ChrisV

Much appreciated, guys! Makes me wanna create some more.

Hey all, It's been a while since I last uploaded a new skybox to the asset store, so time for a new one, aye? This one is very suitable for lots of daytime variations. A few low hanging clouds, sun with flare, and a rainbow. Here's one side of the skybox: And some ingame screens, with various atmospheric changes (ambience, lighting, etc...) to show you what kinda moods can be created with this skybox: Hope you'll like it. Cheers

I would also be careful with non-square images. Had a weird experience on some devices (mostly mobile) where the non-square images showed up completely white. This happened only on moving images though, such as sprites, etc... Cheers

Nice work, guys! Good to hear Leadwerks 3 is at this stage. ! As for beta testers, I think Roland qualifies too.

Thanks, shad! Would love to see your 'snow' shader at work in the game to add sand, dirt, etc... *hint hint* ;-)

Really nice blog again, Scarlet! Loved it. I hope my videoblog will be as good. You're doing a great job at it, man! Looks like the end of the tunnel is coming closer and closer. Keep it up! ;-)

Whoooaaah, all these nice comments! Thanks, guys! Both Roland and I appreciate it very much. @Rick: Yep, you should be able to import your Dexsoft rigged characters and create new animations very quickly. I think it's also possible to import the animations aswell, and add new ones (or alter the existing), but I haven't tried that yet. iClone can import .fbx, .bvh, .obj, .3ds, and a few less common formats, plus there's an option to convert existing .bvh animations to the iClone standard (it works on some .bvh files, but not on all, because there are so many .bvh format variations). Regarding your second question: iClone makes animations easy because you manipulate your characters sorta like a puppet that has human IK. Plus, when creating such an animation, you 'record' your moves on top of each other (timeline). a good starting tutorial for movement, and is one more. @Pixel: Indeed, iClone is so fun to work with, and very rewarding. Asap I'll start on the videoblog. ;-) The 'hat' on the monster is a custom model imported in iClone 3DXChange, converted to an iClone prop, and attached to the character model. @Roland: No problem, man! ;-) @ tjheldna: Yeah, we've been very busy indeed after LECP (which was a great project to work on btw), and so have you it seems. Nice looking game you're working on man! Nice job! @ Scarlet: Dadonik's dirty comic shader suits the game very well, indeed. The iClone 3DXChange package isn't that cheap, but well worth it imo. Good to see your game evolve, man! Very nice level editor! Excellent work! EDIT: Oops, seems that I've missed DaDonik's and Red's comments. Sorry, guys! Thanks for your comments! @DaDonik: Your name shall be listed in the Credits, man! Awesome shader! ;-) @Red: Thanks a million, dude! Seems the new look is a succes. But...we can't forget about the gameplay. Hehehheh! ;-)

Hello everyone, Why make the lives of artists/animators difficult, while it can be sooo much easier? Well, that's a question I can't answer. But...I can answer this...there IS an easy way to animate 3D characters, AND get them inside your game(s)! A few months ago, I bought the Reallusion iCLone Animation Pipeline package, and since then, I haven't regreted it for one moment. Although, I must admit, at first I was rather skeptical and not convinced whether or not to buy the program, but I'm glad I did. This is one of those rare programs that actually does what it says. I will not give an in-depth blog about iClone yet (will come later in another blog, I might even do a videoblog ), but rather tell my experience with the iClone package and talk about how I got some animated 3D characters inside S.C.O.T. (Sevent Crystal Of Theia), the adventure/puzzle game that Roland and I are developing. Speaking of which, S.C.O.T. has gone through some changes, and we're very pleased how it has evolved. One of these changes is the 'look'. We've gone for a more cartoony/comic kinda look, thanks to Dadonik's Dirty Cartoon Shader. Thanks, man! Another change has been that the 'Backyard' level (where the player had the option to change/save game settings) is no more, and is been replaced with an Options-screen that can be accessed during the game. Roland is working on that at the moment, amongst many other nice things, and will soon work on more gameplay features, which will be soo much more fun to do. He's really doing an excellent job at it, and I would like to thank him once more for being such a great person and coder! You are the King, man! The game is now working entirely (or most part of it anyways) with SQL, which simplifies many things for the game. The splashscreens have been redone, work has been done for the inventory (code and art), new models have been added to the desert level (which has also a newly created sky), some pickups have also been added to the game (for health and such), and...the first 'monster' has been created/animated, and added to the game. Which reminds me, soon I'll upload some new skyboxes in the asset store. Ok, time for some recent screens. Here's a new cool 'model' (one of my animated spritesheets) added to the level: Another new model: New sky: And finally, the new 'monster' : Wanted to show more ingame screens, but I'd better leave some for another blog, aye? Hehhehe! To finish this blog, I would like to talk a bit more about iClone. I'm sure some of you would love that. And, I will probably make a more detailed (video)blog soon, but for now, let's just keep it basic. To begin with, iClone 3DXChange (Animation Pipeline) isn't a modeling program, but you can however create new characters by modifying the basic models (male/female), and import them back into iClone to get them animated, and the process is really simple! Just select the part which you want to modify (in 3DXChange), export as .obj, import in your modeling program, and re-import back into iClone after altering the mesh. Also, iClone doesn't have the same rigging tools a regular 3D modeling program has. So, you should do the rigging yourself, and then when imported into 3DXChange, convert the rig to a rig that iCLone can work with. There are already a few standard rig setups available (Maya Human IK, 3ds max biped, 3ds max biped-type 2, DAZ4 Genesis) or create a custom one. If you're not an expert on rigging, I'd suggest you get your 3D character rigged (free for models up to 10 K) with Mixamo's Auto Rigger. Very easy to do, and the result is excellent. Then, just import this rigged character in iClone 3DXChange, and convert it to a non-standard rig, and apply the Maya rig, which works perfectly for Mixamo's rig. After that, it's just a matter of applying animations to your character, and export your model (including animation) as an .fbx file, and convert to .gmf. IClone has many cool features for character animation setup, such as facial animation, lip sync, foot- and handcontact on your models, kinect device recording (for creating your very own moves), and so much more. Well, that's it for now. I could talk more about this great program, but then you might think I'm just promoting. Hehhehe! Anyways, hope you enjoyed this blog, and 'till the next one. Thanks for your comments. Cheers

Nice image, Roland! Summer is over INDEED.

Thanks, Roland!

Had another go at it. Here it is. Hope you guys like it. Comments and suggestions are welcome. Thanks.

Nice text logo, gamecreator!! I like it very much. Would it be possible to upload only the text layer as a PSD file (with a transparent background)? I don't have Photoshop, but Paintshop, which doesn't load the PSD files with all the features. Thanks.

Thanks for the comment, Benton. The background isn't plain black, to add more mystery and give the image a sense of depth.

Yeah, there's a mix of 2D and 3D. The torch flames, Pentagram and text are 2D, the rest is 3D. Made a new version. Didn't have my PC to work on the last few days, plus had no internet. But, finally got the two back. YES! So, here's the new (different) version.

In what way does it look disjointed, Josh? ?

Hey Josh, here's my new (improved?) version :

Very nice...again, shadmar! You should get a 'Shader Guru' badge! So, your shader adds a texture per colour? How many colour 'layers' can your shader handle? ? Cheers

Had another go at it. Here's the result so far.

Here's the altered logo. This better, Josh? ?

Good point. At full resolution, it's not that blurry, but I agree that it could be better. What about the pentagram centered in the middle, and having 'Darkness' on the left, and 'Awaits' on the right of the pentagram? ? Isn't that also the symbol for 'Peace'?

Okay, done this in about 20 minutes. What do you think, Josh? It's not the same font as in your example, though. Cheers

Will give this a try.

Very nice, Andy! Simple yet detailed. I like it. I was working on a few rocks myself to put in the asset store a while back, but got too busy.

Very nice system, Ken! Should allow for some interesting and fun gameplay. The turrets following speed seems a bit high, but your system makes adjusting parameters quite easy. Finetuning the game is at a later stage, right? ;-) Well done, man! Looking forward to see more. Cheers

Stop stop, hold on...time out! I'm confused here. K, so there's Josh (who we all know is working on the next gen game engine, called LE 3), but there's also Lint, Kint, Westwood, Kent (Superman)?? So...uhm...what are these other guys doing? Baking cookies? For teh next Leadwerks Hangout? I hope they don't forget to make coffee too. Cheers