans/e/B008MUN09S

If you want to find out more about the author you can read her blog here

http://margaret-evans-author.blogspot.co.uk/

Evolution of a character

A quick update to the Evil Genius Online thread (I really must get on and do that page!)
Here is Jet Chan. He was a character in the original game so I took the original mesh and skeleton and optimised the heck out of it. He actually ended up on a much simpler skeleton to the one on the left, but I'll go into that later. This was used in our Flash / Flare3D game.

We then needed 2D artwork for the menus where he interacts with you, the game user. To do this I made a whole new high resolution mesh, put him on a very complex skeleton with facial animation rig and ten twist bones per forearm etc. He was then put into twenty plus poses for approval by the powers that be. The top five were then given to a very talented paintover artist we used to have here called Randolph. He produced the finished image (on the right). This was done for the eight main characters. Some had only three paintovers. Penny, however, had ten images done this way.
Click the image for a larger version.

XM655 The loudest Vulcan :-)

Had a marvelous time at Wellesbourne Wings and Wheels show this weekend.
As well as a stunning display from the Rolls Royce owned Spitfire and a bonkers display from the Eagle 2 Muscle Plane, the XM655 Maintenance & Preservation Society (proud member) did two slow taxi runs and two fast taxi runs. Thirty feet away from 84,000 lbs of thrust certainly is loud!
Then, at the end of the day the Vulcan to the Sky XH558 gave a wonderful display to close the show.
I will be adding a new page soon with some photos and videos. Here is a piccy to put you on 'til then.

Wellesbourne Airfield is under threat from a housing developer. If the airport closes there is no way to get XM655 out so she will have to be cut up and scrapped. Please don't let this happen, To paraphrase the "Heros" T.V. programme "Save the Vulcan - Save the World!"
Join the Wellesbourne matters organisation to save the airfield - it only costs 50p (larger donations gladly accepted) - Go on: You can afford it!

Maya is a pair of Jimmy Choo's

If 3D software is like a pair of shoes then to me, 3DS Max is like a pair of old trainers. You know, a bit ratty around the edges and it trips me up every now and then, but I know it. I am comfortable with it. Autodesk Maya is like a new pair of Jimmy Choo's. For some folk that means it will be perfect. For me though, it may be stylish, a bit bewitching and slightly aspirational, but it is also spikey and a bit uncomfortable. It is taking a bit of wearing in, but I'll get there; I always do.

This will be my sixth major piece of 3D software and to be honest, none of them are "perfect". Not Symbolics S-World; not Alias Power Animator; not Softimage; not Lightwave; not 3DStudio Max; and not Maya either.

All I want is some software that actually does what it claims it is about to do and not something where I have to randomly guess at the correct settings and already know where the hidden tick box is that makes it "work".
For an example I give you this tutorial.

Evil Genius Online

Over the coming weeks/months I'll be writing about my time as Lead Artist on Evil Genius Online.
I have to say that these were two of the best years of my game making career so far. I'll be telling the story of the development of the style from the original game to the "updated" (late 1960's) feel of the online F2P game. How we designed and built new props, repurposed old props, and got nearly 1 million triangles drawing to screen in a Flash game (not easy).

October 2016 update
Ok now I am confused. My page on Evil Genius has disappeared. The forces of good will not thwart me... I'll dig out the old images and write a new page.

It is also with great sadness that I have to report that due to dwindling player usage there will be no further updates (not that there have been in a while). I would love to say that the plans for Evil Genius 2 were progressing well, but it is not and seems to be stuck in development hell.
I loved my time on EGo and I think we did some stunning work with a small team on a tight budget and short time scale.

We had some wonderful user comments basically saying that we had created a real game rather than the usual Zynga style WhateverVille or other Give-us-your-money-Sim-Builder. That is probably part of the reason its popularity has dropped off.
Shame really..

Maya for 3DS Max-heads

I am learning Maya for work and it has not been easy, though I am getting there and have discovered some great tricks and tools that are just so off the wall from a Max point of view.

For anyone coming to Maya from Max I have shared my experiences and workarounds in the "Max 2 Maya" page (on the left under "Pages"). I hope it is of some use to someone, though to be honest, re doing things to check what I am saying has been very useful in cementing the new workflow into my legacy Max filled brain.

Enjoy :-)

Hilary Long: Man Down in Overdown book cover

Latest Hilary Long mystery by Margaret Cooper Evans ( @Maggs912 for those who twitter) is now available on Kindle Store and by jingo its a good one.
UK version on Amazon UK here
US version on Amazon USA here

As for the cover, I created and rendered the Walther PPK in 3DStudio Max.
The texture was worked up from several photographs and then a bump map created to make the wear and scratches catch the light. Maybe it is something to do with the NVidia normal map creation software but I found a black and white bump map worked better than a normal map in this instance - OLD SCHOOL BABY! Yes, that's right... I am SOOO Old School I spell "school" correctly!
I then added a purple and green upward facing light to mimic the reflection of the map onto the gun.

The Map was made from scratch in Photoshop, the photograph is one I took especially for this job as were the four layers that went to make up the table cloth.

The gun, map and tablecloth were then comped, colour corrected and shadows added again, in Photoshop.

Click on the images to view larger versions. Any questions, feel free to ask :-)