Monday, August 18, 2008
Greening the gaming industry
'Greening' Command and Conquer: Kane's Wrath from Matt Bell on Vimeo.
This video clip shows my implementation of 'green' game assets and a modicum of smart growth planning into several levels I built out for the game Command and Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath. I did some work as an environmental artist on this particular project using proprietary tools to shape the ground terrain and place buildings. Essentially I was a clicker. But I was studying smart growth policy at the time. Each level wound up being relatively unique thanks to an extensive assets library I could choose from and I was glad to find very cool models of wind turbines and greenhouses built by others with superb artistry IMHO. Armed with advanced green technology, I adapted my layouts to suggest an aggressive smart growth agenda. Well not really; but I ran with the idea when I could. I improvised to suggest things like mass transit, community agriculture, wind farms, green spaces and smart grid plug-ins for electric cars. 'Blue zones', as they are known in C&C lingo, are relative oasis' thinly spread across a world that has been blighted by deadly Tiberium crystals! They represent our last great hope to gather strength against factions of evil and turn the deadly tides of radioactivity. Maybe light rail mass transit and organic farming with raised beds are the answer. Too bad there weren't any bikes in the assets list; but I used what I could to envision forward thinking sustainability policies in a game that was otherwise set in Armageddon.
GIS Study
These two images are maps I created for my Johns Hopkins GIS course. Definitely a proof of concept more than anything else! I was locating places to camp in Moab Utah based on a number of self imposed criteria including where all the BLM land is so you wouldn't get charged camping fees and where the topology of the land would block exposure to cold northwest winds. I’m not sure I’d bet my vacation plans on the results but it was definitely great using the software to answer some off the wall questions.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
This short clip is based on concept art I painted in Photoshop. There's no rhyme or reason; I was having fun compositing 3d elements into a static 2d painting. It's great to experiment with animated effects while you're trying to spruce things up. I used Autodesk's 3d Studio Max and Adobe After Effects.
Monday, August 4, 2008
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