The ultimate resource to help you create triple-A quality art for a variety of game worlds; 3D Game Environments offers detailed tutorials on creating 3D models, applying 2D art to 3D models, and clear concise advice on issues of efficiency and optimization for a 3D game engine. Using Photoshop and 3ds Max as his primary tools, Luke Ahearn explains how to create realistic textures from photo source and uses a variety of techniques to portray dynamic and believable game worlds.

From a steamy jungle to a modern city, or even a sci-fi space station, 3D Game Environments is the ultimate resource to help you create AAA quality art for a variety of game worlds. Primarily using Photoshop and 3ds Max, students will learn to create realistic textures from photo source and a variety of techniques to portray dynamic and believable game worlds. With detailed tutorials on creating 3D models, applying 2D art to 3D models, and clear concise advice on issues of efficiency and optimization for a 3D game engine, Luke Ahearn gives you everything students need to make their own realistic game environments. Key Features The entire game world development process; from planning to 3D modeling, UV layout, and creating textures. Exercises and projects to practice with; each section includes projects to guide you through creating different world genres. The updated companion website—www.lukeahearn.com/textures/ now includes video tutorials in addition to updated sample textures, shaders, materials, actions, brushes, program demos, plug-ins and all art from the book—all the tools you need in one place.

This tutorial-based book allows readers to create a first-person game from start to finish using industry-standard (and free to student) tools of Unity, Substance Painter, and Maya. The first half of the book lays out the basics of using Maya and Substance Painter to create game-ready assets. This includes polygonal modeling, UV layout, and custom texture painting. The book then covers rigging and animation solutions to create assets to be placed in the game, including animated first-person assets and motion-captured NPC animations. Finally, readers can put it all together and build interactivity that allows the player to create a finished game using the assets built and animated earlier in the book. • Written by industry professionals with real-world experience in building assets and games • Build a complete game from start to finish • Learn what the pros use: construct all assets using the tools used at game studios across the world • All software used are free to students • When complete, students will have a playable version of an FPS game Jingtian Li is a graduate of China’s Central Academy of Fine Arts and New York’s School of Visual Arts, where he earned an MFA in Computer Art. He currently is an Assistant Professor of 3D Animation & Game Design at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. Adam Watkins is a 20-year veteran of 3D education. He holds an MFA in 3D Animation and a BFA in Theatre Arts from Utah State University. He currently is the Coordinator and Professor of the 3D Animation & Game Department at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. Kassandra Arevalo is an instructor of 3D Animation & Game Design at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. She previously worked as an animator at Immersed Games. Matt Tovar is an industry veteran animator. He has worked at Naughty Dog, Infinity Ward, and Sony Interactive on such games as The Last of Us, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and most recently Marvel’s Avengers with Crystal Dynamics. He is an Assistant Professor of 3D Animation at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas.

Creating computer games using Genesis 3D (computer-game development studio) software.

A broadly enhanced new edition of Luke Ahearn's cornerstone game art book "3D Game Textures" is here. When digital art software was in its infancy, most digital art, especially vector art, was textureless. With the advance in software, it is now possible to incorporate texture into most types of digital art. However, if the artists cannot build their own textures, they are limited to using commercial textures. In this enhanced 3rd edition of Luke Ahearn's gem of a book, not only does Luke teach you how to create your own unique textures, he also teaches how to create shaders (the visual effects - reflections, refractions, opacity - that make textures come to life) and materials (collections of shaders that fill well together to map to a particular scene or environment). You can now expand your skill set immeasurably, and create more compelling, varied art work from scratch. Unlike anything on the market, this book provides an in-depth guide to game textures, shaders and materials- with hundreds of high-quality examples. The companion website includes: demo versions of relevant software; resource images; all images from the book.

Description: This tutorial-based book allows readers to create a first-person game from start to finish using industry-standard (and free to student) tools of Maya, Substance Painter, and Unreal Engine. The first half of the book lays out the basics of using Maya and Substance Painter to create game-ready assets. This includes polygonal modeling, UV layout, and custom texture painting. Then, the book covers rigging and animation solutions to create assets to be placed in the game including animated first-person assets and motion-captured NPC animations. Finally, readers can put it all together and build interactivity that allows the player to create a finished game using the assets built and animated earlier in the book. • Written by industry professionals with real-world experience in building assets and games. • Build a complete game from start to finish. • Learn what the pros use: construct all assets using the tools used at industries across the world. • All software used are free to students. • When complete, students will have a playable version of an FPS game. Jing Tian Li is a graduate of China’s Central Academy of Fine Arts and New York’s School of Visual Arts, where he earned an MFA in Computer Art. He currently is an Assistant Professor of 3D Animation & Game Design at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. Kassandra Arevalo is an instructor of 3D Animation & Game Design at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas. She previously worked as an animator at Immersed Games. Matt Tovar is an industry veteran animator. He has worked at Naughty Dog, Infinity Ward, and Sony Interactive on such games as The Last of Us, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and most recently Marvel’s Avengers with Crystal Dynamics. He is an Assistant Professor of 3D Animation at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas.

Welcome to the exciting world of the video game artist. "Beginning Game Graphics" is your guide on a step-by-step path, beginning with the most basic modeling techniques and wrapping up with advanced workflows used by professional game artists. It provides powerful and easy-to-use tools to get you started, and it covers many of the methods, philosophies, and proven techniques that can improve your game demos and help separate you from the crowd in the rapidly growing interactive entertainment industry. Whether you are a video game enthusiast, an artist breaking into the world of video games, or a game programmer ready to model your own characters and sets, this book is the ideal introduction to 3D modeling for video games.

Well-known Maya professional, Michael Ingrassia, takes readers through his unique style of modeling: "Image Based Modeling" where efficient, realistic models can be created very quickly. Ingrassia's techniques allow modelers to create exact replicas of their concept characters or objects. The techniques presented are very efficient and allow game modelers to quickly build out stand alone props to populate environments and game levels. Presented are tried and true techniques that the author has used successfully in game production for the past 10 years. Most, if not all 3D books, focus on basic "box" modeling techniques, which are the basis for proper 3D modeling but not the complete solution. In the author's experience, students who have learned through the Image Based Modeling brand, have quickly excelled into effective modelers. One of the hardest things for any modeler to do is match their model EXACTLY to the concept art or photos they are provided. The insider tips in this book walk artists through this process. Artists begin with basic modeling and advance to a creating a complete scene and set design/game level. Rather than including sporadic models with zero association from to one another, each model in the book becomes an integral part of an overall theme realistic in game development today. The accompanying downloadable resources include 8 exclusive video tutorials on advanced Maya techniques as bonus tracks for artists providing invaluable modeling, rigging and texturing samples. Also, an in-depth video on assembling a "Killer Demo Reel" showing simple but effective video editing techniques used by the author so that artists can learn how to get their work seen. The book not only teaches effective methodology, but provides the user with impressive content for producing effective demo reels and portfolios. Pros and cons of demo reel, website and artist representation are given, along with insights into the expectations of game studios today. The video tutorials show users the finished product, and then run through the process of step by step creation of that particular technique.

Accompanying CD-ROM in v. 1 contains ... "full Fly 3 D SDK including source code for Fly3D.dll, front-ends, plug-ins and utilities; 5 demo levels: car, walk (2 levels), ship (2 levels); Engine Reference Manual and tutorials in HTML; book images."--Page 4 of cover.