11 Jun (Thurs) Reference Tool (Trainer: Ooi-san)
Ooi-san gaven an introduction to the PS3 Reference Tool (DECR-1000, a gigantic piece of eye-sore hardware :P), and the differences between it and the Debug Station. He also demonstrated the G-PAD, GCM HUD and Tuner to the three of us. Technically this lesson is more for programmers, but definitely an eye-opener for me, and essential knowledge for advanced PS3 graphics artists. We saw how the HUD can be used to analyze draw call performance in real-time, and how the G-PAD and Tuner can be used to analyze the performance of capture frame data.
Of particular note is the ability to set "what-if" conditions, so the programmer can simulate the impact of texture and code alterations on game performance without having to actually make the changes. For example, if the programmer suspects that a texture is too big and causing a slowdown in the game's frame rate, he can set a condition where the texture size is reduced and see if that is really the case. This saves much more time than actually asking the artists to reduce the texture size, only to find that the problem lies elsewhere. This is just one of the many useful functions of the suite of tools available for PS3 development.
Game Visual - Rigging (Trainer: Tanaka-san,?)
The highly experienced Tanaka-san gave a lesson on game rigging, demonstrated in Maya by an assistant whose name escaped me. Despite being a primer, we did learn that advanced games like MGS4 are already using expressions to drive shoulder joints in the game code in order to achieve more realistic deformations. Also, while it's customary to change the rotation order of joints in the 3D program to faciliate rigging, this is not done in most game engines (where the rotation order is usually fixed to XYZ).
When exporting data for use in a game engine, the idea is to deliver the lightest possible animation data set to the programmers, so often only the rotation data of the joints are baked, except for the hip joint and facial animation joints, where both translation and rotation data are needed. Hair and clothing joints are moved via real-time simulation in the game code.
Game Visual - UI (Trainer: Fujita-san)
Interface designer Fujita-san explained how he created the interface to PA's PSN garden simulation Shikitei. The game has a very aesthetic Japanese motif using sakura (cherry blossoms) and washi (Japanese paper).
The two aspects of UI design are functional design and visual design. Game designers come up with the functional specifications of the UI, and after discussion with the UI designer, the latter comes up with idea sketches. UI elements are all created in Photoshop and positioned using a in-house Layout Editor (where UI elements are positioned onto the game screen and the locations recorded and given to the programmers). All UI elements should be within the 85% "safe-area" of the screen real estate.
In terms of design considerations, the UI designer should first understand all the functions of the game, then consider how to communicate the information to the user in a simple and easy-to-understand manner.
Yesterday: 10 Jun (Weds) Game Visual - Zbrush (Trainer: ?), Rigging (Trainer: Date-san)
Wednesday was bad form for PA. The lesson content was irrelevant, lessons were short and started late, and the trainers selected were obviously not suited for the task assigned. But I guess they redeemed themselves somewhat today XD
お疲れ様でした！
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