Tag: Resources

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AI Powered Art Tools

Today we are going to look at two vastly different AI powered art generation tools, Luminar and NVIDIA GauGAN Beta. Luminar is a powerful art processing tool, a cross between Photoshop and Lightroom, but AI assisted. We recently covered Luminar hands-on including how to use it with Affinity Photo here and it is currently (2021-01-05) in the final 24 hours of a Humble Bundle sale.

NVIDIA GauGAN on the other-hand is a web based application that is part of the NVIDIA AI Playground. GauGAN is described as:

GauGAN, named after post-Impressionist painter Paul Gauguin, creates photorealistic images from segmentation maps, which are labeled sketches that depict the layout of a scene.

Artists can use paintbrush and paint bucket tools to design their own landscapes with labels like river, rock and cloud. A style transfer algorithm allows creators to apply filters — changing a daytime scene to sunset, or a photorealistic image to a painting. Users can even upload their own filters to layer onto their masterpieces, or upload custom segmentation maps and landscape images as a foundation for their artwork

You can learn more about GauGAN here, while technical details of the algorithm in the open source implementation hosted on GitHub. You can try an already trained version of the algorithm in action here in your browser.

These are not unique examples in terms of machine learning or AI enhanced art creation tools. In early 2020 Unity acquired Artomatix, the creator of ArtEngine, an AI driven material creation tool. Another project that was recently featured on this site is Cascadeur, a physics based animation tool that uses machine learning to help with animations. DeepMotion Animate 3D is another recently featured machine learning based application, that takes simple 2D footage and makes a 3D rig and animation from the results.

The key thing in all of these tools thus far is they don’t seek to replace the artist, but augment them using deep or machine learning algorithms. You can check out NVIDIA GauGAN and Luminar in action in the video below. For a VERY limited time you can get Luminar on Humble Bundle here. [Expires 01/06! — GFS can receive a commission on Humble purchases]. So what do you say, are AI powered art tools the future?

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Scatter for Godot

Today we are looking at Scatter for the Godot Game Engine. Scatter is a Godot add-on that makes it incredibly easy to instance mesh objects in your game level. This makes level design tasks like placing grass, paths, fences, etc incredibly simple. Additionally Scatter supports instancing multiple meshes (think different tree meshes to make a forest) in the same scatter, excluding splines or points from being scatter targets and more.

Scatter is an open source project with the source code hosted on GitHub under the MIT open source license. The project is implemented as a simple Godot add-on, so simply clone the repository into your projects Addons folder (or create one if you don’t have one already). Next load your project, go to Project Settings, then Plugins and make sure Scatter is enabled.

Once scattered is enabled, you create a Scatter object. This is a spline path that defines the boundaries of the scatter object. You need to add a ScatterItem child to your Scatter, then add a MeshInstance to the ScatterItem. This mesh instance is the 3D model that will be “scattered” around the boundary defined by the Scatter path.

The creator of the Scatter add-on also created Concept Graph for Godot, an excellent procedural generation extension we previously covered here. You can learn more about Scatter for Godot and see it in action in the video below.

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PowerIK For Unreal Engine Hands-On

Today we look at PowerIK for Unreal Engine, a full body IK solver. PowerIK was recently released as part of the December monthly UE giveaways as part of the free forever category. On the Unreal Engine marketplace, PowerIK was described as:

Power IK is a full-body IK solver that lets animators push and pull any skeleton with any number of effectors.

Use Power IK to easily align creatures to uneven terrain, or dynamically modify their pose at run-time. Power IK is a robust and efficient solver that produces remarkably natural poses even under extreme circumstances.

PowerIK has the following features:

  • Unique proprietary full-body IK solver
  • Power IK Solver AnimGraph node
  • Built-in ground alignment
  • Power IK Rig Actor Component for making interactive rigs
  • Bonus! Procedural animation example blueprints
  • Bonus! 6 sample skeletal meshes with fully documented blueprints

While it supports Unreal Engine 4.26, the current install will give you an error when you try to run PowerIK. If this occurs, on Windows the fix is fairly simple. Navigate to your install directory for UE 4.26, then navigate to:

\Engine\Plugins\Marketplace\PowerIK\Source\PowerIKRuntime\sdk\lib\Win64

Copy the file POWERIK.DLL. Next paste it to the directory

\Engine\Plugins\Marketplace\PowerIK\Binaries\Win64

Now it should work just fine. In the video below we go hands-on with PowerIK using the example project currently available for download here. If you run into some trouble, the documentation is available here.

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Video Creator’s VFX Bundle

There is a new Humble Bundle of interest to game developers, the Humble Software Bundle: Video Creator’s VFX. This is a collection of stock footage in mostly HD and 2K formats from ActionVFX with a very reasonable license. As with all Humble Bundles this one is organized into tiers:

1$ Tier

  • Several single item packs including sparks, torches, explosions, glitches, lightning and more

15$ Tier

  • Several more single item packs including AR-15 and pistol fire, matte transitions and brush effects
  • Blood Mist Pack
  • Gun Smoke Pack
  • Sparks Pack
  • Bullet Hit Pack
  • Glitch Transitions Pack
  • Electric and Energy Pack
  • Grunge Overlay Pack
  • Lens Flare Pack

25$ Tier

  • Several more individual effects
  • Ground Bursts Pack
  • Gas Explosion Pack
  • Ground Fire Pack
  • Large Scale Dust Wave Pack
  • Small Scale Smoke Pack
  • Direct Blasts Pack
  • 2x Ink Packs
  • Glitch Overlay Pack
  • Lens Flare Transition Pack
  • Paper Transition Pack
  • Paper Backgrounds Pack

The files in the Video Creator’s VFX bundle are in .mov ProRes format, compatible with most existing video editing software. In the video below we go into more detail of the bundle and include showing some of the assets in action in HitFilm 16 Pro. As with all Humble Bundles, you can decide how your money is allocated between Humble, charity, the publisher and (thanks so much if you do!) to support GFS purchasing using this link.

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VoxEdit Beta Hands-On

VoxEdit is a free 3D Voxel graphics editor you can freely download for Windows and Mac OS here, with a Linux version mentioned as “coming soon”. The application is actually designed as the content creation tool for The Sandbox a voxel based game platform where artists can monetize their voxel creations. That said, the modelling portions support exporting in OBJ, FBX and GLTF formats making it useful for use with other engines and DCC tools. The animation tools however cannot export except to the Sandbox marketplace.

The modelling tools have the following features:

  • All-in-One software (Model, Rig, and Animate)
  • Incredible performance
  • Available for Windows and Mac
  • Amazing voxel creation tools
  • High level of detail models
  • Advanced Renderer
  • Versatile Color Palette
  • Friendly 3D environment

These are the key features if you are using VoxEdit as a straight out voxel modelling tool. However if you are intending to publish on the Sandbox marketplace, the tool also has advanced animation features, as well as the ability to define and texture voxel blocks. Neither of these features however support exporting into “open” file formats.

If VoxEdit isn’t to your taste for Voxel modelling, be sure to check out BlockBench or possibly MagicaVoxel for alternatives. You can learn more about VoxEdit in the video below.

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GameDev Map & Level Creator Humble Bundle

There is a new bundle of interest to game developers, the GameDev Map & Level Creator Bundle. This is a collection of graphics, tiles, backgrounds and tilesets for use in 2D game development. As with all Humble’s this bundle is organized into tiers:

1$ Tier

  • Egyptian Tileset
  • World Map Pixel Art Tileset
  • Super Pixel Dungeon
  • Fantasy Map
  • Night City Game Level Kit
  • Tropical Island 2D Game Tileset
  • Desert Tileset
  • Fantasy Village

15$ Tier

  • Game Level Map Set Kit
  • Fantasy Jungle Pixel Art Tileset
  • House Interiors Tileset Pack
  • City Street Tileset Pack
  • WiraWiri Game Level Map Builder
  • Misty Forest Ground Tiles
  • 595 Medieval 2D Game Asset Pack
  • Platformer Game Tile Set 3
  • Simple RPG Tileset
  • Platformer Game Tile Set 1
  • Super Pixel Ice Cavern Tileset

25$ Tier

  • Cartoon Platformer Tileset Pack
  • Mega Factory Scene Creation Pack
  • Pxiel Art Tileset Collection
  • Game Level Map 9 Different Worlds
  • Underwater Tile Set
  • Isometric Forest
  • Wolfsong Tilesets
  • Top Down Tileset Interior
  • 16 Jump Vertical Game Backgrounds
  • 2D Isometric Starter Style Kit
  • The Dungeon Top Down Tileset
  • Game Level Map Pack Side Scrolling
  • Top Down Tileset Forest
  • Mega Castle & Dungeon Pack
  • Game Level Map Creator For Water Levels
  • Landscape Constructor Set
  • Woodlands Level Map Creator
  • Green Greens Forest Platformer Tileset

As with all Humbles, you get to decide how your funds are allocated, between Humble, charity, the publisher and if you so choose (and thanks if you do!) to support GFS purchasing through this link. An important thing to consider with any purchased assets is the legal license, which is available here. You can learn more about this bundle in the video below.

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Unreal Engine Asset Giveaway For December 2020

Every month Epic Games giveaways several assets on the Unreal Engine marketplace and December is no exception. This month we have 5 new assets that are available for free until the first Tuesday in January, but once “purchased” those assets are yours to use free forever. Speaking of forever, there is also one new asset in the permanently free collection.

This months free assets include:

This months permanently free asset is:

A common question with these assets is can the be used outside of Unreal Engine. Generally the answer is yes, unless the asset was owned or sourced directly by Epic Games, like the Power IK asset this month, in which case it can only be used in Unreal Engine projects. You can learn more about this months UE4 asset giveaway in the video below.

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Godot On Steam Using GodotSteam

If you are creating a commercial PC game using Godot there is a good chance you are going to want to publish on Steam. If that is a case if your game requires any network services such as achievements, a leaderboard or DLC you are probably tempted to use Steam’s own Steamworks suite of APIs. In that case you most likely want to know about GodotSteam an open source implementation of the SteamWorks API for Godot 2/3, providing convenient GDScript interfaces for the vast majority of the Steamworks features.

GodotSteam is an open source project hosted on GitHub that is implemented using the Godot module system. The source code is under the flexible and permissive MIT license. There is a GDNative branch available although sadly it appears to have been abandoned. Being a module means you will have to download and build your own version of Godot, a process I describe in this video. If the world of Godot, modules and GDNative are all new to you, don’t worry, we have an overview available here.

If you want to get started with GodotSteam there are excellent tutorials and comprehensive documentation available here. You can learn more about Godot, Steamworks and GodotSteam in the video below.

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Beepbox Easy Online Music Sketching Application

Beepbox is a free online tool for quickly generating music via sketching. It’s written in a combination of JavaScript and TypeScript with the source code available on GitHub under the very permissive MIT license. Getting started with Beepbox is as simple as going to the website and starting to lay down some notes. There are a variety of instruments available and you can layer multiple tracks of sounds to easily create music.

Perhaps coolest of all, as you create your song, the song’s data is encoded into the URL. You can simply share your songs URL and others can either open it in the player or they can open it in the editor and make changes. You can also download your song in .mid or .json formats for later updating, or you can export out into WAV format for use in your game engine of choice. In addition to BeepBox is there a modified more complex version called ModBox you can check out here. It is forked from the same source code but offers additional tools and levels of control at the cost of complexity.

You can learn more about BeepBox and see it in action in the video below.

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City Generator Hands-On

City Generator is a free and open-source procedural generation tool for creating American-style grid based cities. The source code is available on GitHub under the GPL 3 license, composed almost entirely of TypeScript code.

Features of City Generator include:

  • .png download
  • .png heightmap download
  • .svg download
  • .stl download
  • Several colour themes including Google Maps, Apple Maps, and hand-drawn styles
  • Pseudo-3D buildings
  • Open source

City Generator can export STL files that can then be imported into a 3D tool of choice for creating 3D levels. We should this process in Blender as well as the process of generating a city in City Generator in the video below.