3D Animation

Priceless Feedback

December 11, 2008 Earlier this week, I just about had a heart attack when an email appeared in my inbox with the sender ending in '@valvesoftware.com.'

Valve, the company that made the Half-Life series, Portal, most recently Left4Dead, and many other masterpieces of videogames, has long been one of my most dreamt-of studios, the kind of place I would die to end up at eventually. I attended a talk of theirs at the Montreal International Game Summit a few weeks ago, and chatted it up with the presenter afterwards, eventually asking if he would be so kind as to pass my business card along to the art department for some feedback. 

The email I got was from an environmental artist, who had looked over my work, and had some general feedback for me. His feedback was very helpful, and the stuff that current students should be hearing as well, so rather than try to paraphrase I'll just put it as he did:

"On the texturing side, your textures often look very clean and could show more lived-in conditions. By example, your dinner counters could show some coffee stains, cigarette burns, and the bottom of some walls could show some shoes marks, the floor can show some scratches and be dusted, posters could be partially ripped… Overall, adding some dirt and details would add realism to your scene.
The lighting is a really important part of the environment's visual impact. Generally lighting helps to sculpt the environment with darker and brighter areas and puts emphasis on the subject of the scene.
It also helps to tell a story by stating the time of the day and setting a mood. Your diner [from my time with 3DVIA] might be a good candidate to explore some lighting dramatization. To bring more atmospheres to the scene, I would suggest better defining your light sources. By example, it might be interesting to add blinds to your windows that would create cool shadows inside the room, spotlights from your ceiling fans and some cool neon on the walls."

He also had some good points in terms of self-marketing, like distinguishing on my site between hi-poly and low-poly models, and showing the creation process including photo reference, concept drawings, the model's wireframe, UV layouts, and texture sheets.

The bottom line that I took from his message was 'tell a story in your art,' which is a point that, although should be rather obvious, is easy to forget when doing less creative, less personal work for clients and other professional outlets. I printed out his email and taped it up next to my workstation, and I will definitely be referring to it when working on my 3D, personal and professional, in the future.

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