So there I was, less than 30 minutes before the awards ceremony, jotting down my brief description of the design process of the Dutch Game Awards 2024.
Once I was done, I went over my notes twice more before taking a seat at the front of the crowd.
This was my first time being on stage in the spotlights before such a crowd, and it was being livestreamed to boot! No pressure.
Once we got started, Martine Spaans called me up on stage and asked me one simple question: “Thomas, before we reveal the award, can you tell us a bit more about the design process?”.
Naturally, my short-term memory goes WHOOSH!! Straight out of the window.
Welp, back to auto-pilot it is.
Now, I've found that one of the most important things when it comes to a presentation, is to "know your shit". And that, at the very least, I did.
So I managed to quickly ramble my way through an answer of sorts, which definitely counted as "a bit" in regards to the design process. Two days of little sleep and two long days meant that I wasn't at my most eloquent.
Since you're reading this, allow me to dive into the actual design process.
It all started with Martine contacting me, stating that she wanted to bring the
Dutch Game Awards back to the games industry itself.
Honored to even be considered for the task, we exchanged a couple of emails, in which we hammered out a general pipeline for the months to come.
To start with, I'd like to thank Deloryan Hommers for borrowing one of last year's Awards. I 3D scanned the award solely to use it as a scale reference.
The Awards had several criteria which had to be met, which was a combined list of Martine's wishes and my own observations. Criteria such as...
- The owl should retain a recognizable shape when viewed from the side, resembling the DGA logo.
- Decide which type of owl to use as a reference.
- The Award requires a strong foundation, and the owl has to connect to the surface of the base with more than just a single cylinder.
- Redesign the Owl, experiment with more natural details than before, which resin 3D printing allows me to explore.
- Keep the weight of the Awards in mind, as previous versions proved to be on the heavy side, which caused some of them to break.
- Conduct a paint test to establish which painting scheme will work best for the new design. Must include some shade of gold.
- Use the actual DGA font on the name plates.
From here, I proceeded to create the 2024 Awards from scratch. The DGA logo was the image of a highly stylized owl...but which owl was that again?
No one could recall, the answer lost to time. So I used one of the logo's most distinctive features, the ear tufts, as a jumping off point.
I selected three types of owl whom possess ear tufts, namely the Barred Eagle Owl, the Great Horned Owl, and the Striped Owl.
Then it was up to Martine to pick the one she fancied the most. She chose the Striped Owl, as it had the best combination of ear tufts and a clearly visible beak.
She also noted that the black lines around both the Great Horned and Striped Owls were beautiful to behold, and it was already somewhat present in the previous Award's design.
So I kept all of that in mind as we moved forward.
Interestingly enough, an owl's ear tufts has nothing to do with its actual ears.
There are several hypothesis about the function of these ear tufts, ranging from being able to mimic mammals, finding a suitable mate,
to appear more threatening, and more!
The ear tufts which appeared in the DGA's owl logo were far longer, and reached much further back, than any owl's ear tufts normally would.
So I took a bit of creative license there, in order for it to more accurately resemble the logo. And it looks pretty damn cool to boot!
Once I got that sorted out, I started 3D modelling with some basic meshes in Blender, mostly spheres, to give myself an idea of the size and shape of the thing.
The original Dutch Game Awards logo was designed with many circles in mind, so that lent itself nicely to the early 3D model.
Once I had made a first pass in sculpting the wings and body, I sent Martine a few screenshots of my progress.
Here it was a question of whether she wanted a more organic look, like the body had, or more stylized, like the wings.
After giving it some thought, she opted for the more stylized look, as she thought that would give the Awards a fancier look.
She also appreciated that, for the first time ever, the Owls would have feet and an accompanying perch to rest them on.
But more than that, it was the eyes what did it for her. That smiling squint quality they had made her think it was quite "kawaii", which fits our gaming culture nicely.
It was time to really pin down the design of the Owl, sculpting in various details along the way. The elegant curves found in Art Deco served as a wonderful font of inspiration, as well as some of the detailed work found in Art Nouveau, to a lesser extent.
Now, certain elements, such as the eyes, eye sockets, beak, wings, and feet, I sculpted by hand.
But when it came to the large amount of individual feathers, of which there were nearly a thousand, I opted for a more efficient approach.
But when it came to the large amount of individual feathers, of which there were nearly a thousand, I opted for a more efficient approach.
I started by sculpting 10 different stylized feather variations before copy+pasta'ing them all over the Owl's body, rotating, rescaling and nudging them with sculpting tools as needed.
Soon I had groups of feathers which I could rearrange and use on different parts of the body, lightening my workload some.
In actuality, I was working with around ~500 feathers, which I later mirrored once I had joined the various separate parts of the model.
All of this serves the old maxim of "Work smarter, not harder". Looking back, I could have gone about this in an even more efficient manner,
but by this point I was already committed to this particular approach, and it was working for me.
but by this point I was already committed to this particular approach, and it was working for me.
I could have opted for the Simply Micro Mesh add-on with custom feathers, for example, but then it would have covered the selected topology with just the one type of feather.
I felt that adding and adjusting them by hand eventually led to a more varied and unique appearance.
It was important that the features which Martine had mentioned would stand out in the final design.
Not just because she said so, of course, but because I do believe that the kawaii eyes, the detailing around the "cheeks",
along with the larger-than-life ear tufts and gloriously curved wings serve to really bring it all together.
Once I felt confident about my progress (not an easy threshold to clear, thanks Imposter Syndrome!), I had Martine take another gander at it.
Aside from two small pieces of feedback concerning the Owl's shoulders and wings, we were good to go.
Aside from two small pieces of feedback concerning the Owl's shoulders and wings, we were good to go.
I made the adjustments, with the only one that really stood out consisting of bringing the pieces of the wing closer together.
This way, it would look more like one wing, instead of four separate ones.
While I had initially placed the wing pieces closer together, this made it stray away somewhat from the DGA logo.
I did prefer the one-wing look, so I gleefully made the adjustments once I got the go-ahead!
Concerning the base: while I initially considered adding some Art Deco-like details to it, I ultimately felt that it would draw attention away from the Owl itself.
That would be a big no-no, so I opted to go with simpler geometric shapes instead. The two-tier base and name plate, along with the chamfered edges, is all that remains after I reduced it to its bare essentials.
Before moving on to the paint test, I went through all of the feathers and painstakingly rearranged & rescaled most of them in order to create a smoother collection of feathers.
With the earlier model, the feather size differences were a bit absurd in certain areas, and there were too many feathers out of place and/or sticking out for my liking.
That's not just Imposter Syndrome, but the nagging, snarky voice of perfectionism sneering at me in the back of my head.
While the final result was certainly better, I could have saved myself a lot of time and trouble by going for a smoother overall look from the start.
Yet at times it is difficult to predict how every little change and tweak will reshape or recontextualize your design.
And there is only one way of finding out whether or not certain changes will yield the results that seek.
Trial and error. Everyone makes mistakes, and you learn more from your failures than your successes.
Now, onto the next exciting step: the paint test!
I was truly looking forward to the paint test, as this would tell me in no uncertain terms whether or not the 3D print's design would combine well with the paints that I had in mind.
So I printed five of them at 4 cm tall. Enough to make out the majority of the details without spending too much time or materials on this part of the pipeline.
Started by airbrushing black primer onto the 3D printed mini-birdies (pro tip: when looking to use metallic paint on something, prime the model black first).
Followed that up with various combinations of metallic paints. Gold, copper, silver, and even some arctic blue.
The paint test Itself was set up like so, from left to right.
That would be a big no-no, so I opted to go with simpler geometric shapes instead. The two-tier base and name plate, along with the chamfered edges, is all that remains after I reduced it to its bare essentials.
Before moving on to the paint test, I went through all of the feathers and painstakingly rearranged & rescaled most of them in order to create a smoother collection of feathers.
With the earlier model, the feather size differences were a bit absurd in certain areas, and there were too many feathers out of place and/or sticking out for my liking.
That's not just Imposter Syndrome, but the nagging, snarky voice of perfectionism sneering at me in the back of my head.
While the final result was certainly better, I could have saved myself a lot of time and trouble by going for a smoother overall look from the start.
Yet at times it is difficult to predict how every little change and tweak will reshape or recontextualize your design.
And there is only one way of finding out whether or not certain changes will yield the results that seek.
Trial and error. Everyone makes mistakes, and you learn more from your failures than your successes.
Now, onto the next exciting step: the paint test!
I was truly looking forward to the paint test, as this would tell me in no uncertain terms whether or not the 3D print's design would combine well with the paints that I had in mind.
So I printed five of them at 4 cm tall. Enough to make out the majority of the details without spending too much time or materials on this part of the pipeline.
Started by airbrushing black primer onto the 3D printed mini-birdies (pro tip: when looking to use metallic paint on something, prime the model black first).
Followed that up with various combinations of metallic paints. Gold, copper, silver, and even some arctic blue.
The paint test Itself was set up like so, from left to right.
1: Gold, copper text.
2: Gold + silver highlights, silver text.
3: Gold + arctic blue from below, silver highlights, silver text.
4: Gold + copper from below, copper text.
5: Gold + copper from below, silver highlights, silver text.
As you can see, I also tried different metal colors on the text itself. I didn't want to use gold on the text, because it should be different from the Owl's main color in order to stand out.
The arctic blue did not have the impact that I had hoped it would. This was because it wasn't quite the complementary color that I had hoped it would be.
Paint can look quite a bit different when it's still in the bottle compared to once it's applied to a model. And since this was my first time using arctic blue, it simply did not pan out for the Owl.
Rather than adding a nice contrast and gradient, it caused the model to look, well, quite dull and subdued, to be honest.
At this time, I still felt that I ought to use black metallic paint on the base and name plate, as it would make the whole award look as fancy as possible.
I ended up changing my mind by the time the full-sized prints were done, but more on that in a bit.
Martine's favorites were 4 and 5, and felt that the text should be silver. She was undecided when it came to the silver highlights, and asked me for my opinion.
The added silver on top of the main gold color and copper from below felt like it was a bit too much; a bit too "busy", as it were.
While I suggested that we could test the silver highlights once the full-size Owls were printed, I came to a couple of realizations later on.
Next up was the big one, literally: preparing the models for the full-scale print. "What's that?", I hear you say.
"models? Plural? Is one big model too much for you to handle? Must you divvy it up into itty bitty bits, like some pleb??"
Why, yes, actually, I do. Why? To avoid issues such as cracks in the print, excess resin use, even damage to the FEP film or total print failure.
After every layer, the printer platform is raised so that the liquid resin can pool back into place.
Every time that happens, the FEP film, which serves as the transparent bottom layer of the resin vat, has to snap back into place without any hardened resin residue sticking to it.
The larger the unbroken surface area of any given model is, the more suction is required in order to pull it off of the FEP film.
If that becomes too much, you can experience any or all of the issues I described above.
And as the cherry on top, we also wanted to prevent the Award from becoming too heavy, so all the more reason not to print a solid model.
In the case of the Owl, I print the wings as solid pieces, while leaving the main body hollow.
The name plate is printed separately, and the base is printed with an entirely different type of 3D printer.
An FDM printer, which is a more well-known type of 3D printer (they use a nozzle, along with a spool of plastic, usually PLA).
Why switch printing the base from resin to an FDM printer material such as PLA?
Simple. FDM prints are cheaper, but not as detailed. For a large yet simplistic shape such as the base of this Award, an FDM printer is the right tool for the job.
Just as a resin printer is the right tool to use when printing the rest of the Awards.
I'd like to thank Andreas Tabak for providing me with the Award's PLA bases.
"models? Plural? Is one big model too much for you to handle? Must you divvy it up into itty bitty bits, like some pleb??"
Why, yes, actually, I do. Why? To avoid issues such as cracks in the print, excess resin use, even damage to the FEP film or total print failure.
After every layer, the printer platform is raised so that the liquid resin can pool back into place.
Every time that happens, the FEP film, which serves as the transparent bottom layer of the resin vat, has to snap back into place without any hardened resin residue sticking to it.
The larger the unbroken surface area of any given model is, the more suction is required in order to pull it off of the FEP film.
If that becomes too much, you can experience any or all of the issues I described above.
And as the cherry on top, we also wanted to prevent the Award from becoming too heavy, so all the more reason not to print a solid model.
In the case of the Owl, I print the wings as solid pieces, while leaving the main body hollow.
The name plate is printed separately, and the base is printed with an entirely different type of 3D printer.
An FDM printer, which is a more well-known type of 3D printer (they use a nozzle, along with a spool of plastic, usually PLA).
Why switch printing the base from resin to an FDM printer material such as PLA?
Simple. FDM prints are cheaper, but not as detailed. For a large yet simplistic shape such as the base of this Award, an FDM printer is the right tool for the job.
Just as a resin printer is the right tool to use when printing the rest of the Awards.
I'd like to thank Andreas Tabak for providing me with the Award's PLA bases.
This also allowed me to reallocate the space which the base was taking up on the printer platform, resulting in two whole Owls being printed at once, rather than one at a time.
Keep in mind that each Owl I printed took around 25 hours to print, so doubling my output was a welcome change of pace.
Now 25 hours for a resin print is quite a long time. The reason it takes longer, is because I print at 28,5 μm, whereas the average resin printer prints at 50 μm.
Most people wouldn't print at anything under 50 μm for larger models such as this. But personally? Not only can I see the difference in quality between the two, but I also felt that it was worth doing it this way.
So, after two initial test prints, the Owls were now starting to practically fly out of the printer, two per day.
And by the time I had printed the remainder of the Owls and had received the bases from Andreas, all that was left to do was to assemble and paint them.
And after applying a copper metallic paint from below and gold from above, I realized that 1) a silver highlight would be a superfluous addition to the paintjob and 2) I was going to paint the base a matt black color instead of metallic.
Because this, too, would otherwise distract from the Owl itself, and we wouldn't want that!
It may sound easy, to 'simply' prime, paint & varnish 13 of these Awards, one after the other. But the truth of it is that the airbrush and compressor I was using was more suited to miniatures than, well, models of the size and quantity which I had to provide for the Dutch Game Awards. Murphy's Law was fully in effect, and I swear that bloody airbrush can smell fear, too. It knew when it was needed most. And it had been waiting. Patiently. For over two years...to finally be as stubborn and constipated as it could possibly be. But what about “A bad workman blames his tools”, eh? Well, I did my level best to be good to it. I cleaned every part as best I could, fully disassembled & reassembled the airbrush, drained the compressor of excess moisture buildup, sang its praises, read it bedtime stories, and even tucked it in at night. So, naturally, it was only after I had finished all of the awards that the airbrush decided that it could be magnanimous and merciful after all. But not before it made me doubt myself.
Which brings me back to part of the concept with which I jokingly concluded my answer on-stage. Imposter Syndrome is a bitch. And I wouldn't be surprised if most, if not every single person in the room that night, had experienced that in the past....or continues to experience it to this very day. Whether we're talking about students or people who've been in the games industry for over two decades.
And by the time I had printed the remainder of the Owls and had received the bases from Andreas, all that was left to do was to assemble and paint them.
And after applying a copper metallic paint from below and gold from above, I realized that 1) a silver highlight would be a superfluous addition to the paintjob and 2) I was going to paint the base a matt black color instead of metallic.
Because this, too, would otherwise distract from the Owl itself, and we wouldn't want that!
It may sound easy, to 'simply' prime, paint & varnish 13 of these Awards, one after the other. But the truth of it is that the airbrush and compressor I was using was more suited to miniatures than, well, models of the size and quantity which I had to provide for the Dutch Game Awards. Murphy's Law was fully in effect, and I swear that bloody airbrush can smell fear, too. It knew when it was needed most. And it had been waiting. Patiently. For over two years...to finally be as stubborn and constipated as it could possibly be. But what about “A bad workman blames his tools”, eh? Well, I did my level best to be good to it. I cleaned every part as best I could, fully disassembled & reassembled the airbrush, drained the compressor of excess moisture buildup, sang its praises, read it bedtime stories, and even tucked it in at night. So, naturally, it was only after I had finished all of the awards that the airbrush decided that it could be magnanimous and merciful after all. But not before it made me doubt myself.
Which brings me back to part of the concept with which I jokingly concluded my answer on-stage. Imposter Syndrome is a bitch. And I wouldn't be surprised if most, if not every single person in the room that night, had experienced that in the past....or continues to experience it to this very day. Whether we're talking about students or people who've been in the games industry for over two decades.
I've spoken with a lot of game devs from all walks of life over the years, and honestly? We all have to face the same hurdles, overcome the same obstacles. But it is thanks to organizations like the Dutch Game Garden and the
Dutch Games Association that we do not have to go through all of this by ourselves. That we have a community to fall back on when the going gets tough. Which is why it is absolutely vital, nothing short of imperative, that such organizations continue to exist.
Because frankly, I wouldn't be doing what I do today if it wasn't for the monthly network lunches at the Dutch Game Garden, or their Incubation program, or their yearly INDIGO event.
Or the chance for some jolly cooperation with the Dutch Games Association, if you'll allow me to paraphrase Dark Souls.
And I have heard these kinds of sentiments from all over the place.
Not just from the people who sent in video messages that night on stage.
Yes, things are tough right now, there's no denying that.
And yeah, we probably still have a ways to go before the games industry catches its second wind. Or how-ever-many-eth wind that would be, depending on when you started counting.
I'm just one small fish in a gargantuan pond.
But what I can do is possibly, hopefully, remind the people that were there that night that what they do matters. That they don't have to do it alone.
Because we all feel like impostors from time to time. The trick is to push through that fear, and keep right on going. As my grandfather once told me:
"Nothing ventured, nothing gained. And you can fill in the rest yourself".
And that's precisely what I am doing these days.
Now, that's more than enough of my gobbledygook for the time being.
TL;DR I made something as awesome as I could make it, but it took some doing. The games industry is experiencing some issues, but we'll pull through in the end.
Thank you for reading, if you made it all the way through! And yes, I'd also like to thank the people who just scrolled through to check out some of the images. Not quite as fondly, mind you, but still...it's something.
Dutch Games Association that we do not have to go through all of this by ourselves. That we have a community to fall back on when the going gets tough. Which is why it is absolutely vital, nothing short of imperative, that such organizations continue to exist.
Because frankly, I wouldn't be doing what I do today if it wasn't for the monthly network lunches at the Dutch Game Garden, or their Incubation program, or their yearly INDIGO event.
Or the chance for some jolly cooperation with the Dutch Games Association, if you'll allow me to paraphrase Dark Souls.
And I have heard these kinds of sentiments from all over the place.
Not just from the people who sent in video messages that night on stage.
Yes, things are tough right now, there's no denying that.
And yeah, we probably still have a ways to go before the games industry catches its second wind. Or how-ever-many-eth wind that would be, depending on when you started counting.
I'm just one small fish in a gargantuan pond.
But what I can do is possibly, hopefully, remind the people that were there that night that what they do matters. That they don't have to do it alone.
Because we all feel like impostors from time to time. The trick is to push through that fear, and keep right on going. As my grandfather once told me:
"Nothing ventured, nothing gained. And you can fill in the rest yourself".
And that's precisely what I am doing these days.
Now, that's more than enough of my gobbledygook for the time being.
TL;DR I made something as awesome as I could make it, but it took some doing. The games industry is experiencing some issues, but we'll pull through in the end.
Thank you for reading, if you made it all the way through! And yes, I'd also like to thank the people who just scrolled through to check out some of the images. Not quite as fondly, mind you, but still...it's something.
Cheers,
Thomas Mazurel
Thomas Mazurel
Gobbledygook Games