In the last few months I had no time to update this blog and I think it will be discontinued (or moved on my personal web-domain). Latest project included the end of courses at NABA and SPD. The year was pretty long but, as always, full of satisfactions. NABA’s course was at the 7th edition and in my opinion is now time to update the program. I started this series of lectures in October 2007 and even if I did some corrections and modifiations during the time, I think now the core of the course should be redesigned. SPD gave me great satisfactions (while with Domus Academy the experience was a little different) regarding 3D lectures. What I love of SPD is that I’m considered in the planning aspect of the course. Logically there is an academic office that take decisions, but I think is very good that they asks us (teachers and professionists) what we think about some new implementations, like software update, schedules, planning and so on. This make SPD very professional in the approach.
Anyway in november my new edition of Autodesk 3ds Max, V-Ray (and other surprises :)) should start again on NABA, Domus Academy and SPD. For the second semester there is possibility that other schools would insert my program in lectures regarding CG subjects. This is a “maybe” but I’m also discussing with two new schools outside Italy’s border and I hope to repeat the amazing experience I got time ago as visiting professor at Helsinki’s Metropolia University of Applied Sciences. According to lectures, me, Andrea Peduzzi, Filippo Zanoli and Donald Cortese did a deep workshop in another school in Como. I’m glad to work with them in VideogamesLab project: we do basic but functional workshops on game development. Our main goal is not to “create” game developers (it would be too ambitious, expecially in short periods like workshops). Our goal is to show an approach to game development business both to students and teachers.
About videogame development lectures I’m also partecipating with the brand new Spicchi team in a series of basic lessons on game development as business path. Courses are open to everybody but designed for parents that desire to understand more about this possible path for their childs. In this period I’m preparing my new speech for ViewConference 2014. In 2010 and 2011 I spoke about videogame development and realtime technologies using 3ds Max and Unreal. Last year I spoke about 3ds Max, V-Ray (thanks to Chaos Group for believing in my knowledge), 3D Printing (with Massimo Temporelli) and Augmented Reality with Unity 3D.
This year I plan to surprise you with a practical approach to virtual reality both for presentation and entertainment. For the occasion I bought an Oculus Rift 2 (inspired by Luca Roncella taht made me try his one). So get ready to be inserted in a 3d environment :), I’ll wait you at ViewConference 2014! About PlaySys works we never stop and year after year we are more stable on the market. Even if there were some difficulties in publishing department (because of the ending of two magazines like Professional Photoshop and Fotografia Facile) we still continue with Digital Camera. Also 3D renderings for architecture and design are proceeding properly and our information platform (3DArchitettura) got renewed recently. Render Academy by the way is proceeding slowly but I hope it would be ready in september with a lot of surprises. Still with PlaySys we are updating our games like Kitty Scratch 2, Augmented Cat, we developed a new simple one named Grayville and we are in the pre-production phase for a new one, with better story this time, I promise 🙂
In the meanwhile during august I want to speed-develop a platform; it will be a solo project and the challange is very appealing! PLAYSYS
KITTY SCRATCH 2
STEEL HERO
GRAYVILLE
Last but not least, I released my last music solo project on iTunes and Spotify. Project name is Nihilistista and the album is named Eclipse. This project started about two years ago and I’m very satisfacted of the result, recording guitar, bass, drum and mastering together in the album. My working projets are taking time from my music, in the past I would never expect this would happen (expecially when, 18 years ago, I was playing drums 2 hours per day). I promise myself that one day I’ll get back in music with a band or something like that…hopefully I would keep my word 😉 Well, that’s all I think. There are many other stuff happening in the between but I can’t write them all and this is still not my memoirs 😀
It’s just a quick summary of what happened in this silent period and I’ll do my best to keep this blog updated somehow.
Ebbene sì, dopo due anni di doppiaggi l’avventura con Professional Photoshop è terminata. Purtroppo precedentemente alla chiusura i doppiaggi erano stati dimezzati dall’editore che, alla fine, ha deciso di terminare la pubblicazione. Sempre nel periodo finale delle pubblicazioni avevo sentito voci che parlavano di lamentele legate agli abbonamenti e alla reperibilità dei numeri. Sulla pagina ufficiale di facebook ho trovato con grande dispiacere alcune di queste lamentele ed è un gran peccato: la rivista era buona, i progetti talvolta interessanti e comunque efficaci per l’apprendimento delle funzionalità del programma…non capisco come abbia fatto a sfasciarsi così il progetto. Per quanto mi riguarda ci ho messo tutto l’impegno e spero che la mia parte di lavoro nel mettere la voce su tutti i quasi 500 video abbia fatto piacere ai lettori e li abbia aiutati nel comprendere meglio i vari passaggi. Prosegue invece la mia collaborazione con Digital Camera, che come rivista sembra più stabile e in cui alla fine si parla degli stessi argomenti, ma con un taglio più rivolto alla post produzione di scatti fotografici rispetto alle produzioni basate interamente su composizioni ed illustrazioni. …peccato
Nuovi numeri, nuovi video corsi e nuovi doppiaggi…continua così la mia avventura con Digital Camera, la rivista edita da Sprea Editori, riguardante il mondo della fotografia e del fotoritocco. Negli ultimi mesi mi sono occupato di video corsi che spiegano trucchi e metodi efficaci, per elaborare scatti utilizzando Photoshop Essentials (corso base), Photoshop CC e Camera Raw (corso avanzato) e Lightroom 5 (corso specifico).
Di seguito alcuni fotogrammi dei video corsi disponibili in tutte le edicole nei mesi di Gennaio, Febbraio e Marzo 2014.
There are two things that really satisfacts my work as teacher:
Seeing how my students approach to work, applying the knowledge I transmitted
Receiving the students’ anonymous satisfaction report (compiled through school’s website)
In 2011 and 2012 the eveluation was high and the feedback was positive; always over the course average, but this year…well this year the report is simply amazing and made my holidays!
As first I got a 4.72 points on 5 that means 94.4% as satisfaction over an academic average of 3.70 (in percentage the Master’s average is 74%, so it means I got 127.57% on total). So numerically speaking my students satisfaction is 94.4% and mine, of course is even higher! 🙂 But if I obtained so high score is because I followed the previous years suggestions and student’s reports: “more focus on some subjects”, “less on others”, and so on…my main thanks goes to whom attended SPD during 2011 and 2012! Also I would like to mention that this feedback report, organised by SPD’s Coordinamento, is wery usefull practice, that unfortunally is not applied in other schools where I teach such as NABA and Domus Academy.
More in dept, this year I used a new technique for my course about 3dsMax and V-Ray that I like to define “deconstructivism in 3d renders and CGI”. How it works is simple: I took my lectures and my topics I wrote in books and I simply reversed them 🙂
I’m not talking about meanings, but about chronological order of given informations. In fact classes are diffrent from books, articles, slides or video training, and they must be treated as they are: different media for learning. In my knowledge, is really simple to understand what a render is and how is done, but being a student, the approach can be totally different, sometime opposed, and here is the keyword of my teaching model: “opposed” to the standards.
In the report are also present some anonymous comments that I’ll copy paste here with great pleasure and satisfaction.
i would prefer to have slides or tutorial with the explanation of the class as it happens in rhino classes
he is really amazing !
I enjoy Mr Lucas class a lot and his classes are really helpful for me to get a grasp of 3d max as I couldnt be this clear with concepts earlier in my profession.
The teacher should expain step by step what he does first for us to have time to see what to do. Just a little slower or more details on the first time we see a way to do something would be nice. May be we’ll have less questions.
nice teacher, very helpful, very useful and very understanding. my favourite teacher so far.
really good and fun teacher
He has great knowledge, very interesting and helpful course!
He explain very good and it easy to understand him
very helpful and nice teacher. In such a small period he taught us a lot. He explains everything very well. pleasure to work with him.
Best teacher! very good class.
A loely guy though perhapsa little quiet at times. I would perhaps prefer to have mor eone on one time in order ot develop
the most attentive prof. great asset for this university
Professor Deriu knows 3Ds Max and transfers his knowledge to his best ability. He is the other professor that I believe executes his lessons the way that they’re supposed to be and he is always there to lend a hand if in need.
it would probably be beneficial to divide the class into 2 so that the people who are less advance dont struggle behind and those with a bit more knowledge dont get bored. although i think you are very knowledgeable.
Can you imagine a free application in which you can interact with a 3d model touching it directly on the screen? A free application for kids, without missions, tasks, shooting, zombies or other stuff? a free application that is not addictive, in this era of addictivism to games? a free application that is constantly updated with new features, light to install and that contains simple camera movement using augmented reality?
Well this application exist and is named Augmented Cat! Is just 18 Mb and features a funny cat that can be touched on the head, on the back, on the pawns…and when you are satisfacted, you simply close and reopen some weeks later with new contents: it’s free and gives a worth to try!
Here is the direct link to the download page for Android devices and a video that shows how it works.
Anche questo mese abbiamo finito i lavori riguardanti la rivista di Professional Photoshop che potete trovare in tutte le edicole. Di seguito alcune immagini dei 10 video corsi interamente in lingua italiana.
Yesterday I attended and passed at 100% the Autodesk’s 3ds Max 2014 exam! The exam was quite simple even if quite tricky in some questions, good work Autodesk! I’m sure someone really enjoyed to prepare the questions and scenes 😉 For this great satisfaction I have to say thanks to UPGRADE: Donato Cremonesi, Blerina Pashollari, Valeria Pizzi, Valeria Casanova and Gianluca Melcangi. I use Max since Kinetix/Discreet time, when the software was known with the name “3D Studio Max r2”, but Upgrade organized the exam and offered me performant computer and confortable structure to attend it (plus coffee before exam!). Even if I expect this certifiation will not influence my career, it is for me a big honour and pleasure to be recognized directly by Autodesk…expecially after 3 manuals, 30 hours of video training and 7 years of teaching 😀 Cheers!
È iniziata la mia nuova avventura con Digital Camera, la rivista che ogni mese informa sulle ultime novità per quanto riguarda gli strumenti professionali per fotografi creativi. Anche per questa testata, il mio contributo è relativo alla traduzione e doppiaggio dei video tutorial riguardanti Photoshop, Lightroom, Camera Raw, Bridge e le macchine fotografiche. Si tratta dello stesso lavoro che effettuo per Professional Photoshop, rivista edita da Sprea Editori. Nel primo numero abbiamo presentato la nuova Samsung NX800, parlato di post produzione avanzata con Lightroom e Photoshop Elements. Nel secondo numero abbiamo trattato la Canon 70D, correzione lente con Lightroom 5, fotoritocco base con Photoshop Elements e avanzato con Photoshop. Ogni mese vi aspettiamo in edicola con 1 ora di video tutorial e ricchi articoli! A presto e buon apprendimento.
Today I have a great announce: Our videogame “Kitty Scratch 2” is avaible to play on AppStore! This project represent a new, exciting step forward for PlaySys. After the experience of Kitty Scratch 1, released in 2010, and that was mostly an experiment for us, we had a long break. As “break” I mean a huge series of lectures, conferences, 3d renders, 3d animations and interactive media. During the 2013 we also did another videogame, Steel Hero, for a prestigious customer: Museo Nazionale Della Scienza e Tecnologia “Leonardo Da Vinci”. That game was developed by PlaySys and Broken Arms Games that supported us with the programming code. After the experience I got so interested in discover more about programming that I attended a full immersion during easther period. I studied, researched, experimented, red and watched tons of tutorials and at the end I took a decision: develop a videogame without outsourcing. With PlaySys we prepared a full game design document and the 2nd of September we started the official development. Today, after 2 months the game is on the “shelves” of AppStore and I’m working on the porting for Android and, if everything goes right, tomorrow the game’s .apk will be delivered to Google Play. I want to credit here the cool team that supported me in the development of this game: Pamela De Lorenzi – Producer Filippo Zanoli – Game Designer Elisa Cristantielli – Art Director Elena Kartseva – Interior Designer Lorenzo Cardile – 3D Artist Beniamino Valentini – Animator Bo Zhang – 3D Artist Intern Alessandro Carpentiero – Musician and Composer Andrea Peduzzi – PR Now let me conclude saying that the game is far away to be a GTA5 or a colossal, but is funny to play and we tryed to do our best to include dynamic 3D stuff on mobile devices. In fact the game behave differently accordingly to the time of the day in which you play it. Every 12 hours the system gives you 50 scratches to use and you can extend the game experience with mini games. Kitty Scratch 2 – Episode 1 is the first of 3 episodes and the remaining will be released from now to January/February. To discover more please follow the links below and enjoy! 🙂 Last but not least: Please note that PlaySys don’t support any kind of violence. During the development of this game no furniture was damaged or injured. This game is also for kids.
Dal primo di settembre fino al 21 Ottobre mi sono cimentato in una nuova esperienza: lo sviluppo di un videogioco per quanto riguarda la programmazione. Il risultato è “Kitty Scratch 2, episodio 1”, disponibile da oggi su AppStore e a brevissimo su Google Play! QUI il comunicato stampa ufficiale. Avevo già partecipato in passato allo sviluppo di progetti videoludici più o meno impegnativi, per quanto riguarda la grafica 3d e per quanto riguarda qualche tentativo di scrittura del codice. La mia avventura iniziò alla fine degli anni ‘90 con una copia di DarkBasic e una successiva migrazione all’allora ben più potente BlitzBasic. A quel tempo non esisteva un editor di gioco e dovetti programmare il sistema necessario per posizionare correttamente gli elementi nello spazio 🙂 Il mio interesse non era quello di creare un prodotto giocabile, bensì scoprire come far funzionare il tutto al meglio: scoprire come creare quello che sarebbe potuto diventare un videogioco. Gli anni passarono e il mio percorso professionale si avvicinò sempre più alla grafica 3D. Chi mi conosce, associa la mia carriera alla grafica 3D, ma in realtà ciò che più mi affascina sono i processi tecnico-creativi che si nascondono dietro alle nuove tecnologie…a quel tempo la grafica 3D e il render fotorealistico rappresentavano una sfida notevole (torniamo al 1998, Kinetix 3d studio max 2, scanline render, photoshop 4 e così via). Durante gli anni mi sono avvicinato ad altri engine: Kaneva, Torque, S2, XNA, UnrealEngine poi UDK, C4, HeroEngine, Truevision, Zenith Engine (protagonista della mia tesi di laurea nel 2007), CryEngine, Unigine, Corona, Unity. Ho avuto modo di testarne parecchi, acquistandone una licenza o ottenendo direttamente dagli sviluppatori una copia per uso non commerciale. Kitty Scratch 2 rappresenta un nuovo traguardo per me; sono pienamente consapevole che si tratta di un semplice casual game, prevalentemente rivolto ad un pubblico giovane e femminile, ma l’averlo programmato da solo è una soddisfazione incredibile. Ovviamente tutto il gioco è stato sviluppato in team: 9 collaboratori di PlaySys mi hanno supportato per quanto riguarda concept, grafica, audio, marketing e il fatto di essere partiti con lo sviluppo il 2 Settembre e averlo finito in un mese circa è per me motivo di doppia soddisfazione. Simo tutti d’accordo sul fatto che Kitty Scratch 2 non è paragonabile a colossi recenti come GTA5, Beyond o altri, ma il gioco rappresenta per noi il primo passo concreto verso lo sviluppo di nuove realtà e conclude una lunghissima serie di test e prove più o meno riuscite, realizzate in 10 anni. Il gioco è composto da 3 episodi che usciranno a cadenza bimestrale e una parte del team è già al lavoro su un nuovo concept che entrerà in produzione nelle prime settimane del 2014. Abbiamo investito parecchie energie per quanto riguarda l’aspetto visivo del gioco: modelli, texture, illustrazioni hanno richiesto un lavoro notevole, così come le colonne sonore, che sono state composte ad hoc per il gioco. per quanto mi riguarda la sfida del codice è stata notevole:
gestione assegnazione graffi
validazione partita e controllo anti cheat
programmazione controlli e meccaniche di movimento giocatore/avversari
salvataggio e gestione dati con tanto di achievement su Game Center (prima volta in cui metto mano in tutto questo)
gestione dinamica del livello di gioco: i personaggi cambiano posizione in base al tempo di gioco…un po’ come avviene durante la giornata di GTA5, con grande semplificazione 😀
debug gioco, fixes e preparazione Store
Se trovate dei bug o delle imprecisioni fatemelo sapere commentando questo post o sulla pagina ufficiale del gioco, per favore. Sto sistemando alcune imperfezioni che ho notato e conto di rilasciare una versione 1.1 entro la fine di novembre (data in cui la verrà lanciata la versione per Android). Buon divertimento!
