Idear Man

My version of the idea lamp. I know there are a lot of good ones already, just wanted to get this out of my system. (made 7 months ago, skyrim+depression kept me from uploading it) Here you go:

Workshop link here

Stuff:

-Only used 998 polys (limit is 1000)
-The rungs used up 144 but it can be optimized. If I just make a dodecagon, it'll only cost 24 polys, and I'd do a transparent/twosided texture on it, faking the rungs.
 -If there is any interest in this, I'll do a blue skin (with black spots for the hamster)
-The wires need to be more prominent, I had "curled wires" in my concept, but didn't go w/that due to poly count limit.
-additional styles could be 1. Robot Hamster (re-skin) 2. Zombie Hamster (re-skin) 3. Hovering balloonicorn (takes you to pyroland)
-Thought about a transparent light bulb, poly count limit kept me from doing anything with it. But I think a glowing filament w/clear glass would look much better.
-also the whole thing could be a bit bigger I guess...
-oh and I should be shot for only using 6 bones for the hamster, haven't found any guidelines for bones/bone limit.
-again, didn't bother w/lods much, read below;

Crying:
-Valve please make a nice chart showing recommended lods (ex. each lod should be X% of the lod before it)
-Texture size limits and poly limit say 800 and 256 on one page, and 1000 and 512 on another page, yet there are items in game that break these rules.

Not dead, just re-evaluating my life.

Just bought a Pops plush (regular show) from Amazon. Holding Pops in my hand made me rethink my whole life.

Thinking about growing up...if I go into what other people my age are doing, it's gonna be a very long post, so I won't. Just know that the words portfolio diversification, marriage, house, kids and responsibilities would've been used. (I'm gonna continue dreaming for a bit longer)

Also, I've had an item ready to go for several months now. Depression+Skyrim kept me from uploading it. Anywho, happy almost Friday...

Egg + Cucumber

Please click and drag to view/rotate the models below.

There exists a Valve flex animation library somewhere that I'm not sure was made public, but that's probably what I need to actually make these items actually work in game.
I really really should not be saying this, but I will. Although TF2 is one of the 'funnest' games I have ever played in my life, and Valve is pretty much one of the, if not the best company there is. Not only because they produce top top content, but because 'they get it' and have pushed the envelope so much and single handedly revolutionized the gaming industry, and most importantly are innovator, don't poop out the same FPS year after year. (ok here it goes) I can not believe that there are sooo many clipping issues, even when it comes to vanilla/stock weapons and items in game. For workshop items, I can understand (just a bit) but everything else is just unacceptable. Again, yes, it was a mod, and it is now free to play, so you don't get to complain, but... I will just leave it at that.

So the actual issue I'm talking about in particular, is the items not moving with facial 'flex' animations. Just like the "Snapped Pupil" which is already in game, and when the eyebrow/forehead moves, the "snapped pupil" does not.



I'm not sure if it would actually be worth it to do this, not even really sure how many 'poses' there are. Anyways, thanks for reading. I promise the next post will be rant free and it will be the coolest item I have made to date. I can't wait to show it to you guys/gals.
I just wanted to get these mini items out of the way first.

Garden Variety + Magic Show

Click and drag to rotate the models below:

The has has 2 versions/styles, solid=gnome, stars=wizard

Flamingo: Melee (garden variety pack) replaces the "Conscientious Objector".

Wand: same (faked the reflection for viewing purposes here, has "ice" material in game)

that is all.

p.s. I'm hoping that everyone knows it's a given when it comes to fixing and tweaking things afterwards. I just want to get these ideas out first. I understand that people are very sensitive when it comes to their game (talking about the consumers) and they don't want any foreign objects they don't deem worthy in there. I assure you that the modeling/texturing... part is easy. I'm just trying to show 'creativity', and push the boundaries when it comes to silliness and the funnies. Not really attempting to showcase or concentrate on any specific skill (ex. modeling). So speed comes first, also lack of available time is to blame for non-polished work. You'll be surprised what a difference an extra day or two makes on a single model. (All these were done in under a few hours)

Once the blog hits a certain number (of hits) I'm gonna make a couple of neat (HIGH RES) wallpapers to thank you guys/gals. (also please note that with an 800 poly limit, there isn't really much you can do, although my next item is going to push the limit and I promise, it's gonna be epic)

p.p.s. Still refusing to do lods properly, (which again, very easy, but waiting for an official lod chart from Valve)

p.p.p.s. Also, I rather have people either hate or love something I do, instead of having meh like feelings.

Thanks for reading, sorry for the mini rant.

Friendo Pack

Click and drag to rotate the models below

     

           

The receiver texture is not supported at this time (is animated, has transparency, more than 1 texture etc.) Also the "world reflection" and some other stuff aren't available for obvious reasons.

The Scrapped items:

 and the coin concept, which I was gonna put in the pocket like the pocket medic. But thought it wasn't worth pursuing.

blah

So...I promised myself to never include any personal bs posts, or anything that might be perceived as "unprofessional" but I have to vent a little...

So I have tons of personal projects that desperately need my attention, but after putting in 8-9 hours at work every day, and sitting in traffic for another 30-40 min. by the time I get home, there is barely any time to do anything.

I have to sacrifice some of these things:

-playing TF2 (which I love)
-cooking (so I can eat healthy and avoid junk-food)
-working out (since I sit at work all day long)
-making TF2 items (tons of fun, plus I have a gzillion ideas)
-working on personal shorts (this is a 1-2 year process at the very least...full time)
-learning and improving as an artist
-drawing
-reading
-writing
-sleep

I understand that it's all about priorities, but all these things are connected. I know right about now, this is starting to sound like a first world problem. But I can't believe we're so weak that we need to sleep every single day...I have tried those different sleep for x hours/min. wake up, take a power nap, wake up, go to sleep...but after the first week I was so weak and exhausted that I wasted more time recovering. Plus, it's extremely impractical and unrealistic.

I really really wish that I was able to draw 10 hours a day, or write, or model but...
I am however, trying to take every other Friday off from work, so I can have a long weekend and accomplish something.

What sucks, is that it seems like no one cares about anything these days. There is so much content out there, and all people want to do is consume consume consume. No one wants to listen to anyone, or "stop and smell the flowers" as they say. It's just m0ar m0ar m0ar....and, what's the next big thing.

...and yes, I know that I'm not sitting in traffic, that I AM traffic. But what am I supposed to do?
Pretty lost right now...which is actually a lot better than being depressed. : )

Booboo pack

oh hai,

Just made a mini pack. Balloon+Bandaid+Lollipop/pinwheel

-Slowly realizing what is going on with VMTs, groups and hit boxes...this is good.
-I still refuse to burn any calories on lods until I find a "suggested lod chart" from Valve that says something like lod1=75% lod2=60% (of original, or an actual count)...
Besides these ones are pretty low poly. (and you should have a powerful pc)

I'm 'kinda' happy with the rope physics, needs more tweaking and an extra bone + adjustments.
The pinwheel slowly spins + extra bone for ...jiggle, very subtle.

Seems like all the physics stop working the second I start to record anything. No solution yet.
The balloon looks weird after landing or punching, not sure if the attack could be changed to a straight punch, or disabled completely. The balloon looks good in some areas and bad in others, still no idea which VMT settings are mandatory vs. optional..but got the gist.

Overall it was a fun little project, learning more and more with each one.
Was planning to do a couple of flash animations for possible taunts (for fun) but got mad after the bones/physics stopped working w/the video capture. (I might bust out my flip next time)
It was going to be the heavy licking the lollipop while making a loud obnoxious "LAAAHHHHHH" sound and shaking/twitching. And the other one was gonna be him letting go of the balloon and changing his expression form happy to a scary death stare.

Also some lines I REALLY wanted to "perform", and test my mic, but it's way too late to record anything at this hour : (
I'll just leave them here:

Custom medic call: (baby like, sad/almost crying voice)
Doctor! I got booboo. 
Doctor! They did booboo. 

When going up against enemy/after kills:
You did booboo, I return favor.
You did booboo, now you go mimiz.
You gave me booboo, I give you bullets.
Tiny booboo for your life*, I take deal.
(*lives if multiple enemies are killed)

That is all
Thank you for reading and oh yea, thanks for the positive Jar Jitsu feedback. Got my first ever fan mail, definitely saving that one. :)

New Item "Jar Jitsu" [basically bees]

Short Video:

 

For the  2 people that scrolled down; hi.
Budget: 6,500 (actually says 8,000 on another page, not sure which one is correct)
Used: 6,436
Bones: 25
Animation: 48 frames at 30 fps
Time spent: about 2 day

In Flash, there is this thing called symbols, which lets you use the same...basically it's like calling an item from a library to use without duplicating/recreating it. Save on memory, speed etc. I have no idea if Source has something like that, could have cloned bees. The budget per bee would have been 8 times more. Also, I think I saw a "loop individual bone animation" function somewhere on the Valve Developer page. The way I duplicated the wing keyframes is pretty bush league. For the wings I kind of cheated and used the glass material, I wasn't sure how may texture maps I could include per item. the Jarate uses 2 main ones, I was going to add one more at maybe 128x128 to make the wings nicer.

If there is any interest in the item, I'll make some updates/tweaks.
About the actual look, at first I went with wasps, since the sniper is from Australia. But I didn't like the look, so I switched it to a realistic looking bee, then tried a fatter version and really liked the cartoony look. As far as the urine animation, throwing, and "BLEED FOR 6 SECONDS", I'm assuming that'd be a Valve thing.

Due to the modified first/3rd person POV in games, the orientation of items are always off, I was actually really impressed on how they faked the pee being leveled. But I think the "physics" are "turned off" when you are in 1st person, if you look around, the pee will not always look leveled. I think that might have something to do with the dead bee not wanting to bounce up/down when jumping, but I could be wrong.

Overall, an okay weekend. Oh also, the audio [buzzing sound] in the video is something I just got for like $3, I'm sure if Valve were to do it, they'd do it in different languages also since it's a global thing...

Last thing, I was gonna list a bunch of puns or "possible dialogue" for the sniper w/a nice background and TF2 font, but it's 3:22 am and I got work in less than 4 hours, so: "Behave", or "go to your queen" as he's throwing it. ...also really wanted to use like twice as many bones to make the bees look more natural, but that's really easy to do, I'm just not sure if using this may bones is actually acceptable

Thanks for reading. I'm gonna go crawl inside my sleeping bag now.

Workshop link

New TF2 Item "Hat Catcher Hat"

Box + Branch = Trap

Workshop link here


The model is about 326 polys, there is room for a rope maybe, I was also thinking for bait:
1. Picture of a hat rack taped to heavy's head
2. Actual mini hat rack resting on his head (could actually be its own hat/model)
3. Min hat rack dangling from a hole inside the box (tied to a rope)
I don't know, maybe the whole thing is just overkill. I was trying to go for the funnies. (hope it made a couple of people laugh)
If there is ever any interest I could improve the texture and add crap like "this side up" or a glass/recycling, next day shipping pictures/stickers etc.
Still don't know what I'm doing btw. Materials show up pretty weird in the viewer. The material type doesn't work, defaults on metal. I still can't get team textures to work. Editing qc file or the vmt does nothing. I have to look into hit boxes and the measurements in blender, they've all been wrong so far.

Believer

You have seen too much.

Regular tin foil hat.
Stop them evil mind rays.

Needed to start modeling again. Just wanted to get it out of my system, the next few items will be much more original and funnier.(I promise)

Still doing the "fast modeling sessions", want to train myself for a studio environment, although it would be nice to have more than a couple of hours for an item. This is of course no excuse for producing crappy work, so the embarrassment alone will force me to push myself harder.

Workshop link here