Saturday, Feb 13th I’ll be doing a workshop at the Art Institute of San Diego covering lighting and materials for the UDK / Unreal Engine. Everything from basic shaders to material instances. I’ll also be covering Lightmass, Unreal’s built in GI solution. By the end of the workshop attendees should have the tools and tips they need to polish up portfolios and add that extra edge to their work. The workshop currently only costs $20 and will begin at 1pm. See you all there!

Details:
When: 1:00pm, Sat. Feb 13th
Where: Room 309
Cost: $20

Flipn’ Monsters! is currently being featured on the App Store under ‘Hot New Games’. Pretty cool to see it getting some attention. It’s currently in the top 200 in the US, Canada, UK, Spain, and Italy. Happy New Year everyone!

Getting packed and ready to head out for the holidays so this is last post before the new year. 2009 was a great year. I was fortunate enough to work on several cool projects from AAA games, to an iPhone game to co-authoring a book for Autodesk. I can only hope the new year will bring more exciting opportunities. Happy holidays everyone!

-Tyler

Today Activision and my studio officially announced our game. There is a teaser trailer up on GameTrailers.com if you want to see what what its all about. And if you’re a subscriber to Game Informer, there is a pretty cool article in the January edition talking about some story and art direction for the game. GameInformer.com is also showcasing a special section on the game, each day revealing new content (screenshots, concept art, and video). More to come!

It was a ton of fun this year and I’m really glad we decided to join. Completing a scene like this in just 26 days working just nights and weekends was no easy feat. It could be a while before we hear anything on how we did. Thanks for everyone’s support!

A few friends and I decided (though a bit late, week 4 of 7) to join this years Unearthly Challenge. A lot of stiff competition though, but it should make it a good fight. We’ll be tackling a concept piece by Guild Wars 2 concept artist Jamie Jones. You can check out our progress (we’re updating the thread daily) on the Polycount forums. Critique, feedback, ideas etc are all welcome! Head on over and post!

-Tyler

Earlier this year I co-authored a 3ds max game foundations book. It’s finally out and available on Amazon. While it’s not a thrilling read for the more experienced, if you’re getting started or have the basics down, the sections I wrote on environment modeling, texturing and lighting should get you going in the right direction.

-Tyler

If you haven’t checked it out yet, Flipn’ Monsters! is up on the App Store for $1.99. Check it out and leave a review!

I recently ended a nice block of crunch at work on our current project. So naturally, I kicked back and relaxed… for about 3 days then the hurt started again. But this time it was my fault.

When not working on a massive AAA title at work, 2 close friends and myself have been trying our luck at something much smaller and hand crafted. We’ve been working on a teeny tiny iPhone app called Flipn’ Monsters!. It’s a memory / puzzle game of sorts w/ a cool theme and nicely illustrated monsters… that you flip. Got it? I’ll be sure to post something when we get a bit closer to putting it out. Until then, become a fan of the Facebook page!

As if that wasn’t enough I’ve begun co-authoring a book on game art. This too has a rather short deadline so I should be posting more on it soon.

I had the chance to visit the Art Institute of San Diego - CA last week and see what some of the students are producing. Overall, the quality of work is greatly increasing. I spoke a bit about how important a solid work flow is and then gave some critique on their current projects. And, as promised, I’m posting a few links to some commonly used Maxscript library’s I use everyday at work.

-HaywoodTools - lots of good scripts in here. There is also a nice table on the site to quickly browse whats in the script pack
-SoulburnScripts - again, another great library of stuff. SoulburnScripts is by Neil Blevins. I had a chance to meet him and check out some of his stuff first hand at last years Siggraph.

Cheers!