From the game industry interested in bringing life to our favorite worlds

[Rave-TZ]

I'm Justin Moravetz, I go by Rave-TZ online (took me almost 30 years to realize "Rave" was in my last name). Anyways, I work in the game industry. My last title was Uncharted: Golden Abyss for the PlayStation Vita. My expertise is effects animation and particle effects. I make game music as a hobby for various projects on the side. My instruments of choice is my NES, Gameboy and my MIDIBox SID (Commodore 64 SID x .

I came here with an interest in bringing fantasy worlds to life. With the artistic background me and some of my friends have, I hope to find a method in converting these worlds into a format I can bring into the real world (my 3D Printers / Laser Cutter). Worlds like Gaia (Final Fantasy 7), Hyrule (Legend of Zelda), The Grand Line (One Piece), Middle Earth (Monk has a good head start in this forum I see).

With the tools I have, I can produce maps like this
SJI-jan1513-alix_1_1024x1024.jpg

Its a learning process, but I look forward to trying.

[Midgardsormr]

Welcome! I've been looking toward developing skills in effects animation, myself. I'm currently a 2d generalist for television vfx, but I've long had an interest in getting more into dynamics and simulation. If you don't mind, could you offer some leads on education for effects in games? I know the principles are similar to what we do for TV and film, but I'd still love to add some books to my library that are specific to game effects.

Oh, and wonderful map! I love the physicality of it.

[Rave-TZ]

Welcome! I've been looking toward developing skills in effects animation, myself. I'm currently a 2d generalist for television vfx, but I've long had an interest in getting more into dynamics and simulation. If you don't mind, could you offer some leads on education for effects in games? I know the principles are similar to what we do for TV and film, but I'd still love to add some books to my library that are specific to game effects.

Oh, and wonderful map! I love the physicality of it.

Not sure to be honest where to get leads into realtime particle effect guides. I went to DigiPen Institute of Technology in Redmond, WA. Its part of Nintendo. There I learned the basics of game production (3D modeling, 2D artwork, animation, etc).

here is a clip of my work

[Thordred]

Welcome Rave!

There seems to be a few animators in the forum, myself being a student at Campus i12(Swedish school for 3D-Artists and Compositors). Always nice to see someone else in the business, even though I mainly work on film and commercials and not games.

[Redrobes]

Hi Rave, Like the map on the wall. To make stuff like that depends on what you have for the initial source maps to use. If you have some height map images in greyscale then you can use the level adjustment and obtain some of the shades as white on black and then convert to vector with inkscape. From there you can import to blender 3d and you can export that to STL for a 3D printer. I believe some of the NC cutters can import DXF. So let us know what you have to start with and what you need to drive the machines.

[Rave-TZ]

Hi Rave, Like the map on the wall. To make stuff like that depends on what you have for the initial source maps to use. If you have some height map images in greyscale then you can use the level adjustment and obtain some of the shades as white on black and then convert to vector with inkscape. From there you can import to blender 3d and you can export that to STL for a 3D printer. I believe some of the NC cutters can import DXF. So let us know what you have to start with and what you need to drive the machines.

Just need the height maps. I can level it out into the steps I need using my tools. The picture of the map is done with 8 layers of laser cut wood. So my first test was to take central oregon and slice it into layers at 500m or so using Global Mapper. I'm interested in making topographical maps in 8 or so layers that also have an etched overlay (the drawings on the map of Middle Earth for example). I might 3D print small details (towers, mountains, etc). My first goal is locating resource material and learning how to author my own stuff.

[Redrobes]

Ok, well if you like you can download my free height map tool for debug which is here. The other thing you can do is get some height map data. For the earth there is quite a lot and mostly revolve around the shuttles radar the SRTM stuff so have a search on that stuff. I have some links on my other machine saved away for some repositories of that too. You can usually get the height data into images using a number of free tools but you will most likely use QGis and Wilbur. I write my own but it depends on the exact data format that you can get hold of. Since I am on the MeDem team then I can get a height map of the current medem data but on the whole for continents most of it is very flat with some ridge like mountains. So in 8 levels its not going to look all that special. Smaller places like islands or hill sides would look great tho.

Heres medem in 3D which shows that its not going to look all that special. The mountains have improved greatly since then tho.

[Rave-TZ]

Ok, well if you like you can download my free height map tool for debug which is here. The other thing you can do is get some height map data. For the earth there is quite a lot and mostly revolve around the shuttles radar the SRTM stuff so have a search on that stuff. I have some links on my other machine saved away for some repositories of that too. You can usually get the height data into images using a number of free tools but you will most likely use QGis and Wilbur. I write my own but it depends on the exact data format that you can get hold of. Since I am on the MeDem team then I can get a height map of the current medem data but on the whole for continents most of it is very flat with some ridge like mountains. So in 8 levels its not going to look all that special. Smaller places like islands or hill sides would look great tho.

Heres medem in 3D which shows that its not going to look all that special. The mountains have improved greatly since then tho.

In the case of the picture, the ground plane would probably start at level 4 of 8 since there is some good depth info in that water. While I only see the contours of the depth, its enough to get what I need. I'll check out the tools and such when I get home. They get crabby if I surf too much at work

[kestrelgrey]

Welcome, and good luck with bringing those worlds to life! A map of Middle Earth like that first one you posted would be to die for. Incidentally, my family is currently living on Whidbey Island, which I see just peeking up above the bottom edge of the map ^-^ Some friends of mine went to DigiPen, and are now working in the area.
Sounds like you've got the expertise and passion to really make some beautiful stuff. Good luck!

[Midgardsormr]

Well, I may just pick your brain at some point later on, when I've learned enough to know which questions to ask. ;-)

Again, welcome, and I look forward to seeing what you come up with!