Welcome to the first of our "Content Creator Spotlight" series, where we bring our best community content developers into focus to share their experience and advice about creating custom content for Primal Carnage: Extinction.
First up is perhaps our most prolific content creator. Kordak has created over 80 items and had dozens accepted into the game. We had a chat with him about his motivation, methods and he shares some advice for those looking to get into content creation.
Introduce yourself and your background for those in the community who might not know you
The name's Kordak. I was one of the people who followed the original Primal Carnage's development. Although I was not able to pre-order it, I did manage to buy and play it day one, and it's been a favorite since. However, there are probably a few veteran Primal Carnage players that might remember me under another name back then, as the Garry's Mod paleo-artist; Relentless Hunter.
The name "Kordak" came about the time when the orginal game dev team Lukewarm Media disbanded. The name was originally meant to be "Korak", the son of Tarzan from Edgar Rice Burroughs' book series, but I misspelled it by adding the "d" and it wasn't until about a month after that I realized my mistake. However I thought the new name rolled off the tongue nicely, so I kept it.
What got you into content creation for Primal Carnage Extinction? Have you had content creation experience in the past?
Within the forums of the original Primal Carnage there was a lot of Fan-made recolors of dinosaur skins. I didn't make any myself always did enjoy seeing them, and having our own skins in the game would have been awesome. However the concept of the Steam Workshop hadn't cemented itself yet; heck, I thought it was only for Garry's Mod at the time!So we all thought it would never happen. However when the Circle 5 team announced that Primal Carnage: Extinction was going to have Workshop support, that's when I knew it was finally my time to contribute to the Primal Carnage skin gallery.
However, Primal Carnage isn't the first time I made custom content for a game. Way back in the days were Zoo Tycoon 2 was new. Back then I had yet another name; Professor Nature (Yeah, yeah, Pokemon professor naming reference, kinda dumb looking back :p.) Anyway, I made quite a few fully custom-made animals back then for the game--not just mere reskins or the like; fully new entries in the game. I made several different mods for ZT2 in my early days, including all new endangerment status symbols for animals, which all the other mods thought was impossible back then. Others included verious animals; like green ostriches, ghost sharks, a yeti/bigfoot, a partially various mermaid that got cancelled because the model meshes disappeared, and a massive T-Rex species that would destroy the entire zoo if you didn't keep it happy...
...I was a bit of a mad scientist back then...and I suppose I still am... >:3
Where does your inspiration for your items come from?
Most of my skins comes from living animals for the most part. All my animal skin collections have a theme of being from a single continent (or the oceans in general with the Ocean Wonders) and that trend of mine started from after the Cheetah Dilo and Equus Rex were released. The Equus Rex in particular I liked--and is still one of my favorite skins even now--as it reminded me about a T-rex in a book I read as a kid. I can't remember the book but I do know that it was a zebra-striped rex in it just like the Equus Rex, red eyes and all.
Another side of my inspiration usually comes from nostalgia. Some such skins for example are the Desperado Rex and the Chaos Raptor trio. Those skins in particular were meant to emulate the feel of the dinosaurs from the Jurassic Park toyline back in the 90's. Since a wonderful time for action figure toys...
And the next side of my inspiration is what I make on a whim. What I often do when I'm not making skins is that I practice and experiment with colors and designs. Some of my custom skins are ones that I made on the spot while I was playing about and the idea for a design popped into my head; like the Havock Dilo and the Wendigo Raptor.
What software, tools and techniques do you use when making your item?
The only Software I've used so far is GIMP, a free software that does most of what Photoshop can do. I know a lot of people like using other programs like 3DCoat for making their skins, or use more expensive programs, but I like the better control I have from using a GIMP as I have learned how to use it over the years.
I also like GIMP for how easy it is to use my #1 technique for skinning; working in layers. Layering is essentially using multiple images stacked on top of each other to make one final, finished skin. I make each layer with a certain color or design. For example for my Pioneer Rex; the white in the underbelly is on the bottom layer, than comes the brown-red of the skin on top of that, finally being topped by the black of the back, snout, and armored scales. Each of my skins was made this way, so if I want to go back and adjust something, I don't have to mess with the other surrounding colors to do it. And GIMP layers can be toggled to be visible or not, so I can work underneath layers I've already painted with ease without having the layers above blocking my view.
Do you have a particular workshop item you're proud of?
The Jaguar Rex. My favorite dinosaur and my favorite big cat genetically combined into one apex predator? That one was a no brainer for me to do from day one. I wanted to be very careful when making that one, hence I used more jaguar images as reference points than I could count to get it as accurate as possible. Took a total of 12 hours to finish it. Worth it.
Is there any advice you want to offer to other potential content creators, or lessons that you've learned along the way that you want to share?
A: Make sure you are overlaying correctly. I had a lot of trouble starting out because I didn't properly layer my skins. I can't thank the Devs enough for helping me in pointing out what I had to do to fix my skins. This skinning video by Senoba also helped me a great deal in clearing up how the Editor works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMDvE8dKaBM
Anything new you're working on that you'd like to share with the community?
Well, this time of year is busy for me, so I haven't had has much time as earlier this year. However, I have started on the final Ocean Wonder skins. I do have a second trio set of Colored Chaos Raptors ready to be released. As well as two Rex skins I have yet to offically name that are very close to being done, but not quite ready to be released. For the time being, I've codenamed them as "Boreal" and "Ambusher".
I also have a secret series I've been working on since I started the Amazon Stories Collection back in March. I can't show you any of them yet, as I want them all to be released at once and I want to take extra time with them. But I will give their collection codename now: "Amber D.N.A."