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My Working Methods
My requirements for making games are fairly simple. I don't need much space or a whole lot of equiptment - just a small desk with the computer on it, and next to it another small desk where I set up my camera and lighting, and do all the animation.
The models are mostly just made out of solid plasticine - I use either Van Aken modelling clay, or Jovi plastilina, depending on my requirements. If I am going to be doing a lot of rigorous animation with a particular model, as I would with the main character in a game for example, then I would probably take the extra trouble to build a posable skeleton for it out of wire and air-hardening epoxy stuff. I would also make any small, detailed parts out of oven-hardening polymer clay (Sculpey III is the best kind), so I wouldn't have to worry about them getting mooshed up during the animation process. Any kind of energetic animation sequence will mince up the models pretty quickly, so anything I can do to make the models more robust is well worth it - trying to complete an animation sequence while the model is falling apart on you is not much fun! But if the model is only meant for a short, simple animation sequence, or if it's just a static background object, then I'll just make it out of solid plasticine. One of the great things about solid plasticine models is that as long as you have a decent selection of colours, you can pretty much conjure up whatever you're thinking of - and in quite a short time, too.
As far as modelling tools go, I just use my fingers - and occasionally, a regular kitchen knife.
The models are photographed with a Canon EOS-D30 digital camera, which was the first semi-affordable digital camera to come out that looked and acted just like a proper SLR camera instead of a toy. It's a few years old now, and the new cameras that are coming out these days are just getting better and better, but I love my D30, and it takes great pictures. Another great thing about it is that I can control it directly from the computer - a simple click of the mouse, the shutter snaps, and the picture is sent straight to my harddrive via the USB port.
Once the images are on the computer, I use Adobe Photoshop to remove the background, clean them up a bit, and convert them into a format suitable for use in a game. Sometimes I also have to apply a bit of digital trickery to make small adjustments to the image - move an arm slightly, adjust the tilt of the body, turn the head a little more; that sort of thing. These adjustments are necessary because, unlike conventional stop-motion animation, in which each frame in a sequence follows on naturally from the one before it, animating a character for a computer game requires many different sequences of animation to all match up with one another seamlessly... and sometimes I have to cheat a little to make them all fit together properly.
Next, I'm ready to get the images actually up and running in the game - so I swap my animator hat for my programmer hat. I'm currently doing all my programming in Blitz3d, which is a terrific little language designed especially for making games. I love it because it's very immediate - I don't want to spend my time wrestling with obscure compatibility issues, or glitches with hardware drivers - I want to get my image on the screen with the minimum of fuss. And I want to be confident that if it works on my machine, it'll work on everyone else's machine too. Blitz3d takes so much of the hassle out of PC programming, yet it's also flexible enough to be adapted to my slightly unconventional requirements.
Finally, once I have written the necessary code to deal with the new graphics, that's when I get to the exciting part - I compile the code, the game runs, and with any luck, I see the new model come to life on-screen for the first time. This is always the most enjoyable part of the process - it's what makes all the hard work worthwhile. The last thing left to do is play around with it a bit, making small adjustments to the code until the new addition is looking and behaving just the way I want it to. Then it's time to start the whole process again, and add the next thing.
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