I found myself in an interesting situation the other day. While working for the AvP2 Team Fortress mod, I noticed that I was lacking a sound effect for one of the new abilities. The type of sound I was looking after was going to be used for the ability of dropping magazines on the floor. These magazines would act as distractions, much like the already famous COD4 moment, where a kid get's distracted by a poster.
Anyway, here I am, having the model done, having the skins cropped from the great resource the Internet can be, getting stuck with no sound effect. I tried Google, and then the various results I got from it, but no good: I found sound FX-es for tearing paper, for folding it, but none for dropping a damned magazine on the floor.
Fortunately, after a while, it hit me. I took my mike, placed it on the floor, started Audacity, took a magazine and started dropping it on the floor. I did something like 8 drops, and the second or third (can't remember) turned out good enough to make an impact sound from it. All in all, after 10 minutes or so, I got myself an original soundFX.
That got me thinking. I am aware that it's not feasable to build everything from scratch; heck, the engine you're using in your mod is a very good example of re-using components. When making maps you are using mostly textures that came with the game. And if you do need "special" resources (like fire arms sounds) Google is indeed your friend. However, shouldn't we invest a bit more time and create those resourses ourselves? Wouldn't that teach us something a bit more valuable than simply grabbing it from the first Google search result?
And by asking that question I don't mean "let's all buy AK47's and M16's 'cause we're making a Vietnam War mod". I mean instead of downloading models from turboquid.com, let's either build them (and learn something while at it) or serach for the right person and hire it for your team (and learn some team management). And as added bonuses, you can avoid situations like these:
- a game I like to call 'LOL'
- Mr. White: VP-70....Pulse Rifle... M16's nade...lots of UV Mapping work. any UV mapper i know is Raptor Red, and from what i heard she doesnt really like doing it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mr. Orange: Whats stopping one of you from learning? A "modeller" SHOULD know how to unwrap his or her model and texture it accordingly. I'd do it if I had the time. But I don't. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mr. Black: Hey, hey! Don't look at me. Although your words does have a point. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mr. White: i'm an animator, don't look at me either. thats why i said only modeler i know who can is raptor red. plexi has milkshape and... milkshape sucks with UV maps. ... AND milkshape doesnt unwrap a model.... you just have to draw directly onto the polygons.
Are you supposed to give up just because the resource you're looking for is not available on the Internet?
