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Mod Phoenix

Mod Phoenix

Jagex Moderator Forum Profile Posts by user

Gather around the Campfire










Hi everyone

and welcome to yet another awesome Campfire with our Graphics Team. This time you'll get a chance to chat with our
3D modellers and animators
! They'll be answering your hot questions - starting at 5pm BST on Thursday - 4th July .



mod_marx0i0

I work as a character artist on the Runescape Graphics Team. Some of my day to day jobs include taking concept artwork and translating them into things you'll see in the game. Some of the things I've worked on are the Queen Black Dragon, Saradomin and various MTX items. One of my favourite parts of the job would be the sheer variety and unpredictability of the work I do. I never know what awesome character concepts are going to land on my desk next!



Mod Alec

I Joined nearly six years ago for a brief period in Player support where I got a temporary position as a texture artist for RuneScape HD. I then became a full time 3D artist. The fairy update, fairy 3, living rock caverns and ‘Hunt for Red Raktuber’ are a few older pieces of content which I particularly enjoyed working on. From there I became a character artist, specialising in all things npcs big and small, as well as player armour, weapons and inventory objects. I’ve had the opportunity to model such creations as the king black dragon update, the Behemoth’s for Dungeoneering and countless player kit parts. I am currently the Lead character artist here for RuneScape.



Mod Paul_B

I've been at Jagex working on RuneScape for nearly 8 years now and for 6 of those years I've been RS Lead Animator. I have a great team who are all extremely talented and passionate about what they do and constantly improve the quality of animation across the game.

I've seen a lot of changes in RuneScape over that time; working on such projects such as Brain Robbery, Perils of Ice Mountain, the Myreque series, through RS HD all the way up to the more recent EoC and currently on RS3!

My team and I focus on creating the most interesting and engaging animation we can, designing and producing it together to be the best it can be across RuneScape and pushing what we can achieve technically and artistically whilst still trying to have fun in the process :0)

I very much enjoy working at Jagex and on RuneScape as a product. Working in animation in the games industry was always something I dreamed of doing as a kid, but like I've heard from so many others 'I never thought I'd be able to make a career out of games!' I'm very glad I did :0)


CM?
- Present! ;)


Mod Phoenix

Mod Jane

As always, we'll be here ensuring they are fed, watered and unable to escape!!!
Should you have any questions for us, we'll be only too happy to answer them. :)

01-Jul-2013 11:54:57 - Last edited on 02-Jul-2013 16:40:56 by Mod Phoenix

Mod Marx0i0

Mod Marx0i0

Jagex Moderator Forum Profile Posts by user
Original message details are unavailable.
I've been learning graphics and coding for a while now, and some days when I've been busy, I don't feel the mood which may cause the project not being as good as it would be if I did it on a day that I felt good and motivated.

One day you can think something, and a couple days later depending on your mood and surrounding, you may feel different about it.

I hear that most people have these down days... So what do you do when you come into work and you have to be creative, but not feeling it?

Creativity can be a tough cookie to crack sometimes. One on hand it's not like a switch you can turn on and off, on the other pressure can be the thing that makes you do your best work. As long as you stick to a routine and focus, the ideas will come.

04-Jul-2013 17:11:46

Mod Paul B

Mod Paul B

Jagex Moderator Forum Profile Posts by user
Original message details are unavailable.
Q.) At one point I remember hearing that we were gonna be able to dual wield whips. How did this thought go from being a possibility to not being able to dual wield them at all? Could it be possible to get the dual wield animations working in the future for this weapon and for similar, future weapons?

A.) We always plan to produce the most dynamic systems and animations we can in the RuneScape team but sometimes we are faced with technical restraints that limit us. Dual wielding whips was unfortunately one of the issues we couldn't solve for EoC. Having said that we are always breaking down technical barriers in the RuneScape team and the animation system in particular is undergoing a lot of technical changes at the moment. Things change all the time so I'll just say 'I never say never'

04-Jul-2013 17:13:22

Mod Phoenix

Mod Phoenix

Jagex Moderator Forum Profile Posts by user
Original message details are unavailable.
Oh, and I almost forgot :)
*Loads up 100 million snowball megacannon*
Feel my wrath, Mod Jane! Snowballs > Rubber Chickens forever!!

OPEN FIRE!!


Poor Jane :P

04-Jul-2013 17:17:19

Mod Alec

Mod Alec

Jagex Moderator Forum Profile Posts by user
"Here are my questions!

1. Which places in RS would you like to update as soon as possible?

I'd love to update Falador. It's a major land mark and looks rather dated now compared to other neighboring cities. Such area's always pose a big challenge though as there is so much content to concider that we have to be careful with things like new layout.

2. How difficult is it to create graphics for this game?

Creating graphics for any game can be challenging and RuneScape is no exception. The modelling side of things sort of becomes second nature, but there are always new challenges which comes up. Maybe a cape needs a new awesome looking effect so we may take some research time to see what might work.
We also have to be extremely conscious about poly limits and how to get the most out of our models shape wise while keeping poly counts as low as possible.

3. Which graphical update did you regret the most? "
I can't really say that I personally have regrets as its generally a big team decision with what we do graphically.

04-Jul-2013 17:26:22

Mod Marx0i0

Mod Marx0i0

Jagex Moderator Forum Profile Posts by user
Original message details are unavailable.
Just a little curious about background..

How did you get started on animation and modelling; was it a hobby at first that later turned into a job, did you choose completely on a whim to study it at university/college/somethingelse, or perhaps a mix of the two?

And what sorts of projects did you work on when you were just starting out?

I was always drawing as a kid, and I also loved games. This naturally lead me to combo the two and focus on the artistic side of games. I eventually took a university course that specialized in it.

We did a lot of group projects at uni, as well as projects related to the fundamentals of game development, like modelling, unwrapping, animation and post production. I remember we had to make a game trailer for a fictitious game for one module.

04-Jul-2013 17:27:25 - Last edited on 04-Jul-2013 17:28:02 by Mod Marx0i0

Mod Paul B

Mod Paul B

Jagex Moderator Forum Profile Posts by user
Original message details are unavailable.
Is it fun to make animations or is it just tedious work?

A.) Some of the animations we produce are really fun and go very smoothly with no problems. Others take a long time and require a lot of patience and may go through many rounds of feedback. This can drain your enthusiasm for the animation to a degree, but you're always proud of the final outcome in the end.
Animation is an extremely absorbing and rewarding art and takes a lot of patience and concentration. It takes a lot of time and effort but gives you a great sense of achievement and satisfaction.
So, to answer your question more simply. Yes, it's definitely fun to make animations :0)

04-Jul-2013 17:33:06

Mod Alec

Mod Alec

Jagex Moderator Forum Profile Posts by user
"Since the graphics rework, a lot of areas and NPC's have been updated. Do you plan on letting some of the NPC's you haven't updated the way they are for 'ol times sake? Or is it your eventual plan to have them all up to date with graphics?"

We always strive to make our graphics as good as we possibly can, after all that is our job :) But we are very aware that our players become attached to how npc's look in game so sometimes we try to keep the general feel of an old npc within the updated version. I won't lie though, I would love to see all the old npc's updated with great new graphics, as these characters have such great background stories, we want to give them a look that they deserve, and just adds to the overall quality of the game.

04-Jul-2013 17:35:12

Mod Marx0i0

Mod Marx0i0

Jagex Moderator Forum Profile Posts by user
Original message details are unavailable.
I'm not sure what the correct terminology is, but...

Why do Runescape characters and NPCs have to have blocky skin texture? Take any monster in runescape as an example, really. When you look at them, their skin has a bunch of hard edges, because their overall shape is the collection of many smaller, many-sided shapes.

Will skin textures eventually be more realistic****. softer, without hard edges?

The texturing system we use in Runescape is designed to be very low on memory resources, the golden rule when it comes to browser based games. We do alot of our detailing and coloring with polygons, which are actual bits of geometry from the model. The hard edges you're seeing might be these polygons, used together with gradient effect textures.

04-Jul-2013 17:35:36

Mod Marx0i0

Mod Marx0i0

Jagex Moderator Forum Profile Posts by user
Original message details are unavailable.
I'd like to thank you all for this campfire, and I have a few questions:

1. When given assignments for 3D models, how closely do you work with the concept artists? Do you attempt to make the models resemble the concept art as much as possible, or is there separate planning involved between the artwork and the modelling?

2. This question is simply one of curiosity, but with the current modelling software Jagex has, would it be possible to have further in-depth character customization as other MMOs currently have?

We work pretty closely with concept artists. Sometimes an artist will have a cool idea in their head, and as a modeller, it will be my job to translate it into a 3d design that will work within the world of Runescape. Depending on how complicated the design is, sometimes we make changes and tweek things during the modelling process.

The tools we use are constantly being updated, so I guess anything's possible!

04-Jul-2013 17:43:28

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