Simply Fun

Thus far I have blogged bits and pieces about VFX developments in the local scene and hardly talked about my other field of interest and industry - games.

It's no secret that I like PC and video games, and although I haven't behaved like a hardcore player for quite some time, I still clock in my share of play time. Over the last few months I have completed Armored Core For Answer, Mirror's Edge, Resident Evil 5 and Killzone 2 on the PlayStation 3, plus some others on PC ;)

Games are truly a booming industry and the production quality of modern triple-A games are impressively high, so much so that newcomers to the development scene often feel intimidated by the financial resources and technical expertise required to compete in the same playing field.

The fact is, there is no need to compete with the big boys. Many of the most fun and enjoyable games are simple in design and require only a handful of talented programmers and artists to execute. Indeed, I have seen games done using Flash that excels in both fun factor and presentation polish. flOw on Playstation Network started out as a Flash game, and the tremendously funny and fun Castle Crashers on Xbox Live has a graphic style that looks like a Flash game. I was playing the latter at a friend's gathering last weekend, and it was hours of family fun for everyone. No need for millions of dollars to do photorealistic 3DCG, just simple elegance in the former, and quality cuteness in the latter.

Incidently for the psychologists amongst you, the original Flash game flOw (written by Jenova Chen for his MFA thesis from the University of Southern California, Interactive Media Division) is based on the theory of Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. I recommend his book of the same title highly.

Coming week, yours truly is lucky enough to be going to Japan for a 3-month training stint. In what the press has recently listed as the most expensive city in the world, I shall attend courses on PS3 game development conducted by Premium Agency, and hopefully bring back enough know-how to help kickstart the local PS3 development scene.

Never Too Young To Start...

Fancy a career in VFX? How about starting while still in Secondary School? Now that young children are already using computers in kindergarten and learning to create 2D animation in Primary School, why not?

As the Fates would have it, I was asked to give a couple of talks regarding our school's new Visual Effects course. The first one, held just this morning, was at Compassvale Secondary School to a group of about 20 Sec 4E and Sec 5N younglings as part of their career awareness education.

I did my usual song and dance, show and tell routine, and it went down fairly well. Some of the kids were actually genuinely interested in this line of work, and asked some relevant questions. Hopefully I opened some eyes to the fascinating world of VFX and planted some seedlings that might bloom into a local VFX talent some day.

I'm certainly glad that the first talk went well without a hitch, considering I'm also supposed to be taking both a Python Scripting/Character Rigging course as well as a crash course in Japanese Language at the same time as the talk! Oh, the miracles our management expect of out of us do makes me shudder sometimes. The stress to deliver, or at least no make a mess of things...

Next stop, ITE graduates at Bishan Library this coming Saturday. Weekend burnt, anyone?

The heart of CORE

For months, Newtek has teased users about their new LightWave CORE application. Just what is it? This video sheds some light...

For years I've been a LightWave 3D user, and have always liked it's speed, straightforward workflow and quality output. Recently, fate has pushed Houdini my way, with it's fully-procedural, node-based approach to 3D. It's certainly impressive in the department of power and flexibility. Not surprisingly, XSI has followed suit with their ICE (Sadly they were bought over by Autodesk soon after). Now LightWave CORE is going the node-based direction. That's saying something about the future of 3D :)

Houdini going mainstream, CORE moving upstream, and everyone dissing Autodesk. Seems like exciting times ahead for the 3D industry!

Here's to you, Mr Robbinson

It's been a hectic past week. Side Effects Software Asia Pacific invited verteran Houdini trainer Peter Robbinson to town to conduct a one week intensive bootcamp. Naturally, it's a rare and honored opportunity not to be missed, and in my particular case, not possible to miss :P

The class consist of a handful of poly lecturers (myself included) and a couple of industry people keen on learning this hitherto non-mainstream 3D application. Peter hails from Canada and has 12 years of experience teaching the much touted Houdini 3D software, the elite program of choice by VFX experts in the industry. He turns out to be a very kind and patient teacher, tirelessly answering our newbie questions and even repeating his demonstrations without a single complaint. Thank you so much Peter, and hope you come back to Singapore to train us to a higher level in future.

Houdini seems to be gaining popularity in the industry, and in the asia-pacific region, especially since the last big player in 3D, Softimage, has also been bought over by Autodesk. Now that Max, Maya and XSI belongs to the same camp, only Houdini and Lightwave are left independent, with smaller players such as Modo, Blender and Cinema 4D brining up the rear. This was certainly an interesting and unexpected turn of events, but no longer newsworthy :P

Houdini has a lot of power under the hood, but it's no easy beast to tame. The old adage: "easy to learn, difficult to master" is never more true here.