Heinz Schuller

For the last 15 years, I've been building tools for Maya. About 12 years ago, I started rethinking Maya from the ground up and wrote a plan to reinvent every tool. The original dream was a single, all-in-one product that would change everything, and I spent years working toward exactly that. But a product that ambitious was always years away. So rather than make you wait, or just release small products, I decided to release it the way it should have been all along: as a series of focused tools, each one reinventing a different part of Maya. This is the first: a sculpting toolset that brings powerful, GPU-based modern sculpting right inside Maya, no round-tripping to another app, no breaking your workflow. And this is just the beginning! cgelementary.gumroad.com/l/C…

What the hell must I do? Artists just want a place online where platforms don't feed their work to AI. So I built Cara. But people just won't leave us alone. The laws don't help us, the governments don't help us. What are artists supposed to do exactly? 1/

I wrote an article about some recent work in Blender and Unreal5. #blender #unreal5 #3dcharacters #animation #rigging #skinning #gamedev linkedin.com/pulse/implement…?

Recruiters, Lead Artists, Art Directors, and Senior Artists: What’s the harsh truth that junior artists need to hear about portfolios and job applications? Not the sugar-coated version. The thing that repeatedly causes candidates to get rejected. And on the flip side: What is something that instantly makes you think: “This person is worth interviewing.” I’d love to turn the comments into a learning resource for aspiring artists trying to break into the games industry. Let’s help them understand what actually matters.

It has been a hell of a ride working on Mechwarrior these past 15 years, and I really appreciate all the people I've come to know and work with on that journey. However all good things must come to an end, and I am no longer working at Piranha Games. Best wishes to everyone.

My Gmail ([email protected]) & YouTube channel (youtube.com/@sayuriartsy5108) were phished/hacked from Istanbul, Turkey, passwords changed, parental controls set to unknown Turkish email. Google closed case despite US-only activity & evidence. I followed up via email to [email protected] with new details from my State Police & FBI reports (plus details about other victims affected). Please escalate for re-evaluation. The hacker/phisher still in control risks more attacks. @TeamYouTube #YouTubeHack #AccountRecovery

I wrote a guide for Premiere Pro. It took me 3 months. Here it is for free. next.frame.io/share/2c6e6e1c…

One of the easiest things you can do to stand out as a 3D artist is to acquire a vague understanding of real-time rendering. This especially applies if you are already in a production environment. Game development is a team sport. Don't pigeonhole yourself as a "artsy artist who makes art and expects others to make it work". At least try to make your colleagues' life easier. The best part is that you don't have to become a Tech Artist. It's enough to know what questions to ask a Tech Artist. — "Should I map this kit onto a single 2K texture or several 512? Here's how it will be used." — "Hey I'm making this asset that is sensitive to texture compression. DXT doesn't work here, how should I approach it?" — "I have a task to scatter these props here, should I merge them into a single actor to cut drawcalls or is it better to bake them into a decal?" — "How many LOD levels can we have for this type of assets?" Now you are not just a machine that converts concept art into 3D meshes, but a valuable asset. Your lead will trust you and give you more autonomy. Tech Artists will take you seriously. Pipeline Engineers will share their knowledge. Of course, this is not the only path to success. You can be detached from production and still be a vital team member. You can be a world class sclupltor/hard-surface designer and thrive as a freelancer. You can be a lightning fast modeler/texturer and be a successful outsourcing contractor. You don't have to be a T-shaped specialist to survive in the industry. I-shaped pros are a vital part of every studio. But being curious and not seeing the game engine as a magic black box will give your career a big boost. Especially if you are just starting out and need to establish your competence. Start with: "Real-Time Rendering Fundamentals", "An In-Depth look at Real-Time Rendering" by Epic Games and let your curiosity lead you further.

Can you run WebGL shaders in realtime on Sphere? Turns out you can. @Shopify just did it for visualizing realtime sales in a whole new way.

Babe wake up they fixed the UV editor.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella echoes Xbox boss Matt Booty, cites "short form video" (TikTok, IG etc) as main competitor: "Gaming's competition is not other gaming. Gaming's competition is short-form video" "We're going to be everywhere, on every platform" — "The biggest gaming business is the Windows business" ➡️ videogameschronicle.com/news… #Xbox #PS5 #NintendoSwitch2 #Steam

"Ok Eddie, we need some concept art for Halo 2, doesn't need to go crazy or with any insane aura." Eddie Smith:

Episode 4 of Hired Steel launches today. 9 am PDT - 6 PM CEST #mechwarrior #Battletech youtube.com/watch?v=016ZJtdg…

In 1999, I was assigned to design the expansion pack to Age of Empires 2. I chose The Conquerors as the theme, and wishing to have 4 civs (as we had on Rise of Rome), I chose the Spanish, the Aztecs, the Huns, and the Mayans. The project went ahead extremely well. We were almost completely finished, 5 weeks ahead of schedule as of January 2000. I was excited to move onto Age of Empires 3. Then Microsoft called and we had an important conference call. 1/