<html>

<head>

<title>loonygames - print happy version</title>
</head>

<body leftmargin="10" topmargin="10" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<table width="100%" border="0" height="58" bordercolordark="#000000" bordercolorlight="#000000">
  <tr> 
    <td height="57" width="26%" align="left" valign="top"> 
      <div align="left"> 
        <h1><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><i><a href="../../index.html">loonygames</a><br>
          <font size="1">a <a href="http://www.bluesnews.com">blue's news</a> 
          publication</font></i></b></font></h1>
        </div>
    </td>
    <td height="57" width="74%" align="center" valign="top"> 
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
<p><a href="../2.12/pop/index.html">&lt;&lt; Back to Normal View</a></p>
<p>URL: <a href="../2.12/pop/index.html">http://www.loonygames.com/content/2.12/pop/</a><br>
</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>Vol. 
                2, Issue 10<br>
                February 17, 2000</b>
              &nbsp;
               
                <b><i>Painting 
                  on Polygons:</i></b></p>
                <b><i> 
                  Critiques</i></b></p>
                by 
                  Rick &quot;Flatness&quot; 
                  Grossenbacher</p>
              
              

<!--
       function gotoSite(obj)
          {
          var s;
          s=obj.options[obj.selectedIndex].value
                         location.href=s;
          }
// -->


              <?
              
              include("/home/loonygames/loony.timedoctor.org/includes/gc.htm"); 
              
              ?>
              
              
               <br><img src="../images/letters_new/s.jpg" width="22" height="39" align="left"><br>ince 
                I&#146;m a bit backlogged with critiques on reader&#146;s artwork, 
                I thought I&#146;d take this entire week to devote to that. Again, 
                I&#146;d like to stress that the opinions I give are based on 
                my background in traditional and video game art. I&#146;m not 
                an authority on what is good or what is bad, but I think I&#146;ve 
                acquired enough experience over the years to give some good feedback. 
                So, with that said, I&#146;m going to jump right into it with 
                a look at a graphic made by O.DOGG.</p>
              <br><img src="../2.12/pop/images/orlinthumb.jpg" width="100" height="75" border="1"><br></p>
              </p>
              </p>
              Here are 
                some questions O.DOGG asked about his image:</p>
              <i> How 
                can I add more atmosphere to the image and how can I make the 
                base seem more real and not so plastic-looking?</i></p>
              </p>
              For the 
                first question, there are several things you could do to make 
                the base seem less plastic looking. For starters, you could definitely 
                alter the material more and see if you can refine it to have a 
                more realistic look such as messing with reflective parts, or 
                tweaking settings using the Raytrace material (if you are using 
                3-D Studio MAX 2 or higher). But, this is a lot of tweaking little 
                numbers and spinners to see if you can get something better. So, 
                besides that, I would try another approach. I would not use the 
                same material on the entire image. It looks like you used a plug 
                in which adds little boxes and hi-tech looking gadgets on the 
                mesh (I can&#146;t remember what the name of this plug-in is offhand, 
                but I&#146;ve seen it before). Those boxes look pretty cool, actually, 
                but besides that, what I think would really liven this image up 
                is adding windows emanating light or just little lights scattered 
                in certain places. To understand what I&#146;m talking about, 
                take a look at the Death Star from Star Wars. Because of all the 
                lights, it really gives it a feeling of having &#145;life&#146; 
                to it.</p>
              </p>
              Or another 
                thing you might want to do is make the shape of the base more 
                complex. Maybe make it much skinnier in the middle or have antennas 
                or rods extending from it in certain places (which you kind of 
                already have, but could add more to maybe). The high-tech boxes 
                protruding from the skin of the base definitely make it look more 
                complex, but I think the overall design needs more complexity 
                rather than just making the outer skin complex (just a thought). 
                But overall, I still think this image looks very cool.</p>
              <i>How 
                do I make it appear bigger, but still fit on the rendering? </i></p>
              </p>
              To do 
                this, I would mess with camera lenses. Specifically, altering 
                the Field of View will really change how your 3-D images looks 
                on the screen. With a really crazy field of view, you can make 
                something tiny look gigantic. Again, this boils down to a bunch 
                of tweaking of settings and seeing what looks best.</p>
              </p>
              </p>
              <p></p>
              </p><br>
              
              <i>Somebody 
                told me the explosion wasn't realistic. How can I make it more 
                realistic?</i></p>
              </p>
              This is 
                a tough question for me to answer, actually. For one, I&#146;m 
                not sure if a human being has ever seen and explosion in outer 
                space (other than a supernova, but that&#146;s not what were talking 
                about here). Maybe NASA has performed some weird experiment to 
                see the properties explosive matter in space -- although I haven&#146;t 
                heard of it -- but considering that there is basically no oxygen 
                in space I wouldn&#146;t have a clue what it would really look 
                like. Anyhwho... since this is science fiction, you really have 
                to use you imagination to think one up. The one thing offhand 
                that I would immediately do to make your explosion look more real 
                is make chunks of metal flying out from the blast hole. Also, 
                you might want to alter your mesh and make part of the base peeled 
                back from the blast. Nice work on your graphic, I hope my advice 
                helped.</p>
              </p>
              </p>
              On to 
                the next critique...</p>
              </p>
              This is 
                an image sent in by Angus &quot;froofy&quot; McCann (macnel@primus.com.au). 
                </p>
              <br><img src="../2.12/pop/images/angusthumb.jpg" width="100" height="74" border="1"><br></p>
              </p>
              </p>
              </p>
              Angus 
                sends word that it was created using 2b and 3b pencils, then scanned 
                and cleaned up in Paint Shop Pro.</p>
              </p>
              This is 
                a really nice drawing. You can see that Angus spent a lot of time 
                doing some nice detail work inside every part of the drawing. 
                He also did a nice job getting the arms to extend outward and 
                forward.</p>
              </p>
              A few 
                things that I can see that might make the robot look better is 
                by making the legs longer. They are looking a bit stubby to me 
                and could be extended downward quite a bit. Also, it would be 
                nice to see the feet extend outward too. I think they wouldn&#146;t 
                be really be big enough to support the size and weight of the 
                robot.</p>
              </p>
              You definitely 
                have some cool machinery going on this guy&#146;s body and I particularly 
                think the head is well created -- it&#146;s kind of small for 
                the body, but I personally think it looks cool that way. Another 
                thing I was thinking is that the waist of the robot might be too 
                big. I think there is just too much girth there -- looking from 
                the armpits down to the waist, there isn&#146;t much of a change 
                (it kind of indents in, but could probably stand to go even further 
                in). Instead of just having it gradiently pinch inward, maybe 
                if it sort of steped in at one point. All in all this is very 
                nice. You&#146;re definitely on your way!</p>
              </p>
              Well, 
                that&#146;s all the time I have this week. I hope this was helpful 
                not only to the artists who sent their work in, but also for others. 
                Critiques are a part of just about any college art course you 
                take because they help people learn to see and understand art 
                styles and techniques. Also, the best part is that it helps artists 
                improve. Thank you very much to both O.DOGG and Angus for submitting 
                their work.<br>
                <br>
                </p>
              </p>
              </p>
              <p></p>
              </p>
                <i> 
                  - Rick &quot;Flatness&quot; Grossenbacher works on Gameboy Color 
                  games for Vicarious Visions.</i></p>
              <br><p>&nbsp;</p> 
<p><a href="../2.12/pop/index.html">&lt;&lt;Back to Normal View</a></p>
<table width="100%" border="1" height="29" bordercolordark="#000000" bordercolorlight="#FFFFFF" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
  <tr> 
    <td height="20" width="99%"> 
      <div align="center"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><i>loonygames 
        - the best damn gaming magazine online </i></b></font></div>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
<p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Credits: Print CGI is 
  &copy; 2000 <a href="http://www.square8.com">Square Eight</a>. Used with permission. 
  Article is &copy; 2000 its original author. All other content is &copy; 2000 
  loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited. You got that??</font></i></p>
 