The Wolf's Lens + Updates
9 years ago - Sean Boettger(Spike1)
Hi everyone! Sorry for taking so long to make a post, I've been trying to focus really hard on finishing the short thriller. And finish it I have! Check it out here:
It definitely could have been better, however considering the insane constraints and restrictions we had, it's pretty good XD. I'm planning on creating a VFX breakdown video, which will also go into some of the filming complications that arose and how we fixed them. That'll probably come out later this week, but in case you haven't noticed I do everything in Valve time...
I really want to create more films due to the lack of creative freedom I've had with Shader Sandwich. I'm not sure whether or not I like film-making (or in this case, directing, VFX, sound design, music production etc) more than programming, but it's certainly something I'd like to focus on for now.
That being said, I'm still working on Shader Sandwich! I'm going to create a new tutorial and finish all the video tutorials I'd put on the back burner due to the short film, so hope to see those soon! I'm also still working on Shader Sandwich itself, although I haven't made much headway there yet. I'll try and get the next update out by the end of the month.
I'm also going to start posting about less "My Projects" centric things, since there are so many other creators out there and I'd love to give them a shout out. I'll add a few more options for when you receive emails so you can choose to filter out less important blog posts.
Thanks for reading!
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New Shaders, New Checklist, New SS Update, and a New Lens!
9 years ago - Sean Boettger(Spike1)
Hey everyone!
First off, the Shader Sandwich sale was a huge success, and it's been great having so many positive comments and feedback :). Some users have a found some bugs, so I'll be releasing a patch soon that fixes them all.
I've had a few users request shaders, so I'll link to them here :). Here are the ones used in the Stylized Character example:
Skin Shader
Hair Shader
And here a few other miscellaneous ones :)
Burn Shader
Shell Based Fur Shader
I'm thinking of creating a shader repository somewhere on the site, so users can share shaders they make. I might also add a browser for these shaders in Shader Sandwich itself, so you can just download a shader and customize it all within the editor!
I've also been going around and updating the documentation, all the new features have been added. I'm now turning my attention towards tutorials, already finished the Beginner Tutorial Part 2 :).
So, other than all that I've been upgrading the Checklist, you'll probably not notice much of a difference other than instead of checkboxes there are sliders, but on my end I can add and edit tasks much easier than previously, meaning the entire thing will be more accurate.
Finally, I'm planning on making short films more often, so I thought it'd be a good investment to get a new lens (especially with how well Shader Sandwich sold during the sale). I've bought a Canon 50mm f/1.8 STM which has been fantastic to use. It's got some fantastic looking shallow depth of field, and it's low f-stop will really help in low-light situations.
Two of the video projects I have going are a short thriller that I'll be making with a few classmates from drama, along with a VFX based video about a tiny martian ship trying to steal my fruit (got to fix those reflections...):
So yeah, soon I'll have another Shader Sandwich update coming out, a couple of short films and more. Life is pretty busy, but I think it's going to be fun :).
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Picking up the slack.
9 years ago - Sean Boettger(Spike1)
Hey everyone!
Still waiting for Shader Sandwich V1.1 to go live, but got some other really cool news anyway :). First off, Shader Sandwich has been accepted into the September 24 Hour Deals and will be 50% off! Pretty cool XD. I've also made a Shader Sandwich trailer which'll I'll put on the Asset Store page soon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eZZ259pIyA
Now to get serious...
...just kidding XD. But really, I've been kind of disappointed with my level of content output recently, and I really want to try and increase it. Make more short films, post more updates, finish Charlies Rainy Day, review things, make a game, I don't know, I just need to do more.
So, as part of that I'm gonna light a fire under myself by making my weekly checklist public. I've been trying to make a list of things to do each week and then do them, semi-successfully, but I figure posting it publicly is a good way to ensure I try my hardest.
This is also good for anyone using Shader Sandwich as they'll be able to see what features I intend to work on in the immediate future. Who knows, maybe I'll add tags and sorting filters down the track :). Anyway, you can find this in the Creations drop down, as Checklist.
I wish I had more concrete stuff to show you, but hopefully I'll output content more regularly from now on :).
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Shader Sandwich V1.1 almost done!
9 years ago - Sean Boettger(Spike1)
Hey everyone! Now, before I get into the update, I just wanted to mention the new emailing system :). Basically, whenever I post a blog, you'll get an email with the blog in it. I figured this would help increase site activity. If you don't want any emails, that's fine. You can disable them from the link at the bottom, or from your profile page. Hopefully the email works out ok, if it looks odd or you have any trouble, please comment and I'll fix it for the next post :D.
So, the update! Now, I know I said I was going to get this out on Friday, however I didn't have access to my computer for a bit. But anyway, now that I have it again I've made pretty impressive headway into the next version of Shader Sandwich. I'm actually hoping to upload it tomorrow, I'm just making a trailer-like thing for it.
The next release will include (Most of these were requests by the way, so if you want something done, just ask and I'll do it!):
- New Effects (Math/Distance and Blur/Cell Blur)
- Tessellation support (With different distance modes, phong smoothing etc)
- Optimized Shader Generation, in speed and in output (Good for mobile shaders!)
- Code Commenting in the generated shader (Reasonably detailed code commenting for what a layer is doing, different lighting modes etc). Pretty useful if you want to edit a shader further manually.
- And more!: Normalless diffuse lighting, disabling shadow support, more example shaders.......
so get ready!
Here's an image of the code commenting:
In regards to other projects, the Charlies Rainy Day test pilot hasn't made much headway due to me not having a computer, however I've done quite a lot of brainstorming and I think I've generally worked out the feel and style I'm going for, and bits and pieces of the plot. The actual pilot will probably be about 3 mins long, I'm gonna add a few bits into it to integrate it a bit more into the final film. I guess it could be considered a mini prologue :). I'm hoping to have that done by the end of next month though.
I've another project in the works that I'll talk about in the next post :).
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Don't Ask...
9 years ago - Sean Boettger(Spike1)
Sorry, was planning to have lots of Shader Sandwich/other projects updates here, but a few things came up. However, over the weekend I got together with some friends and made a fake trailer. It's not very good, but it's pretty amusing :D. This is probably the least professional post on here, but meh, I've got to have some fun right?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d34IkwKBCQY
On Friday I'll have those updates, I promise :).
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The Future!
9 years ago - Sean Boettger(Spike1)
Hi everyone!
Today I hosted a free voucher giveaway on Reddit here, and that was a pretty big success :). I haven't had much feedback up until now, so to have everyone be so supportive was really great! I also gained some really good suggestions which I'll be adding in over the next few weeks for version 1.1!
As for the rest of Shader Sandwich, I haven't worked as much on the tutorials as I had hoped due to other events, but I'll be getting back to them now as well. I'm hoping to make the next week a full on development week so I can get V1.1 out as quickly as possible. I have managed to get Tessellation finished though, here's a video from when it was almost done:
Charlies Rainy Day is going somewhat well. I'm still having trouble quite nailing down the feel I want for it, so instead I figured a good use of my time was to re-render/animate the original pilot in the improved visual style. I'm about an eighth of the way through, so that'll be fun to see :). I'm hoping that I'll be able to use the pilot as a sort of blueprint for the rest of the series. It's being rendered in full 1920x1080, render times are through the roof XD.
I've been working on a bunch of other stuff too, one of which I'll cover in a couple of days. The other is a new building model, although this ones a bit more ambitious. I'm modelling a shopping centre! Some (really) early screen shots can be seen here:
Anyway, got some other things in the works, I'll probably post in a few days with tutorials, features, new projects and more! :D
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