Vertex books

I was wandering around on the net today looking for some tutorials and such and came across these Vertex books - free or whatever donation you like. I think they're fantastic - they have small articles written by experienced artists from top companies such as Blizzard and Marvel on a wide range of (mostly) art related stuff - some of it being very practical such as the one by Simon Fuchs on highpoly hardsurface modelling techniques which gave me a few ideas I hadn't had previously. Anyway, though I'd share in case anyone was interested.

 

I've recommended these to everyone I know. They are an invaluable resource, and I think that everyone who has even the slightest interest in game art should check them out.

The fourth issue might be coming within the next few months, as well.

 

One of the most difficult things being self-taught is getting any kind of insight on workflows and techniques used at professional level - everything I come across are either art dumps or general/personal interviews, which can be interesting but aren't very helpful. OTOH every single article in that book is something potentially useful to me, and all the artists are at the very top of their fields. Now if there was a similar one out there for level design and game programming that would really be great!

 

This is a great one: http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/c...ign-guide-11day-level-design-guide-ebooks.php

To be honest, I think art dumps are great. They allow you to see individual art pieces from a game and you can start breaking them down in your mind. I've personally learned a ton of tricks from doing so, and I still try to hunt down some good art dumps.

Interviews usually aren't as packed full of knowledge as proper articles, but they can give you some insight as well. The stuff on 80.lv is quite informative, and they update the site multiple times a day.

If you want as much information about game art as possible, I suggest you check out things like GDC talks, game breakdowns, ArtStation and Polycount (and check the Polycount wiki as well).

 

thanks, 80.lv looks pretty good ...

Yeah art dumps can be useful, especially for texture and form inspiration. What I really feel the lack of is insight into workflow - ways for speeding up and facilitating creating a lot of detail. For example I always used curve modifiers for pipes and such, but never really thought of using it to lay down detail on a curved surface like the Fuchs article in Vertex 3 talks about. At this stage for me these kind of technical tips are the most useful and hard to come by.

 

I hate when sites provide "FREE" or "free*" something and require a signup. If it is free, why not just put it onto dropbox for everybody to download?

 

Well, it is still free. All you sign up for is a mailing list. What I did was download the book, and then unsub from the list.

The signup requirement is most likely just a way for the site's owner to get more readers.

 

Nothing is for free, I don't know where people get this idea from. Whether it's money, publicity or the ability to spam you companies want something from you. Which is hardly surprising since you're getting something from them.

Personally, being spammed with useful information is not a problem.

 

Didn't know these books. My email address is a fair price to give them a look I guess Thank you for sharing

 

I didnt even see a sample of what the book is about and they want my email?
I left.

Forums are free to use, but you have to sign up to post.
But at least you can read them to decide if its something you want first.

 

This. It's not so much giving up the email adress that bothers me. It simply adds an extra step to the process that can consume time and energy.

My email is up in so many places across the web that giving it out to one more company won't have a statistical effect on the amount of spam I get.

 

Thanks for sharing Billy - suprising Ive never seen these before either - although granted Ive been working 3D since 1999 so I dont look for process & workflow content as much as I did the first couple years.
I hung out @ cgtalk, polycount and game artisan on a daily basis for years sponging up as much info as I could and testing things on my own.
You may consider checking these sites daily - especially cgtalk (cgsociety) which has tons of information broken down by role - animation, modeling, texturing, lighting, to name but a few as well as some great tutorials and wip threads where people walk through developing content similar to here where prople walk through developing a game.
One other thing I used to enjoy about cgtalk was the diversity of the site. They have all walks, game artists, concept specialists, movie industry veteran artists hobbists, and specialists of all arenas of digital visual development.

 

Why not have a 'cannon fodder' email that you only use for things like this? It's hardly surprising they do this, nobody is going to give up their email after they download the book unless they think it's the next best thing since sliced bread, and probably not even then. It's like trying to get people to rate stuff from the asset store.

@TheAlmightyPixel I had a chance to check out some of the level design book you linked. It's definitely got some good info there but I felt like it was all covered quite fast and superficially, almost like a collection of bullet points. I would have liked to see techniques described from a few different angles with a few different examples rather than simply stated broadly before moving on. However it's not a bad read, thanks!

 

I don't have a problem with him collecting an email before a download.
I do have a problem with giving an email before even knowing what the site is.

You did describe it, but I expect the actual site to provide that information and definitely a small sample of whats going on.
Just asking people to give an email on a front page with no explanation is rude.

I been on the internet since 1997 and I've never seen this before, its not the way to do things.
Damn kids * old man shakes fist *

 

This a million times. I've gone ahead and set up an extra Gmail account for these sorts of things. Too bad it gets less spam than my main email inbox lol

Yeah, the book may not be as in depth as it could.

If you really want to learn level design, the best way to do so is to simply make levels and get feedback on them. You can also play through some of your favourite/popular levels in games and break them down and see why they work. And as I mentioned before, some conference talks are a great resource (GDC, Unite etc) for information from actual game companies.

Also learning about some general concepts like pacing, negative space, composition etc. is helpful.

 

Vertex 2 had a little bit about level design/optimisation in Far Cry 3, but yeah, I'm sure there are a ton of resources out there, gonna get to that point soon.

Hehe same here, I check my 'other' email once every couple of weeks and it's got like 3 or 4 newsletters, while my main one is chockers every morning. Guess I haven't rerouted a lot of stuff yet.