I still have this thing?

I never really forgot about the blog, I just always forgot to post in it when I had time to. But now that I have time, I guess an update is in order. And not only that, but I actually have some art!

First of all, I've been working on a ecological-awareness game called Tellus as an environment artist. It's still a work in progress, but it was one of two projects chosen by UAT for a sponsorship to GDC. I am very excited for that opportunity. I have no idea what I'm allowed to disclose art-wise, however. So I will refrain from that for now.

I also have a project or two to show off for a texturing course I took this semester. The first is an M1 Abrams tank. The instructor provided the model, and we textured it. This one was a lot of fun to do.

For the final, we had to create an environment in Unity and texture said environment. Most of my texture work was to find photos and make them seamless. Unity is a great engine, and I love working with it.

SIP Inquiry

So, after sending off an inquiry as to the usefulness of my school's SIP for landing a job in the video game industry (art-wise), I finally got a response from the president of brokenbulb game studios, Jason Moore. This is the conversation:

Me:

Dear Jason Moore,

My name is Brandon Gilmore. I met you last night at the IGDA Phoenix meeting (your speech was great). I am currently attending UAT in pursuit of a degree in video game modeling, specifically focusing on 3d environment art.

I am asking for your opinion on something which I will describe to the best of my ability herein:

My school has recently implemented something it calls SIP (Senior Innovation Project). This consists of about 4 classes that guide a student through the process of designing, and possibly creating, an innovative project. All students must come up with something (preferably in their field of study) to innovate upon. And this is for each individual. Let’s say a group has an innovative idea for a video game. The designer can claim his innovative design. The programmer may come up with some new AI method or what have you. The artist, under the innovation requirements, is kind of out of luck there.

This is a graduation requirement for all students of the University. The graduation requirement was once a portfolio, but it is my understanding that said requirement is being phased out, with this SIP replacing it (they currently co-exist, but soon may not).

Some concerns students have with the SIP is that it requires an extensive amount of time, time that could normally be spent on creating a passable portfolio. So much time, in fact, that many students are having to create lackluster portfolios during school so they can get the SIP requirement done for graduation.

Another concern with this SIP is that some majors are more able to do this than others. As stated before, a programmer could easily work their innovation into a portfolio. However, for a 3d modeler, it is my understanding portfolio implementation is quite a bit more difficult, if not impossible. From what I have learned through CGI communities such as Polycount and CGSociety, the hiring process for a 3d artist involves a quick scan of the portfolio and resume, followed by the interview. The users on those communities that are involved in hiring processes for gaming companies are very quick to tell posters what should and should not be in a portfolio. Based on these recommendations, I do not see any innovative project being acceptable, as simply creating a new character or prop does not fall under my school’s idea of an innovation. As I understand, 3d artists are slaves to our tools. Any innovation in the tools requires a programming skillset. That would not make me a programmer, not an artist. While I, personally, can learn these concepts, not many artists can, and definitely not in the time span of college.

So I ask, do you feel there is any use for this SIP project in the video game industry, specifically for 3d artists such as what I aspire to be? Do you see this being considered whatsoever in the hiring process? Are any of my concerns valid? Finally, what perceptions am I in error about? Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Brandon C Gilmore

P.S.: I understand that your company does not do too much work in 3d art, but any opinion you may have on the matter would prove valuable. Or if you know of any artists that might be able to answer the questions, as well.

Reply:

Brandon,

Thanks for the email. Your email is very well thought out and I can see that you are quite an intelligent person approaching this disagreeable SIP with an eye towards understanding it better. Well done.

First and foremost, as you already alluded to, I am not currently in the 3d world when it comes to hiring. So everything I say should be taken with a grain of salt. That being said, we work a ton with art, and obviously are in the exact same field of gaming.

My first impression of the SIP program, as a local gaming business owner, is that it is a fantastic program. My impression as a student I'm sure could be different. See, as a business owner, I'm not interested in hiring everyone with a graphic degree. I'm interested in hiring the best someone for the job. That means that I want someone who has done something above and beyond what everyone else in the field has done and can do.

Don't get me wrong, art is art, and I want to hire someone who shows me the best art. But the truth is that there are many qualified people in the grouping of "best level of art" and when it comes time to pick someone out of that group, I'm going to look for someone who shows me something special.

The fact of the matter is that it is precisely BECAUSE of the incredible challenge to innovate in an Art program that makes succeeding so special. Not everyone can do it. It seems like an almost unfair task to be placed on every student. But again, I don't care. I'm not looking for every student, I'm looking for THAT student. And this challenge gives every student a chance to BE that special talent.

As for the time that it takes to perform a SIP getting in the way of a portfolio, I have to say I'm skeptical that one would preclude the other. A portfolio is something that will grow over time forever. Things you've done a long time ago and things you will do tomorrow will make it in. Given the fact that you're not going to infinitely grow the size of the portfolio, you don't necessarily need 1,000 examples. Just put in the best examples. If working on the SIP project means that your portfolio is bad, then I think there is something else wrong.

Also, you are half correct in saying that what employers do is scan through a portfolio and resume and decide on doing an interview. The thing is, you're skipping an important step: getting me to LOOK at your portfolio. Too often people apply for a job and simply attach a portfolio and resume as if it doesn't matter to them. So when I open my email, I see nothing but attachments to a blank email. I can assure you that when I open a job response and it starts with them telling me about them and why they want the job, I am 100% more likely to give them a shot. And here's the kicker. If in that email they tell me that they went above and beyond, or did something innovative in their field already, I'm going to be excited opening their portfolio. Art is somewhat subjective, as you know. If I open your portfolio assuming you could be a rockstar, I'm going to be more inclined to side with your art.

So that's my take on the SIP. The question becomes, what the hell do you innovate. And truthfully, that should be 90% of the work. If you spend the majority of your time figuring out "the idea" that IS innovative, then the work will come easy. My only guidance I can give you with regards to innovating in 3d art is to think about what currently sucks for artists, or employers of artists.

Obviously whatever you land on as your "innovation" you hope is something that people go, "wow, that is actually useful." Which means you should start with what would be useful and then work backwards to see how to innovate the problem away.

Hope that gives you another subjective opinion on the matter. If you need any help or if you have ideas you want to toss by me, feel free.

Good luck with your project!

Regards,

Jason Moore

www.BrokenBulbStudios.com

President

My Reply:

Jason,

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond. I have found this to be very insightful. I never really approached the SIP concept from quite the perspective you gave. Upon thinking of it, there are many artists that may be more than qualified for a position, but a selection must be made SOMEHOW, so standing out in a positive way would be of benefit. And I see that this SIP can allow for that, if done correctly. I also thank you for the reminder of getting someone to LOOK at the portfolio. To be honest, I did not consider that applicants would merely send a blank email with links. I wish you luck with your company.

Sincerely,
Brandon Gilmore

Review of Sources Part II : The Rest

This part should be significantly shorter than the last one.  In this, I will review my sources for materials.  The reviews will be pretty short, as purchasing items are typically pretty straightforward...even in cases of small amounts of uranium...*cough*Amazon*cough*. Possible plots of world domination aside, here are the reviews:

Playstation 3 Eye

Yes, the source is Wikipedia.  But the Sony website does not provide very much information on the unit, comparatively.  The NUI group (mentioned in the last post) strongly recommends this camera for infrared detection, housing many threads full of tutorials on making it work to that purpose. While it is not the best camera for the task, it is more than adequate, and is the most cost-effective (retailing at $40 USD).  I plan on utilizing at least two for my project (if I ever actually build the thing).

Sony Bravia 52-inch LCD

This is by no means a final decision on the TV I will use, nor is it some crazy attempt for me to rake in advertising money (though I have looked at Google Adsense on one occasion...).  I simply had to make a decision on the TV, and I typed in 52-inch LCD, and picked the cheapest.  Thus, the TV.  For the TV, I will have to remove any IR blocking filter, which, if I recall, would only be the white opaque filter.  A filter that is not always placed in an LCD anyway.  I wouldn't know until I opened up the thing.

DigiKey

Again, not an endorsement, but if MaximumPC felt they were good enough for their LEDs, so do I.  According to the NUI group, the LEDs required should be between 40° and 60°, so as to allow the infrared waves to bounce around, but not leak out.  An LED that meets the required specifications(of which there are more), is the Osrams SFH-4350, which DigiKey sells. 

Review of Sources Part I : Concepts

In this post, I will do a bit of a review of some of the sources I will be using for my Senior Innovation project.  This is the engineering project I referred to in my first post.  My project is to create a multi-touch mall directory.

The materials I will be reviewing in this post are those related to the concept of my design.


Multi-Touch Surfaces: A Technical Guide.

This is one of the most important sources for my project. The document is a collaboration by developers who attended the Bootcamp on Construction & Implementation of Optical Multi-touch Surfaces at Tabletop 2008 in Amsterdam.  This document lists the known technologies utilized in multi-touch surfaces at that time.  The document also delves into the specifics of each technology, ranging from projection-screen based surfaces, to LCD screens incorporating infrared LEDs.  Upon reading the document, I realized that the latter method would be the most cost-effective, low-maintenance, and higher quality option.  Cost-effective because an LCD screen of the size required by a mall-directory would run less money than a projector screen of adequate resolution to provide a clear directory.  Low-maintenance because projectors would require frequent bulb replacement, cleaning to avoid dust (thus, over-heating), etc.  LCD screens could simply be replaced as the need arose.  Higher quality because projectors are not typically of a high resolution (at least not high enough for how large mall-directories are), whereas LCD screens are almost all of the required resolution and clarity.

The document also delves into the different LED designs possible for the LCD screen.  One method is the use of infrared transceivers, which contain both an infrared emitter, and a sensor to pick up the emissions. This allows for a more accurate form of tracking. Unfortunately, this method requires the LEDs to be laid in an array on the entire back of the screen.  As such, this method becomes increasingly more expensive as the size of the screen is increased, becoming nonviable for screens over 32". The other method is to place infrared LEDs all around the bezel of the LCD screen, and any tracking would be done by an infrared sensitive camera.

The document also analyzes the latency of various projectors and filters.  As I am not utilizing a projector, latency is not as much of a concern in my design.

Next up: TacTile

TacTile is an LCD-based multi-touch display developed by the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago.  The website provides links to a gallery of pictures showing off the display, as well as the documentation of the display.  In addition, the source code, API, and some applications are also provided.  The programming aspect should be of the greatest use for me, as the multi-touch tracking I would need is right there.  I will have to find someone skilled enough at programming to add what is necessary for what my mall-directory concept will entail, of course.

MaximumPC

Now, when you read through this, you will realize that it is using a projector.  So why the heck do I have this as a source?  Well, it is partly because it goes into the fine details of actually BUILDING the bloody thing.  There is still commonality in the process, such as the LED array, the computer, etc.  In addition, the article provides links to sources from which materials such as LEDs can be purchased, which is awesome, because I am not so good at finding the LEDs.

NUI Group

MOTHERLOAD.  I honestly have not found a better source for DIY touch-surface creation.  In fact, if it weren't for my school's requirement of multiple sources, I would review ONLY this site.  There is a link to code for touch-surface displays.  There is a wiki that details information on applications, libraries, and tutorials for everything involved in the creation of a touch-surface, such as wiring the LEDs.  There is also a community forum with threads galore regarding touch-surface technology.  Browsing through the Camera-specific heading, I noticed that nearly all of the threads recommend the Playstation 3 Eye as the best camera for touch-surfaces.  These suckers are cheap, and GOOD.  All they require is a bit of work to allow for infrared detection.  As I build the prototype (and hopefully the finished product) of my design, I plan to utilize this group to a great extent so my design may be perfect.

LG 52-inch Mutli-Touch LCD

In my research, I have discovered that it is very difficult to create an LCD touch-surface with a screen larger than 32", due to how fragile it is.  While this video does not provide anything directly useful to my design, it does provide a confidence boost that it CAN be done.  Encouragement is still an important part of the engineering process.

Quick edit (forgot this one): Janus Displays

This is a demo for a touch display at The Hilton in Chicago.  It also ties into Chicago-OHare airport.  Sure, it's not a mall-directory, but it IS a directory.  I will be looking to this for inspiration in interface design, as the conventional mall-directory design is not ideal for multiple users.  Then again, neither is this, but some elements of the design (such as the isometric multi-level map), should prove useful.   

First!

This being my first blog post, I guess an introduction is in order.  I am Brandon Gilmore, 19 as of this writing, and I am currently pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Video Game Art and Animation at the University of Advancing Technology.  I am aspiring to become a 3D Environment Artist.  Due to that, I plan to update the blog here every so often with pictures of my work...if I remember to use this blog.  I will also be posting progress on an engineering project I am working on for a class at the school throughout.  I may also post any ramblings I deem as necessary for the internet (which isn't saying much, to be honest).