Merry christmas and a happy new year!
Another Hyperventila-style vessel. I haven't worked on anything in a while but this project started as a bit of a 3D doodle and I managed to stay motivated enough to make it to a final render. Probably the last model of this year. Can't wait to see what creative projects I will come up with in 2025.
Merry christmas and a happy new year!
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For the past few months I've been experimenting with the Godot game engine instead of my previous go-to tool that was Gamemaker Studio. YoYo games, the studio behind Gamemaker, has been going in a strange direction since they got bought by Opera and I can't say I'm as comfortable with trusting this company as I was previously. YoYo accounts are being migrated to Opera accounts and the whole thing is giving me flashbacks to when Microsoft bought Mojang and Minecraft just to keep funneling people into their 'ecosystem'. On top of that Gamemaker now has a subscription payment model which, luckily, I don't have to use as my own permanent license still appears to be valid. Who knows how long that will last though. I do find this odd though, Gamemaker as an engine has barely changed in the last decade and looking at their roadmap, the new features they are planning on adding are... unambitious, let's just say. I don't see how any developer is going to look at Gamemaker now, considering the price of the subscription model and the features that Gamemaker has, and think "yeah this engine seems like it's worth it". It used to be in the past, a single one-off payment for an engine that was the pinnacle of 2D games development. But that was years ago, now there are so many options out there, many of which are completely free to use or offer more versatility and Gamemaker just seems stuck in its own little corner, never budging, never moving with the times. Personally for me I started realizing that my journey with Gamemaker had come to an end when I started experimenting with 3D in Gamemaker. Obviously the engine isn't really made with 3D in mind but considering where Gamemaker's long lasting strengths lie, in Gamemaker Language and in its fast workflow, I don't see why Gamemaker shouldn't be a 3D engine. Speaking of the lack of ambition in their current roadmap, I do feel like more 3D support like a 3D viewport and built-in 3D model importer should have been right up there. All of this is what lead me to Godot, an engine that is very much built for 2D and 3D. It's has been an interesting few months. Godot turned out to be a lot easier to use than I initially imagined. It clearly takes a lot of inspiration from Unity (unfortunately) but doesn't shy away from adding its own improvements, or its own way of doing things, where it feels like they can be made. Many of the things I struggled with in Gamemaker like pathfinding and quickly doing some UI design are a walk in the park in Godot, super easy. Other things that are very easy in Gamemaker can be a little tricky to figure out in Godot, like multi-dimensional arrays for example. Godot script is no Gamemaker Language unfortunately but I feel like I'm getting the hang of it. For the past month my mission has been getting the familiar with the engine and making all the things I never could I Gamemaker. For this project I've basically been trying to re-create one of my favourite games, Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, in Godot. I started out by adding a basic movement system and re-creating a map from the game in Blender, then porting it into Godot. The map I chose was CQB training for no particular reason other than that it was small and fairly symmetrical and therefore not a lot of work to build: It was fairly basic, some assets from the original game were in there as well but nothing is really textured and there's no gameplay to speak of, just a ghost town for now. With a map to play around with though, I could start adding some gameplay. I added some basic enemies, pathfinding, interactive elements like hidden doorways for easter eggs and over the next month I kept adding any feature I could think of. Kind of sticking to the original game as a framework but I'm not trying to create a particularly faithful re-creation of RS: Vegas 2, for now it's anything goes. After one month of progress I had added a bunch more weapons, a weapon attachment system and customization menu. There are some basic load-out options, save-games, rank and leveling, stats tracking and some basic sound effects: From here on I'm currently building a larger library of properly textured assets that I can use to create a better looking map where I can start trying out some rendering techniques to make it all look better. Right now the whole game is lit by real-time lights in the engine which doesn't look great and isn't perfect for performance either, I'm hoping to learn some light baking for the next map I'm creating and hopefully have it all looking a lot better and running much smoother for the second map.
I also want to try adding some LAN multiplayer just to see how that works in Godot. The last few days however I've had to pause this project for a bit as my computer started developing some OS related freezing issues, so I had to re-install Windows 10. I took this as an opportunity to try out the Win 10 Ameliorated version, a project set up by a group of people who wanted nothing to do with Microsoft's tracking and data-gathering that comes built in to Win 10. The process of "ameliorating" Windows isn't very straight forward but after three or four tries I succeeded in getting it up and running in a way that I felt comfortable worked. This new Windows experience is actually quite a lot like older windows versions, reminding me of Windows 7 and XP. It's a bare-bones Windows experience that feels out-of-place in 2022, but in a good way. It's a reminder that software nowadays often has a dual-purpose, to serve you and to gather data on you. Windows that only does the basics of being an operating system feels like a breath of fresh air and there isn't this nagging feeling that Windows is spying on you in the background with everything you do. It is also MUCH faster, start-up is really fast and right-clicking used to take ages on my old install where Windows Explorer was doing whatever it was doing in the background before showing you the menu, now it's instant. You do need to make sure you install anti-virus and such because of course Windows Defender isn't there either, same with Windows Update. Overall though I'm very happy with this new install of Win 10 and I'll keep using it for a while I think. That's it from me. Check out my next blog to see how progress on my Godot Rainbow Six remake project is going. Been doing quite a few Gamemaker Studio experiments recently, including messing around with 3D for the first time. 3D has been a challenge as the vector math, and lack of built-in functions have been making it much trickier to work with than the usual smooth ride that is 2D in Gamemaker. Still I've come up with some fun projects and I will be using 3D for most future projects for sure. Besides that I also made a quick bird to ward of other birds from our balcony. This was done in trueSpace, of course, and then made in wood and finished with an acryllic paint. That's it for this quick update. Until next time.
Once again I returned this year to update a game project I work on once every year; the anniversary boardgame. Once a year for our anniversary my girlfriend and I play a game that captures our memories from the previous years, our experiences and in some cases our troubles. Every year I also like adding a new gameplay mechanic and this year I decided to take it a step further making it a full on RPG with even a basic questline. The game features various levels with cutscenes in between where I created renders. The character models are animated and made using a mix of MakeHuman and sculpting in Blender. I tried not to get too carried away with the character designs but overall it ended up being a little more work than anticipated and me only getting it done just before the actual anniversary. Here are some highlights of that... There is also a companion app that goes with the boardgame where each of us can control our avatars on the board by giving them simple commands like hostile/defensive stance, toggle weapons and change the direction in which we're facing on the board, just for fun. This was a fun project to work on for sure and I can't wait to see what I come up with next year. With the app and the RPG mechanics, there's a lot of potential for expansion so who knows, maybe next year I'll turn it into Elden Ring...
Redesigned my old TCO-14 rifle from my Interstellar Marines fan-art days. The design wasn't actually made specifically for Interstellar Marines but was a concept I'd made some time earlier that I then turned into a 3D model as it seemed to fit the theme of the game. I always liked the compact design of the rifle and the top rail design that I added later and given the fact most of my client requests now are for firearms ...be they science fiction or more realistic looking... I figured I'd use this as an opportunity to improve my understanding of what makes these things tick, so-to-speak. This is the end result of a lot of 3D modeling and animation in Blender as well and while I'm not too happy with either the design nor the animation, I learned a lot during this project and I'm much happier with the overall design of the redux version vs the original.
The Hover Patrol Car (HPC) from Hyperventila is a versatile vehicle that needs to get around the major cities of the central planets, quickly, be it on the ground or in the air.
I recently revisited this design from way back in 2019 and made a short animation, mainly to improve my knowledge of how Blender works. That's what I'm sharing here today. Oh, and I wrote another development blog on how things are going with the game, check it out! Tymen Hi there folks! Besides Hyperventila launching on Steam, I've been doing more and more design commissions for people (gotta pay the bills somehow) and I'd like to just highlight some of my most recent work. Who knows maybe you'll like what you see and commission a design of your own. M an t h a Q u a d c o p t e r This project already rather stands out on its own by being a little more unusual than what I am usually asked to design. A client from Singapore contacted me to design their one-man quadcopter that they may even put into production one day. It had to be light but also enclosed and not higher than two meters. The design was to be used for promotional shots and to pitch to investors. The job continued with additional requirements for animation and adding a character + helmet. This took a bit longer but was a fun challenge nonetheless. Here you can see the two finished animations: Additional animations are planned for this job but seeing as that I was charging less than a tenth of what I should have been charging on Fiverr, I'll have to drive the price up for the next one. M a r s C o i n One of my first commisions ever back in 2014, when this cryptocurrency was just starting out, I was asked to design the official coin for MARS. While perhaps not my best logo design ever they kept it all these years and even recently asked me to design an animated icon for their Discord community. What better way to celebrate the launch of their Discord community than with a rocket launch. F r o m T h e V 3 D A r c h i v e s Now, besides creating new works of art, I've been looking back on my older designs and some of them really deserved a better render. I also wanted to compile a video highlighting my best work in the field of spacecraft and prop design, so I embarked on the arduous quest of importing these old trueSpace models into Blender, setting them up with new materials and giving them a new render. Which brings me to the next project... B r i c k L a u n c h e r
T h e F u t u r e
It's been a while since the last blog post. Been super busy with Hyperventila, it's quite a project and while I need to release soon I still decided to add multiplayer, mainly since it seems more doable in the short time frame I have leading up to release. One element of the new multiplayer mode is the mini-games people will have to complete in order to survive and win the game. One such game requires a space rat and a trap, that I built today. Hyperventila is progressing at an alarming pace. Here are some screenshots and renders from the last few months: More updates will follow soon! In other news I also made a quick render for the latest U3DA modeling challenge "Impossible Object": I also revisited my old NH90 Helicopter model and imported it into Blender for am updated render:
We're currently running an IndieGogo campaign for the game. Check it out if it sounds like something you may be interested in!
Hyperventila is a narrative-driven open world RPG set in the Hyperventila galaxy. A world of disreputable space bars, rogue traders and totalitarian space empires. Fans of the classic 70s and 80s era of science fiction films would find themselves right at home in this universe. Jump in your spacecraft and immerse yourself among the stars. Hyperventila will become playable on Steam and other online retailers, January 2021. What is this about secret moon bases now? It's another challenge entry for this year's U3DA Holiday challenge. Other entries from previous years include a Dragon Santa and scary Skeleton Santa. Made in trueSpace and BlenderForArtists. It seems that the logo I mashed together for the challenge is the highlight of the image from what I've heard from people who viewed the image. I think the biggest inspiration for this project was oddly enough the movie Iron Sky, which was about Nazis on the moon. I feel like you can sort of see that in this original test render that I did: All this work in Blender has mainly been for Hyperventila though, starting with a beauty render of the GCP Patrol Car and with the last render being the Inter-Corp "Tracker": Hyperventila has seen many updates in the last months, most of which can be found on the Hyperventila Discord.
Now off to Christmas in Italy. Until next time! |
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