Personal Log JAN 2026
- Ethen Dent
- 2 days ago
- 33 min read
Updated: 22 hours ago
JANUARY
ETHEN DENT
Over the course of approximately 2 years, I have accumulated material from various sources that I intended to go back to if and when I have time to improve certain aspects of my studies.
I have reached some quiet months in my studio timetable and now intend to focus on the material I have accumulated. This document serves as a written progression.
3D Management - A series of materials surrounding set up and project management.
3D Fundamentals - A series of materials that focus on core skills and principals surrounding specific software packages.
3D Practice - A series of tutorials that test skills learned in software packages
3D Inspired - Either a series of somewhat unrelated material but will be used for inspiration for projects or loosely based fundamentals.
3D MANAGEMENT: MASTER 3D PROJECTS STRUCTURE
Projects with multiple artists and/or larger projects use a more complex file structure.
Individual projects will use similar file structure but on a smaller scope.
File structure is tailored for projects. Tailor it for what you need.
This is intended for Project Horizon and tutorial/upcoming projects...
PROJECT HORIZON'S FILE STRUCTURE
¬ ASSETS
¬ ART
¬ CHARACTER
¬ _CHARACTER_NAME
¬ CONCEPT
¬ _WIP
¬ PUB
¬ LOOKDEV
¬ _WIP
¬ PUB
¬ MODEL
¬ _WIP
¬ PUB
¬ REFERENCE
¬ RIG
¬ _WIP
¬ PUB
¬ TEXTURE
¬ _WIP
¬ PUB
¬ ENVIRONMENT
¬ _ENVIRONMENT_NAME
¬ CONCEPT
¬ _WIP
¬ PUB
¬ LIGHTING
¬ _WIP
¬ PUB
¬ LOOKDEV
¬ _WIP
¬ PUB
¬ MODEL
¬ _WIP
¬ PUB
¬ REFERENCE
¬ RIG
¬ _WIP
¬ PUB
¬ TEXTURE
¬ _WIP
¬ PUB
¬ PROP
¬ _PROP_NAME
¬ CONCEPT
¬ _WIP
¬ PUB
¬ LOOKDEV
¬ _WIP
¬ PUB
¬ MODEL
¬ _WIP
¬ PUB
¬ REFERENCE
¬ RIG
¬ _WIP
¬ PUB
¬ TEXTURE
¬ _WIP
¬ PUB
¬ UI
¬ _UI_NAME
¬ CONCEPT
¬ _WIP
¬ PUB
¬ LOOKDEV
¬ _WIP
¬ PUB
¬ REFERENCE
¬ RENDERS
¬ _WIP
¬ PUB
¬ AUDIO
¬ MUSIC
¬ _SONG_NAME
¬ _WIP
¬ PUB
¬ SFX
¬ _SFX_NAME
¬ _WIP
¬ PUB
¬ FONTS
¬ SHADERS
¬ BUILDS
¬ COMPILED_BUILDS
¬ DEV
¬ RELEASES
¬ TEST
¬ CODE
¬ GAMEPLAY
¬ SOURCE_CODE
¬ MODULES
¬ SCRIPTS
¬ SYSTEMS
¬ UI
¬ UTILITIES
¬ EDIT
¬ ANIMATIC
¬ PRODUCTION
¬ MAKING_OF
¬ PREFABS
¬ BLUEPRINTS
¬ ENTITIES
¬ PREFABS
¬ RENDERS
¬ SQ0010_SH0010
¬ _final
¬ 3DRENDER
¬ ANIMATIC
¬ COMPOSITING
¬ PLAYBLAST
¬ RESEARCH
¬ DOCUMENTS
¬ DESIGN_DOCUMENTS
¬ NOTES
¬ README
¬ RESEARCH
¬ EXPERIMENTS
¬ SCENES
¬ LEVELS
¬ _LEVEL_01_NAME
¬ MAIN_MENU
¬ MAPS
¬ SHOT
¬ SQ0010_SH0010
¬ ANIMATION
¬ COMPOSITING
¬ FX
¬ LAYOUT
¬ LIGHTING
¬ THIRDPARTY
¬ EXTERNAL_LIBRARIES
¬ SDK
¬ TOOLS
¬ CUSTOM_TOOLS
¬ IMPORTED_TOOLS
¬ SCRIPTS
3D MANAGEMENT: HOW TO BE SUCCESSFUL AS A SELF TAUGHT ARTIST
Flipped Normals cover necessary discussions in regards to how to become a successful artist in the creative industry. Despite going to university, the video still covers discussions that I can rebuild a foundation of fundamentals that I can practice throughout this project.
HIGH LEVELS OF DEDICATION
“You need pretty high levels of dedication and you really need to just really love the work. Because it's… it's hard this is… going into this field whether you're going in as a self-taught artist or if you're going in through school it's really hard work.” - FlippedNormals, 01:21
“The dedication part I think is one of the most important ones, especially in the beginning.” - FlippedNormals 2:02
I've been thinking about my path, Escape and the Industry, for quite a long time. I've taken a very extended break since SunCoast. Exploring other avenues, reconnecting with my family and travelling the world. Almost a triple gap year, if you will. Honestly, I never strayed too far from VFX. I followed through with OddWatch. It built up some savings for future projects which I am proud of.
I would like to start taking the field seriously again. Probably running through fundamentals and my passion project at the same time. I will say attempt to find a healthy split but I will figure that out as I go. This is where I'm starting. Video Essays, tutorials and a lot of reflection. So I imagine my first specialism log is going to be very retrospective heavy. Technical stuff later.
WORK-LIFE BALANCE
“Your skills, there are a bunch of things here we've got to cover. Like how do you get good? Like how do you, how do you stay on top of the game? All these kinds of things here. But we just want to start off by saying that when it comes to getting a job in this field here, the most important bit; is not your education, it's not your family history, or your grades from school, or anything else. It is your hard skills.” - FlippedNormals, 04:04
That's the focus right now. My mind goes back to university which shouldn't be the focus. Hard skills. 3DEqualizer, Maya, Blender, Substance and Nuke. They are the focus.
“That is we really can't stress enough get good. Really get good and then the next step is how do you do that? That is a pretty tricky thing to do and that's also an incredibly big question. Like what does getting good mean?.. You need to watch as many tutorials as you can in the beginning.” - FlippedNormals, 05:19
I've collected various tutorials to get me started with the basics of the software I'm unfamiliar with. Alongside this, I will develop some projects that practice the skills covered in those tutorials.
PROJECTS
“Start a lot of projects and just take them through to completion. This is one piece of advice I was getting when the guys I had worked with when I was starting out when I was like 17. Just try out a lot of different things and do projects. Don't just do blind tests like if you want to learn lighting don't just do like HDRI. And try to light a little object here but like properly take it through (the pipeline)” - FlippedNormals, 07:16
Probably the most consistent aspect of Escape studios. Taking work through every step of the pipeline was something we did multiple times a year. It didn't keep you isolated in your specialism. It was important to understand how to communicate what you expect to receive and how to suit your work for the next step in the pipeline. In solo work, you had to do every step and it helped you understand it. Doing these again is detrimental to building my skills back up.
“It's not just a blind learn, learn, learn. It's also about applying the skills. So it's kind of like a production… a small production environment in that sense and you're just connecting the dots.” - FlippedNormals, 08:29
So over the next 10 weeks, I will become a 1 man production company. Run through tutorials and then develop projects of my own based on them. Apply what I learn.
MENTORSHIP
“The way I've been doing this is I've been active on social media. I've been active on forums and then you just start talking to people.” - FlippedNormals, 14:07
Alongside LinkedIn, it's clear I need to utilise social media platforms. Both to get a feedback loop and hopefully some kind of mentorship from those more advanced in the field. I'm thinking of having a separate page/account specifically for my work so personal posts don't dilute what I need people to see.
SCHOOL
“There is definitely a difference if you attend a good course or a good school versus being self-taught. I remember the people that I went to class with. You know, one of the first things I ever modelled was like a scotch glass and the tutorial was just bad. It didn't explain to me the concepts of putting edges close together and like what it would mean when you smoothed it and stuff. So you see people in class being as good after two weeks as you were after three months yeah because of good teaching” - FlippedNormals, 15:07
So I think FlippedNormals are talking about the quality of tutorials from free resources compared to the quality of lessons at a school. Fundamentals, like the one mentioned, isn't something that comes up often for me at uni. We built things but not a fundamental understanding as to why we do it as long as it worked in the pipeline. My Jukebox, that boolean nightmare, crashed desktops at uni. I'd model it differently now but at the time, I needed holes in a piece of geometry and that was the only time efficient way I knew how to do it. Most of these fundamentals came from running projects through entire pipelines and practice. The outcome is unquestionable though. I've definitely improved. This will happen again on my journey with Blender.
COMMUNITY
“One of the things as well is really useful again to figure out what is the actual competitive standard.” - FlippedNormals, 16:33
In terms of Matchmoving, there is a playlist by TRACK VFX which covers a good amount of showreels and the context behind them. This includes trackers hired into the MPC academy. It sets the standard that I need to achieve.
“If you want to work in a global industry, like you want to work in games or film, you shouldn't just look at the local talent. You need to look at Art Station. Like if you want to be a game artist, find game artists anyway and just figure out what they're doing.” - FlippedNormals, 16:52
So I need to take my skills into the context of hireable assets and whether they meet the par that companies are looking for. Matchmoving, modelling, texturing. Being a generalist is clearly valued. Take each skill, see how they compare and get them up to standard.
INTERNSHIPS
“Even working in an ad agency, where you do like Ark visualization and all that like that kind of stuff. It's still relevant. It’s the experience, it's still experience and what you learn a lot is the soft skills; it's like you learn how to deal with feedback, you learn how to deal with working hours, you learn to have a salary. You learn all these kinds of things so it's… get into a job as soon as you can and as soon as you can doesn't mean right away it means as soon as you can yeah I mean as soon as it's right for you. You have to have some skills.” - FlippedNormals, 20:43
Not exactly advice I have heeded in retrospect. But I want to get back into this industry. It simplifies the steps I need to take. Just get the skills and then start applying. I intend to take a week off from work to focus on 3DE but perhaps I could spend time now doing tutorials and then do a project in that week in February. Arguably once I have done the practice, I can blanket apply to maximise the time my name is out there.
LOCAL STUDIO
“So I would definitely say learn the most recent tools in whatever field that you're going into. Like if you are going into games or or film? Substance Painter and Designer are super useful. ZBrush and Marvel's Designer are really useful tools. So definitely do that.
Most results say the same thing in regards to most aspects of vfx. 3DE for matchmoving, Substance for texturing. ZBrush for sculpting. Results are mixed for modeling and animation although the consensus is that Blender is excellent for animation, sculpting and rendering, Maya is industry standard for animation and VFX.
But also don't spread yourself too thin. Like we said in the beginning, you can get a good experience with a lot of different tools here and there but once you figure out generally what you want to do I don't learn 10 3D softwares at the same time. Like if you it's probably good to have a basis in something like max or Maya in the beginning because they're used a whole lot if you are film it's Maya just learned that one tool really well… so learn like… keep up to date on tools yeah stay a few but good tools and learn to learn how to use them well.” - FlippedNormals, 22:51
So essentially the list comes down to; Maya, Blender, 3DE, Substance Painter/Designer, Nuke.
TUTORIALS
“... and then we got to talking about how you have to figure out the way you learn best… for some people, sitting down and just watching tutorials all day long really just isn't the best way to do it.
We can't say what way is right for you because that is so individual.” - FlippedNormals, 24:25
As of right now, I have a playlist to go through that covers different tutorials in Blender that I go over and then make a project based on what I learnt. I want to avoid just doing tutorials and focus on applying skills to project environments. For me, I best learn by doing rather than following along with a tutorial.
TROUBLESHOOTING
“Learn to Google. We can't stress how important it is… we know this sounds basic here but it's so many times where I've been teaching and some student has an issue and they're like ‘I keep getting this error message, how do I fix it?’ and I copy paste the error message into Google and I get the fix.” - FlippedNormals, 26:16
This is self-explanatory. Though I have less of a choice now since I don't have a mentor as of now. But I never had this issue to begin with. I have worked individually plenty of times and can usually find the answer to what I'm looking for.
LEARNING & TROUBLESHOOTING
“Learn core concepts, not just tools. If you're in texturing, learn Substance Painter and all these kinds of things but don't just drag and drop materials. Learn materials. Learn the basics of the physics of how material works. Learn light and colour… everything revolves around some core principals like composition, colour theory.” - FlippedNormals, 31:18
So with each skill, I need to prioritise the concept/fundamental rather than the tool. Each goes hand in hand during this process since I will be practicing the fundamentals whilst learning the tool. For example, my modelling skills within Maya have improved over the years and now I'm at the point where I can build whatever I want. It will be interesting to see how this translates as I start learning Blender.
PHOTOGRAPHY
“Dedicate some time to studying core concepts. A really good way of doing that is to learn photography… if you understand how to compose an image, then a lot of stuff follows.” - FlippedNormals, 33:59
I'm so glad this was highlighted in the video. Photography is probably one of my most consistent skills that I have been working on. I've been working on a Hiromix inspired project since April 2018 and it consistently practices some of the core concepts FlippedNormals is talking about. I think I'd like to practice specific fundamentals with this though. Usually I take what feels right and I would like to try photography with specific compositions in mind.
SPECIALISATION
“I do recommend starting off as a generalist, but once you have been doing that for a while then you can start to specialise. If you want to work in a major studio, you most likely will have to specialise once you have a foundation. You can be a generalist with a focus on one. Studios generally find those people to be really valuable because if you want to go to supervisor levels, you just understand how everything is connected.” - FlippedNormals, 37:06
Partly why I focused on specialising in matchmove and layout. I get to work on a range of aspects within the pipeline, setting me up as a generalist as opposed to a specialist. Once I’ve built good fundamentals, I can then start developing a specialism. The other part is job security. Because a generalist is really valuable, I can be flexible and retain options of supervisory levels. What FlipNormal says here reassures me that I am making somewhat of a good decision to continue in this direction.
PAID COURSES
“Don't be afraid of spending money… spending money on tutorials, that is a legit investment. If you spent $400 on a course and there's an 8 week long course, you learn so much from it that could serve as your foundation for everything in the future.” - FlippedNormals, 38:29
Something to make note of but I don’t have a plan that involves a paid course right now. It’s something to keep in mind, however.
SOCIAL MEDIA
“Then the second part is exposure and soft skills. This is also super important. How do you tell people you're good? You gotta do some marketing here. Be social. See if you can get friends in this field. Be bold, just put yourself out there.” - FlippedNormals, 46:32
So I think with this aspect, reconnecting with old classmates is a good first step. 3DE also has verified 3DE artists/techs that I can attempt to reach out to. Perhaps after that, focus on companies that I would enjoy working at. I think once I have something to show, this step would be a priority and something to work towards every day.
“I would definitely say, be active on Social Media. Push yourself on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. Be part of groups, discussions. Find forums that are relevant to you. As well as be extremely open to feedback. Don't do everything someone tells you but be open to the idea that there are a lot of things here you probably don't know. Present your work well and then share it on various social medias. This is a great way of people just getting exposure to feedback” - FlippedNormals, 47:59
At first glance, community tabs on company pages seem to be locations where people are asking questions. This doesn’t seem to be a sure fire solution though. Responses are few and far between. Reddit, also another option, where people are asking for help. I did see a forum called Real Time VFX where people are showing off their work and asking for feedback. Definitely a staple, especially early on in my development.
STYLE
“What people often care about isn't necessarily your final product, but if they can see that this guy has progressed from nothing, that matters a lot. Progress is an indicator because if you hire this person, you can expect the same growth if not faster.” - FlippedNormals, 49:45
This is something that was discussed during one of my lectures at university. During one of the ‘Striking Out’ sessions at Escape, Daniel Waterman mentions that a history of work can be beneficial when hiring or contracting. Definitely putting my best work most accessible, but I’ve always agreed to show a history of work, regardless of how bad it is so long as I’ve tried my best.
“I think, do it with style. Don't share your Maya screenshot of a now in progress model. Present it in a cool way that makes people go ‘okay he has an attention to detail’.
Just present your work well.” - FlippedNormals, 49:45
I think back to conversations with Jonathan McFall back at Escape. I understand that I would want to present my work in a cool and unique way, but I haven’t actually looked at ways to do it. This is something I would understand better by looking at other’s work within the industry. See how they display their work and try to develop my own unique style.
FINAL POINT
“Our last point… go to festivals. Go to places like FMX in Germany. Go to SIGGRAPH. Go to local festivals where you know cool talks are being presented by people who make the latest cool games, latest movies to give breakdowns.
One of the main reasons… you meet recruiters. Recruiters will go to all these conventions. Go to GDC.
It might be expensive to go there and you can't afford it all the time but if you have the money to go there, it's a really valuable resource.” - FlippedNormals, 52:07
This is something I didn’t really take advantage of when I went to VFX festivals during university. I was very reserved and didn’t approach people. I want to be much more proactive now as I want to go back into this industry. Here is the deadline. 24th February, Escapeverse is happening. I need to have fundamentals sorted and a showreel produced. This isn’t going to be easy with other commitments in my life but I will make sure I have something ready for this event.
3D MANAGEMENT: LIFE AS A 3D MODELER IN THE FILM INDUSTRY - VFX
OVERVIEW
In this discussion video, FlippedNormals talks about life and details as a 3d modeler in the film and VFX industry. My goal from this video is to affirm what tools I need to look into, understand the pipeline surrounding 3D modeling and to assess what some of my next steps are to break into the industry.
THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF MODELERS
ENVIRONMENT MODELING
“So the first one we have here is environment modeling. Environment modeling is interesting because I feel like the tools that they use for environment modeling can vary, you know. Sometimes we have Maya. Sometimes maybe someone will generate something in Houdini. SpeedTree. There's a lot of different software being used.
Environment modeling is a very distinct branch of modeling. They're still doing modeling but it's just a different profession within modeling itself.
The environment covers everything, if you see breakdowns from big studios, sometimes you'll see that most of the time it's there just on some set and environment modeling is most of what you see." - FlippedNormals, 02:04
I recently watched a breakdown video by MPC Paris of a VFX breakdown of Alien: Covenant and some of the environments in this breakdown are unbelievably detailed and inspiring. I can understand why the mention of modeling rocks brings stories from these two at FlippedNormals. I’ve been constructing a plan to bring my skills up to par and at the moment, an environment isn’t on the list. I have environment integration planned, where I integrate CG into existing architecture but perhaps a polar opposite should be added somehow. Integrate a small real element into a sequence that is predominantly CG. Nothing to the scale of what’s seen in MPC’s breakdown but an environment absolutely sounds intriguing. I remember I was working on a full CG environment of an apartment complex. Although the files for that scene are lost due to hard drive corruption, it wouldn’t take too long to build an environment like that and take it further.
CHARACTER MODELING
“Then we move on to characters and creatures. It's an interesting one because there are a lot of different smaller branches within creatures and characters. You know, we have digi-doubles for example, which is something I think a lot of people don't talk about as much. When they talk about ‘oh yeah I want to do characters and creatures’ they don't realise that the majority of what you see on screen for characters and creatures are just replicants of the actors…” FlippedNormals, 04:05
Digi-doubles is going to be a rather tough aspect to commit to. As far as I’m aware, it’s equipment heavy if you want any kind of decent results. I understand the concept through my research into Chris Hemsworth’s digi-double for Thor: Ragnarok.
CONCEPT MODELING
“Then you have something like creatures where oftentimes you're either handed a concept or you're refining a concept that someone else in another concept studio made, perhaps where it's now up to you to interpret what they did and what the director wants. At that point you might be given these rough models like it might be a concept artist has had to toss, churn out 30 of these in a day and it's something he spent an hour on each thing. There is a lot of interpretation here. You're essentially doing or redoing the concept. You're looking at every single element of it and you are refining and defining what everything is going to look like. ” - FlippedNormals, 06:46
Now this gives me an idea for a challenge. I’m thinking about spending a day modeling a series of random prompts and just churn out what I can. Either ask ChatGPT, friends or peers for 20 random prompts to model and make it at least have some sort of form. Apply myself into the role of a concept modeler. Commit myself to these every once in a while to see how I’ve improved.
FACE SHAPE MODELING
“And sort of as a subset to the character modelling thing, we have face shape modelers. Face shape modelers are usually their own thing… that's also a very creative task, it's a different kind of creativity. You are again replicating something one to one but it's not necessarily replicating what the actor did. Maybe it's a creature and you have to replicate how the face would move but on something that doesn't have human or even general animal anatomy.
But then you also have the other side of that where you have an actor who comes in for something called a FACS session. Where every single record, every single expression is recorded and stored and scanned so you have just 120 scans, like 128 expressions and these all have to be translated back into your model.” - FlippedNormals, 09:23
So this was actually really interesting the first time I heard this and I actually misunderstood FACS session, hearing it as FACT session the first time. I looked into the pipeline a little and it’s rather fascinating with how some skill sets connect with each other. FACS Capture and Data Acquisition: 3D scans and/or photogrammetry Performance capture video Neutral + 50-150 FACS poses Left/right asymmetrical poses Extreme shapes (jaw open, wide smile, etc) From this data acquisition, the face shape modeler has access to a neutral head scan and a library of expressions from the actor. I don’t recall this from Chris Hemsworth’s digi-double but I imagine it had to have been done as well.
PROP MODELING
“So prop modeling is another facet of modeling. So this is the thing that most people started out with, it's a very beginning thing to do because most of the time you get a scan and you're gonna match the scan. Usually, I would say it's easier but sometimes you get some crazy props you have to make. There is definitely a range like if you're looking at most things in the real world that are fairly simple to model because they are just a combination of basic shapes but then you definitely get some super high level things.
When I'm recommending people to build a portfolio don't just do simple props… show that you can do hard surface modeling even if you're a character artist because that's a very common way to get into (the industry), you become a lot more hirable.” - FlippedNormals, 12:03
So I’m writing my responses to each of these after finishing watching the video and this seems a little contradictory with what is mentioned about outsourcing. If props are predominantly outsourced, should I build a portfolio that houses props? It’s the easiest way to demonstrate hard-surface and organic modeling. But to what extent do I focus on prop modeling? For now, this isn’t an issue. I’m focusing on my proficiency in Blender and in doing so I am doing basic hard-surface and organic modeling to get used to the software. Once I have finished my plan though, I’m a little confused about what I should focus on.
“There are definitely spots in the pipeline for just generalists. Like generalist modelers will cover the entire pipeline. Oftentimes they're not as strong on the organic or hard surface specialists but most of the time that's not what you need. You only have a handful of hero things for film… most of the stuff is the in-between stuff.” - FlippedNormals, 17:40
Exactly my reasoning for specialising in matchmove and layout. Because I’ve been on smaller teams and studios, I’m hands-on with a lot of different parts of the pipeline and essentially am just a generalist now. Specialising is fine, but I would feel safer with a bit more job-security. If I’m a little more hirable, that’s good for me.
SHOT SCULPTORS
“One of the last things I want to talk about is shot sculpting. Shot sculpting is an interesting thing. Some studios use modelers for it, some studios just use people as cannon fodder, they just throw people at shot sculpting. I don't know if you could be a dedicated shot sculptor. Shot sculpting on its own is something that's already in shot, it's already rigged, and it's pretty good for almost delivery but maybe you have to do some tweaks. Maybe the way the muscle sim is working in this shot is weird, so you would sort of sculpt that back into place, sort of frame by frame… it's very much a fixing position.” - FlippedNormals, 19:03
Hearing about these different positions is rather interesting and as someone who is more of a generalist now, I feel like I need to know how to perform these roles at a junior level at least. It might be worth going back through these quotes at a later date and coming up with a project that practices these skills.
THE TOOLS
“Most of the big VFX houses just use Maya. For modeling. Maya is the big cheese.” - FlippedNormals, 22:24
Yeah, this hasn’t changed. Maya is still the big cheese, but I will say, Blender is making strides in development. It’s hit v5.0 and is becoming quite a powerful and competitive tool.
“For modeling, most people use Maya. Same for rigging and animation. Lighting they would use something like Katana and then effects is Houdini.” - FlippedNormals, 22:59
This is mostly the same as well. But from my experience, lighting in Katana is unnecessary. Maya and Arnold were able to handle lighting pretty effectively and now with Blender, the lighting in that seems to be effective as well.
“All sculpting is done in ZBrush. Mudbox isn't really being used today.” - FlippedNormals, 24:07
Again, this is the same in industry today. I’ve barely even heard Mudbox being mentioned for the past 5 years.
“For UVs, some people have used different software like UV layout… Maya has essentially had good UV tools for 3 years now… Maya has acquired unfold 3d you can now unfold your UVs.” - FlippedNormals, 25:06
“People also use Marvelous Designer a lot. This is if you're doing clothing. You're not gonna sculpt clothing. I mean there is just no reason you should sculpt clothing.” - FlippedNormals, 28:07
This is a software package I hadn’t heard of. It might be worth at least checking out and understanding how to do some basic clothing shots with it.
THE PIPELINE
PHOTOS/SCANS
“Generally, before you start, somebody has been on set to take photos/scans sessions of whatever it is you need to do. This is not just for people, like if you have 30 props, they're gonna scan them for you. Because it's so much easier to model something if you have a scan… so capture is to capture just general data like essentially photos and scans which means you get cameras and you can, in Maya, just align this perfectly” - FlippedNormals, 30:55
So when I first heard this, I realised I had no experience with this. Now I’ve modeled things with reference material. Supposedly, that’s harder. So if I can do that, I can model with scans. But I don’t want to be surprised. I want to practice this ASAP. After a little bit of digging, there is a company called Clear Angle Studios that do on-set scanning:
Clear Angle is one of the biggest on-set capture vendors for film/TV. Their BTS material shows:
Photogrammetry booths for actors
Prop scanning tables
LiDAR scanning of sets and locations
HDRI and reference capture
CONCEPTING
“If you are doing something creative, instead of getting stuff from the set, you'll do concepting or you'll get concepts from an art department or some sketches from a director.” - FlippedNormals, 33:06
MODELING
“Once concepting is done, this is when you do your retopology of your model or if you were provided a scan for this then you just model it up… there's also a lot of back and forth with concepting and modeling, this is something you should never do. Because once you're done with concepting, then you have a retopo model with tons of UV sets and it might have face shapes and then they're like… can you change it?
Most likely you will have to go back and reshape some stuff. Try to work as non-destructively as you can. You can't work non-destructively because you're not working procedurally… but try to work as non-destructively as possible. Most of the time, they'll try to lock down topology as early as possible because topology is one of those things that messes everything up in the pipeline. If your topology is locked you can do most things down the pipeline, you can always go back and tweak things like you can tweak the shape of a model to a certain extent. You can not drag out one vert to be three spikes for example. You would need more topology for that which would mess everything up down the line.” - FlippedNormals, 34:30
This is making me think of two things: 1. So far, in my experience, Blender has a far better non-destructive workflow compared to Maya. It’s so user friendly and you can work backwards quite frequently. Eventually you have to take that leap and commit to the work so you can move forwards but with Maya, it feels you have to commit with each little step, making going backwards quite a headache. 2. I gotta practice retopologizing.
UVS
“Once we’re done with the modeling, we’ll assume that your topology is locked down and your retopo is done.. Then it’s time for UVs. UVs are more complicated than what people assume. At least from students, they assume that UVs are only a 2D representation of your 3D model… UVs are used for a lot more things than purely texturing. So we have a video about what are UDIMs? And how do you use UDIMs? In that one, we show one part which is selection sets. Like if you're sculpting in ZBrush, you can split your model based on your UDIMs. It’s used for selection sets in Mari and it’s generally used for a lot of different things where it comes to selections.” - FlippedNormals, 36:26
My understanding of UVs is not great. I know how to do them fine and get assets through the pipeline. But I think I could do some work in regards to UVs and UDIMs.
FlippedNormal mentions this playlist and I definitely need to go through this.
“Different departments require different UVs. If you’re doing hair, you most likely can't have UDIMs. So you need to do separate UVs for the hair. Yeah, you have a groom UV set which is all one tile.” - FlippedNormals, 37:20
“Effects will generally have their own sort of utility UV pass that some other departments can use as well. This can be an effects thing to go across the surface of a model. They probably bind that to the UVs. Like some veins growing or something.” - FlippedNormals, 37:44
DETAILING
“Probably the last step in getting a model out is gonna be the final detailing. This usually involves sculpting. So we take our model into ZBrush and we just sculpt it up. This could be for hard surface… maybe it’s break detail, you have massive damage for something. Maybe it’s a creature that has a scar. It could be anything, but just the super fine detail that you obviously can’t model.” - FlippedNormals, 40:35
OUTSOURCING
“Moving on to our next topic is outsourcing. Not necessarily a problem… a lot of the studios today, I would say most of the studios will have departments overseas in something like India or China. They’re putting more and more work there. Which is why we talked about when we do props that this is something you USED to do. Most props are not done in the major studios in London or Vancouver. They’re mostly outsourced. They’re usually just like the main studios’ department in some other country. It’s not true outsourcing but it’s practically the same thing. A lot of that work is being done in India which is fantastic if you’re in India… That said, if you’re in London and you know, your job might be online due to this.” - FlippedNormals, 44:05
This is what I mentioned before. If most of what is done can be outsourced, what exactly can I do in order to stand out and appear more hirable. Demonstrate necessary skills but after that, it’s got to be creative or technical.
“What I highly recommend doing, to combat outsourcing, is either work on your very technical skills such as programming or work on your artistic skills such as sculpting or designing. If you are in the middle where you can only model something which already exists like it’s a prop based on a scan or it’s a digi-double based on a perfect scan… that’s an easy task to ship off to a cheaper company somewhere. Just be aware of this. If you personally can only do non creative work or non-technical work, then you will have a really hard time getting into this field. But technical work, programming and scripting, essentially developing tools for people because (studios) aren’t gonna throw that off somewhere else, you want that in-house for now at least.” - FlippedNormals, 47:20
“Certain studios are fairly aggressively pushing it out, not just topology but they’re pushing the simple stuff like roto, matchmove. They’ve already done it for years. Certain studios have for 10 years. They’re taking out some of their simple comp work, a lot of lighting is being thrown out, some basic animation, even rigging. It’s not necessarily scary, it’s just you have to be aware of this. That you have to know about this and you have to take measures so that you are not irrelevant. Learn some crazy software like Houdini or Substance. Learn core art foundations. If you are a character artist and you can only do retopology, you’re in trouble. I would say, learn proper sculpting, learn figure sculpting, become valuable, learn character designs, maybe go into texturing… ” - FlippedNormals, 48:34
Thank you 1st year Escape. The art fundamentals semester. Another thing on the list that would be worth re-covering.
GENERAL HIERARCHY
JUNIOR
“Obviously the first sort of entry role that you would have is a junior. As a junior modeler (you) are generally given more simple tasks. They are ‘here, we need to go from A to B but you will be given one of the steps in between A and B. So do the thing here.’ Then you do the thing and you report back and now you’ve done that thing, you’re gonna do the next thing.” - FlippedNormals, 49:43
I like being prepared and this seems strange to me but I do understand it. I’ve taken things through entire pipelines, I don’t think I’ve worked on a specific asset at a specific part of the pipeline and then passed it on. Part of me wants to practice that, just in case.
“It’s just to get you started into the VFX pipeline. Like I mentioned before, it's really hard when you’re starting out to do something. If you were thrown into a major thing where I do this full-on character, like you don’t even know where to get started. You don’t even know how to operate Linux. You’re not a very good production artist yet. You might be a great artist, but you haven’t worked in a production. Those are very separate things. Being a production artist is something you learn as a junior and things that you haven’t learnt is what comes with the territory. Like how you submit to dailies, the stress of having a delivery. What standards do you have to adhere to? How should you do topology? What are UDIMs? .” - FlippedNormals, 50:36
Well most of this would come from the role, like mentioned.
“As a junior, you will often ask more questions. And you should as a junior… I don’t care if you're a supervisor, or like the top dog in the company, you ask questions. If there’s something you don’t know, let’s say you’re a senior modeler and there’s something you don’t know about UVs, ASK THE QUESTION. Because you don’t want to risk messing it up for the people down the pipeline. There is always something you don’t know.” - FlippedNormals, 51:26
Things are changing all the time and you’re only one person. It’s always worth asking since others are learning different things and finding solutions that only experience could bring. Take Maya for example, I’ve spent 18 months away from Maya now, so I’d definitely have to ask questions about things. Recently, I’ve been asking questions about 3DEqualizer with Science D-Vision.
SENIOR
“Generally the difference between a junior and senior in a way, is that you give a junior a task. You give someone with more seniority, you give them a general goal. A junior, you might tell them specifically what tools to use, what techniques to use… they might be a fantastic artist, they just don’t know how to use it in a production. A senior is more given a goal. Nobody tells me specifically how to texture or how to model. They’re just like ‘Make this thing. Here is a basic concept: make this awesome’. And you’re just figuring out how to do it. ” - FlippedNormals, 52:49
This is more familiar to me when working on projects at Escape. The only difference is that the senior role comes with experience with the company and their pipeline.
“Independence and sort of responsibility I guess. That’s one of the things that come with seniority. Which is also why if you fuck up, it’s on you. Whereas a junior if you fuck up, it’s most probably not on you.” - FlippedNormals, 53:30
LEADS
“Then we have leads. Leads in general will do less actual modeling, lighting, whatever. You’re mostly responsible for delegating the tasks to the seniors, mids and juniors. There will be some leads that also partake in the work. Depends on the show, the company, the kind of lead that they are. But in general, it’s a more production heavy kind of modeler. You’re dealing more with supervisors. You’re dealing more with meetings. And by production, we mean paperwork.” - FlippedNormals, 57:45
“Some people really want to just go up there just to be able to go into management and some people really hate that. If you’re a very artistic person here, going into a lead role is not better than a senior role. It’s a very different role, you have far more responsibility and you do less actual work. The workload is bigger most of the time. They put in more hours” - FlippedNormals, 58:24
“It’s just a difference in what you personally want to do. A lead artist is most likely not better than a senior artist… I would say that a lead is a blend between management and artist and it’s the first tier into a management role in a company.” - FlippedNormals, 58:49
SUPERVISORS
“Then at the end of the whole thing, we have supervisors. So supervisors are the ones that make the final call. You have different levels of supervisors. Maybe you have certain supervisors for certain departments. You have a supervisor for the entire show itself depending on if there's a supervisor that’s in-house, a supervisor that’s on set with the director. They all have different roles, but these are the people that just sit in dailies. Eight hours a day and that’s most of what they do.” - FlippedNormals, 59:25
“On most shows, I find that there is a build supervisor. And the build supervisor will be responsible for stuff like; modeling, texturing, groom, look-dev or shading. At that point you do very little actual work, you’re more responsible for making sure that all tasks are completed, that your bidding days aren’t being burned up.” - FlippedNormals, 1:00:07
Bidding days, referring to the estimated number of workdays that were sold to the client for a specific task, is a new term for me and it was interesting to look into this.
“Most of the time you would not probably set the standard, but talk with the leads, about the standards that are gonna be on the show. You know, how do we get these assets out, what’s the resolution for the textures, what’s the polycount gonna be. Overall workflows as well. If it’s a crazy character, there isn’t necessarily a straightforward way for you to just concept and then model and texture it. Specifically, how do you go about this? Making sure all the parts talk to each other and that the work is just done in an efficient way. ” - FlippedNormals, 1:00:38
HOW TO REVIEW WORK
DAILIES
“The very last point that we are gonna talk about is, how is the work going to be reviewed? Essentially there are two ways of the work being reviewed.
The first one is you submit your work to dailies… essentially this is a gathering of people who review this on a projector in a room every day. That’s why (it’s called) dailies. This is where you submit this through a pipeline where this goes into a playlist and here you have your supervisor and they will feedback your work. This is a good way for everyone on the film to just to see what's up, what’s currently happening here and for people to just give their feedback on it.
It’s just a really efficient way for the supervisor to look through the work and be like ‘improve this, make this better, fix that’. Just a centralized place for feedback.” - FlippedNormals, 1:01:12
So dailies is something I am very accustomed with. But what I wonder is how you can demonstrate these kinds of things before you go into a role like this. To get hired for a supervisor position. I imagine that you would have to work up to supervisor from a lead position rather than entering a company you don’t have production experience with.
DESK REVIEWS
“The last part of this whole review stuff would be desk reviews. So when there is not a lot of stuff being submitted to dailies, maybe there’s only one or two submissions, maybe there are people even sitting in the same room. The supervisors probably come to the room, they’ll just have a look at your computer screen to see what's going on there and just give you the feedback straight away.” - FlippedNormals, 1:04:35
3D PRACTICE: LEARNING BLENDER
OVERVIEW
Over the course of this month, alongside work and Project Horizon, I have been learning how to use Blender as an alternative to Maya. The place to start... Blender Guru's Donut Tutorial. The starting place for a lot of people who start with this software package.
I have a little more work to do in regards to lighting and rendering. Perhaps some rework for what material the table is but for now, it is fine.
[work in progress shots]
PROJECT HORIZON: GAME DESIGN DOCUMENT
OVERVIEW
I have gone back to one of my older projects and commited to realizing it into the game I've always wanted. This month and parts of last month, I have been hard at work on the game design document which is now a juicy 40 pages long. Now I'm new to this. I'm not exactly sure how much of a design document I am meant to share. Everything is just words on a page at the moment, it isn't much to share anyway and when more exciting, visual things are developed, I can show them then. But what I will share for today, is what Project Horizon is about.
ABOUT PROJECT HORIZON
Project Horizon, temporary name, follows the victims and survivors of the accursed building; Yik Cheong. They have to try and survive the hostile residents and environment that increases in difficulty over time, navigating the building via The Rig, a repurposed industrial elevator that descends from the penthouse, and various shrines. The survivors loop endlessly through the distinct parts of the building but end in the heart of the building to defeat the final boss.
Project Horizon takes influence from titles such as ‘Risk of Rain 2’, ‘Lethal Company’, ‘REPO’ as well as some unlikely influences like ‘Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 1&2’ and the board game ‘Betrayal at House on the Hill’. It is developed by OddWatch Studios. The game plans to release in August 2030, after early access in March 2029.
PHILOSOPHY
Rainbow Six Vegas 1 & 2 features ‘Terrorist Hunts’. Despite not being a horror game, was widely received as a more intense and fearful experience than horror games that are designed to be that way. The intention of this project is to replicate the feeling of these moments into an extraction-based, rogue-like that incorporates the game-play loop as part of the narrative.
The concept of the game originally started in 2018 with the developers' appeal for Rogue-Likes and Horror games and wanted to combine the two genres. The project never made it past conception stages due to other commitments but is now the focus of the studio since May 2025.
COMMON QUESTIONS
What is the game?
The game will consist of a RPG Rogue-like that emphasises exploration and discovery. Players choose from a roster of characters, each with their own mobility and utility skills, to uncover the secrets of a mysterious building (Yik Cheong) that no-one seems to be leaving. Upon entering the building (for the first time), the ‘time-loop’ has been entered and cannot be left until the building has succumbed. Players must ascend the building and explore the surrounding areas to defeat the trials that are contained within the building and cleanse it of its curse.
The gameplay loop is the emphasis and with each loop, the player learns the mechanics of the game and unlocks additional tools, perks, characters, etc. to succeed against the building’s trials.
Similar to ‘Noita’, the game offers little explanation or direction without the player attempting trial and error. The game should deliver stages similar to ‘Rainbow Six: Terrorist Hunts’ that are connected through an overworld like that of Noita.
Why create this game?
Games that follow similar principles and gameplay loops are starting to come onto the market. Lethal Company has prompted a wave of ‘Extraction-Likes’ for development . When first concepting this game back in 2018, I desired rogue-like elements in a horror game but nothing quite scratched that itch. Lethal Company and Golden Light come close, but it’s not quite there yet and from research, there are games in development that are getting closer. Hence, why development of this project has restarted.
I want to add elements of RoR2 into the game. An experienced player of RoR2 should be able to pick this game up and understand the gameplay loop. Think RoR2 but horror.
Where does the game take place?
Deriving inspiration from the Yik-Cheong building in Hong Kong, the game will take place in an adaptation of the building itself as well as the surrounding area as optional explorable areas. Adaptation is emphasized. The environment is fictitious and takes inspiration from the streets of Hong Kong whenever desired.
What do I control?
Players would control a single character of their choice from a roster that is unlocked at challenge completions. They manage their limited inventory to plan and prepare for scenarios. The games’ host can control modifiers for the world with artifacts they have previously acquired. These take the form of Artifacts (which have risk/reward when used) and Skulls (purely for increased challenge and score).
How many characters do I control?
Players are only responsible for controlling a single character.
What is the main focus?
The main focus of the development is to create a Noita overworld, Vegas hunts and RoR perks/characters.
Create hunts that are like Rainbow Six Terrorist Hunts that are seamlessly connected in an overworld. Incorporate ‘Noita’ and ‘RoR2’ rogue-like elements into a horror game.
What is different?
Horror games that offer some of these elements lack opportunities of character progression/levelling. By completing challenges, additional tools/characters/artifacts add increased playability and increase chances to complete a run.
What I’ve been listening to:
Comments