DEVELOPER DIARY 8: Ryan 'rybot' Reddekopp

Hello everyone. My name is Ryan 'rybot' Reddekopp and I am a texture artist for First Strike. I'll start off by saying a few words about myself and my experiences with the team.

I am 26 years old and am a shop foreman who is kinda like a jack of all trades. I play four musical instruments, create movies with full digital effects and, starting last January, became a texture artist for First Strike. I was quite surprised that I was accepted since I was very new at texturing, having only 2 completed textures to show in my application. I had previously done a lightsaber and an Imperial Star Destroyer, neither of which I thought would get me the job. Luckily I was given a chance and my skills began to grow. Working on this team has been a great experience! I have learned a lot and the rest of the team is more than happy to point you in the right direction if you get lost. There are many talented people on this team and I'm grateful to be a part of it. It's also really cool to see the skins I created on other websites and reading what people have to say about my work.

The learning curve, from my past texturing experiences to BF2 texturing, was quite steep. I had never used bump/normal maps, alpha channels and don't even get me started on the BF2 static objects. Reading tutorials to learn all this stuff took a bit of time but this mod has been a huge learning experience for a lot of the devs, so I never felt like I didn't belong.

My jobs on the team includes unwrapping objects, creating skins and normal maps and finalizing other people's work, so that everything looks polished and uniform. The problem with mutiple people creating textures is everyone has their own style, so my job is to make it look like it all belongs together. I look at texturing at a very technical point of view. When I get the model I always try to imagine how it would be used, where the wear and tear would be and how it would affect the object. Things like greasy hands often break down the finish on objects making them seem flat, plants and bushes scrape away at paint on ground craft and dents and leaks in objects being used and abused with little or no maintenence. Detailing is where my strong points are. Even though it can take me up to 40 hours to complete a large skin, I feel that seeing the end result is most gratifying. Noone wants to see a crappy skin on their model, and I don't like to dissapoint people. If I don't give it my best, I feel I've let the team and the community down. I guess you could call me a perfectionist.

The first render for you will be the Imperial Thermal Detonator. This bad boy is the cylinder found at the back of a stormtroopers belt.

The second is the 74-Z Speederbike. Imagine having a rocket strapped between your legs... yeah, it's that good.

And lastly, the A-Wing. The fastest ship in the rebel fleet and my personal favorite.



Well, that has been my dev diary, I hope you've learned a little bit about me and what I do. I would like to thank the rest of the First Strike team and the community for their constant support. Stay tuned for some great stuff coming from us and the next couple weeks. Take care, Ryan 'rybot' Reddekopp