3D with Triple-A and indie the differences that separate them
Though the game industry may still be young 3D games are younger still. With almost every major game being created in the industry high quality 3D is an expected standard. "I see how much better we are with 3D this year than we were last year" (Patrick Naud 2010) This came from an employee at Ubisoft triple a company that stands on the cutting edge of 3D technology.This point highlights how much 3-D modellers have to change to survive in this ever-changing industry. With different 3D software packages becoming obsolete rapidly because of more advanced packages are 3D modeller doesn't just have to do know how to model they must be quick to adapt to new software.
When it comes to creating games in 3D they are often very time and resource consuming. This can then be a big problem for smaller independent companies as they may not have the resources to build a highly polished 3D game. The budget is often a factor that determines this as most small companies cannot afford to have a specialist model only create certain assets. They will often hire a single model for someone who can multitask between certain jobs for example one of our chewers George Beard said for his first job of working on a game for a small government game "I was in charge of creating all 3D assets for this game" (George Beard 2014). This is often the case with smaller companies they commonly ask that they have a 3D modeller back and do all the 3D asset creation even in different job proposals I have seen this "Modeling (Props, Characters and Environments), Modeling (High Poly), Modeling (Low Poly), Texturing" (3D Modeler / Generalist 2014) This shows that the smaller the team the more general the 3D skills have to be.
In the early stages of 3D software becoming available to developers it was often very expensive to obtain the licences for the software. With some prices ranging into the thousands like the autodesk program Maya “$3,675,00” (Cnet 2013) This made it impossible for small independent companies with limited budgets to obtain them but as 3-D packages have become more popular and more technologically advanced some limited versions of the software are free for anyone to use and this is given independent companies a chance to create 3D games and is open the door for more casual 3-D users to become a part of the industry
Slender (2011) indie company Mortal Kombat (2011) tripe-A company
On the other end of the spectrum triple-A companies are almost the complete opposites to indie games in this regard. This means with 3-D modellers it almost like working a completely different job. As with the ever expanding production value of games ranging into the millions 3D modellers roles at became a lot more specific. With triple-A games they go through a set pipeline of production from concept to 3D to animator with many sure tasks in between. For a model the pipeline often starts with a high poly model "weighs in at about 6,250,000 polygons and 14 meshes (subtools). Right off the bat we have a pretty major issue because this is far too many polygons to render in real-time" (Profile Chris 2011) after this they are imported into my where they are optimised for in game "Staying inside ZBrush, we're going to go through each mesh and create a low poly version of the asset" (Profile Chris 2011) the reason for this strict pipeline is to optimise time management to make the modellers as efficient and cost-effective as possible. The reason that indie companies do not follow such a strict pipeline is because they are often trade secrets amongst companies to give them a competitive edge against other companies "trade secrets such as the artists' pipelines for major developers are protected by long, strict NDAs" (Game Development 2012)
One of the biggest factors that affects all 3D modellers is software development. As almost every year really software is change in advance and that out the old in with the new. With packages like the Zbrush and Maya being the industry leaders in software other free packages are starting to emerge. As with the case with the software like blender it used to be a company owned custom 3D package until the owners released its a free after receiving some donations to further from the package. a Blender funding campaign to collect donations, and on September 7, 2002, announced that they had collected enough funds and would release the Blender source code (Blender (software) 2002) this was a bit of a game changer for independent modellers and small companies as they were able to start creating 3D assets for free and a substandard to expensive industry-leading packages.
With changes like this to the 3D community it allowed for an explosion of amateur 3-D modellers to start learning the tricks of the trade with many creating their own games or some recreating 3-D assets from games. It gave India companies or individuals a chance to break in the 3-D game production. In turn this left people who would not chance to become full professional 3-D modellers which in turn increases standards. This rise in free technology is ever bridging the gap between independent companies and Tripe A. But it is clear that time and budget will always play a role in the quality of 3D and also what roles modellers perform for a game. As Triple-A modellers will go down more pipeline based production method and in the modellers will go on a more hands-free approach this really to show that there will always be a slight gap between the two types of modellers.
bibliography
.Cnet (2013)/ http://reviews.cnet.com/graphics-and-publishing/autodesk-maya-2014-unserialized/4014-3626_7-35648566.html
.Blender (software) (2002)/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blender_(software)
.Proflie chris (2011)/ http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/55121
.3D Modeler / Generalist (2014)/ www.Linkdin.com
.Game Development (2012)/ http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/22898/how-does-an-aaa-graphical-workflow-look-like
.George Beard, (2014), Projects and people lecture
.NetherRealm Studios (2012) Mortal Kombat/http://www.netherrealm.com/ updated 20/02/14
.Patrick Naud, (2010). Moving to the next level
.Parsec Productions (2012) Slender/http://www.parsecproductions.net/ updated 20/02/14
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