State teacher in Finland

Looks like yesterday that we started the videogame course here at Sataedu. Sounds like a common sentence but it's true, time passed so fast and I loved so much the time spent here in this amazing Country.

Who follows this blog knows that I'm in love with Finland, sounds irrational, but in reality there are so many tangible reasons:

Food

Our ex-prime minister mr. Berlusconi was totally wrong when he said that food here is crap. Actually I find it delicious...of course porrige is not in our tradition and looks like overcooked risotto (well...it is) but the taste is not bad. Now porrige is not national food, but was just an example. Here meat is very tasty and also is cheese. Juices and ciders are so many that you don't know which one you should buy and sweets...one girl some time ago told me "Finland is the promised land of sweets", actually she was right...and she was also sweet ;p

People

One of the best aspect of this Country that makes the experience absolutely unique are citizens. They are clean and loyally righteous (of course I'm not so naive to think that all of them are like this, I'm talking about my experience of whom I meet).

What surprised me are the extremes; think about climate and sauna: freezing and boiling. This is an aspect that you can find here quite often in folk's personality. They are not talkative but if you spend enought time with some they tell you all about their life. They are friendly but you also know that if you don't behave properly a punch would hit your face.

During day people are clean and respectous of environment and during night everything happens around. During week days they are on time (and with on time i mean "on time!") and the laziness arrive in the weekends. They are quite consumists, lot of bright advertisings and then on weekends everything is closed (sometime even bars).

State

If you think finland is perfect place because taxes are low you are a fool, I also was. Here taxes are very high but in the same time you feel that you are investing in something that works.

I mean, with taxes you feel that you are contributing in something named "State". Again, I'm not so naive to think that here corruption doesn't exists and politicians are nice people.


(mr. Stubb no offense intended, just a recent viral video on the web)

But still things works, even if somebody is stealing money from State, here stuff works.

Can you imagine? bus in time, public grass cutted, efficient road cleaning, economical support and contribution for investments and business, State services and websites working, public worker in office during work time. it sounds crazy that all these things are working so well...actually it sounds fucking crazy that in Italy they don't work and taxes are even higher.

"We are many and they are less" I heard people saying, bullshit I think. If we are many contributor things should work better no? maybe we are many "burglars" you mean? ok, this changes the sentence then.

By the way, fuck my thoughts! here things works, food is great, people are averagely good and friendly, everybody speaks english, you can find support for everything, cold weather forges soul, landscapes are very meditative, public instruction works and for me is a pleasure being a part of it as State teacher!

Finland? 10/10

Videogame Development course in Finland

I want to update the blog since long time and i think this experience I'm having in Finland can be a right reason.

Recently I got in touch with SATAEDU vocational school, a series of faculties joined together in Satakunta region in western Finland. The request of the school is to prepare students to videogame development techniques, and for me is a real honor to be in charge in such a role, expecially in one of the best Countries for videogames (Remedy, Rovio, Supercell and so many others).

So that's it, I took a ticket at the end of July to come here for interview, I got confirmed and the 25th of August I started.

The experience is not simple at all, many people consider my stay in Finland like a sort of holiday, but alarm rings very early in the morning and days are quite heavy and long.

Actually I'm doing lectures every day between 6 and 8 hours per day. Topics covers 3D, 2D, textures, UV mapping, shading, lighting, scene setup, Unity and development.

Students are various in terms of age and background, some are really cool in 3D, animation and gaming while others require a bigger effort from me to be supported in all the steps...but I'm doing my best. The goal is to produce something really cool that can help students to find a proper employment in this business and in the same time proof the quality of SATAEDU instruction.

During this period I'm also working on a 3D animation containing fire and imrpoving a new plugin I'm writing for Unity, capable to render Global Illumination light in realtime.

Actually the result is quite rought and aproximated but it works with an impressive framerate. I'm experiencing some problems in color absorption/reflection but I'm optimistic on the final version ;)

Last month's summary

In the last few months I had no time to update this blog and I think it will be discontinued (or moved on my personal web-domain).

Latest project included the end of courses at NABA and SPD. The year was pretty long but, as always, full of satisfactions. NABA’s course was at the 7th edition and in my opinion is now time to update the program. I started this series of lectures in October 2007 and even if I did some corrections and modifiations during the time, I think now the core of the course should be redesigned.

SPD gave me great satisfactions (while with Domus Academy the experience was a little different) regarding 3D lectures. What I love of SPD is that I’m considered in the planning aspect of the course. Logically there is an academic office that take decisions, but I think is very good that they asks us (teachers and professionists) what we think about some new implementations, like software update, schedules, planning and so on. This make SPD very professional in the approach.
Anyway in november my new edition of Autodesk 3ds Max, V-Ray (and other surprises :)) should start again on NABA, Domus Academy and SPD.

For the second semester there is possibility that other schools would insert my program in lectures regarding CG subjects. This is a “maybe” but I’m also discussing with two new schools outside Italy’s border and I hope to repeat the amazing experience I got time ago as visiting professor at Helsinki’s Metropolia University of Applied Sciences.

According to lectures, me, Andrea Peduzzi, Filippo Zanoli and Donald Cortese did a deep workshop in another school in Como. I’m glad to work with them in VideogamesLab project: we do basic but functional workshops on game development. Our main goal is not to “create” game developers (it would be too ambitious, expecially in short periods like workshops). Our goal is to show an approach to game development business both to students and teachers.
About videogame development lectures I’m also partecipating with the brand new Spicchi team in a series of basic lessons on game development as business path. Courses are open to everybody but designed for parents that desire to understand more about this possible path for their childs.

In this period I’m preparing my new speech for ViewConference 2014. In 2010 and 2011 I spoke about videogame development and realtime technologies using 3ds Max and Unreal. Last year I spoke about 3ds Max, V-Ray (thanks to Chaos Group for believing in my knowledge), 3D Printing (with Massimo Temporelli) and Augmented Reality with Unity 3D.
This year I plan to surprise you with a practical approach to virtual reality both for presentation and entertainment. For the occasion I bought an Oculus Rift 2 (inspired by Luca Roncella taht made me try his one). So get ready to be inserted in a 3d environment :), I’ll wait you at ViewConference 2014!

About PlaySys works we never stop and year after year we are more stable on the market. Even if there were some difficulties in publishing department (because of the ending of two magazines like Professional Photoshop and Fotografia Facile) we still continue with Digital Camera. Also 3D renderings for architecture and design are proceeding properly and our information platform (3DArchitettura) got renewed recently. Render Academy by the way is proceeding slowly but I hope it would be ready in september with a lot of surprises.

Still with PlaySys we are updating our games like Kitty Scratch 2, Augmented Cat, we developed a new simple one named Grayville and we are in the pre-production phase for a new one, with better story this time, I promise :)
In the meanwhile during august I want to speed-develop a platform; it will be a solo project and the challange is very appealing!

PLAYSYS

KITTY SCRATCH 2

STEEL HERO

GRAYVILLE

Last but not least, I released my last music solo project on iTunes and Spotify. Project name is Nihilistista and the album is named Eclipse. This project started about two years ago and I’m very satisfacted of the result, recording guitar, bass, drum and mastering together in the album. My working projets are taking time from my music, in the past I would never expect this would happen (expecially when, 18 years ago, I was playing drums 2 hours per day). I promise myself that one day I’ll get back in music with a band or something like that…hopefully I would keep my word ;)

Well, that’s all I think. There are many other stuff happening in the between but I can’t write them all and this is still not my memoirs :D
It’s just a quick summary of what happened in this silent period and I’ll do my best to keep this blog updated somehow.

Professional Photoshop - Rivista chiusa

Ebbene sì, dopo due anni di doppiaggi l’avventura con Professional Photoshop è terminata. Purtroppo precedentemente alla chiusura i doppiaggi erano stati dimezzati dall’editore che, alla fine, ha deciso di terminare la pubblicazione. Sempre nel periodo finale delle pubblicazioni avevo sentito voci che parlavano di lamentele legate agli abbonamenti e alla reperibilità dei numeri. Sulla pagina ufficiale di facebook ho trovato con grande dispiacere alcune di queste lamentele ed è un gran peccato: la rivista era buona, i progetti talvolta interessanti e comunque efficaci per l’apprendimento delle funzionalità del programma…non capisco come abbia fatto a sfasciarsi così il progetto.
Per quanto mi riguarda ci ho messo tutto l’impegno e spero che la mia parte di lavoro nel mettere la voce su tutti i quasi 500 video abbia fatto piacere ai lettori e li abbia aiutati nel comprendere meglio i vari passaggi.

Prosegue invece la mia collaborazione con Digital Camera, che come rivista sembra più stabile e in cui alla fine si parla degli stessi argomenti, ma con un taglio più rivolto alla post produzione di scatti fotografici rispetto alle produzioni basate interamente su composizioni ed illustrazioni.

…peccato

Passion for teaching

There are two things that really satisfacts my work as teacher:

1. Seeing how my students approach to work, applying the knowledge I transmitted
2. Receiving the students’ anonymous satisfaction report (compiled through school’s website)

In 2011 and 2012 the eveluation was high and the feedback was positive; always over the course average, but this year…well this year the report is simply amazing and made my holidays!

As first I got a 4.72 points on 5 that means 94.4% as satisfaction over an academic average of 3.70 (in percentage the Master’s average is 74%, so it means I got 127.57% on total).
So numerically speaking my students satisfaction is 94.4% and mine, of course is even higher! :) But if I obtained so high score is because I followed the previous years suggestions and student’s reports: “more focus on some subjects”, “less on others”, and so on…my main thanks goes to whom attended SPD during 2011 and 2012! Also I would like to mention that this feedback report, organised by SPD’s Coordinamento, is wery usefull practice, that unfortunally is not applied in other schools where I teach such as NABA and Domus Academy.
More in dept, this year I used a new technique for my course about 3dsMax and V-Ray that I like to define “deconstructivism in 3d renders and CGI”. How it works is simple: I took my lectures and my topics I wrote in books and I simply reversed them :)
I’m not talking about meanings, but about chronological order of given informations. In fact classes are diffrent from books, articles, slides or video training, and they must be treated as they are: different media for learning. In my knowledge, is really simple to understand what a render is and how is done, but being a student, the approach can be totally different, sometime opposed, and here is the keyword of my teaching model: “opposed” to the standards.

In the report are also present some anonymous comments that I’ll copy paste here with great pleasure and satisfaction.

• i would prefer to have slides or tutorial with the explanation of the class as it happens in rhino classes
• he is really amazing !
• I enjoy Mr Lucas class a lot and his classes are really helpful for me to get a grasp of 3d max as I couldnt be this clear with concepts earlier in my profession.
• The teacher should expain step by step what he does first for us to have time to see what to do. Just a little slower or more details on the first time we see a way to do something would be nice. May be we’ll have less questions.
• nice teacher, very helpful, very useful and very understanding. my favourite teacher so far.
• really good and fun teacher
• He has great knowledge, very interesting and helpful course!
• He explain very good and it easy to understand him
• very helpful and nice teacher. In such a small period he taught us a lot. He explains everything very well. pleasure to work with him.
• Best teacher! very good class.
• A loely guy though perhapsa little quiet at times. I would perhaps prefer to have mor eone on one time in order ot develop
• the most attentive prof. great asset for this university
• Professor Deriu knows 3Ds Max and transfers his knowledge to his best ability. He is the other professor that I believe executes his lessons the way that they’re supposed to be and he is always there to lend a hand if in need.
• it would probably be beneficial to divide the class into 2 so that the people who are less advance dont struggle behind and those with a bit more knowledge dont get bored. although i think you are very knowledgeable.

With this happy mood I wish you Merry Christmas!

Professional Photoshop–Dicembre 2012

Anche questo mese abbiamo finito i lavori riguardanti la rivista di Professional Photoshop che potete trovare in tutte le edicole.

Di seguito alcune immagini dei 10 video corsi interamente in lingua italiana.

Autodesk 3ds Max Certification

Yesterday I attended and passed at 100% the Autodesk’s 3ds Max 2014 exam!

The exam was quite simple even if quite tricky in some questions, good work Autodesk! I’m sure someone really enjoyed to prepare the questions and scenes ;)
For this great satisfaction I have to say thanks to UPGRADE: Donato Cremonesi, Blerina Pashollari, Valeria Pizzi, Valeria Casanova and Gianluca Melcangi. I use Max since Kinetix/Discreet time, when the software was known with the name “3D Studio Max r2”, but Upgrade organized the exam and offered me performant computer and confortable structure to attend it (plus coffee before exam!).

Even if I expect this certifiation will not influence my career, it is for me a big honour and pleasure to be recognized directly by Autodesk…expecially after 3 manuals, 30 hours of video training and 7 years of teaching :D
Cheers!

Nuova avventura con Digital Camera

È iniziata la mia nuova avventura con Digital Camera, la rivista che ogni mese informa sulle ultime novità per quanto riguarda gli strumenti professionali per fotografi creativi.

Anche per questa testata, il mio contributo è relativo alla traduzione e doppiaggio dei video tutorial riguardanti Photoshop, Lightroom, Camera Raw, Bridge e le macchine fotografiche. Si tratta dello stesso lavoro che effettuo per Professional Photoshop, rivista edita da Sprea Editori.

Nel primo numero abbiamo presentato la nuova Samsung NX800, parlato di post produzione avanzata con Lightroom e Photoshop Elements. Nel secondo numero abbiamo trattato la Canon 70D, correzione lente con Lightroom 5, fotoritocco base con Photoshop Elements e avanzato con Photoshop.
Ogni mese vi aspettiamo in edicola con 1 ora di video tutorial e ricchi articoli! A presto e buon apprendimento.

Mantova 2019 - Capitale europea della cultura

La storia di Mantova 2019, candidata come capitale europea della cultura ha fatto scalpore nel periodo di Settembre 2013, durante il Festival Letteratura.
L’idea è ambiziosa e non può di certo passare inosservata, per via di diversi aspetti interessanti e talvolta pretenziosi.
Vediamo velocemente le città che competono al titolo di capitale europea della cultura del 2019, la lista è riportata visivamente nelle due figure a seguire e visionabile sul sito ufficiale.

Londra, Berlino, Parigi, Vienna, Madrid, Praga e altre sono ben evidenti sulla mappa e hanno un enorme impatto politico, culturale, economico sull’Unione Europea. Per quanto riguarda Mantova invece, nessuno può dir nulla riguardo alla componente storica, artistica e culturale della città, ma fa un po’ sorridere la sua individuazione sulla mappa del sito ufficiale: tra Marengo e Levata, sorge la Candidata.
La domanda quindi nasce spontanea: perché Mantova e non un’altra realtà ben più vasta in termini impatto socio-culturale, per non parlare della nostra capitale (o, se non altro Torino, Milano, Venezia o Firenze?).

Immaginiamo di essere persone che prendono le decisioni sulla sorte del nostro Paese, visto che è ormai ovvio che la voce dei cittadini conta poco più di nulla. In Italia, tra i vari eventi, siamo alle prese con l’EXPO 2015, un evento costato parecchio suppongo e di cui, a meno di un anno dall’inizio (e quattro dall’avvio) possiamo trovare un cantiere polveroso e privo di mura; un progetto indubbiamente ambizioso, senza dettagli e, a mio avviso fermo a stato di concept, presentato con render 3d vergognosi ecc ecc.
Lo so che la fine dei lavori è prevista per Marzo 2015 e attualmente le fognature e la viabilità esterna sono concluse ma…terminare i lavori 3 mesi prima dell’inaugurazione non è un po’ troppo a ridosso della data di aperura?

Supponiamo quindi di essere questa persona, o questo gruppo di persone, pronte o meno ad affrontare l’insuccesso Expo2015: pensate che l’Italia possa partecipare/ospitare un evento così importante nei prossimi anni? Ma allo stesso tempo pensate che le nostre ambizioni ci possano tener lontani dall’idea di rifiutare la partecipazione? Ovvio, no.

La soluzione quindi è quella di candidarsi con una città sottodimensionata e vincere fin dall’inizio, in modo subdolo e mediatico. Seguendo questa strategia, anche se perderemo risulteremo coraggiosi e, in un certo senso, vincitori della partecipazione. Se Roma (o altre città) dovessero perdere contro Parigi o Londra, questo determinerebbe la vittoria schiacciante della Francia o dell’Inghilterra, ma partecipando con Mantova, in un certo senso questa competizione non esiste. Un po’ come far partecipare un cavallino zoppo ad una corsa di cavalli: non vincerà mai, ma conquisterà il cuore di tutti per il suo coraggio fino ad ottenere un livello di celebrità maggiore perfino rispetto al vincitore stesso.

PS: nulla di personale, Mantova è la città in cui sono nato e cresciuto per 21 anni, la conosco a memoria, la rispetto e partecipo con grande interesse a tutti gli eventi organizzati sul territorio. Questo articolo nasce solo dal sentore di una situazione tipo “passo più lungo della gamba” e dal fatto che la città sia stata scelta non per farla vincere ma piuttosto per evitare la perdita di un’altra. Ma in fondo perché mi preoccupo? se le cose vanno come scritto sopra, sarà un successo in ogni caso quindi: In bocca al lupo Mantova per la candidatura a capitale europea della cultura!

Kitty Scratch 2 on AppStore!

Today I have a great announce: Our videogame “Kitty Scratch 2” is avaible to play on AppStore!

This project represent a new, exciting step forward for PlaySys. After the experience of Kitty Scratch 1, released in 2010, and that was mostly an experiment for us, we had a long break. As “break” I mean a huge series of lectures, conferences, 3d renders, 3d animations and interactive media.

During the 2013 we also did another videogame, Steel Hero, for a prestigious customer: Museo Nazionale Della Scienza e Tecnologia “Leonardo Da Vinci”. That game was developed by PlaySys and Broken Arms Games that supported us with the programming code. After the experience I got so interested in discover more about programming that I attended a full immersion during easther period. I studied, researched, experimented, red and watched tons of tutorials and at the end I took a decision: develop a videogame without outsourcing.
With PlaySys we prepared a full game design document and the 2nd of September we started the official development. Today, after 2 months the game is on the “shelves” of AppStore and I’m working on the porting for Android and, if everything goes right, tomorrow the game’s .apk will be delivered to Google Play.

I want to credit here the cool team that supported me in the development of this game:

Pamela De Lorenzi – Producer
Filippo Zanoli – Game Designer
Elisa Cristantielli – Art Director
Elena Kartseva – Interior Designer
Lorenzo Cardile – 3D Artist
Beniamino Valentini – Animator
Bo Zhang – 3D Artist Intern
Alessandro Carpentiero – Musician and Composer
Andrea Peduzzi – PR

Now let me conclude saying that the game is far away to be a GTA5 or a colossal, but is funny to play and we tryed to do our best to include dynamic 3D stuff on mobile devices. In fact the game behave differently accordingly to the time of the day in which you play it. Every 12 hours the system gives you 50 scratches to use and you can extend the game experience with mini games.

Kitty Scratch 2 – Episode 1 is the first of 3 episodes and the remaining will be released from now to January/February. To discover more please follow the links below and enjoy! :)

     

Last but not least: Please note that PlaySys don’t support any kind of violence. During the development of this game no furniture was damaged or injured. This game is also for kids.