PS2 MEMORY CARDS

ARTIST

Rodney Burton SOFTWARE

Substance Designer, Marmoset Toolbag

Environment and technical artist Rodney Burton particularly enjoyed reliving his early gaming memories when working on this photorealistic render. “Every game written on the tapes I owned and played during childhood,” he explains, “it was fun to include them should anyone see the work and recognise them. The whole thing was a bit of a nostalgia trip and gave me an opportunity to insert my own narrative.”

The process begins with a notes page on Burton’s computer, containing random ideas for things he might want to make. “When I want to make something new I block it out in Designer, Maya, or Unreal depending on the idea,” adds Burton. “From there I can judge how interesting or viable it will be and I might pursue it further or scrap the idea and move to the next.” What Burton loves most, however, is a last-minute dose of inspiration that compels him to begin immediately, just like he had with this nostalgic piece. Burton didn’t employ any unusual techniques for this project, opting to focus on doing small tasks well. “I achieved the procedural handwriting by using a text node with the Ink Free font, then warping it with a Perlin noise to make it look natural and messy,” he continues. “For the roughness, I have a habit of running my initial grunge maps through a directional warp with my height map as the intensity. This usually allows my roughness to better obey the contours of my shapes and is a good technique on any material.”