Paul Lohman - 3D Artist & Lite Engineer

2011-01-20T22:39:00.000-06:00

Deckard's Blaster - WIP

2010-12-11T10:06:00.002-06:00

mel - trajectory vis

2010-12-08T03:08:00.000-06:00

Tool to help visualize trajectory arcs and animation. Used as a quick reference to help animators with projecting or falling objects & characters.

Will have to post a vid tutorial for this one.

to use

source script,

type trajectoryVis; in command line

Move the controls around to see the resulting trajectory arc.

With the "finger" control selected you'll notice 2 key frames in the time slider, these mark the start and end of the animated trajectory marker. Moving the keys changes the when and how long the marker takes to travel across the trajectory.

mel - experimental lowpoly rounding V2

2010-12-05T17:10:00.000-06:00

lowpolySmooth.mel

I think i'v taken this as far as it can go, it's semi-useful:) and I'm sure there are better methods to solve this, but I'm ready to move on.

to install;

source script,

select a mesh

type lowpolySmooth; in command line

mel - experimental lowpoly rounding

2010-12-03T03:40:00.000-06:00

An issue I have with poly smoothing & relaxing methods is that sometimes what I really want is for the verts to only move along their normal and as little as possible in their tangent which leads to the blob shape. The result aren't that useful yet it shows potential.

mel - experimental UV unfolding method

2010-12-03T03:31:00.000-06:00

fallten.mel

Really I enjoy UV layout, it's like a game of reverse origami. But I noticed that the process of finding the proper edges to cut for the mesh to unfold isn't just artistic choice, there are rules of thumb that could be put into coded. So this is the start of that. Next I'll work in surface curvature weighting and try to further reduce the UV island count.

to install;

source script,

select a mesh

type unfoldmesh; in command line

mel - unfold mesh to uv layout (flatten)

2010-12-03T03:28:00.000-06:00

usefull?, more then you'd imagine
Though I have since found previously existing scripts that do the same thing:(

mel - shortest edge route

2010-12-03T03:25:00.000-06:00

shortestEdgeTween.mel

A simple implementation of an existing but seldom known function in maya to find the shortest edge route between 2 verts or uvs.

to install;

source script,

select 2 verts or UVs

type shortestEdgeTween; in command line

or connect the command to the poly marking menu or a hotkey

lunch time fun - hair sculpt

2010-12-03T01:57:00.000-06:00

Ralph & Fred

2010-12-03T01:54:00.000-06:00

dug up some works from college days, when feature animation & rigging where my focus, incidentally this was before Finding Nemo

Nigeria Hyena Men

2010-10-08T20:06:00.000-05:00

inspired by these guys--> google image link
9,349 tris, 2048 diffuse(alpha transparency), normal, specular(alpha gloss)

mudbox, maya, photoshop, xnormal, crazybump
viewed in Marmoset toolbag

character scupt - WIP

2010-10-08T00:26:00.000-05:00

Tommy Perot

2010-08-31T18:37:00.000-05:00

mudbox, maya, photoshop, xnormal, crazybump
viewed in Marmoset toolbag

dun dun...dun dun...dundundundun

2010-07-31T20:00:00.000-05:00

Scarab for intro cinematic - WIP

2010-07-31T18:57:00.000-05:00

>

Using multiple ik chains for each leg, one a standard setup, the other using a geometry constraint to a floor mesh allowed me to create a generic walk cycle and have the feet stick to a irregular floor surface as he moved across it.

Fi$h Bowl

2010-07-31T18:30:00.000-05:00

fish bowl themed game = fun

Better 3D Projection

2010-07-31T17:55:00.000-05:00

TriPlanatLambert scene

(will make into a script eventually)

There are several texture projection types available in Maya(planar, spherical, cubic, etc) but all create artifacts at angles perpendicular to the projection. Spherical or cylindrical create stretching at the poles & along the surface, cubic & triplanar create hard edges at the border between projected directions. To avoid these hard edges in this shader I use the surface normals to mask off areas on the surface parallel to the planar projection, using a planar projected texture in X, Y, & Z layered on top one another I get a texture to smoothly transition on all sides. Great for texturing static hi-poly models for pre-render or baking.

Also useful for baking is a simple camera space normals shader:
1. create a sampleInfo & setRange node, and any shader type(suggest surfaceShader) to assign to the mesh
2. connect the normal camera output from the sampleInfo node to the setRange value input
3. set the setRange values as fallows: Min 0,0,0; Max 1,1,1; OldMin -1,-1,-1,; OldMax 1,1,1
4. connect the outValue of the setRange to the color value of your shader, done

shotgun hole decals

2010-06-10T02:40:00.000-05:00

Crow

2010-06-10T01:53:00.000-05:00

model, texture, & rig by me
part of an undisclosed project

Golden Cleopatra Character

2010-06-10T01:49:00.000-05:00

mel - Auto Pixel Density Texture Generator(autoPDTG)

2010-05-03T19:47:00.000-05:00

autoPDTG.mel

Calculates the appropriate texture resolution for mesh(s) at a uniform pixel density.

Why? How? you may ask, long story...

Since a major factor in GPU performance in games is texture memory and it can be difficult enough for one artist to simply guess the optimal size of a texture for each asset he or she makes, let alone many artist guessing uniformly, there is a need to accurately calculate & automate the appropriate texture resolutions for a project....:)

How - By dividing the 3d surface area of a mesh by its UV surface area you get a adjusted surface area ratio. The square root of that gets you a resolution for an image. Multiply that by your desired pixel density for the project and you have a base texture resolution! In this script I also round to nearest power of 2 size before taking a UV snapshot and attaching that file to the file texture node of the evaluated mesh. The base resolution before rounding is also printed in the script window in case the artist wants to use that to information to justify higher detail priority.

In this example I ignored the closest power of 2 rounding to show the accuracy.

Note: This script isn't perfect, it assumes only 1 material per mesh chunk and there is already a material assigned to the mesh with a fileTextureNode attached (all of which is assured by our in-house work flow). I would have been reluctant to release the source publicly but I received help for the heavy math portions of the script...giving back to the community:)

to use;

source script,

select your mesh(s)

type autoPDTG; in command line

if your scene is saved the output UV maps automatically go in the the same directory as the scene, otherwise you'll need to specify where to put them

mel - closest power of 2

2010-05-03T19:34:00.000-05:00

closestPower2.mel

simple but useful function is to get the closest power of 2
command: closestPow2 int
return: the int rounded to the closest power of 2

mel - rounding function

2010-05-03T18:58:00.000-05:00

round.mel

seems odd maya doesn't have a built in round function, but o well, thats the great power of maya - the UI and most it's guts are completely customizable.

command: round float int
return: the first value rounded in the Nth decimal place by the second value.

for easy use save the mel file in (**/Autodesk/Maya*version/scripts/others/)

Dead Eye Dan

2010-02-05T00:07:00.000-06:00

download turntable quicktime
model, texture, & rig by me
design concept by Andres Reinot

Shanghai Adventure

2010-02-04T22:30:00.000-06:00

mel - align sticky

2010-02-03T03:23:00.000-06:00

alignToSurface.mel

GUI that with options to align with and/or stick selected node(s) to a given surface, and whether or not to keep the constraints or delete them after alignment.

to use

source the script(starts the UI window)

toggle the options you want, Align, Stick, Keep Constraints, no history

select the goal surface and click the button"Load Surface"

select all the nodes you want to be stick to that surface and click "Align Selected"

Silo

2009-11-28T23:46:00.000-06:00

maya, xnormal, photoshop, viewed in marmoset toolbag

mel - quick mask material

2009-08-02T01:59:00.000-05:00

assignMask.mel
assigns a shader with random color value to each mesh in selection, good for assigning diffuse color mask to hi-res models for baking

to use:
source script
select several meshs
type assignMask; in the command line

mel - batch assign material w/ proper naming conventions

2009-07-31T01:28:00.000-05:00

newMaterial.mel

Creates a new shader with attached file texture node for each selected mesh, and names them the same as the mesh node + the appropriate suffixes. This may seem trivial, but little repetitive task like this really add up time wise, plus it's such a pleasure to have any non creative task automated.

to use:

select nodes that you've named

source script

Basics of Modeling & Texturing for Real-Time

2009-07-27T00:52:00.000-05:00

In early 2008 I held an in-house crash course on modeling and texturing for real-time game development.

The classes covered a range of principles and practices for coworkers with little or no knowledge on the subject.
The course included an outline(see below), examples, and tutorials, which were covered in class.

Note: Some of what was covered was specific to our pipeline and existing engine structure and probably wouldn't hold true for others.

Class Syllabus

ebearMain.mel & ebears world

2009-07-25T16:00:00.000-05:00

Ebears World is a game concept I have been developing in my spare time.
After a previous experience developing a game prototype in Maya I decided to give this a go.
It's been surprisingly easy to get a test worthy demo going, most of the time has been spent tweaking controls and wrestling performance issues.
In the absence of a engineering team, I would highly recommend using Maya to prototype game concepts for the shear speed and freedom it allows.

This is a video of the prototype running in maya using two 360 controllers.

*character textures by Frank Harmon

This main code segment of Ebears World prototype 3. Input from two Xbox 360 controller s where used to test controller schemes, animation, etc.

The TecnoFreak animation system was developed by Pau(last name unknown) for their indie game "The Teddy Incident" and has continued development for the OGRE community. It's a stand alone app that allows artist to really take control of character animation behavior and can significantly simplify the engineers role in that aspect.

see the ebears world dev blog for further information.

mel - simple moving average

2009-07-25T15:00:00.000-05:00

Needed a way to make one node smoothly follow another node's position and rotation over time for the ebears demo that wasn't dynamic.

link to wiki on simple moving average formula

mel - randomly select N from selection

2009-07-25T01:31:00.000-05:00

rsel.mel

UI used to randomly select a specified number of nodes from the current selection.

to use:

source script to open UI window

select nodes

enter the number of nodes you want randomly selected from your selection and click "Select"

C++ - materialSuffixer

2009-07-25T01:28:00.000-05:00

A batch command generator created to assist OGRE .mesh material renaming for light mapped materials for environment meshes in Real Deal LIVE, a casino MMO.

note: this is an example of the full code

Astronophy - game prototype in maya from IGDF Game Jam#4

2009-07-24T18:42:00.000-05:00

This was a game prototype created in Maya at a IGDF Game Jam Feb in 09. Players control the creation, distance, speed, and mass of planets hurled around a star in space. Their gravity causes them to catastrophically collide into each other or the star. The players goal is to sustain X number of planets in orbit for X amount of time. The difficulty is increased with multiple stars.

see the Astronophy dev blog for further information

Steam-ish Robot Grasshopper

2009-07-24T17:39:00.001-05:00

Made during the IGDF Game Jam#3. Quickest rig and animation I'v ever done, maybe 2 hours. I'v since gone back to it and was surprised how robust the rig was.

Steam-ish Robot Grasshopper Model

2009-07-24T17:38:00.000-05:00

mel - Duplicate@ & Seeder

2009-07-24T14:08:00.000-05:00

dupAt.mel

UI that duplicates and matches world location and rotation from a node(s) to other nodes.

to use:

source script to open UI

select target nodes, click "Load Points"

select node(s) you want duplicated, click "Seed Selected"

Seeder.mel

UI used to parent a duplicate of the selected node(s) to other selected nodes.

to use:

source script to open UI

select target node(s), click "Load Parents"

select node(s) you want duplicated, click "Load Seeds"

hero run cycle - WIP

2009-07-24T03:17:00.001-05:00

animated pumpkin and rig

2009-07-24T03:15:00.001-05:00

samurai animation

2009-07-23T02:58:00.000-05:00

Double Nuggets Station & Saloon - Visual Pinball original table

2009-07-22T14:00:00.000-05:00

Visual Pinball is a pinball editor and engine(though it can be used for many other types of games). It uses VBScript for the code base.

mel - polyUnite

2009-07-22T01:30:00.000-05:00

polyuniteKeepName.mel

Unite multiple poly meshs preserving the parent nodes name.

to use

select mesh nodes or a group with mesh nodes in it

source the script

mel - ctrlSpace

2009-07-22T01:17:00.000-05:00

Creates a duplicate of a selected node, parented under the selected node. Used to assist the rigging process.

mel - copySkinWeightsArray

2009-07-22T01:16:00.000-05:00

Batch automated method of copying skin weights from source mash parts to the goal mesh based on the goal nodes name. Created as parts of a tool set to batch generate thousands of avatars.

note: this is an example of the functional script

mel - makeVariation

2009-07-22T01:13:00.000-05:00

Made to help batch generate blend shapes across thousands of avatars

note: this is an example of the full functional script

mel - blendEach

2009-07-22T00:44:00.000-05:00

Create a blend shape deformer for all the poly nodes in a group to the first node in that group, for each group selected. Created as parts of a tool set to batch generate thousands of avatars.

mel - removeN

2009-07-21T01:31:00.000-05:00

removeNum.mel

Batch method to remove digits from the end of node names.

to use:

select nodes with trailing numbers

source script

Big House run cycle

2009-07-21T01:14:00.000-05:00

the Captain - WIP

2009-07-14T03:01:00.000-05:00

Big House character models

2009-07-12T03:00:00.000-05:00

Characters from Fairie Friends game

2009-07-11T03:06:00.000-05:00

MMO Casino Environment fly though - lightmap render only

2009-07-10T16:41:00.000-05:00

Ebears World - WIP

2009-07-10T04:04:00.000-05:00

see the ebears world dev blog for further information.

Blind Battle Toad

2009-07-10T03:08:00.000-05:00

misc character - WIP

2009-07-09T03:11:00.000-05:00

Characters and props from "Drive-In" game

2009-07-08T03:07:00.000-05:00

Darkest of Days Teaser

2009-07-08T02:55:00.000-05:00

A shame this game didn't do well, but if my experience with the direction I received for this trailer was any indication of how the game was directed I can see why.
note: character models and textures by 8monkey labs

Pigs and props from Piglet game

2009-07-07T03:05:00.000-05:00

Characters from Picnic Panic game

2009-07-07T01:51:00.000-05:00

Misc Props

2009-07-02T03:10:00.000-05:00

Slot Games

2009-07-01T23:23:00.000-05:00

These are 2d games I've done the art for while at Phantom EFX, most of which are featured in our annual PC titles in the Real Deal franchise, others are part of a bi-monthly downloadable offering.

Misc Props from MMO Casino

2009-07-01T03:13:00.000-05:00