Homepage and News

My name is Rob Galanakis, and I'm a technical animator at BioWare Austin.

Site Updates

6.15.08

Most of my updates are on the Blog, so if you are watching this page, you should be over there. I'm starting up a tech artist community site in a couple weeks, and when it is up, my personal site will see a big restructuring as well- I will be integrating it more with the blog, taking down my 3d art portfolio, and making things much easier to access/navigate. I will probably use Wordpress or something to handle all the content, since HTML is such a pain to edit when I have new things to add.

3.31.08

I leave tomorrow for Bioware. I didn't get all the stuff finished I intended, though I did upload the Shader-driven animation project this week. Also a couple new blog posts. I will update this page when I upload another finished project, which at this point should be late April for Vector Displacement and hopefully not long after for Skinning by Proxy.

3.4.08

Just got back from Austin, where I was interviewing with BioWare. Well, I got the job! More on the blog.

Added a script for auto-changing Max Splash Screens. I did this at Radiant Machine and it was a real blast, I encourage you to use it for your own or at your studio, and please give me the heads up on any new splash screens you may create!

Also, fixed the links for my (quite old at this point) 3dsmax character tutorials.

GDC was a blast, and there's a new blog post.

I've also added a maxScript section to this website. Right now it only has maxscripts, but in the future may contain Python scripts and more.

Also added a tutorial on an easy way to deploy scripts to an art team.

Funny how situations change. My company announced they are closing the studio after this current project (about 3 months), apparently they don't want to reinvest the outrageous amounts of money we've made the company. Rather than see one of the other artists go, as team size needed to be cut since two artists got reassigned to our project from what they were working on, I volunteered to go, as I didn't want to stick around. Anyway, I'm now looking for work, especially in the Seattle/Redmond area, but definately willing to relocate as well. Please email me if you'd like to see my full technical portfolio, in addition to that detailed on the site.

I've been doing some steady updating and article writing, fleshed out the Common Functions page and added an 'All-in-One Shader' to the HLSL page, which has lots of the common functions from my page built in and configured with booleans. There are versions for 3dsmax and DirectX.

Lastly, I've also added a Blog, which will replace these detailed news posts for now on... I will still announce new web content here on the homepage along with some other things, though.

A big update for the new year. Added the the Drystan Shield Pack to Downloads. Had it for a while but was waiting to take screenshots, which I'm never going to take, so I'm putting it up without them. However all of the (bluish) shields you see on the characters on the 3D Art page are included.

I've also included a mash-up of Arsh Levon's Basemesh with CrypticAR's rig. This takes the best sculpting basemesh around and gives you the ability to change proportions in all sorts of ways before you go into your sculpting app. Props to the guys at work for the idea.

Third, I've added a Parallax Occlusion Mapping shader for 3dsmax to the HLSL Shaders page. I think more games will be using this sort of stuff soon (waiting on you, hardware), so I figure this can be a good use for artists now.

Fourth, I've written an extensive tutorial on using Scripted Material Plugins with DirectX Shaders in 3dsmax. This is a must for any tech artist using 3dsmax, it can really improve your game's content pipeline. There is an intro/overview, a sample maxsScript, FX file, and appropriate textures.

Finally, I've added a Useful maxScript and HLSL functions page to the Tutorials page, which you should check out. I will continue to add useful, smaller things there. It is perpetually in progress and being tested so report any issues you find, and please give me suggestions or new techniques and you'll be sure to be credited.

As my knowledge and focus changes, my site is becoming ill-suited for the content, and the next major update will probably be a site redesign, to make things easier to find and use.

Two updates in one... I updated but wasn't set up on the internet at the time and never got around to uploading the update.

I placed third in the nVidia "Shade Your World" contest! You can see the announcement here, and soon you'll be able to download the shader in the nVidia Developer Shader Library. I will post a description of it, as I did for my other shaders, once it is available from nVidia.

Work is awesome except that I'm working two jobs (still doing the landmark modeling job), which can be a strain but I need to save up some money. I've made the jump to a full-fledged technical artist at Radiant Machine, which is a thrill. The product is really shaping up nicely as production is winding down, I think the (extremely critical) community will enjoy it.

I'm planning some articles when I get some time, specifically about real-time Scripted Material Plug-ins in 3dsMax. This is a shady topic, but has been of immense value for the project I am on and I think it opens up extremely powerful workflows for development teams small and large. In the meantime, I am going to list some of my favorite tutorials (made by other people) on my Tutorials and Articles page. I may also have some maxScripts coming along in the future.

Big news, both personal and site-related. I've finally got a job in the industry, working at a company named Radiant Machine in Redmond, Washington. I'm working on Dungeons and Dragons art for some new application they are releasing along with the new 4th Edition stuff. I've never played D&D but am quite excited about the visuals, and especially the art team, which is small and in a similar boat as myself experience-wise (except for the Lead, obviously); the programming team has some AAA titles in their portfolios (and given the proximity to Microsoft, much of the rest of the company (SolutionsIQ) are MS alumni).

I've taken my week with my PC while offline to add both the Spartan King and Caesar's Legions to the Downloads page. I will update the Shaders page once the results from the GameDev.net contest are in (should have been many weeks ago...).

Somewhat of a major site update. I've renovated the portfolio page to something with a cleaner and more streamlined look, added more content (new projects and texture flats), and removed some content as well. I've also added some low-poly work done for a Medieval 2: Total War mod. I've also added documentation for Blood and Iron's material library. Also, the class I have been running on Photoshop finished up, with 8 students completing all the lessons; a little prize I gave everyone a copy of Milkshape3D or the Swordmaster eBook, their choice. I also launched the Total War Unit Repository, a great resource for modders and hobby developers.

As far as work to do, what's coming down the pike if I have time in the next couple weeks:

• Spartan soldier available for download
• M2TW legionairres available for download
• nVidia "Shade your world" contest entry available for download
• More news on mod community projects

Alright, I've finished the Blood and Iron post-mortem and I've uploaded links for the Photoshop tutorials. Check out the Tutorials and Articles page.

Great news, I got a job doing architectural landmarks at clickBOOM. Its not character art but its work, and money, and experience, all of which I really needed.

I've uploaded a couple new things to the Downloads: Cathedral hall model, rigged Oshumond models, both Head Packs, Volos the dragon, and I added some things missing from Belenus. I also fixed the link to my eye shader (thanks for the heads up from thomasp at polycount). I've also been writing my Blood and Iron postmortem, it should be ready next week.

A few updates. My 3D page and Portfolio has had a couple things added (and removed). I've also been doing some more shader work, I should have all my shaders updated for FXComposer 2 and ShaderFX 1.5 in a week or two

A pretty cool announcement, I'm teaching a FREE PHOTOSHOP CLASS online, at www.twcenter.net. You can reach the classrom here, and you can sign up via this thread. The third of 6 video tutorials will be up tommorrow, so there's still time to sign up (registration will close in a week or so). I will be running another class in a few weeks, something more advanced, so stay tuned.

Finally, my current project is a historical replica of a Roman Legionnaire, with fully articulated armour and equipment. Its alot of fun, and extremely educational (and puts me a step closer to building an actual lorica segmentata one day). Will post some pics at the next update.

Finally uploaded my 3D page and Portfolio. I also fixed some links and added a couple images to the Download section. Added some updates to the Shaders page (.fx for 3dsmax and .sfx for ShaderFX uploaded for some). Also, added a couple Articles, and wrote my Bio and put in some links.

I should mention as well that you can now download the Blood and Iron tech demos from www.bloodandirongame.com.

Downloads update: Animation Pack I, Texture Pack I: Wooden Tower, Texture Pack II: Cathedral Hall, and Environment: Stone Wall.

The website is launched. Most things are available for download. I will make another update next week when everything else is uploaded, with a change log of what was added so you don't have to go rummaging around. Some links are still broken as well. Also, I should have some other announcements soon after that.