Effects

25 May (Monday)
OJT - Game Effects (Trainer: Miyazaki-san, Takai-san)
At our request, PA has arranged for us to have some hands-on experience producing effects for game graphics. I feel that this is one area which is mostly neglected by the industry. In the past, effects are usually created almost entire through programming, with the FX artists providing support in the form of textures and animation at the request of the programmers. Modern game effects are still done this way, but developers are beginning to create generic tools for FX creation such as dedicated particle systems.

I have always been curious as to how Japanese game companies create their game FX. My guess is that the main difference would be in the tools. A lot of the creation process still comes from the FX artist going by trial-and-error. Of course, the art director or supervisor's input would be important - to provide visual direction and also to achieve consistency with the visual style of the game. Finally, attaching the FX into the game itself is still dependent on the game itself, but usually involves some form of scripting or database editing.

Now there is a good opportunity to get first hand experience, and compare it with how they were done in my previous companies. We were given PA's particle editor and a whole bunch of production examples to look through. The editor is adequate, but the interface feels outdated and could be improved to today's software standards.

Tomorrow, Miyazaki-san will give us real tasks for an actual game in production to complete. It helps that she speaks a bit of English and uses simple Japanese with us, so it's easier to communicate. But the technical terms will be challenging even for our translators.