Here is a simple walk cycle made in Maya and exported to Sandbox2. I did it mostly to test the attachment concept with MayaCGF. So the only smooth skinned elements are the bones and the chainmail cowl. The other attachments (shield, sword, etc…) are rigid. Note that the secondary animation on the quiver is automatic; you just choose an axis and a damping value.
Today I discovered lightbox, which is a simple level for Sandbox 2 featuring a 3 point lights setup akin to one you would use to render your assets in a neutral “studio” environment. Except of course that there’s no need to render anything, because it’s all happening in real-time! Lightbox was created by George Piskas.
I just dropped in a model I’m working on, tweaked a bit the lights and added wind dynamics for the hair. With MayaCGF, I can model in Maya, click on a button to export the model, then switch seamlessly to Sandbox 2 and click “Reload” to instantly check the result. I’m loving it! 
Over the week-end I’ve been working on some textures and I also played a bit with Sandbox2′s particles and lights. This is just a wall from the WIP dungeon I use to test stuff. As you can see, polygon density is rather low… 
What you can’t see on the picture though is that the torch is spewing little cinders which fly in the air before dying off, as well as smoke and subtle heat distortion. Coupled with flickering lights, the effect is surprisingly immersive!
I’ve just added a page about exporting static models from Maya to Crysis. The documentation page for animated models has also been updated. The MayaCGF beta keeps on evolving nicely, and now supports all the physics shaders from Crysis. There’s a bunch of new features and bug fixes too.
Well, it’s been a long time in the making, but the new version of MayaCGF (the Maya exporter for Crysis), is finally ready for open beta testing. And as you guessed from the title of this post, it features preliminary support for animated characters. You can find all the technical information here.
Here is a video preview of the workflow to export an animated model. Enjoy!
Over the weekend I worked a bit on my Crysis mod “Ghost of a Tale”. I’ve been mostly creating textures and materials, and I feel I’m barely starting to get the hang of it. This is all very temporary but I’m having fun! Anyway, here’s a screenshot to give you an idea of the progress (with a torch flame hovering in mid-air!)…
Here’s a little tutorial about creating a texture with parallax mapping for the Crysis engine. This is the effect that makes the textures feel like they’re in relief and you could almost touch them! I first saw that effect in “The Elders Scrolls: Oblivion” and was blown away by the level of realism it does add to what are essentially flat polygons. So enjoy!
