When I was making my review of relearning 3DS Max, I was worried the figure I put out of it being a garbage dumpster fire 15% of the time was all on me being a dummy and not doing things properly. Turns out, no, it was accurate. I started off making a bell for the church, and it went pretty smoothly. It was when I was building the support for the bell that things went sour. I learn a lot of the techniques I use from speed modeling tutorials on YouTube, and there was a video showing a speed model of a violin that would extrude a plane in certain directions to make the edge of said violin. In my ignorance, I used a box instead of a plane to try and save the hassle of extruding the plane after I finished, and I don't know why, but it just kept breaking. From turning into mass of abstract shapes that would probably belong in a modern art museum when I turbosmoothed it, to inverting new faces that were made when I tried to weld vertices together, it just did not work. Then I used a plane to make it, and it worked perfectly. To think of all the grief I could have saved myself if I had just started with a plane... The rest of the process went fairly smoothly, save for a really complicated arch I tried to make that kept getting more and more simple because my technical ability could not hold a candle to my ambition. The final product didn't even match the church, so I just ended up throwing it out. Despite what this 'review' makes out this project to have been, it wasn't all gloom and doom. I actually learned a fair bit from it. I learned how to use the snap flyout tool effectively, which has saved me a lot of trying to perfectly line up a vertex with a grid point. I also learned a few new modifiers, like the bevel profile tool. Overall, my church didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it to, but I think it came out fairly decently. 6/10. Church for reference
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If you had asked me my honest thoughts on 3DS Max at the end of my second year of Digital Design and Animation, I would say 3DS Max is a dumpster fire disguised as a 3D modeling application, but using it over the past few months again, a lot of things have 'clicked' for me, and I would say that the experience is now roughly only 15% dumpster fire garbage. The two things that opened my eyes to the possibilities of 3DS Max was being able to extrude vertices to make new shapes, and using support loops to stop Turbosmooth from making everything a homogenized circle-esque nightmare. Before making the fire hydrant, I used to wonder how Turbosmooth was applied in the industry, and now my eyes have been opened as to how. When I started using 3DS Max at the start of summer, the first thing that came back to me was how to maneuver, or as the cool kids say, 'shmoove' around the viewport. I suppose this is something that has never left me, as I had a lot of trouble adjusting to moving around the viewport in Unity. When I was modeling over the summer, for any thing with a shape that couldn't be made by combining several primitives, I would just use the spline tool to make the base, then extrude it out. Many of the things I made using the splines didn't look... great. A wall phone, a rotary dial, a Tamagotchi. These are all files that used to exist on my computer but don't anymore. But because of my insistence on using so many splines, I got a lot better at making them, culminating in my 'Sacré Bleuberry' wine bottle. A simple, yet elegant and tasteful design I currently have displayed. While I think it came out pretty well, the process for making it was not fun. Specifically, unwrapping and texturing it. That stuff is a nightmare. Continuing on because I don't want to continue thinking about that process, modular design. Not half bad. It is quite handy in making large 3ds models, although there's not really much else I can say about it. Duplicate a wall, get a longer wall. Overall, I'd have to give 3DS Max an... 8/10. I am glad to report Hollow Knight is officially better than 3DS Max.
Mild Spoiler Warning
Resident Evil Village wastes no time dropping us into the thick of things. After a short introduction to the game with Chris Redfield killing Mia and taking your daughter Rose, you are shortly there after dropped into the village this game is named after. After an immaculate view of the castle and surrounding village, you are dropped into a maddeningly hard encounter where you have to survive a siege from a hoard of Lycans. Note: Please please please do not play the Village Of Shadows mode on your first playthrough, even when I dropped the difficulty to Hardcore, this event tested my level of patience. Thankfully, the difficulty levels out to be fairly consistent after that. Most people are likely waiting for Dimitrescu and her 3 daughters to show up, and will likely be surprised with how little they appear in the game based on how prominent they were in the marketing. The level they appear in, Castle Dimitrescu, is an excellent area, massive in scale, reaching from the very depths of the dungeon to the top of the roof, the castle is filled many secrets to be found. Despite this, the castle does highlight a disappointment of the game, that's it's just not as scary as Biohazard or the 2 remake. Where as Mr. X hunting you down throughout the R.P.D. was incredibly tense, since it seemed he was somehow always one step ahead of you and could ruin your plans at the drop of a hat (Because you can shoot his hat off? Nothing? Whatever, it was dumb), Lady Dimitrescu or her daughters just aren't much of a threat chasing you around the castle. There are too many open areas where you can just run around them to evade them. Even their boss fights aren't much to scoff at. One of them is such a pushover it's almost comical. Despite this, the game is still really enjoyable. The final boss of Castle Dimitrescu, Dimitrescu herself, was such a spectacle to behold however, it well made up for some lackluster fights before her. After that, you have still have about 8-10 hours of game left, and it is definitely a lot of fun. The game takes you to a lot of interesting locales, from Heisenberg's madhouse of a factory, to House Beneviento, one of the only truly terrifying areas in the game, there's never a dull moment to be had. I found myself really enjoying the story of Village, and it goes to some wild places. The combat is very well refined, with a lot of fun enemies to shoot at. Overall, I'd have to give it a Village/10. Because Village is the 8th Resident Evil? That was stupid. 8/10. The Unity game engine is a very useful tool for many starting out in game design, and is how many people in the industry got started. There are many things to appreciate about the Unity game engine, like how satisfying it is to put everything you've been working on together. A good analogy would be LEGO. Doing the programming, modeling, designing sounds, ETC, is like making your own LEGO pieces from scratch, because it certainly feels just as hard as building your very own LEGO bricks by hand, but you can see how it will all come, and then it finally does and it feels like like finally admiring a LEGO set you've built. It all comes together like a beautiful tapestry, although finally getting to that point takes a lot of effort, while creating Rigidbodies isn't. All that really has to be done to make a rigid body is to apply the Rigidbody component, and you have gravity. What I would say the hardest information to grasp about Unity would be making the code to do certain things in the Unity Essentials pathway. Even while I was being led through what to do, it still felt a bit obtuse, although I'm sure I will learn it better with time. Hopefully. Overall, I would have to say the Unity Game Engine is a great engine to use.
James Corden once said 'This game is a-mae-zing'. Unfortunately, he starred in Cats, so his statement was disregarded, and Night In The Woods was completely forgotten by everyone. Thankfully, I am here to tell you that this game is a-mae-zing. This game picks up with Mae, the character you play, arriving at her hometown of Possum Springs after having suddenly dropped out of college. You meet up with many old friends, take part in a bit bit of delinquency and rabble-rousing, and discover a dark secret hidden by many of the inhabitants of the town. While the game doesn’t offer much in terms of gameplay, mostly just walking around and a few minigames, that’s not what you play the game for. You play for the robust cast of lovable characters found throughout. From the stoic Bea to the energetic Gregg, everyone you’ll meet will have an interesting story to tell. While the game may be a bit depressing, Possum Springs being an old mining town that the world has moved on from, many residents feeling stuck with no place to go, there are many moments of serene levity to be found throughout. From being able to perform songs with your group of friends, to just being able to hang out with them and enjoy life, there are a lot of nice moments to be found throughout. It’s not the longest game, but it is a nice game to just sit down and relax with. Plus, it has Gregg, who is undoubtedly the best character in anything. 9/10.
I've had Later Alligator on the backburner for a while now. I saw the trailer for it a while back and thought it looked great, but it wasn't until self described internet person Neil Cicierega said it was a good game that I was fully hooked. I finally had the time to play it recently, and all I can say is that... well, that's what this review is for. Obviously, the game looks great. The art style looks imitates drawings done with a pencil rather than done digitally, and it looks really great. Each alligator has a unique set of animations that really give them each their own unique flair. The game itself has a unique personality with little quirks, from the quips each character gives, to the name of the city, 'Alligator New York City', which I find to be a cute touch that really helps the game set itself apart from other games like it. You are recruited by an alligator named Pat to ask his family about a party happening later. Each alligator has their own minigame you play to try and learn more about the party that Pat fears he'll be murdered at by his family. The minigames, while not exactly the most in depth gameplay, can be fairly fun to play. From the heist to steal a little toy from a claw machine to hide and seek, they're all quite nice additions to the game. Also, the game is funny. Really funny. Overall, I'm going to have to change my most anticipated sequel from Hollow Knight: Silksong, to Later: Alligator 2 But In Alligator Florida. Actually, now that I think about it, that would probably be a bad idea. 8/10
SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE really makes you feel like time only moves when you move. All jokes aside, the first SUPERHOT had a really innovative and interesting mechanic that really separated it from other first-person shooters, along with its distinct artstyle. SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE promised to be a bigger, better sequel to the original SUPERHOT, and it does accomplish that. SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE has a larger story to tell, more gameplay elements, and yet, it can become stale after a while. Don't get me wrong, the new approach to how levels were done was fun. Levels are now a series of quick encounters with a random possible upgrade to choose before each encounter. The slightly more roguelike-esque approach to levels works well with the variety of upgrades to choose from, but the new abilities aren't varied enough to keep the encounters fresh. The encounters start to meld together into a hodgepodge of enemy after enemy. While the game is very fun at the start, and does keep its luster for quite a while, eventually it just starts to fizzle out. 7/10
Doom Eternal takes everything from Doom (2016), a game that took the modern shooter, and turned it up to 11, and turns that up to 11. That is 11², for those of you who can't do math like I can. Unfortunately, you no longer have the wimpy pistol from the last game, which makes me sad. To make up for it, we now have an ice bomb that freezes enemies. And a shotgun with a grappling hook. And a flamethrower. And somehow, an even crazier soundtrack from the genius mind of Mick Gordon. The game is harder than the original, but to help ease the difficulty, id Software implemented new mechanics to really change and improve the combat of the previous game. All enemies now have exploitable weaknesses, the flamethrower can be used to get shield from enemies, you can do a short dash to evade or get closer to enemies, and as stated earlier, there is a shotgun with a grappling hook. All incredible additions that improve the combat of the original game significantly. The story has a more prominent role as well, which is... cool? after reading a few logs, it is definitely very inspired. The story is anything but boring, but there is a very distinct line between gameplay and story, so crossing from one to the other can be fairly jarring. Boss fights can become very intense, and some of the most fun fights in the game, and fighting them as normal enemies adds to the exhilarating combat. Overall, Doom Eternal is an incredible sequel, improving the original game in new, innovative ways. 9/10.
Star Wars is one of my favorite pieces of media created. I'm sure countless other people hold this same sentiment about the franchise. EA had big shoes to fill when given the IP, and they didn't live up to the expectations people had for the games. I only just picked up the game earlier this year however, so I wasn't around during that time. Seeing how it used to be, and Battlefront II now, it's quite clear how drastically things have improved. The main classes are pretty fun to play, but what is clearly the best way to play is to play Assault with only the CR-2 and Vanguard, but even that pales in comparison to the heroes. Heroes are very fun to play, but they aren't as invincible as you would think. If you walk in front of the entire enemy team and just attack them, you get shot a lot, and then you keel over and die. You have to strategize an attack plan, which I think is great. You can also play reinforcements, which are a lot of fun. They are all varied in their abilities, but usually have a weakness that can be exploited. There are a few problems with the game. Sometimes, you'll get put in a game that's near impossible to win on your own, but problems like that are small enough that they don't ruin the experience. When you and your team storm the enemy ship and bring it crashing down with John Williams' godlike score playing in the background, it's a magical moment that will stay with you for a long time. Star Wars Battlefront II is an excellent game that brings me a lot of joy. 9/10.
For my first time animating with pixel art, I created a pipe shooting out orange juice into a cup. For my first time making a 2D animation, I'd say it came out pretty alright. The pipe comes down, rotates a bit, and the orange juice comes out. Animating the pipe wasn't too hard, just lower the pipe, and animate it rotating. The orange juice was a lot more interesting to animate, since it was a liquid. I started with a small amount of orange juice pouring out the pipe, before a massive burst of orange juice came out. The orange juice reaches the cup before the flow starts to even out, and stop. The orange juice all falls into the cup, before one last drop falls in, creating a small ripple. Making this animation was pretty fun, although I have a few problems with the output. The way the orange juice falls into the cup feels more like a Tetris piece falling into place rather than juice flowing into a cup. Keeping the juice at the front consistent was a bit hard, and it doesn't look all too consistent, although the juice behind it flows a bit better. I hope to fix these quirks in any future animations I make. 7/10.
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AuthorHello, my name is Simon Sanchez. I will be writing things about my work and other things in this blog. Archives
May 2022
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