2012 has seen a rocky start for us here at McPhat Studios.

And by 'rocky' I mean 'Earthquake-buildings-collapsing-all-around-you-rocky'.

The past couple of weeks we've been busy -mostly- with troubleshooting one after the other unstable DC-9 Virtual Cockpit compile. Where one problem got resolved, another one surfaced. I spend most of yesterday -my usually relaxing Sunday- on troubleshooting faulty gauges, trying, testing, tinkering, discussing an issue that was not there a day before. Frustrating.

And here I thought we'd be doing some artsy stuff, creating 3D cubes and tubes, smooth them out, slap some textures on them and be done with it.

While we're making great progress and are already able to show some of the awesome results we're getting, developing the graphical side of the Coolsky DC-9 has proven to be much more than a challenge. Maybe it was wishful (or should I say ignorant) thinking that it would be a smooth ride, who knows? All I can say is that I spend most of my time deep frying my brains, trying to figure out solutions and taking mandatory time outs once in a while to keep myself from throwing in the towel.

And by 'throwing in the towel', I really mean "Getting shot between the eyes for the 11th time in a row by a 12 year old kid named Noobkiller playing BF3-Rage-Quitting"..

One of the things I've been mostly proud of in our short puny existence is not just the graphics we've been able to pull out a 5 -going on 6- year old platform, but also the fact that we never missed a deadline. Ever.

If it meant working in the weekend and nights, we did it. If it meant running on a 4 hour sleep cycle for weeks, we did it. If it meant going round the clock, not sleeping at all. We did it, or at least I did.

And for some reason I always thought having your own business equalled working less hours...

We're running late. Late late, passed deadline late and although the end is near and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, I bet we'll see one or two bumps in the road in the coming days/weeks...

Go outside and ask a random person what Photoshop is and in most cases people will know. You ask them if they ever heard of 3DsMax and they'll probably gaze at you in awe, then uttering something like : '3Dswhatnow?'.. 

In the past couple of years, we discovered that finding talented, skilled Texture Artists is one thing. With applications pouring in on a weekly basis, we've literally seen dozens of them. In the end, only a handful remained, cause the definition of 'talented' seemed to be a 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder'-thing.

Finding 3D Artists is what one would call 'a whole different ballgame' though.  First of all, there's not that many of 'em. As Lead Designer, with a slight fetish for detail, I thoroughly enjoy textures, and although we texture guys sometimes (okay, all the time) think we're the centre of the creative universe, we only create on a two dimensional, flat plane. True creation is when you can add that third dimension.

So, I tried my hands on 3D'ing more than once and right away came to the conclusion why there aren't that many 3D Artists floatin' around as there are Texture Artists : Mastering (cause that is what we're talking about) 3DsMax is painstakingly difficult, awesomely time consuming and has a seriously steep learning curve.

Because we could count the applications for a 3D Artist position on one hand (alright, we had only 1 in 3 years), we had to go out and find them ourselves. The first one we picked up was... : 

Jamal Ingram.

Responsible for the Virtual Cockpit, Jamal's been with us and working on said part of the project for almost 8 months now. As he was at that time the only 3D Artist we had on staff, he was more or less on his own. No backup, no watercooler 3D talk, just him amongst 10 odd Texture Artists. Jamal is what we call a behind the scenes-no-nonsense-kinda guy. You won't see him on the public forums, you won't see flashy Work In Progress renders. Raw 3D, focused on the end product only. Being designers, (read as : Showboat Flash Ponies) we had to get used to his style. Alot. Why work hard, focusing on finishing, when you can stop and show off right?

Having worked on military projects in the past (even seen his work published by Flight1) and with a love for military jets, we gave him the absolute unfamiliar : A tube. An old tube. One that has seen more modifications, over the past 40 years than M.J. (may his soul rest in peace). It was a difficult task, getting to know commercial airliner instruments, what they do, how they should be animated, how they behave : 'Does that switch tumble?', 'Does it rotate?' 'Can you push it in?' or 'Can you perhaps push it in AND rotate?'

He's proven to be a skilful 3D artist, working on the VC for months at a time, silently, by himself but when the time came for Coolsky to Quality Control the work ingame for the first time, only a few minor changes came up. I guess it pays of being focused on the job.  

It is safe to say, we are nearing the end of building the 'virtual pit', texturing has slowly begun and teamed up with him, responsible for the VC textures is another little gem, Sara Louise Capon. But that's a different story (or should I say blog), for a next time.