Icon Design for Software Programs
  
details of my quake2 panoramic
backgrounds |
I also use 3d programs for some artwork and for personal use.
The following examples are from my personal game editing experience,
strictly for my own amusement and to learn various 3d progams
such as 3d Studio MAX, Lightwave and Metatools Bryce 3d.
The following images are from a series of 360º panoramas that
I created in Metatools Bryce3d to replace the standard backgrounds
in the video game Quake 2, by id software; I didn't think
that the original skies in the game fit with the color of
light in the game, and looked pretty boring besides.
I sketched out a rough plan of the buildings and mountains,
and modeled them closely to my sketches in Bryce2, using my
sketches as a background texture underneath the modelling
windows of the program. I created the sky clouds' color to
closely match the yellow-colored light that the game's rendering
system shows on its own 3d-surfaces when the player character
is outdoors. To keep the game's feeling of being on an alien
planet that is heavily industrialized, I created buildings
with heavy scaffolding, layer on layer of smog clouds, and
a dirty, striated rock texture on the ground itself. I put
several layers of clouds at the levels of the buildings to
obscure some of the more farther off buildings to heighten
the illusion of a world spoiled by pollution.
My edited quake2 backgrounds
Original Quake II background:
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My Quake2 Marine, camouflage and all:
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Id software created their video game quake2
with an open source, so that people can feel free to add more
to the game for their own enjoyment using the game's code.
In these shots above and below, I took a model that someone
created, and studied how the model's texture was mapped over
the character. Then, I used Adobe Photoshop to combine source
artwork I gethered of some scans of camouflaged patterned
fabric and photographs of service marines in full battle gear
and facepaint. Taking portions of that artwork with a knowledge
of texture mapping on the model, I created an altered version
of the character to use for myself in the game.
The tough part of texture mapping is figuring out how the
model's author created the model, and how the texture would
wrap around those 3d points.
Quake2 Marine side detail:
flat detail of the model's texture,
showing texture vertices and lines:
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