Things are progressing nicely!

I need some ideas for a title, though. Any thoughts?

How about,,, "MAYA" how to get Models into the game:D
just jiving my man.;)


Rich Maya Poor Maya's guid to gaming?

gave it a shot:)

Mike

As to what s in the book:

1. Creating exact models with polygons;
I never understand how modelers with polys know what to expect when they tweak something and when they smooth it - it turns exactly as it should.

2. Textures (more photoshop than Maya actually...)
3. Level Design
4. Lights

As for the name:

"Mayan Cultured Games;
- the McKinley Guide for Game Development in Maya"

Smoothing? Who said anything about smoothing? We just put the vertices exactly where we want them. :)

nir: the response to nº1 is called polyproxy... (+uhhh(deletes smoothedversion)+tweaks+tries smoothing just some parts+arrrrghhh!+undo+polyproxy again+tweaks+urgghhh!+delete+bangheads keyboard a pair of times+some more iterations....:))

Nirsul,

Thanks for the suggestions. :)

I'm afraid the content of the book does not touch any of those things to much detail.

1) As this is a game art book, smoothing is never talked about.
2) While there is an entire chapter devoted to texturing, it's mostly talking about getting the texture on the model, how the UV Texture Editor works, UV Mapping the model, etc. with a few sidebars every now and then talking about some Photoshop tips to keep in mind. Stuff like that.
3) You'll have to wait for the Level Design book. :)
4) Nothing about lights. That's generally the game engine/level designer that lights the game.

The book is currently broken down as follows:

Chp 1 - How the Game Industry Works (Getting a job, studio positions and descriptions, what's a publisher?, etc.)
Chp 2 - Modeling
Chp 3 - Texturing (as described above)
Chp 4 - Rigging
Chp 5 - Animation
Chp 6 - Particle FX

Pretty straight forward.

hey mike, if this http://www.warthogtx.com/pages/sor/sor_teaser.htm is your book - then good luck as now you have to finish it - it says they promise :)

oh and what i told you in irc:
- shorten and reposition chapter one
- go in detail but not too scientific
- include the minimike in a creative way
- and everything i cannot remember right now ;)

i dunno dude, i like Minimike as much as the next person, HOWEVER i would get annoyed if there was pics of him everywhere doing something like being shocked with a little speech bubble coming out of his head being like "omg! i didnt realise maya was used to make lotr!" or something similar, lots of people do it and it looks cheap.

yeah minimike coments should only be CunninglyEVIL or at least Smartass...

I tend to disagree with that comment, the more information that can come out the better, no matter how it’s done, if someone is taking the time to share their knowledge and works in the industry, the last thing to do is to criticizes how it’s displayed, focus on the book and the content not your personal dislike for info bubbles and guide lines.

that was not meant to be for minimike to do. and if i remember correctly mike himself wanted to do something with the minimike - only that i gave him a little thought to utilize him slightly different. oh and of course, in the end it will be completely changed anyway as it will be mikes book and not our book. at least our book only after we pay for it :p

hehe, everyone has an editor inside... now, the author can decide which ones of those editors have power over him and wich ones dont?...:)

R-tillery, How something is displayed is equally or more important than What is displayed... for everything... in everything we do...

Good news! The book is a GO!

If all goes well, it'll be in stores December. :)

Hey, one of the cool features I hope to have is Artist Profiles of current game industry professionals that use Maya! If anyone's interested, please feel free to contact me.

Also, I'm sure we'll be looking for cool game models to show in the book, too, so let me know if anyone (industry or not) might be interested in contributing something like that!

(Do NOT send me pictures. If anything, send links.)

Thanks!

UPDATE: Chapters 2-4 are complete. Chapter 5 has begun.

Tentative release: December
Tentative title: The Game Artist's Guide to Maya

:D