Today we've got a little questions and answers session with the one and only MrTroodon!
As the man behind some of Primal Carnage: Extinction's most popular dinosaur mutations and our very own Ceratosaurus, we thought it would be interesting to shine a light on the creative process that goes into these designs and what MrTroodon might be cooking up next....
Please introduce yourself and your background for those unfamiliar..
Hello there, it is a pleasure to be doing this Q&A! I'm MrTroodon, a dinosaur fan from Mexico, and I've been doing 3D work for about 3-4 years though only gone full-on with it the last two.
The history behind the "MrTroodon" name is a pretty simple one, I wanted something that represented me as a person but also recognizable with my work, and so far I think it works (ignoring the fact that Troodon is now an invalid genus, but, that adds in some comedy I´d say!) Plus I also thought a Troodon with a top hat and a monocle would be funny.
I always considered Primal Carnage a classic, nowadays you have all these "paleo games" coming out but, back in the day it was THE dinosaur game. I mean in part dinosaurs like Carnotaurus are as popular as they area thanks to the game. Although back then I wasn´t able to play the original game or Extinction at first, I followed the development for quite a while, still remember watching gameplays from when things like the Cryo and Tupa were brand new.
What got you into creating content for Primal Carnage: Extinction? Did you have past experience making models or skins?
My experience at making digital models comes mainly from my background at creating mods. I always like the ability to create my own content in the games I like, what's better than being able to play with your own creations? This is what got me into modding in the first place and it lead me to improve my skills and be more confident getting into bigger projects.
At first I modded (or at least attempted to mod) games like Zoo Tycoon 2 and JPOG, more recently I got into modding Jurassic World Evolution which is what many of you may know me from.
As to what got me into creating content for Primal Carnage: Extinction, it was really just timing. Making the Ultimasaurus mod for Jurassic World Evolution gave me confidence enough to say, "Hey I can create nice things, why not see what else I can do in other games?"
So I looked at Extinction again, the fact that I finally had a laptop that could actually run the game made me investigate the kind of things I could create for it. I thought I can make a couple of nice skins to play as, but then there's this announcement- now there are these so-called Mutations that modify the in-game model of the dinosaurs. And I´m like... I´m in, hell yeah let´s get into this!
Later I redid the Stegosaurus NPC model (because why not?) and this would lead to me being hired to create the Ceratosaurus for Primal Carnage: Extinction.
Where does the inspiration for your items come from?
It depends on the item, I like to have a broad variety in my work yet also a style people can still recognize, "Hey these are things that the Troodon dude did."
This is one of the reasons as why I like to go with what I refer as "themes". Although i´d say what makes me go that route is I think that makes the item feel more special, kinda like if you were a child getting a figure of that new Jurassic movie, I really enjoy that, makes people happy. Brutalsaurus for example, was mostly inspired by what I would call "old school" paleo media, this would be depictions from the 90s and early 2000s, like the dinosaurs in Peter Jackson's King Kong.
For some of the items I plan to work on in the future I've found a general inspiration from action figures, things like Kenner toys or the G.I. Joe. Specially for having both dinosaur and human items within a same theme, meant to go with each other.
What was it like creating the Ceratosaurus model?
I really enjoyed working on the Ceratosaurus, as in the past I had done some small commissions but this was much bigger so it was thrilling to work on it, a really neat experience. Although I'd be lying if there wasn´t some pressure present there on the back of my mind, since this was like the first new subclass since Acro which was years ago!
What software, tools and techniques do you use?
The softwares I use for modeling are Blender to work on the mesh itself and Zbrush to do the sculpting, meanwhile at the moment for what would be the texturing I use Substance Painter mainly with something like Photoshop or Gimp after that for minor tweaks.
When making mutations I first ask myself, what do I want to achieve with the item/s in question? Based on that I look for references I would use for the project in question, both for the model and texture. This can be from movies, paleoart, games, even modern day fauna. As an example, for the Novus mutations (New Generations) I like to use skeletals in order to get more accurate proportions.
Do you have a particular workshop item you're proud of?
Oh there's no contest here, the Emu. The absolute absurdity of that made me fell like a mad scientist while creating it. I had LOTS of fun making this bird...
Lastly, is there anything you're working on that you'd like to share?
Hehe, there's a couple things...
Thanks again to MrTroodon for chatting with us!
With the release of the winter update later this month, almost all of the dinosaur classes will be receiving brand new high resolution base textures as part of a visual refresh to the game as a whole.
MrTroodon has done an excellent job bringing the classic Primal dinosaurs into the current decade and we can't wait for you to play with them! If you'd like to see more from MrTroodon, check the links below..
https://twitter.com/Mr_Troodon