This plugin “bakes” a texture from one object to another, allowing you to transfer texture data between two models with the same geometry but different texture coordinates–without having to re-paint the texture bitmap! This is useful if you start to paint a texture, and change your mind later about the UV map; or for games when you can’t change the layout of the map for technical reasons, but would like different UVs for convenience during painting. It’s also good for fitting text onto a warped surface or other projections that would be difficult or impossible to paint by hand.

Download the plugin. (Requires Windows XP, AC3D 6.2 or above.)

Well, Pivot finally died on me. Please don’t mind any broken links in the next couple of days while I get moved over to WordPress. Thanks!!

Autodesk has a fun quiz on their site called the Fake or Foto test. In the quiz, you have to look at each image, and guess whether it is real or a render. Surprisingly, I aced it the very first time!

After I took the quiz, I went back and documented all the things that made me think a particular image was real or fake. That way I could see what it was that clued me so that I might improve my own work. In almost all cases, it wasn’t that the CG images were obviously wrong in any way, it was simply that the real images had more “detail” in them.

For years, the limitation has been what the software could do, but I’m not so sure that’s true anymore. In games especially, production costs have gone up as graphics have become more realistic simply because making detailed images is very time consuming. The relationship between time, money and graphics detail is linear. The problem, of course, is that neither time nor money are infinite. Limited budget means limited production cycles, which means limited time to spend adding things like scratches, scrapes and nose hairs. Eventually, we’ll reach a point where we can’t add more detail not because we’re out of RAM–we can’t add more detail because we’re out of time! Truthfully, I think we’re on the horizon of that already.

While I’m certain that there are still numerous improvements to be made in traditionally researched areas such as lighting, I think technological improvements to workflow have more potential to improve the quality of computer graphics in the near future than virtually any other area. Automated procedural geometry, better methodologies and tools that allow for less restrictive workflow patterns–such as recent advancements in re-topology interfaces–can allow us to complete the same job in less time and with far less effort. We know the artists and software can do it; now we need to make it practical.

For the curious, here are my impressions from the Autodesk quiz:

** WARNING ** Spoilers follow. You might want to take the quiz yourself before you read my analysis of the images.

(more…)

Games, books, and movies may be entertainment, but they also influence the way people think. The “Values at Play” research project, a collaboration between Hunter College’s innovative Tiltfactor Lab and New York University sponsored by the National Science Foundation, is investigating how game designers unconsciously and consciously express and encourage specific worldviews through their creations.

This looks like an interesting project, providing a growing body of useful research for seasoned developers, as well as game design contests and curriculum tools for students and educators.

http://valuesatplay.org/

This new wearable motion capture system is so compact, it can even be used to capture movement in otherwise impossible environments like behind the wheel of a car!

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0yT8mwg9nc 350 292]

The most interesting part? The authors claim to have built their prototype from off-the-shelf components for only around $3K. Read the paper here.