Hi everyone. As you all know, I like to make PS4 themes. Official and freelance. I have some cool stuff to talk about, but I probably need to get a little background out of the way first:
[ Ramble ]
Some folks might remember the last time I created a thread like this - From the first day I opened up our PS4 devkit and began digging into the very obscure documentation that covered elements of the PS4's GUI, and exploring the limitations imposed on things like memory and GPU utilization, it evolved into a huge 'catch all' thread with more than 60 themes that I created, many of them free, many more of them for sale.
That thread is now gone, but by my request - I had often worried that, as it grew, it started to skirt the boundary between community involvement and self-promotion, so I actually minimized updates in the recent year so as not to compound the issue. Despite this, the rest of the forum, I think, was fairly gracious in allowing me to have my own little corner to wave my hands and get excited about GUI skinning. I've even noticed a few people asking if I'd resurrect that thread here. I decided that, if I was ever going to do so, I'd have to take a different approach.
That being said, community input has always been at the core of what I do, when it comes to themes. So, as with many things, now seemed a good time for a fresh start: I want to share what I like to do in an unofficial capacity, because that has always made creating these things far more rewarding.
(I'm never going to have the output of the other guys - many creators that, as far as I know, spend every waking moment recycling stock photos and royalty-free music to sell on the marketplace. At last estimate, for every 1 of our themes that goes up, I've counted 10-20 others that would also get released in the same week, or even the same day; many of them from the same groups. I won't begrudge others for wanting to sell their wares, but I'm always going to put quality and creativity first. I don't have the patience or the desire to tie myself to a desk and come up with bundle ideas.)
For that reason, in the last year, the lion's share of work we've done has actually been contractual, for larger publishers (Capcom, Oddworld, Sony, Gearbox, Telltale, etc). That stuff has been a blast to do, though as result my independent stuff has fallen a bit by the wayside. If it's okay with you all, I'd like to continue to share concepts with everyone, because many of them don't get competed / released. Also, I'm incredibly OCD, and I want to try out all the new little forum tools available (embedding, bullet points, etc), so humor me there.
So, as it stands, while I will link to videos and examples of our work, I won't direct link to anything we are selling / making a profit from. No more all-inclusive lists. As a courtesy, for those who will inevitably ask, feel free to PM me if you want to see what the hell I'm talking about, but I'll stop there. Otherwise, I leave it up to people here. Also, I will continue to post links to free stuff, as it becomes available. ( I'll also give away stuff in batches, periodically, because I'm sitting on like 6,000 media codes and, last I checked, Kotaku still isn't interested in covering my work. Mostly cause I don't do dancing skeletons, I think ;) .)
Lastly, I just want to clear the air here - at present there are no plans to do an official ResetEra theme. Firstly, I don't have permission to do so; the last forum theme I created required special dispensation from management, and because (at the time) themes could not be given away for promotion, it had to be sold. However, after about a year, that changed, and they were made free for the duration of their remaining time on the store (another 1 1/2 years I believe); All in all, it was really the product of a truly unique situation, so....again, no plans. I'm not closing the door on the idea entirely, I just want folks to know it's not up to me.
Oh, before I forget - since I'm discussing concepts that may get incorporated into final projects down the road, I want to ask that folks refrain from posting other company's themes here. From a professional standpoint, It'd be weird critiquing others works as part of the discussion. Secondly, I don't want to accidentally 'lift' any ideas that have already been done, subconscious or otherwise. Third, as mentioned above, I'm going to refrain from posting direct links to my 'stuff' on PSN, so I'll ask everyone else to do the same. :-)
[/ Ramble ]
So...Now that all that business has been said...What do I have to talk about today...
I mentioned that I really wanted to talk about concepts - unreleased pieces that push the technology (such as it is) in new directions, or revisits old ideas in different ways, but don't necessarily represent final products. Theme software is so limited in terms of the size and complexity of modern assets, I feel like it's almost like a demo scene of sorts: You have to create something that is visually complex, but you don't have the resources to do it justice in the traditional way. You have to 'cheat' to achieve effects that even the most rudimentary free engines can create with a couple of simple clicks.
So, with that in mind, here's a couple ideas I've been playing with:
One such piece is this Uncharted Anniversary theme concept -
Now, I need to stress that this is NOT OFFICIAL. It is not being positioned for release, and ND has no involvement in this theme. We've worked with them before - and continue to work with them on other projects (!)- but this is something I did myself. We generated all the assets you see, in an attempt to try a bunch of different concepts in one place.
So, that was cool. As I said, it provides ideas and techniques that we can incorporate into other things...I just don't know what yet.
I've gone back to a couple of old concepts that I worked on previously; As some of you know we've been tweaking a special algorithm which allows us to adjust variables based on the time-of-day using the internal clock. We've done it a couple of times now, most notably with Hanami. This allows us to change a ton of theme parameters, and create scenes like this:
...that change in real-time over the course of the day. The mist in the foreground and background moves as well. I don't really know where I'm going with this one, but combined with some environmental audio, the effect is nice and serene.
And another one -- I've been working on a 'cosmic zoom" concept, in an attempt to create a scene on an interstellar scale - starting with a perspective several AU away from a nebula, that zooms in to focus on the remnants of a supernova.
Creating everything out of 3D assets rather than 2-D bitmaps is important, because with the advent of PS4 pro and checkerboard 4K, it's the only way to achieve a sharp high-resolution image. that's because the dashboard background, internally, is always being rendered at 1080p, then upscaled. This accentuates compression artifacts present in bitmaps. For that reason, I've had to work harder to create all elements in 3D in the last couple of years.
Anyway, I've got more to share. Oh, and something really special is coming next week - hence why I did not release or attempt to release anything this month.
But, more on that later. I'd make a separate thread for it, but I'm guessing someone will beat me to it. I guess - I can't say anything right now, but I'm fairly sure (like 90% sure) you'll know it was me when you see it.
[ Ramble ]
Some folks might remember the last time I created a thread like this - From the first day I opened up our PS4 devkit and began digging into the very obscure documentation that covered elements of the PS4's GUI, and exploring the limitations imposed on things like memory and GPU utilization, it evolved into a huge 'catch all' thread with more than 60 themes that I created, many of them free, many more of them for sale.
That thread is now gone, but by my request - I had often worried that, as it grew, it started to skirt the boundary between community involvement and self-promotion, so I actually minimized updates in the recent year so as not to compound the issue. Despite this, the rest of the forum, I think, was fairly gracious in allowing me to have my own little corner to wave my hands and get excited about GUI skinning. I've even noticed a few people asking if I'd resurrect that thread here. I decided that, if I was ever going to do so, I'd have to take a different approach.
That being said, community input has always been at the core of what I do, when it comes to themes. So, as with many things, now seemed a good time for a fresh start: I want to share what I like to do in an unofficial capacity, because that has always made creating these things far more rewarding.
(I'm never going to have the output of the other guys - many creators that, as far as I know, spend every waking moment recycling stock photos and royalty-free music to sell on the marketplace. At last estimate, for every 1 of our themes that goes up, I've counted 10-20 others that would also get released in the same week, or even the same day; many of them from the same groups. I won't begrudge others for wanting to sell their wares, but I'm always going to put quality and creativity first. I don't have the patience or the desire to tie myself to a desk and come up with bundle ideas.)
For that reason, in the last year, the lion's share of work we've done has actually been contractual, for larger publishers (Capcom, Oddworld, Sony, Gearbox, Telltale, etc). That stuff has been a blast to do, though as result my independent stuff has fallen a bit by the wayside. If it's okay with you all, I'd like to continue to share concepts with everyone, because many of them don't get competed / released. Also, I'm incredibly OCD, and I want to try out all the new little forum tools available (embedding, bullet points, etc), so humor me there.
So, as it stands, while I will link to videos and examples of our work, I won't direct link to anything we are selling / making a profit from. No more all-inclusive lists. As a courtesy, for those who will inevitably ask, feel free to PM me if you want to see what the hell I'm talking about, but I'll stop there. Otherwise, I leave it up to people here. Also, I will continue to post links to free stuff, as it becomes available. ( I'll also give away stuff in batches, periodically, because I'm sitting on like 6,000 media codes and, last I checked, Kotaku still isn't interested in covering my work. Mostly cause I don't do dancing skeletons, I think ;) .)
Lastly, I just want to clear the air here - at present there are no plans to do an official ResetEra theme. Firstly, I don't have permission to do so; the last forum theme I created required special dispensation from management, and because (at the time) themes could not be given away for promotion, it had to be sold. However, after about a year, that changed, and they were made free for the duration of their remaining time on the store (another 1 1/2 years I believe); All in all, it was really the product of a truly unique situation, so....again, no plans. I'm not closing the door on the idea entirely, I just want folks to know it's not up to me.
Oh, before I forget - since I'm discussing concepts that may get incorporated into final projects down the road, I want to ask that folks refrain from posting other company's themes here. From a professional standpoint, It'd be weird critiquing others works as part of the discussion. Secondly, I don't want to accidentally 'lift' any ideas that have already been done, subconscious or otherwise. Third, as mentioned above, I'm going to refrain from posting direct links to my 'stuff' on PSN, so I'll ask everyone else to do the same. :-)
[/ Ramble ]
So...Now that all that business has been said...What do I have to talk about today...
I mentioned that I really wanted to talk about concepts - unreleased pieces that push the technology (such as it is) in new directions, or revisits old ideas in different ways, but don't necessarily represent final products. Theme software is so limited in terms of the size and complexity of modern assets, I feel like it's almost like a demo scene of sorts: You have to create something that is visually complex, but you don't have the resources to do it justice in the traditional way. You have to 'cheat' to achieve effects that even the most rudimentary free engines can create with a couple of simple clicks.
So, with that in mind, here's a couple ideas I've been playing with:
One such piece is this Uncharted Anniversary theme concept -
Now, I need to stress that this is NOT OFFICIAL. It is not being positioned for release, and ND has no involvement in this theme. We've worked with them before - and continue to work with them on other projects (!)- but this is something I did myself. We generated all the assets you see, in an attempt to try a bunch of different concepts in one place.
- Realistic candle animation with reactive lighting, flare, and seamless smoke effects
- Bokeh effects reactive to direct lighting. they're only visible when the candle is up close.
- High quality materials - gold coins have a more realistic metallic sheen.
- Interactive animated elements - we figured out a way to incorporate some rudimentary object physics, which drives the falling coins in the background.
So, that was cool. As I said, it provides ideas and techniques that we can incorporate into other things...I just don't know what yet.
I've gone back to a couple of old concepts that I worked on previously; As some of you know we've been tweaking a special algorithm which allows us to adjust variables based on the time-of-day using the internal clock. We've done it a couple of times now, most notably with Hanami. This allows us to change a ton of theme parameters, and create scenes like this:
...that change in real-time over the course of the day. The mist in the foreground and background moves as well. I don't really know where I'm going with this one, but combined with some environmental audio, the effect is nice and serene.
And another one -- I've been working on a 'cosmic zoom" concept, in an attempt to create a scene on an interstellar scale - starting with a perspective several AU away from a nebula, that zooms in to focus on the remnants of a supernova.
- For a while I've been working on what amounts to a custom particle system, with certain reconfigurable elements. this is being used to create the stars, as well as the particulate matter surrounding the central collapsed star.
- The stellar cloud / detritus around the pulsar is 3D as well.
- I threw the planets from the Saturn and the Mars themes into this one!
Creating everything out of 3D assets rather than 2-D bitmaps is important, because with the advent of PS4 pro and checkerboard 4K, it's the only way to achieve a sharp high-resolution image. that's because the dashboard background, internally, is always being rendered at 1080p, then upscaled. This accentuates compression artifacts present in bitmaps. For that reason, I've had to work harder to create all elements in 3D in the last couple of years.
Anyway, I've got more to share. Oh, and something really special is coming next week - hence why I did not release or attempt to release anything this month.
But, more on that later. I'd make a separate thread for it, but I'm guessing someone will beat me to it. I guess - I can't say anything right now, but I'm fairly sure (like 90% sure) you'll know it was me when you see it.
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