Wouldn't it be an idea to open a pinned thread in which users could suggest things/ topics they would like to learn more about? There propably would be a huge variety of ideas and a course takes some time but it might be helpful for instructors to see if a large amount of users want to learn more about a specific topic. I for example would love to learn more about creating game assets (similar to the weapon course) or how to build an atual scene full of assets. Also a course on how to create an interior visualization and use textures and lighting to make it look as photorealistic as possible (similar to the architectual visualization course) would be awesome.
Just an idea on how the website could be improved.
I recently learned Unreal has something called blueprint, which is a way to make games without writing a single line of code (node based). This is great for people who would love to make games, but who are more a visual than a technical person, and who are mostly interested in the Game Arts side of things (like me 😉).
Does Unity also have such a system? If so I would love an in depth course on how to use that!
PS did you see this this ten part video series about Game Art by Riot Games? Never knew there were so many different disciplines in Game Dev! There really is something fun to do for everyone 😊
Speaking of Game Engines, how about a course about Game Environments? I know there is the "Building Modular Assets" course but I'm thinking about something like a realistic forest or SciFi environment for a first person game like you would see in most Indie or even AAA games. This could be split in 2 parts:
1. Blender:
Including white boxing, modeling, making foliage and grass, baking and texturing in Substance or a program like Photoshop
2. Game Engine:
Bringing the final objects into the engine, learning how to apply the materials, creating terrain, lighting and applying effects to get a small, awesome looking, game ready scene in the end
That probably would be one of the largest courses ever made but I'm still very curious to learn more about the workflow or bascially anything going into the direction of game design. 😅
ssmurfmier1985 Funny thing is, I was thinking about creating a Visual Scripting course for Unity which is similar to the blueprint system has but thought it would be a bit redundant. The other thing is that currently Unity does not have a built in visual scripting system so I'd use something like Playmaker or Bolt. This would also probably be a great introduction to game logic in general, which is what I find most people get stuck on early on. Good news is that Unity 2019 will finally have a built in visual scripting system, somewhat similar to the visual shader editor they have now (like Blenders shader node system).
It'll definitely be easier to understand game logic through visual scripting, and may even help people understand how to program by visually seeing how everything is connected. I'm not sure when the visual scripting tools will be officially released (and stable), but I may test the waters with something like Bolt if enough support is there.
bbsdwerbeagentur That may be coming sooner than you think. ;) Jonathan Lampel has been working on a Scifi environment course for a bit. Nature based environments are something we've discussed but not officially done anything in that realm yet. Unity does have some much better terrain tools now, combined with some awesome nature assets we could really make a beautiful outdoor environment.
jjosepm Currently we just have one course on 3d printing: https://cgcookie.com/course/3d-printing-on-the-form-1
jgonzalez Awesome! 😄
I'm perfectly willing to wait a bit till they have their own system up and running, as long as it's on the way I'm happy 😊👍🏻
A learning flow/collection of courses of:
Modeling, rendering and managing game-assets (namingscemes etc) combined with the use of the Armoury3D game-engine. Wich is integrated into Blender 2.8 (also 2.79). Also including combined PBR and NPBR rendering during gameplay. With showing various renderstyles wich emphasis more/less PBR to get Overwatch, Battleborn-like visual styles.
Preferably with some programming for movement and skills using the visual (node) programming and Haxe programming. Having the pro's and cons highlighted for both types of programming and exploring the possibility to use both programming types would be cool too!
I'd like to make custom "hero's" and "champions" (Overwatch/League of Legends) in the long run. And mess around with them :D
REQUEST: I would really appreciate a course on creating high quality toon shaders from scratch; similar to those found in games like Borderlands and Dragonquest XI, etc.
jgonzalez I've been wondering, you hear a lot about procedural terrain creation lately, can you do this with Unity too? Might be awesome to learn this in conjunction with the newer terrain tools you mentioned 😊
ssmurfmier1985 Yes there are a number of procedural terrain tools available for Unity and they can be made from scratch as well. They tend to be quite technically challenging though, but it depends how complex you plan on going. If you're looking for a heightmap generated terrain it's simpler, but if you want to have fine tuned controls it's quite a bit more complex. Basically it involves a lot of math as you're building the mesh vertex by vertex then filling it in, making sure the normals point the right way, etc.
To give you an example of what I mean, take a look at this written tutorial: https://catlikecoding.com/unity/tutorials/noise-derivatives/ . CatlikeCoding has a lot of in depth tutorials on mesh generation and things of that sort if you're interested in seeing what can be done.
jgonzalez wow that looks complex, got lost really fast haha! maybe I'll leave this to environment artists 😉
Have been watching the game dev beginner flow videos to see what it all entails, and I'm starting to notice you really need a bit of programming knowledge to do this game dev stuff (at least until visual scripting is fully integrated and stable, but maybe even then). Since I want to do some game animation with Unity after I've finished Wayne's animation courses, I think I might have to step over my coding fear and try the game programming bootcamp at some point...
Quote from the Blender 2.80 manual (animation section):
Objects can only use one Action at a time for editing. The NLA Editor is used to blend multiple actions together.
@waylow it's my understanding that the NLA Editor works like the animation layers in Maya (at least in 2.8 I think), as a way to non destructively build up your animation.
And as I understand this also makes it easier to edit your animations afterwards, since you're only affecting a layer instead of changing everything, your base animations stay intact.
And, if I understand correctly, it also helps immensely with game animation, where you often have to blend/transition different animations in your game engine, like idle->walk->run->idle (prepares your animation better for this process). As well as helps with looping (game) animations like walk cycles (makes looping easier).
So, I would reallllyyyy like to see a tutorial on this! like yesterday ;)
Oh come on Miersy, I'm still trying to keep up with your last request that rhymes with "igging ootcamp"!
(you'll be happy to know that something is happening soon)
But I'll see what I can fit in with the NLA. Fun fact: I pronouce it as a word, nn-lah. It's more fun.(NLA and character animation are not friends by the way, it creates bad body mechanics)
@waylow Lol, I have to ask wayyy in advance because I know it takes you guys a while to create courses and tuts 😉
(Awesome!!! 😄)
Curious to see what it is useful for then 😊 Though I've read it had great updates in 2.8. I read about it in this Blender Artist thread. This fellow made an sort of animation layer addon for Blender, but:
A developer made a patch to Blender 2.80 and now it officially has Additive NLA Animation layers; https://developer.blender.org/rBde662e7cd3b3ca45c4220e3830c32e2b3496c9fe 21
which thankfully makes the bulk of my addon redundant.
So perhaps it works better now? 😬
Livestream Series Request
I recently watched the old livestream about freelancing and it left me wanting to know more! Since you guys always promote wanting to give us a curriculum that gets us ready to work in the industry, I prepose a livestream series that fits / supplements this vision:
I would love to see a series about working in CG / Game Dev, with different topics and livestreams throughout the year(s).
The freelancing stream covered the modeling side with @jlampel & @theluthier , and the animation side with @waylow , but I also want to learn about working in game dev jgonzalez .
Suggestions for topics to cover:
There are probably a lot more topics to cover! Hope you guys like this idea 😊
ssmurfmier1985 Yes, unfortunately you can't get very far in game development without having knowledge of programming. That said I am looking at bridging that gap and helping people get into game development without having to dedicate a lot of time to learning programming.
Visual Programming will be coming soon and I'll also be creating some premade scripts that we can use to piece together various games so that those who don't want to get into the technical details can still build games and focus on the design aspects of a game. I've also thought about having another course before the Game Programming Bootcamp that just covers game logic. Discussing the game mechanic "flow" and how to visually see that. Nonetheless programming seems complex at first, then it just clicks and you start to understand how it all comes together, just start small.
Regarding animation I'm looking at trying some Unity specific animation tools to animate rigs within Unity, right now it's mostly just generic animations. This is mostly to speed up the animation workflow and to also give people an idea of how to quickly iterate through animations or make minor adjustments within game.
jgonzalez Awesome! a lot of good stuff coming up I hear, looking forward to it 😊
I do want to give you a compliment. Started watching the C# Bootcamp yesterday to see if my fear for coding was justified, but honestly you explain this really well! Super comprehensible. So when the time comes I think I'll give it a go 🙂
Though starting with Visual Scripting and/or a Game Logic Course sounds really really great. I think that will make learning the process a lot easier, like a Visual Beginner Intro for less technical people! 😉 And perhaps Visual Scripting will also replace the simpler and most common scripts in the future? so that will be a real valuable skill to learn then 😎
ssmurfmier1985 Thanks! I'm glad you're liking the course so far. I feel the same way when it comes to learning the art side of things, so the feeling is mutual. What helps me is just watching the video, no commitment to actually doing anything and it usually ends up being a lot better than I thought.
If visual scripting is popular I'd probably keep that in for smaller game projects and tutorials. More technical programming would be kept for more in depth games that require it.