SourceSTUFF №6 | February 2016
Nonamesleft interview with the maker of “Hotline Fortress”
Tips And Tricks Uberchain and her SFM trickery
Cupid Wings
The Best Works from our contest
Contents
23 3 Poster Reviews By Sofka Ketamine 9 VK News New SFM addons
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11 Interview Nonamesleft 21 TakeOFFFLy Talking about success
Headings
31 Cupid Wings Hit ’N’ Love
News Gallery Letters to Editors
47 Tips and Tricks By Uberchain 59 Hardware VR
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Model section
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SourceSTUFF Editor-In-Chief Evil Witch Co-Editors Victory, Enigmus Proof-Readers Void, Traitor Freak, MysticTheMeeM, engiecat, Adel, Sundownsyndrome, Gotchabakin Illustrators p0nystark, ScurvyOrange Correspondent Darthbodan Authors Sofka Ketamine, Patrick Hunt, Egor Tsebro Translators OPyshkin, BRBS, Nessy Cyrodiil, Porontobello, Black Harrier, Chiara, SchizoFrankie
Special Thanks: Facepunch, SPUF, SFM_RU, Zachariah Scott, Dilly Dong.
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Poster Reviews Author: Sofka Ketamine
Ilya Klyukin
As expected, January gave us plenty of great posters. I think that the time has come to look at them and re-evaluate the best pieces once more. Ilya Klyukin graced us with a dynamic and very sporty piece. The poster depicts a car that is rushing at wild speeds and cutting through the hot desert. The highly detailed machine draws the viewer’s eye, specifically to the vehicle and its variety of vinyl stickers. Nicely hidden and discrete, the initials of the author only improve his work – because that’s the way that an author can always be found. It is worth noting because it is very important… Nobody likes watermarks in the middle of the picture, right? Good contrast between 3
the warm tone of the sand spraying the wheels of the car and the cold shade of the cloudy sky, creates a perfect balance of colours in the poster. If you want to talk about the disadvantages of this piece, it is worth paying attention to the car`s misplaced shade. Though the light is located on the left side, down under the front of the car, the shadow on the sand is cut off halfway before the expected border. Also, the roof of the car merges with clouds in the background due to the white color of the car. This loses the certain distinction point between the background and the rally car itself.
Ruslan Krasny
The next poster is made by Ruslan Krasniy, and it is the feast for the eyes, as usual. Krasniy worked very hard on the the main character posing, who is slowly leaving the scene of the crime after beating some poor guy in the alley. As she moves away, she begins to hide the weapon into her vest. At the same time a lonely passerby has noticed the corpse of a beaten man, while the other one is just walking away. Krasniy has done a good job with the shades of the poster: a mix of violet and blue in
the palette, reminds us of alleys which are often featured in films with similar themes . Krasniy also chose a pretty good model for the girl. She looks very glaring with her piercings, earrings and leopard pants. The face of the character is slightly lit, which allows her to ÂŤhideÂť in the alley, but we still manage to see her expression. Although the gesture of the man crossing the street seems rather weird - his hand arched backwards from how he would casually walk down the street. The balcony on the left has a rather low quality, and covers a large portion of the work. Among other things, we can say that we were pleased to see a small Easter egg in the form of a stalker, who is intently watching the viewer through his glowing eyes.
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Alexander Korolyov
Alexander Korolev based his work on the computer game, Alan Wake. The poster depicts the main character, the one and only Alan, who slowly descends into the depths of a forest. He manages, even without his favorite flashlight that did him a great service in the game. A mystical atmosphere, full of riddles and unanswered questions is created by a nice cool color palette that is brought to life by the volumetric light which grants an additional gradient. Even the posture of the main hero is giving the viewer food for thought. Clear, thick rim lights allow the author to quickly and easily isolate the main subject of the poster - Alan Wake. Nevertheless, the work is not perfect, and a number of flaws quickly reveal themselves. The first thing the viewer’s eyes see is not only a hero, but a huge stick on the left that stands out with all its angles. We have an irresistible urge to smooth it out, along with some of the other smaller branches. We could forgive the mistake, however, we have a feeling that the author simply did not want to spend a little more time to bring the work to the perfection. Moreover, it is worth noting that shadows on the character are too dark. One gets an impression that the atmosphere and the presence of air in the picture just does not exist. For the same reason, the character’s skull stands out from the other details and creates some discomfort on the behalf of the viewer. 5
LurioAsplund
The next poster depicts Saitama, the main character of the One Punch Man manga and anime series. This poster looks like an icon and Saitama holds an Oppai book which is supposed to represent a Bible here. It’s a pretty neat idea for an anime fan-art. It’s safe to assume that anyone who had seen these series at least once would like this poster (despite the fact that there is already a fan-art with this concept). One of the most obvious mistakes here is the one that usually done by lots of SFM beginners – there are a lot of angles that need to be smoothed out. This is such a common mistake that it’s rarely pointed out. Hence, it’s such a shame that this mistake still happens in many amazing pieces. Anyway, we couldn’t just pass by this diligently done poster, and that’s why it has appeared in our magazine.
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crazycombine 1312
Speaking of artists of the international level we must say that they are a definite source of good-looking interesting pieces Let’s take a look at Crazycombine1312’s poster that is amusing in its simplicity and conciseness. Here the Bioshock: Infinite’s main character, Elizabeth, is surrounded by stunningly beautiful roses. Her face is full of serenity and we can definitely feel it. She gently holds one of the roses in her small, soft hand as she enjoys the scent of the flowers. Bright saturated colors fill the poster with feelings of love and tenderness. It’s actually nice to see such peaceful work with the sea of action and horror posters. The character’s hair is nicely drawn and detailed with clothes adding more aesthetic pleasure to the work. The bloom effect makes the poster look more tender and smoothes out all the possible sharp angles which otherwise would hurt our eyes. It’s needless to say that we also have an eye for the flaws. Fortunately this 7
poster’s one and only little mistake is oversaturation. This takes away the volume from character’s body and face. Another questionable detail is that Elizabeth is literally resting in the bed of roses which is full of spikes. We could take this as a special spike less sort of roses if not for the one flower in Elizabeth’s hands – this one definitely has spikes. But nonetheless, this work looks really pleasant and lovely. The author has done a tremendous work here and deserves all the praise he could get.
kittin12376
The last piece is one done by SlimCharles. It shows us one of the “Star Wars” characters – Boba Fett – looking like another “soldier looking into the distance” poster. It’s up to you to decide whether it’s a pro or a con of this work. This is just another genre of Source that is going to stay here for a while as it’s a common thread of many authors. However, the thing that asks to be noticed is the quality of this work and initial idea of the author. It’s hard to get the meaning if you haven’t seen any “Star
Wars” film. But you still can get the main occupation of this guy. He’s a mercenary. The cold color palette of the character cuts him out of the warm-colored world. We must draw the attention to the biggest flaw of this poster. When author was cropping the picture he unintentionally cut Boba Fett’s elbow off. It’s unacceptable for such a highlevel piece of art. Another thing is nonblurred background characters that draw too much attention. It would look quite better if author would blur the background or just avoid adding the background characters in the first place.
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VK Group News The Best From issue to issue
The most beloved
XCOM 2: Sectoid and Viper
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Big Patrick Hunt Model Pack. Part 1
Big Patrick Hunt Model Pack. Part 2
Vault 111 Hallway scenebuilding props
Witcher Prop Pack
The most discussed
The Revenge 10
Nonamesleft
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We welcome you to a page of our magazine, Nonamesleft. Tell us a little about yourself and your hobbies. Thanks! My ‘real’ name is Alex. I’m 22 years old and currently living in Ireland. I was born in the UK and spent most of my childhood growing up in England, Scotland, Dubai, Kuwait and Switzerland. I was fortunate enough to travel alot while growing up, though I was too young to appreciate it at the time. Despite that, I still turned into the typical guy spending too much time behind the computer screen and playing video games for unhealthy periods of time. My hobbies mostly include playing video games, listening to all kinds of music, and of course, animating. Not exactly the most action packed lifestyle. How did you get interested in SFM? It started back in 2012 back when SFM first came out, and I was currently hooked on TF2. At the time it came out, people around me were pretty hyped about it and churning out those ‘Meet the Heavy’ remakes every second of every day. I really didn’t have much else to do at the time as I had just graduated high school and had no idea what to do with my seemingly worthless existence. So, I downloaded it and started trying to figure it out while watching those official SFM tutorials that were put out. I always loved watching Gmod videos and those videos made with that primitive leaked version of SFM. One of my favourites was Shwiggan because I loved his Flight of the Conchords music videos with that lovable Medic and Engie duo. Those are TF2 community content classics in my book. So I figured I’d try something like that. I tried doing lip-syncing and some simple body movements to a song i was listening to at the time. I had this great sense of satisfaction from finishing it (Even though looking back, it looks terrible). I was pretty much addicted from that point on.
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Well known video named — “Hotline Fortress 2: Wrong Number”
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Source Fashionmaker
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What inspires you? It seems that music plays an important role.
the principles of animation and how to apply them effectively.
My main influences would have to be of course, Disney movies, Pixar movies, 3D and 2D animation movies in general. I get a lot of inspiration from fellow SFMers too. There are quite a few SFMers out there that really show that they want to get good at animation and deliver the best quality SFMs they can. Their enthusiasm kindof rubs off on me. Also yes, I have always loved watching music videos and am big into music performances. I’ve always loved high levels of energy and lots of action.
In 2014 you won the first place for the Saxxy Awards in the Action category. How did you feel about that?
The animation quality in your videos is so good, I think it can compete with Valve themselves. Have you taken a course, or it is just alot of practice? Thank you! But, I will have to disagree. There’s still quite a lot of practice and learning left before I can even hold a candle to the talent of the animators working at Valve. My skills come from a combination of both practice and studying. I dropped out of studying computer science in London back in 2012 to focus on learning character animation at Animation Mentor because it was what I was most passionate about. I was never really the academic type and got mediocre grades all throughout high school. It was truly a miracle that I discovered animation right after graduating. I got to learn from people who worked at Pixar, Blizzard, Blue Sky, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and all sorts of top class movie making and gaming companies. Never looked back and I don’t regret a thing. Animation Mentor was super important in helping me get some kind of grasp on
It felt awesome! Especially when I was super doubtful about winning, because I thought our entry was bad, but the competition was fierce that year. Spent a few hours that day running around in TF2 like an idiot, using melee only, and turning people into gold as you would expect. How Rivalry Rush was created? Tell us some interesting details about the creation process and people who worked with you. My part in making Rivalry Rush wasn’t that big. I was basically the guy everyone would turn to if they needed a run or some complex body mechanics animation done. I love animating runs (as you can probably tell already), so it was great! I don’t remember much since my memory is terrible and its been well over a year, but I just remember us starting pretty late and really feeling the pressure to get stuff done fast. I was super glad we managed to pull something out of the bag that looked great while we were in a RUSH. Amiright? Anyone? No? Ok. Are you planning to participate in the Saxxies again? I think 1 Saxxy is enough for me. I like to work on things without being constrained by the rules of the Saxxies. Gotta make the most of the lack of deadlines while it lasts. 16
Besides Youtube, your work can be seen inside Team Fortress 2. Tell us about cosmetics and taunts created by you and taken from Workshop straight into the game. Who helped you with them? Firstly, I didn’t create the self-made cosmetics in my inventory (The CoPilot and The Thirst Blood). Those were created by Vap, an awesome and talented guy who deserves more selfmades than he has. I merely created the SFM promo posters for those items. As for The Boston Breakdance, that was all me. I didn’t have anyone helping on that. It was just one of those «well this seems like an obvious idea that needs doing» ideas. The Burstchester was a project I was brought on to help finish for the Invasion update by CobaltGemini. It was quite a rushed effort, but it was because of the combined efforts of everyone (CobaltGemini, donhonk, Hypo, Callegos and I) that we managed to finish in time with some degree of quality. Tell us about your real life. Maybe you have a job or are you still studying? My life is pretty slow at the moment. I’m current in a state of limbo between working on significant projects and practising animation by myself. Ireland isn’t exactly the best place for animation work so i’ll be taking my time in planning my best means of escape to pursue animation full time. What plans do you have for future. When i’m ready, I want to break into the animation industry and peruse animation full time. In the mean time, i’m going to continue practising and 17
making occasional things for TF2 (for both experience, and some form of income). What advice would you give people who just started using SFM? Perhaps there were things you would like to know yourself before you even started SFM for the first time? I would say start simple. I know its super tempting to jump straight into character animations and make a big production (I know I did), but it’s not the best way of going about it (at least in my opinion). Start with something simple like facial animations or even the classic bouncing ball animation. Also, something REALLY important would be to study the principles of animation BIGTIME. It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out the principles of animation and how important they are. They have helped me out so much. Just recently, Jesse Baumgartner has started posting live streams of him working on character animations in SFM. He’s an incredibly talented animator who’s working in the industry full time and he gives some extremely valuable tips. As for SFM’s technical features, I would recommend checking out Jimer Lins. The man is a life saver when it comes to some of SFM’s features and fixing common bugs and glitches.
Say a few words to our readers and your fans. Firstly, thank you(!) for giving me the confidence and positive reassurance that I’m on the right track. It makes me feel more like this is my calling in life. A big part of the satisfaction when completing an SFM is seeing the positive reactions to them. Also, if I ever bump into you, sorry if I come off like an anti-social recluse at times. I’m still not used to the whole «being well known» thing. Though, at the same time, I must say it’s super cool running into people who know my work while playing tf2. Just don’t worship me when you meet me (yes it has happened). I’m not a god among men. I’m just some guy with too much time on his hands. Treat me like you would anyone else! That being said, thanks for the support and thanks for being interested enough in me to read through my ramblings.
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The Best Place For Your DA Works Why you should choose this community? • Good Admins • Big audience • Lots of different folders • SFM Resources
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On The Fantasy Wings Author: TakeOFFFLy
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Hello everyone! My name’s Evgeny Teizin. And I’m known as Bublei among the “longlivers” of Russian source community. My nickname in Digital-Art is TakeOFFFLy. I have been creating art on Source since 2009. Well, that thing helped me to become popular on “glagne”, and then to attract the attention of companies such as ElectronicArts, VisceralGames, Valve, etc. But, I also have disliked Source for 6 years, because of its awful visual features. Although, I have nice memories there, being in that mad Russian community for these 6 years and sometimes I still get nice things there. I started working with SFM later than my
“mates” because I had an old hardware that time. That’s why I continued working on with Garry’s Mod until I broke in SourceFilmmaker in 2013, I`m still working with it. There is a convenient interface and pretty good graphic key figures. These were the main reasons that made me change from Garry’s Mod to SourceFilmmaker. Well, since that I had lost all interest in GM. Maybe one of the main goals was to use SFM, but try to make projects that look like they weren’t made in SFM. I mean to do all the “magic” in a drawing program while SFM would be just a clear space for that.
I think I’ve managed to do it. If you want to talk about my personality in the Russian Source community you should ask it’s members. It’d be better not to do it. Don’t ask the community about anything, except the questions about the content or performance of the sourcebased programms. I prefer talking about myself. If you want to know how I got my nickname it’s necessary to say that I like the sky. I think it’s a simple miracle which is accessible for everyone. When I watch the dawn or the sunset it always brings these lines to mind: “If god has created this world he must have been a painter.” 22
I’m not sure if I paraphrased this quotation correctly, but I think it accurately shows my attitude to nature. By adding a small piece of man’s favorite dream - the ability to fly I got my nickname TAKEOFFFLY. This explanation may sound a bit insane, but admit it – it’s so dreamy and romantic. I don’t need anything else for my nickname. Now let’s talk about the style. Almost all my works include scenebuilding. Nowadays there’re lots of makers who use this style (if it can be named like this). As for me I customize almost everything. Starting with characters models and ending with constructions of environment. I can only say that I like working with the details. It may be texture pattern or detalisation of an object in the scene, like a pack of cigarettes with a lighter in a character’s hand or shocks on a car, that are located on the background. Anyway, the good is always easy to overdo it than to find a middle ground. Therefore, such things must be treated carefully and wisely. So that’s another feature – deliberation. As the saying goes, «haste makes waste.» I don’t see the point in running around and making piles of posters in one week, it’s stupid. Of course it’s your business if you earn money this way. Everyone does what they can to earn money. The third thing is the color. Most of all I like working with it. The final poster may have a completely different color scheme than it had at the beginning. 23
As any other artist I need inspiration for my creative process. I get the inspiration for my posters from various movies and music or from other artists’ professional works. Sometimes I also get inspired by books. Lately my spirit gets a lift after listening to some music or after a walk that fills me with impressions. I always try to recreate in SFM a reallife scene that impressed me. But the last year was so intense that I couldn’t really dedicate a lot of time to my favorite activity. As a result half of the pictures I started working on weren’t published or even finished at all. I hoped this information would stop all the jokes about spacemen in Ancient Rome, halfnaked robo-elf ladies and giant flarebots. Though I have to admit that my real life would be much more fun with all these creations. Let’s dive a little into the process of my work. Usually I start by picking up some decent music that sets the mood. This is really important for me as I could work on a poster for about 7 hours and more. If I didn’t listen to music during all that worktime I would get really bored. When I don’t have enough time on my hands the process of creation lasts for a whole month. I can open my software to edit the scene and then leave it till the next day. The night takes counsel with your pillow, you know. The theme of a certain work is determined by my overall mood and impressions that I`ve gotten recently.
ÂŤI really love working with little things on my worksÂť. 25
But that’s not how things always work. Sometimes I just click through the packs of various models and space out or get inspired for a new work while working on previous one. Sometimes I have a specific idea and expect some certain result when I open SFM. So I don’t have one particular way of working, it’s always an artistic mess. But when the theme is picked out and an idea is set on, the process begins. I could describe it for hours on end. In general it’s just endless route of checking extra overlays on the screen, experimenting with the light and models and so on. There are a lot of funny stories that are related to my Source hobby. But probably the funniest one happened to me when I heard a dispute about whether my art was made in SFM or in a completely different 3D software. I decided to take a part in the conversation without even thinking. I won’t ever forget how surprised the opponent was when he recognized me as a creator of this art and that it was made on the Source engine. I had to work with different people quite often. The most productive collaboration I’ve had was with one team, which was engaged in the production of the second-best videos of Valve games. There was a time when we worked on the same project, which many people knew as the first Machinima series with Russian duplication based on SourceFilmmaker. It’s called “Team Play”. I won’t go into details by telling the name of the office or the name of its leader, key personnel etc. They didn`t pay me for this in the end. We were a good team in general and had some wellknown personalities. Some of them are related to voice acting and theatre in their professional activities. I wrote two scenarios myself. Voice actors recorded all of their lines and prepared for the second part. However, due to the total inactivity of our organizer project flew through all the dates and was eventually dissolved. Today this office continues to create thirdrate video games from Valve, without a hint of any appropriateness.
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Working on the lightening. Ended version
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1. Angle adjustment
2. Building model’s skeleton
3. Filling the model with big parts
4. Adding little objects
I’ve also had an interesting and productive cooperation with Dimitry Hardy. We completed many interesting projects over the years, and they were very different in their scope. In fact, our main Source project is yet to come. Besides SFM, one of my main activities is making commercial and non-commercial posters. Currently I’m working on concept art for DeadSpace: Overheat. But of course, studies take most of my time.
Image before (above) and after (below).
Like many people, I strive to achieve all my goals in life to get maximum pleasure from it. Fortunately, I’ve had many chances, but still have one life, and if I ask myself: «What have I achieved?» I won’t find an answer. I`ve gotten it all and I have achieved absolutely nothing at the same time. When I first launched Garry’s Mod I didn’t know that someday I would sit here and writing an article about myself for the magazine, and most of all, I didn’t set myself such goals while first starting SourceFilmmaker. I never wanted to be famous, I did what I like and I did it with love. I tried to do everything as good as was possible with my skills. I really hope people like what I was making. Well, for those who didn’t like it, let me tell you something: I did it for myself and had fun while doing it, from the beginning of the development process to reading comments on deviantart. To all of those who are just starting their journey through the swirling maelstrom of Source funnel, I want you to love what you do. Don’t make mistakes trying to chase the fashion. Find yourself in what you really like and really catches you. No need to be equal to those who knows SFM for long. Line up with world artists. Improve, develop. And over time, if you want, you will leave Source for much more professional software. You may become widely known outside of the SFM community. Everything is in your hands and heads! Desire is a lot of opportunities, unwillingness – a lot of reasons.
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Sweet Valentine At this time our interactive touched the eternal theme of love, and interactive participants perfectly played with this theme! The best works you’ll see below.
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Author - coolmemes The most romantic date ever you will get with your working partner.
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Author - Daniil Gromenko Best gift for Valentine’s Day — the presence of a loved one close.
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Author - Vertigo Heavy could not limit his girlfriend from the influence of the Scout ... And she agreed on a date.
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Author - Alexander Klimov Trouble-free Valentine, who can kill a person. What could be better?
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Author - Uberchain But disappointments happen even this day. At this time, Medic lost his wife.
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Author - DarknessRingoGallery Love on a battlefield.
Author - Castleporno Repeating the famous kissing sailor and nurse.
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Author - Uberchain What could be better than a tasty meal on a date?
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Author - FrvrStallone Even robots can love.
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Author - scurvyorange Sometimes silence is the better way to talk on a date.
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Author - Jewtilian You can see your second half even in the crowd of people.
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Author - Majora Just...nothing to say.
Author - Igor Shestakov The King and The Queen of ice.
Tips And Tricks Автор: uberchain
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There’s a little girl in the promotional materials of Tip of the Hats that’s fun to talk about in terms of a creative process. No, it’s not the girl Sally, but she might as well be considered 50% custom: she’s made with crazyb2000’s Olivia Mann model, retextured with a pink dress, and wears a modified Brutal Bouffant with a Pyro workshop mod. The little girl to the right side is the girl I’m talking about: braided pigtails taken from an MMD model, Miss Pauling’s head with no makeup, and Engineer’s body resized and reskinned. A child was born that day, and when I told the Tip of the Hats crew the nature of this headhacking (or rather, bodyhacking), they said that it was “kind of freaky”. They’ve labelled me a Dr. Victor Frankenstein of Source Filmmaker. I doubt I’m the only one, but I’ll take that nickname as mine for now. Known for using assets in different ways than their intended purpose, editing textures and materials of models for my needs, crafting costumes to place on characters, or even making characters out of other characters - I think I’ve earned the title. From ridiculously fancy dresses to food items such as ice cream sundaes, to the reskins used for North American 6v6 TF2 and the little braided girl from the Tip of the Hats promotional images, I refuse to be tied down by mine or SFM’s limitations. It’d make more sense to learn Blender to put together models or even make my own, but as long as I know how to do what I do, I do whatever I can and use whatever I’ve learned to produce a final result that I want.
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This process was responsible for Vivat Regina Viola’s creation: Queen Pauling, who stands center stage brandishing a spellbook with a feather in one hand, Royzo’s Ragequit Sword in the other. Surrounding her are the RED Team mercenaries bowing on one knee; the exception is Heavy behind her, ready to protect His Royal Highness. Looming behind the two of them is the Administrator - Queen Helen, watching over them. Many of these mercenaries, as well as Queen Helen, are wearing some interesting clothes - impossible loadouts with non-official items, and more than three clothing slots.
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But Queen Pauling was arguably the most complex of arranging models: • 1 Grand Duchess Tiara from Heavy; lock to head. • 1 Grand Duchess Tutu from Heavy; resize, attach to neck, bake procedural bones and angle jigglebones. • 1 Tartan Shade from Demoman; add a colour option of purple. • 1 Something Special for Someone Special diamond ring; colour script pink, resize and attach to center of the Tartan Shade. • 1 item that isn’t in TF2 yet, a mod that’s a cape for Soldier; attach to backside. Turn on dynamic skirt mode; stretch skirt down. • 1 Ramses Regalia from Medic; remove upper blouse, stretch lower half downwards and recolour purple. • 1 VTFEdit, export TGA files of arm and Ramses Regalia textures. Save as VTF. Recolour, add override materials and apply retextures. 52
I wrote this for an SFM prompt called the Honey Toast Challenge: somebody once noticed that the map designer who made Team Fortress 2’s Kong King created a bench using two benches instead of making a separate model. A few people thought it was lazy; others recognized it as a creative use of repurposing models and using what you have to make what you need rather than model it and take up more memory or time. I don’t know how to model, I’m not a professional animator or 3D artist, so I MacGyver things in SFM by thinking outside the box. I stare at a model meant for a hat, and I ask myself: “can I use this as something other than a hat?” That’s how it starts, and it makes for elaborate outfits and models - often with a little bit of reskinning as well as some VMT/VTF tricks.
Clicking on a picture gets you into DA journal. 53
Learning about Valve materials was painful when I first started out; now it’s second nature for me to add override materials. The first exposure I had to editing a VMT file was from a Jimer Lins Youtube tutorial on how to make the All-Father visible in SFM by commenting out a detail string. The first instance of reskinning I did was figuring out how to separate a TF2 Freak’s VTF files from the character’s files it was overwriting. We’re at a point now where I’ve done reskins for competitive TF2 teams with positive reception. I can list off about five material values I use liberally for SFM character creating: cloakFactor or alpha if the model has many textures, phongboost if I need to adjust some shine, bumpmap if I want SSAO on something that doesn’t already have a normal, iris for changing eye textures, and color for SFM’s finally built-in colour script. All sorts of tutorials from every niche of the SFM community have paid off in terms of knowing how this stuff works, which is great for troubleshooting too. But other than playing dress-up dolls or recolouring things, I like collecting models. This all goes hand-in-hand. I check the Team Fortress 2, Source Filmmaker & Garry’s Mod Steam workshops often. I pay attention to Gamebanana and mods.tf every now and again. I even peruse SFMLab or PonySFM to see if anything’s been added of interest. The latter, by the way, is always fun to tell people about because I think that’s where I’ve learned some of the most interesting things (such as alpha floating values) as well as found some of the most useful models. Regardless of what your opinion of the show, the show’s community, or the show’s SFM community is - the My Little Pony SFM community is highly successfully at providing as many assets as possible for MLP animators & artists to use. If I had to ballpark an estimation, MLP SFM assets ranks 3rd in terms of having the most readily accessible assets - TF2 and nude models/pornography assets being 1st or 2nd.
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Different miss Pauling outfits.
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“But uberchain, why would you go looking in a My Little Pony category for Team Fortress 2 models?” I’ve gotten that question before. I can’t recall exactly what I responded, but basically: the models I collect don’t have to be TF2-related things. If it looks close enough to the TF2 style, then I can use it for TF2 artwork. There’s plenty of items I’ve borrowed from MLP packs, such as cookies & cupcakes for food, or CreatorofPony’s Equestria Girls’ models for dress skirts or hair. A lot of things such as bare legs and shorts on TF2 characters are because I’ve bodyhacked Rebbacus’ nude models onto regular models. My harddrive is finally getting full from how many things I’ve downloaded and created for SFM, but that’s okay whenever I or my friends need something, chances are I’ve probably downloaded it. As it stands, a lot of what I’ve scavenged around for whether it be models or tutorials on how to use them - has come in handy for my artwork and my animations. My background was graphic design & media, and that’s slowly returning now that I’ve branched out - I’ve worked on stream overlays, pitched logos, and been flown out to TF2 LANs for photography. But SFM will remain a big part of my life for a while: I recently completed some splash art for PC Gamer’s podcast (in which a Widowmaker is seen with glasses and a suit borrowed from an Elizabeth outfit pack), I’m working on some more things for the competitive TF2 website teamfortress.tv, and I just finished some 404 splash artwork for the competitive Overwatch forums’ over.gg. I still have a lot to learn about Source Filmmaker, and I don’t think that learning will stop any time soon. But in the meantime, I’ll continue to see if this sweater for Pyro as well as this Kill La Kill Mako hair, can fit on Scout’s Mother.
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Hardware Author: Egor Tsebro
So we finally say goodbye to another year. I don’t want to sum up everything that has happened in 2015, but it’s hard not to notice that this year was kinda active for the gaming industry. Besides the obvious things like new game releases, announcements and noisy award ceremonies there was something else: the tip of a hidden gaming iceberg. I’m talking about the wide set of Virtual Reality devices. VR is everywhere. Everyone talks about it, devices were being announced, people pre-order it… But what do we expect from it? That is the point where I think, no one knows. What kind of games do we really need for VR? But still, no matter how vague is the future of this technology, Valve is showing their genuine interest in it. And my part here is to introduce you to the company’s progress in this area. Lighthouse’s These little black boxes are the lion’s share of SteamVR success. A simple idea (and not so simple implementation): an ability to detect VR device without any external cameras or sensors, only using the device itself by incoming signal from the “Lighthouse”. This system is not only more productive and more accurate than with the camera, but it is also more universal. However the «Lighthouse» does not participate in the calculations, only cares about the number and type of devices monitored and also about «lining» map for them. Thus, they can track an unlimited number of items (VR helmets, controllers, smartphones, cats), on condition that that they do not close each other out of the «lighthouse» sight and they have the necessary computing power. This flexibility of “Lighthouse” allows Valve to think widely beyond their VR devices . Gabe Newell even said that the company will share this technology for free, having a high hope that the “Lighthouse” will become the USB of VR world – a universal technology without 59
В этих маленьких чёрных коробо успеха S
Возможно, отказ от классически прорывным
очках заключается львиная доля SteamVR.
the risk of inhibiting situations for the future of Virtual Reality. OpenVR So, when the question of tracking is out of the way, we can finally get to the data input and output. The amount of VR devices keeps on growing and this is a big problem for the content creators. The amount of effort required for remaking everything in the game for these specific devices is beyond our strength, but Valve decided to take care of it by creating a software layer, unifying access to VR devices. This API is already supporting devices like Rift and FOVE helmets. Vive The first VR device, designed by Valve, will be manufactured by the Taiwanese corporation HTC. No one knows why Valve has decided to use them , but it is clear that High Tech Computer Corporation is open to new ideas (they were the first company to introduce the first smartphone running on Android in 2008). The HTC Vive is often mistaken for a Virtual Reality helmet, but that’s wrong – Vive is actually a whole system, where the controllers are more interesting than a helmet. Perhaps the rejection of the classic controllers is the most groundbreaking move here. Now to look around the corner, we actually need to look around the corner and not to press X, holding Y and etc. And you can also rotate most of the game objects… Hell, you can even juggle them. Many people that tried out Vive were shocked by the realistic controls. Also, this concept appeared because of the idea to rip the Steam Controller apart.
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Photogrammetry Another technological miracle is one Valve did not make any breakthroughs in, but is actively used in the virtual reality systems - photogrammetry. Perhaps in the near future we can project our room in the virtual reality using only a mediocre camera, then we can put on our VR helmets and walk around our rooms while we walk around our rooms… And invite friends from Australia in it! That’s not magic, believe it or not, but it’s very close to it. Also, in their projects Valve use the program Photoscan made by some guys from Peterburg. These have been used in the creation of the Cyberpunk 2077 trailer, webmagazines and videogames. The year 2016 will certainly be a starting point for the era of VR. Several years of waiting have come to an end, the newly opened pre-orders for Oculus Rift went out for a few minutes and, in the end of February, it will be possible to pre-order HTC Vive Pre. This industry is fraught with an incredible number of opportunities and promises to make this year exciting for all of us.
Model: Doomsday Orange
On the head Cross comm express, body covered with Track terrorizer made of wool and neylon, Dillingers Duffel bag on the back made of genuine leather.
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Model: Doomsday Orange
On the head Cross comm express, body covered with Track terrorizer made of wool and neylon, Dillingers Duffel bag on the back made of genuine leather.
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News Some Steam and non-Steam news
Free fan-film made by “CorridorDigital”
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Here comes the Deadpool. New DLC for “Marvel Heroes 2016”, including Deadpool in the game.
“XCOM® 2” is avaliable.
Early acess “Naval Action”.
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Enhanced Edition of “Dying Light” This package comes with all the available bonus content, including • Be the Zombie • Cuisine & Cargo • Ultimate Survivor Bundle • The Bozak Horde Last but not least, travel beyond the walls of Harran to discover a vast, dangerous new region in Dying Light: The Following – a massive storybased expansion that brings mysterious characters, deadly new weapons, unexpected quests, and fully customizable and drivable dirt buggies.
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Amazing “Firewatch” is avaliable. Includes • A stunningly beautiful wilderness environment that expands as you explore. • A tailor-made story: the choices you make shape the narrative and build relationships. • An edge-of-your-seat mystery. • Secrets and discoveries to be made over every hill.
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Paperman ardor7829 Steam - link SFM
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Художественная Art GalleryГалерея SFM Работы andвGmod SFM иworks Gmodfrom со всех around концов the света world
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Downtown Life RustledJimmys DA - link SFM
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Operative future Minaus DA - link Gmod
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Sky Ware John-Mason DA - link Gmod
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Arkham Knight: Riddler MrShlapa DA - link SFM
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The Thing in the Mushroom forest Scotchlover DA - link SFM
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this can be useful Kunoichi221 DA - link SFM 82
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Hotline Miami 2 Tony evgenyprice DA - link SFM
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DEADPOOL Vietnam S1l3nts DA - link Gmod
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Unnamed Ruslan Krasny VK - link SFM
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The First Case Jewtilian DA - link SFM
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Driver blackjack474 DA - link SFM
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Unnamed Dark_Hd Tumblr - link SFM
Dear readers! Here comes our section “Art gallery”. And here you can find cool works all over the world. It doesn’t matter who creates the picture, what its theme and how it is done. The most important thing for us in this section - beauty. Oh, you can bribe our editors. If you’d like, you could transfer some money to the bank account (0578 1245 9856 2154). Hope, that our chief editor won’t take this out. Try hard enough and your efforts will be rewarded! And the most important part - efforts of less than 200 c.u. will not be accepted.
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Letters to Editors Your interesting stories or wishes Now we’ve got cats here.
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Jarate Jarate Boss
Real Men Fragrance