Last road paved with polygons

This is a little bittersweet. I don’t feel like talking about the past -- when I was trying to become a video game artist, but I feel kind of sad. I dropped that as a career goal this year, and luckily I haven’t looked back and thought that was a bad choice. I’m fine with my decision overall. These are some of the projects that took flight and never landed, the Frankenstein’esc creations that I failed to finish.

I had a dream one night, in it I envisioned a more very realistic depiction of Legend of Zelda -- A Lord of the Rings aesthetic with some stylin’ from Assassins Creed. I worked hard of the concept, wanting to get a bearded grizzled Link that looked like a veteran of the battlefield; one that doesn’t sound like a prepubescent girl when he swings a sword, no this Link tears through beasts and devours their entrails. And revels in the glory of a bloody victory.

I wanted each object that Link collects on his journey to be on him: sword, shield, bow and quiver, bombs. Everything. I was a long road traveled to get to the final look, and I never was able to texture him…I tried, but he was slowing my PC to a crawl, and if that happens I’ve went overboard with detail because my computer is pretty beefy. It couldn’t cut it this time.

I just never completed Link. I let the idea just die away. It happens. And you have to move on, nothing I ever finished really felt finished to me. I only got to a point of slight satisfaction; with Link here I knew I wasn’t going to be able to give him the proper visual flare he deserved.

Yeah, there are more than a few things I left on the cutting room floor. My first car model was left unpolished and barren. While it was our final project in college (not many people in the class finished their finals) I still would have liked to get this baby to shine. This thing was never going to see a game engine, so it was purely meant to look flashy and be rendered with all the amenities – great lighting, reflections all that good stuff. Obviously it didn’t happen. Boo me!

Then we have the guns I sculpted when on my all Call of Duty kick. Guns are the easiest things to create in a 3D program – actually, the better umbrella statement is all objects (or anything that's non- organic) are a cinch to make. I laid it down, busting these weapons of war out in merely 40 minutes apiece.

I won’t be firing up the PC to create stuff from my gaming fantasies ever again. I like to write about gaming more than I ever liked to create it. It was often frustrating to finish the simplest things. I don’t miss that feeling of anxiety at all. I’ve made my decision to write about video games, and not create for them. And I’m happy about that choice.