I have an idea I have been wanting to do for a while.

I want to document my learning about the different thinking between per-rendered film  work and real time games and VR/AR and maybe about making a game.

The basics are not so different between the two disciplines, but you don’t get the benefit of a render farm or overnight rendering in games unless you are pre-rendering an effect. You also realize how wasteful film can be and really start to love some of the tricks and memory saving games has developed.

To be fair, film are using games engines in some of the pre-production, and as a way to reduce render cycles. They do have the benefit of not needing to run at 60fps and can be a bit heavier with their assets. I’d like to see more of it but its not common place yet. You also have studios like filmographer Neill Blomkamp‘s Oats Studio, who are using game engines to turn ideas round in a quicker time frame than is usual for Hollywood.

I am thinking of making something, as if for film, then showing how you would approach it for games. Now I am no expert and I am learning along the way but I think it would be a useful lesson for me and for anyone  looking to do the same.

I don’t have anything for you right now, but if you want a primer I can highly recommend fellow VFX film/games artist Stephen Tuckers free Udemy video, explaining some of the basics. There is also a great talk by Mike Lyndon when he was lead VFX artist for Gears of war 4 at the Coalition. He is now at Sidefx’s as their games tools liaison.

Til next time

Ed