Reviews of The Art Institute Online of Pittsburgh | Tips for Designing Websites » Game Art and Design

Bryce 3D Software for Free

Shane Eubanks — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 18:50:19 +0000

For a limited time you can get Bryce 5 for free! This deal is running until September 6, 2006 so jump on it while you can. They have both the Mac and Windows versions available to download, so this is an excellent (free) way to create your 3D projects.

Once you’ve installed your copy, check out some of the tutorials to help you create some nifty 3D masterpieces.

Link to Get Bryce:
http://www.daz3d.com/program/bryce/bryce5free.php

Bryce Tutorials:
http://bryce.daz3d.com/55tutorial.php

Free Video Clips to Use in Your Projects

Shane Eubanks — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 17:13:45 +0000

Since most of you deal with some sort of multimedia there is bound to be a time when you will need random video clips and stock footage to use in a project. Luckily for you there is a growing archive of free video clips that you can browse for free and use however you like. Here is what they have to say about using the clips:

This collection is free and open for everyone to use.

Our goal in digitizing these movies and putting them online is to provide easy access to a rich and fascinating core collection of archival films.

By providing near-unrestricted access to these films, we hope to encourage widespread use of moving images in new contexts by people who might not have used them before.

So there you have it…absolutely free video clips and stock footage for you to use in your projects. Just visit: http://www.archive.org/details/movies and enjoy!

Cell Factor and AGEIA Physics – AMAZING!

Shane Eubanks — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 23:41:22 +0000

I admit that I have been out of the video game loop for the last couple of years as I’ve been working and going to school so much that I haven’t had time to sneeze. I came across this video today though that I had to share. It’s for a new game called Cell Factor that will be coming out in 2007 for Xbox 360 and PC. What is sweet about it is that it uses AGEIA physics which adds so much realism to games with the ability to completely interact with practically everything. See some boxes you want to blast into the enemy? No problem. See a flag that you want to shoot holes through or just rip to shreds just because you can? Go right ahead. The detail and physics that AGEIA brings to the table is simply amazing and will open up a new world of computer gaming. Just check out the video below of Cell Factor in action.

If you want to read more about AGEIA physics and Cell factor, here is a great link with some more info:

http://www.firingsquad.com/features/ageia_physx_press_conference/page2.asp .

If anyone has any other links or info to share, please do in the comments below!

Create Music Videos from Computer Games

Shane Eubanks — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 17:15:20 +0000

A few years ago I played a computer game called “Unreal Tournament” regularly and ended up playing a match against someone at a LAN ( www.lanwar.com ) that ended up being a fairly big deal. In order to make the match more interesting to show people, I took the highlights from it and turned then into a music video. I wasn’t the first person to do this, but I had a ton of people asking how I created a music video out of computer game clips, so I created tutorial on how to do it back in 2003. The tutorial became very popular around the world and led to many incredible videos being made out of games. This gave me an idea for my final project in Interactive Authoring II at The Art Institute Online.

Using Macromedia Director, I took the information from the tutorial and pieced it in with images, music, and some sample video clips to show people exactly how to make a music video using clips from a computer game. While Unreal Tournament was the game I used as an example, the method works for just about every computer game. The process used is strictly for Windows computers as there wasn’t any software available for the Mac at the time to capture video in games. If there is something out now, please mention it in the comments below!

In order to view the tutorial, you’ll need Shockwave Player installed in your browser…if you don’t have it, you’ll be prompted to download it…don’t worry…it’s free. So click here to learn how to create music videos from computer games or click the image below!

There are a ton of great movies available online, but one of my all-time favorites is Fooze. The guys that made that video were a huge inspiration and resource for my first videos and the creation of this project. Another excellent vid is Annihilation. Another great one is GNA The Movie. If you’ve created any, throw a link in the comments below…let’s see what AiO students can put together!