Learning from mistakes
July 8th, 2009
Sometimes I will try out a new technique to see if I can improve on the art in Overgrowth, or make something just as good but in less time. One new technique I was thinking about was applying a very common technique used for making 3D buildings in games to models of natural terrain. Here are some textures for it ...
Starting Grass
July 2nd, 2009
We have started some very early groundwork for grass in Overgrowth. The first step is making a grass object so we can test out what things look like with basic object shading -- next, we can figure out how to improve it! Here is my first test asset for grass. It looks black because you are actually looking at the back ...
Cat House Concept Timelapse
June 29th, 2009
Here is a new concept I am working on for the cats in Overgrowth. It is really hard to get something that seems both realistic and original. One reason to keep the design grounded is to provide contrast so that the more amazing aspects of the game seem that much more over-the-top. Be sure to watch it in HD! I ...
Cliff Rocks
June 18th, 2009
When I am designing levels, I always seem to need more big rocks. The tricky thing about making really massive rocks is that they require equally massive textures, which can use up too much texture memory. We can use tiling textures to use less memory, but they usually look bad because they don't match the geometry. However, a tiling ...
Overgrowth Comic -- Scene 1
June 10th, 2009
We just released the first scene of the Overgrowth webcomic -- click here to check it out! We found that making storyboards is a fun way to get a better sense of the setting and characters, so we wanted to try making a longer one. It turns out that an extended storyboard is a comic! Jeff made the comic viewer, Aubrey ...
Virtual orchestras in Overgrowth
June 8th, 2009
This is a post from Mikko Tarmia who is the composer for all of Overgrowth's music. Rise of the Virtual Orchestra Most of the orchestral music used in games, movies, and advertisements is now created with virtual orchestras -- computers and software samplers have made it possible for anyone to perform and record orchestral music without leaving home. This saves ...
2D coloring tutorial
June 4th, 2009
A couple weeks ago I did a drawing tutorial. A few people mentioned that they would like to see how I do coloring also. It is actually very simple. Below is an animated gif demonstrating each step (click it to download). Here is an explanation for each step: 1. This is how the image starts -- as a grayscale drawing. I ...