Not Tools, but Nakama

Entry posted by Pancakes · August 31, 2010

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Nakama - Japanese for comrade, friend, ally, gang, loved one etc.

That is how I feel about the software that people use that allows them to do what is otherwise improbable or impossible. That's how I feel about Leadwerks Engine, Blender, 3dCoat,Renoise, ADN Material Editor, etc. They are not tools, but they are my nakama.

With the latest addition of Genetica I feel like I have an ensemble of software for game dev now that is stronger than ever. For the longest time there was a gap as far as software is concerned (also in skill) in regards to how I could get texturing done. In the past I would use 3dCoat and Paint.NET together. They are really good. But I was looking for something that could give me precise features and control comparable to that of photoshop without actually being photoshop. I think the combination of 3dCoat, Genetica, Paint.NET and Gimp are more than what I was wanting. They are wonderful, and their learning curves are not to be underestimated either .

For a while I had been confused about HOW to best go about game assets even in regards to just workflow itself. Before I had relied entirely on Blender. But over time things have changed and I've found more nakama.

So here is my software team:

3dCoat

ADN Material Editor

Blender

Genetica

Gimp

Leadwerks Engine

Paint.NET

Renoise

Sculptris

sfxr

To be honest I'd honestly never felt comfortable with the Leadwerks workflow.The main thing that I despised was dealing with materials. But ADN Material Editor has changed everything in regards to how I can import assets into Leadwerks. Now the import process is a breeze. And as awesome as it is I am still looking foward to the node system of Middlewerks as well as the ability to arbitrarily name surfaces. At the end of the day, I think I'll end up using them both in slightly different capacities.

Also, over the weekend, I finally had a feeling of being at ease with the Leadwerks pipeline and basic workflow, thanks in no small part to Aggror and Icare and my game dev software nakama. I can't overstate how cool ADN really is for me. It allows me to make materials, and get visual feedback right away. And then also with my rhudimentary scripting skills taught to me by Aggror, Rstralberg, Macklebee, and the others I could make my way through the editor.

So this weekend, I finally felt like I wasn't just tinkering, but I felt like I was actually grounded in the Leadwerks process. And it was the first time that I felt that way I think. So, hurray.

Also I'm still working on the modular tutorial. Below you can see a test scene where I was using a cube, an arch, and some stairs, to build a rough buliding. It is a test scene where I've been doing testing. I will begin on the real tutorial scene. I will probably need a bit of time to learn more about 3dCoat and Genetica.

Anyways - I'm also loving the autotopology feature in 3dCoat and I tested it out on a sculptris mesh and did a bit of painting and thanks to ADN got it into Leadwerks in a very clean process. In other words, those are low poly character meshes that were autotopo'd in 3dCoat. Therefore the low poly mesh was created in about 60 seconds of me drawing splines.