This is a 3D configurator built in a day using AI. This wasn't about replacing tech artists. It was about augmenting my strengths. My expertise drives the decisions & AI accelerates the execution. The tech stack uses ThreeJS, HTML, CSS & a GLB asset. Link to video -> www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxVY...

A walk around this little sandbox interior. It's not much visually, but I'm laying the foundations for building out the game's mechanics and features. I'm happy for now to have solid locomotion, a working camera and interactable objects. #NowPlaying

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗕𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗯𝗮𝗹𝗹 I feel good about this sand & chalk line materialization and I'm going to move on to other parts of the stadium. I've added chalk lines and a layered detail map to the custom shader. This allows me to now add "wear and tear" to the grass and the sand. youtu.be/wEdWZG5-OjY

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗕𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗯𝗮𝗹𝗹 I created a mesh decal to provide a transition between where grass and dirt meet. Doing this with a decal can be tricky in regard to normalizing shading between the grass, dirt & decal surfaces. Have no fear. Weighted vertex normals to the rescue. youtu.be/00Q2rCRwm9U

I installed Unity's Visual Effects Graph to see if I could instantiate a bunch of particle-based grass and how that may look. Not abysmal, but not great either. It's definitely a bit overgrown.

After I wrapped work with the team this afternoon, I moved on to pretending to be a horse for my youngest. After that I managed to sneak in about an hour on the baseball stadium project. I created high-resolution geometry for the infield grass and dirt, and authored PBR materials for both.

Created a fresh Unity URP project tonight, picked out an MLB stadium (Busch Stadium in St. Louis, MO). I've imported a GLB from the web and I'm going to materialize/texture this when I have downtime. I'm using the Unity glTFast, HBAO and Umbra Soft Shadows packages.

I’ve added some late 1980s cars to the parking lot. It’s been a slow project. For more than a year I chipped away at building them. Fun little detail: none of the cars use texture maps; they’re all colored with vertex colors. The game takes place in a video rental store tucked in a shopping plaza.

Realized I hadn't fired this one up in a long while. Gameplay actually holds up.

Got to meet this guy at the local fall festival this weekend.

I'm still blocking out areas with large shapes, but I've started vertex coloring geometry faces to get a better idea of how things feel within context (no textures). Its always amazing how a little color can make things start to feel more cohesive.

It's that time of year.

I've been working on my game where I can squeeze in the time. Today I started blocking out the interior of the "Blockbuster" video rental store where our protagonist works. #unity #indiedev #gamedev

These fonts hold a special place in my heart. Open source license and high quality. www.keshikan.net/fonts-e.html

When I was a child in school I remember these serving as storage. We'd write bits of Basic code, make simple programs and then save it to one of these 5.25" diskettes. They weren't this tiny. These are Mini Brands toys you can buy in most retail stores.

Neil Blevins reminding artists of one very important facet to getting your renders to look good. This applies to both offline and real-time renders. www.neilblevins.com/art_lessons/...

Had a bit of fun last night materializing an old vehicle model. I remembered a PS2-era game called Auto Modellista an was wondering what an updated version of that could look like. I don't want to be tempted. youtu.be/JkmzDeiMiVk

Caught this in the 'Shader Graph improvements in Unity 6.3' notes in the Unity forum. Graph Templates - As with VFX Graph, you can now create new shader graphs from templates. There are other great improvements and additions, but having boilerplate graphs is a great thing.

Meta Quest Runtime Optimizer Meta Quest Runtime Optimizer is standalone package that surfaces performance bottlenecks in Quest VR frames. This tool doesn’t depend on any Meta SDKs and works within any Unity project! assetstore.unity.com/packages/too...

Unity listened to feedback & we’re seeing the impact in our daily workflows. This is how you build goodwill, trust, & move the platform forward. Context: Unity updated the beta version of Unity Hub with some excellent quality-of-life improvements, including the ability to hide unused columns.

Acquired a battle-damaged version of the McFarlane figure. Pretty good likeness for a 7" figure.

This cartridge sits on my work desk It's a reminder of where I've come from. I wasn't one of the developers of Atari's 2600 Asteroids game - that would've been really cool. It's an original cartridge from a time when I was first introduced to video games - some time around 1987.

This is rendering nicely under Unity's URP, but I’m still not sold on how the hotspots behave. I’ll keep refining the user interaction aspect. Modeling, texturing, and materials are all still a work in progress. I still need to model the circuit traces.

It's a moment shy of July, but the Fall and Halloween decor is already out (I'm in the US). I'm not exactly hating what retailer's are doing, but I do hope things ramp up by August and Halloween is out in full force.

Started work on a wide view of Earth, the Sun & eventually the moon. This isn't realistic, but it isn't a bad foundation for a day of fiddling around. In this scenario I've found I have to try to reign in HDRP more to get exactly what I want in regard to light and reflections. #NASA #Artemis #Unity

Added the modular fence kit. Every facility needs a chain-link fence. Snagged one of the palms from Unity's Oasis sample, but it's lacking in regard to realism. I'll take some time this evening and see what sorts of procedural palms/bushes I can crank out of SpeedTree.

I don't work in Unity's HDRP often enough, but I'm really enjoying the lighting quality. I'm taking some of the assets from The Human Spaceflight Project and updating them for this render pipeline. Let's see where this goes.

A free and open-source node-based vector, raster and animation tool. This team has taken the mindset of Blender geometry nodes and applied it to vector illustration software. graphite.rs

This is an interesting turn. "Epic has new licensing options that allow MetaHumans to be used with other game development engines or creative software. Creators will be able to use MetaHumans in platforms like Unity, Godot, Maya, Houdini, and Blender." www.theverge.com/news/678403/...

This expert guide presents several advanced techniques to create high-quality light fixtures in Unity using 2D and cubemap light cookies. You can use these workflows in projects such as games, architectural visualizations, films, and simulations. docs.unity3d.com/2019.3/Docum...

Unity Technologies has released the new Unity Vehicles package. 'Unity Vehicles aims to be a universal vehicle controller for ECS that covers a wide range of vehicle types and configurations.' docs.unity3d.com/Packages/com...

Sharing a sneak peek at an environment I’m developing for a digital twin of the Lee Vista Promenade. Built in Unity 6000.0.47f1 using URP and the glTFast package, this scene is shaping up to be both performant and visually immersive. #unity #realtime #orlando

Happy Monday to everyone. I'm looking for a permanent/staff role as a Senior Technical Artist, Senior Unity Generalist or Senior 3D Artist. If anyone I know can recommend a remote or Orlando-based role I'd be open to putting you on the Christmas card mailing list. www.jamesarndt3d.com

Continued on a project - Raspberry Pi 5 visualization in Unity. I've placed decals on the PCB, added soldered pins to the PCIE. Once I'm finished I'd like to present it as an example of precision modeling, materialization, lighting & scripted interaction. jamesarndt.itch.io/microelectri...

US Civil War fort near Savannah, GA named Fort Pulaski. This was an awesome historical site to visit - one of the nation's old masonry forts pocked full of holes from Union shelling. As some may know I'm an avid fan of US history, particularly the US Civil War and the Revolutionary War.

I know it's broken, but something about it called out to me from the sand. Such an interesting shape.

Some of you may recognize this film setting. This was a super cool toy my wife found today.

"A major pain point we have heard from our users is that they were frustrated having to download the whole asset pack into Package Manager to get a single asset out of it." discussions.unity.com/t/explore-th...

This game is looking really interesting. Then again, adventure games have always held a special place in my heart. youtu.be/j6zZcnjjXHA?...

Fixed bugs this morning with the anchoring, width, fading of LineRenderers that connect a component to it's associated UI panel. I continued materializing/modeling the components, i.e. the USB ports/USB-C Power Supply port. www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLrC... WebGL: jamesarndt.itch.io/microelectri...

I fixed bugs this morning with the anchoring, width and fading of each LineRenderer that connects the component to it's associated UI panel. I continued materializing/modeling the high fidelity components, i.e. the USB ports and the USB-C Power Supply port. WebGL: jamesarndt.itch.io/microelectri...

This is a work-in-progress continuation of the title screen look-dev for 'Sic Semper Tyrannis' (a working title). The concept is inspired by the novel, One Second After and covers a period of time shortly after a second US Revolution has started. youtu.be/DtK54r0Zym4?...

US flag cloth test for a yet unnamed project. A work-in-progress test of Unity's built-in cloth system combined with a custom Shadergraph for wind ripples. Using Unity 6000.0.38f1 and the Universal Render Pipeline. youtu.be/4QnjxQqowUo?...

Resharing this recently open-sourced character controller package for Unity. I've used this package for multiple projects and can attest to it's robustness. github.com/Jan-Ott/Char...

This is a continuation of the product configurator built with Unity 6000.0.36f1, URP, Unity's glTFast package and Industry Product Configurator framework. www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfIH... WebGL build here: jamesarndt.itch.io/web-product-... #unity3d #webgl

Nearly complete with this WebGL configurator built with Unity 6000.0.35f1 and Unity's Product Configurator Framework. I've added a user interface layer hooking into the variant configurations for cameras/materials. youtu.be/NOO-1XS_VgM?... Current WebGL build: jamesarndt.itch.io/car-configur...

Wanted to know if the custom social share image also worked on Bluesky and it does! For context I'd been updating the CSS and HTML of my website and when sharing it, the icon it was using was god awful. www.jamesarndt3d.com

Ever need to instantly "cut" Shader Graph and VFX Graph node connections? github.com/vertxxyz/Ver...

Easy Text Effects is a free and open-source Unity package that brings life to your game's text. Whether you're working on games, UI, or interactive experiences, this package provides an intuitive and flexible way to create captivating text animations. #unity #textmeshpro github.com/LeiQiaoZhi/E...

If you haven't been watching this series, you should be.