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and 3D Modeling

for Game Artists

David Franson

The Premier Press logo and related trade dress are trademarks of Premier Press, and may not

be used without written permission.

Publisher:Stacy L Hiquet

Marketing Manager: Heather Hurley

Acquisitions Editor:Emi Smith

Series Editor:André LaMothe

Project Editor:Estelle Manticas

Technical Reviewer:Lorenzo Phillips

Copy Editor: Kate Welsh

Interior Layout:Marian Hartsough

Cover Designer:Mike Tanamachi

Indexer: Sharon Shock

Proofreader:Sandy Doell

Acrobat, Reader, and Photoshop are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated Discreet is a division

of Autodesk, Inc., 3d studio max, 3D Studio VIZ, character studio, fire, flame, flint, frost, inferno, Lightscape, smoke, stream, and wire are registered trademarks, and Discreet, 3ds max, backdraft, combustion, jobnet, and sparks are trademarks of Autodesk Inc./Discreet Logic Inc in the USA and/or other countries mental ray is a registered trademark of mental images GmbH & Co KG Vecta3D-MAX is a trademark of IdeaWorks3D, Ltd All other brand names, product names, or trade- marks belong to their respective holders (c) Copyright 2002 Autodesk, Inc All rights reserved All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Important: Premier Press cannot provide software support Please contact the appropriate software

manufacturer’s technical support line or Web site for assistance.

Premier Press and the author have attempted throughout this book to distinguish proprietary marks from descriptive terms by following the capitalization style used by the manufacturer.

trade-Information contained in this book has been obtained by Premier Press from sources believed to be reliable However, because of the possibility of human or mechanical error by our sources, Premier Press, or others, the Publisher does not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy, or completeness of any information and is not responsible for any errors or omissions or the results obtained from use of such information Readers should be particularly aware of the fact that the Internet is an ever-chang- ing entity Some facts may have changed since this book went to press.

ISBN: 1-931841-33-0

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2001097576

Printed in the United States of America

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Premier Press, a division of Course Technology

2645 Erie Avenue, Suite 41 Cincinnati, Ohio 452081

and supportive people in my life

I love you both!

There were so many people involved with this book, I don’t know where to start.But here goes: The first and foremost thanks goes to André LaMothe His influ-ential presence got me into the game industry I actually flew out to California toattend the Game Developer’s Conference looking to have him sign my copy of his

Tricks of the Game Programming Gurus, but in seeking him out I instead found the

editors at Premier Press, who enticed me to become an author André is the SeriesEditor for Premier, a leader in the game industry, and a true genius Thanks, André.Thanks to Emi Smith, my acquisitions editor, who is one of the driving forces atPremier and is a friend at the same time To Kate Welsh, my copy editor and theEnglish master who made my text beautiful Next goes to Estelle Manticas, myProject Editor: thank you for your patience, for being a friend, and for being thesister I’ve never had Without you I’d be lazy and deadlines wouldn’t have beenmet! To Marian Hartsough, the layout designer — how exactly did you do it, putting

up with me while laying out over a thousand of my images? To Lorenzo Phillips, mytechnical editor, a knowledgeable and kind person, thank you so much

To Lars Ricaldi, for doing the sketches in my book — you truly have an artistic ent Now let’s meet at the next GDC for cryin’ out loud! Oh yeah — does this alsomean I have to send you a signed copy of my book??

tal-Thanks to the Caligari Corporation; these people influenced me to get deep intothe 3D modeling industry Particular thanks got to Roman Ormandy for develop-ing such a lovely product, to Bibiana Gasparik, and to Norm Fortier, for tech-sup-porting me to the end

On the other side of the globe in New Zealand, thank you Right Hemisphere, andMary Alice Krayecki (hey, cup of coffee at the GDC ‘03, remember?) Your software

is totally unreal; job so well done!

Next, thanks go out to Adobe — to Gwyn Weisberg, and to all of the people therefor your unbelievable software I think the whole world agrees!

Finally to Discreet, specifically Liz Tan and Peter Nguyen: thank you so much foryour help in allowing me to incorporate 3D Studio Max into my book I can’tbelieve how prompt and courteous you were!

D AVID F RANSONhas been a professional in the field of networking, programming,and 2D and 3D computer graphics since 1990 In 2000, he resigned his position asInformation Technologies Director at one of the largest entertainment law firms inNew York City to pursue a full-time career in game development Between beingdistracted by flying remotely controlled airplanes and studying tae kwon do, artistryfor games has become the new passion in David’s life.

Introduction xx

Part One

3D Modeling with trueSpace 11

Unwrapping the UVs with DeepUV 95

Gun with DeepUV 97

with DeepUV 149

Part Three

Unwrapping the UVs with DeepUV 183

with Photoshop 193

with Photoshop 395

Chapter 11 Skinning the RF-9 Plasma Gun

with Deep Paint 3D and Photoshop 429

Chapter 12 Skinning the Slogre with Deep Paint 3D and Photoshop 475

Part Four Preparing Assets for Games with 3D Studio Max 509

Chapter 13 Making the RF-9 Plasma Gun Game-Ready with 3D Studio Max 511

Chapter 14 Making the Slogre Game-Ready with 3D Studio Max and Character Studio 535

Part Five Bringing It All Together 583

Chapter 15 Bringing Your Work into the Torque Game Engine 585

Postscript Finding Work as a Game Artist 593

Part Six Appendices 603

Appendix A A 3D Modeling Primer 605

Appendix B A 2D Graphics Primer 617

Appendix C Photoshop 6 Keyboard Shortcuts 631

Appendix D Glossary of 2D- and 3D-Related Terminology 639

Appendix E Related Web Sites and Links 657

Appendix F What’s on the CD-ROM? 669

Index 673

Letter from the Series Editor xviii

Introduction xx

Chapter 1 The History of Game Graphics 1

The Birth of the Computer Game Artist 3

The Arcade Moves Back Home 4

The Personal Computer Blossoms 5

The Gaming Revolution 6

The Graphics Revolution 7

Third-Stage Booster 9

The New Millennium 10

The Future of Computer Games 10

Part One 3D Modeling with trueSpace 11

Chapter 2 Getting Ready to Model : Concept Art 13

Importance of Sketch Art 14

The Asset Process 15

The Making of Two Compound Assets 17

In My Mind’s Eye:The Slogre 17

The RF-9 Plasma Gun 20

The Final Objective 24

Chapter 3 Modeling the RF-9 Plasma

Gun with trueSpace 6 25

An Overview 26

Setting Up the trueSpace 6 Environment 28

Changing the World and Object Units 28

Setting the Dynamic Rendering Mode 30

Texture Resolution 31

Keeping the Point Edit Tools Handy 31

Modeling Considerations 31

Modeling the RF-9 33

Step 1: Planning the Model’s Dimensions and Poly Count, and Creating a Reference Plane 34

Step 2: Build the Muzzle 37

Step 3: Build the Barrel 44

Step 4: Build the Grip 48

Step 5: Build the Hoops and Hose 53

Step 6: Optimize and Triangulate 58

Export the Model 63

Summary 64

Chapter 4 Modeling the Slogre Character with trueSpace 6 65

Modeling Pre-Considerations 68

Modeling the Slogre 69

Step 1: Build the Body 70

Step 2: Build the Leg 78

Step 3: Build the Arm 82

Step 4: Complete the Model (Well, Half of It) 88

Export the Mesh 93

Summary 93

Part Two

Unwrapping the UVs with DeepUV 95

Chapter 5 U-V Mapping the RF-9 Plasma Gun with DeepUV 97

Installing the Software 99

Introduction to DeepUV 1.0 100

Example: Unwrap the Widget 101

Automatic Mapping 102

Manual Mapping: Isolate and Unfold 104

Mapping the RF-9 110

Preparing the Model for Texturing 110

Plan of Attack 115

Step 1: Unwrap the Grip and Trigger 117

Step 2: Unwrap the Rear Hoop 127

Step 3: Unwrap the Barrel 133

Step 4: Unwrap the Front Hoop and Hose 138

Step 5: Unwrap the Muzzle 140

Step 6: Pack the Map 143

Step 7: Update the U-Vs 145

Summary 147

Chapter 6 U-V Mapping the Slogre with DeepUV 149

Completing the Slogre Model in 3D Studio Max 5 151

Optimize the Mesh 152

Edit the Mesh 152

Clone and Attach 155

Add Some Tusks 157

Smooth Out the Bumps 158

Unwrap the Slogre’s U-Vs 160

Step 1: Unwrap the Legs 160

Step 2: Unwrap the Arms 169

Step 3: Unwrap the Head and Body 175

Pack the Map 180

Update and View the Results in Max 180

Summary 182

Part Three Unwrapping the UVs with DeepUV 183

Chapter 7 Game Texturing 185

Introduction to Game Texturing 186

Types of Textures 186

Hand-Drawn Textures 187

Photo-Based Textures 188

Compositing Textures 189

Seamless Textures 190

Animated Textures 191

Summary 191

Chapter 8 Inorganic Texture Tutorials with Photoshop 193

Texture Creation 195

Brick Textures 196

Brick Procedure #1: From Scratch 197

Brick Procedure #2: From an Existing Image 203

Brick Procedure #3: A Quick Composite (Yeah, Right) 206

Cement Textures 219

Plain and Boring Cement 219

Not So Plain and Boring Cement 222

Rock and Stone Textures 229

Mineral Rock 229

Granite 233

Sandstone 236

Hot Lava 243

Cold Lava 248

Marble 249

Asphalt 256

Stone Wall Set 264

Metal 277

Basic Metal 278

Shiny Metal 279

Metal from an Image 281

Rusted Metal 287

Diamond-Plated Metal 298

Peeling Paint on Metal 302

Metal Panels (and Spaceship Hulls) 306

Pipes,Wires, Rivets, and Screws 311

Wires 318

And the Rest 325

Wood 325

Glass 332

Decals 334

Chapter 9 Advanced Texturing Examples 353

Wood Crate with Explosives 354

A Quick Note on the Crate’s U-V Map 364

Medieval Castle/Haunted House Gate 365

High Tech 379

Time Counts 393

Summary 394

Chapter 10 Organic Texture Tutorials

with Photoshop 395

Skin and Bones 396

Lizard/Dinosaur Skin 397

Rhinoceros Skin 400

Bone (Using Displacement Maps 402

Torn Flesh 406

Clothing 413

Camouflage 413

Wrinkles (Using Displacement Maps) 417

Planetary Textures 419

Earth 419

Dry Lake Bed 422

Water 425

Summary 427

Chapter 11 Skinning the RF-9 Plasma Gun with Deep Paint 3D and Photoshop 429

Identifying the RF-9 431

Thoughts on Texturing 434

Texturing Techniques You’ll Use 434

Texturing the RF-9 435

Step 1: Linking the U-V Map to Deep Paint 3D and Photoshop 435

Step 2:Texturing the Hoops 443

Step 3:Texturing the Bottom Hose 450

Step 4:Texturing the Grip and Trigger 453

Step 5:Texturing the Barrel 459

Step 6:Texturing the Muzzle 469

Preparing the Map for 3D Studio Max 472

Summary 473

Chapter 12 Skinning the Slogre with Deep Paint 3D and Photoshop 475

Identifying the Slogre’s Body 477

Thoughts on Texturing 479

Texturing the Slogre 480

Step 1: Linking the U-V Map to Deep Paint 3D and Photoshop 480

Step 2:Texturing the Head 488

Step 3:Texturing the Arms, Legs, and Body 502

Step 4:Texturing the Feet and Hands 504

Step 5:Texturing the Cuffs 505

Clean Up 507

Preparing the Map for 3D Studio Max 507

Summary 508

Part Four Preparing Assets for Games with 3D Studio Max 509

Chapter 13 Making the RF-9 Plasma Gun Game-Ready with 3D Studio Max 511

Applying the Skin to the RF-9 513

Aligning the Pivot Point 515

Creating the Bounding Box 519

Adding and Manipulating Nodes 522

Embedding the Shape (for Torque Users) 524

Adding the Dummies 525

Exporting the RF-9 for the Torque Game Engine 527

Viewing the Model in Torque 528

Adding Levels of Detail (LODs) 529

Viewing the New Level of Detail in Torque 533

Tips for Exporting to Other Game Engines 533

Summary 534

Chapter 14 Making the Slogre Game-Ready with 3D Studio Max and Character Studio 535

Applying the Skin to the Slogre 537

Scaling and Aligning the Pivot Point 540

Scale the Mesh 540

Set the Pivot Point 543

Some Final Mesh Adjustments 545

Creating the Bounding Box 548

Preview in Torque 550

Exporting the Model 552

Viewing the Model 553

Bones, Skeletal Weighting, and Animating with Character Studio 554

How Character Studio Works 555

Adding and Attaching a Biped 556

Weighting the Model 569

Adding and Manipulating Dummy Nodes 575

Linking the Nodes 578

Create a Root Pose 579

Exporting and Viewing the Slogre in Torque 579

Levels of Detail (LODs) 581

Last Note on Other Game Engines 582

Summary 582

Part Five

Bringing It All Together 583

Chapter 15 Bringing Your Work into the Torque Game Engine 585

Playing Real Wars Using the Slogre and RF-9 586

Testing the Slogre 586

Locating the RF-9 Plasma Gun 587

Editing the World 588

Terrain Editor 588

Adding Other Objects 590

Texturing Buildings 590

Saving Your Modifications 592

The Last Word 592

Postscript Finding Work as a Game Artist 593

Getting a Job with a Game Company 594

Job Positions 596

Working on a Game-Development Team 599

Tools of the Trade 600

Working with Programmers 600

Postscript Finding Work as a Game Artist 593

Getting a Job with a Game Company 594

Job Positions 596

Working on a Game Development Team 599

Tools of the Trade 600

Working with Programmers 600

Part Six Appendices 603

Appendix D Glossary of 2D- and 3D-Related Terminology 639

Letter from the Series Editor

If you just picked this book up and are trying to decide whether it’scool, then let me tell you: it’s beyond cool In fact, there are words Iwould like to use to describe it that are illegal in most states, so I willrefrain

2D Artwork and 3D Modeling for Game Artists is the first book to really

bridge the gap between art and game design Most books about gameart are written by non-technical artists, or by non-engine programmers

We were lucky to find David, as he is a gifted artist and modeler and can

program as well I guarantee that there’s nothing like this book You’regoing to be blown away by the sheer amount of amazing material andgraphics in this book What’s more, this book includes step-by-stepannotated explanations of every single operation you will need to create2D art and 3D models for your games

The book starts out with a very cool historical review of game art; afterthat, it begins to show you how to storyboard an idea, something simple:

a plasma gun Then, step-by-step, every single detail of the design, art,and modeling of this weapon is detailed When you’re done with that,David takes you deeper and deeper into every single aspect of 2D artand 3D modeling for games The book is simply insane! Look at theTable of Contents right now — it’s just too good to be true: advancedtexturing, skinning, bones, character animation, advanced texturepreparation, putting everything together to create complete game readyassets with 3D Studio Max, and then dropping them into the TorqueEngine to see them run

I am primarily a technical person, but I’m also an artist; I can draw, 3Dmodel, do sound, design, and write But when you see someone withDavid’s talent then you realize who the real artist is! This book really

rocks, and it can only improve your skill set Nowhere but in 2D Artwork

and 3D Modeling for Game Artists will you find such a complete treatise on

2D artwork and 3D modeling for games or interactive media

Sincerely,

André LaMotheSeries Editor, Premier Game Development Series

Welcome to the wonderful world of graphic artistry and design for video

games! If you’re like me, you’ve taken a keen interest in learning how tocreate all of those cool graphics you’ve been seeing while perched behind your personal computer, Playstation, Nintendo, or Sega Well, that’s what this book is allabout

For the most part, the digital gaming art world encompasses a few primary gories: 2D texture and background creation, 3D modeling and animation, andlevel design We’ll be diving deep into the first two, then adding our hard-earnedwork to a live video game Level design, however, is subject for another bookentirely (don’t tempt me)! My intention with this book is to rev up your engine andget you saturated with many of the how-to’s of game artwork — with hopes that withyour natural creativity I’ll see your work in a hot game title in the future

cate-As a fairly creative person myself, I find it easy to quickly absorb artistic ideas thatget me going with tons of unique creations I don’t want this book to be anywherenear boring; rather, as you dig into each section I want you to feel that I’m givingyou some totally cool ideas But before you lay down a single pixel in your blank,eagerly awaiting image, you’ll need a heads-up on the required hardware and soft-ware you’ll need to have, and what you should be familiar with in order to accom-plish many of the tasks in this book On that note, read on, and I’ll make sure not

to conceal any secrets!

What You Need to Know

This book assumes one of the following:

■ You’re an aspiring video game artist with no graphical talent whatsoever

■ You have an aptitude for graphics and want to explore the field of videogame design

■ You have been creating computer graphics for a while but need directionwhen it comes to applying your talent in video games

Either way, I hope that at the very least you have a solid knowledge of the MicrosoftWindows 95, 98, Me, XP, or NT/NT2000 operating system environment This bookrequires lots of Ctrl+clicking, Alt+clicking, dragging-and-dropping, and whatnot,along with critical file saves and retrievals, dialog box interaction, all the intermedi-ate functions of general Windows operation If your Windows skills are a little rusty,please pick up a refresher course to help keep up.

I’m going to assume, however, that you don’t know much at all about the programsdiscussed in this book Even so, I won’t spend too much time teaching you eachprogram in its entirety Instead, I’ll cover procedures and examples that will behelpful to you when it comes to game

design Besides, I believe the bestway to learn is by doing Don’t thinkyou’ll be wallowing around in easysoup all of the time, however; aseach section progresses, I’ll demon-strate more and more complex tech-niques That way, even if you arealready familiar with the programbeing discussed, you might be able

to pick up some tricks, tips, or niques that are new to you

tech-What You Need to Have

First and foremost, you must have a computer (d’oh!), an IBM-compatible runningWindows 95 or (preferably) better For graphics development with 3D Studio Max,which we’ll use in Part IV, “Preparing Assets for Games with 3D Studio Max,” it’sbetter to run NT2000 or higher for stability and its OpenGL environment I usually

do my work and play games on Windows 98, however

As far as the machine itself, of course I’d love to see you driving the Lamborghini

of all computers, but most game artists (like me) usually don’t have that kind ofbudget Nowadays computers are so darn good that for under $1,000 you can get aPentium 4, 2+ GHz with 512MB RAM, a 128MB video card, and 60GB hard disk

space For what you’ll be doing, that’s ample Consider this: For development, I

have a PIV-1.7GHz with a GeForce 3 card and 512MB of RAMBUS memory Thissystem does what I want, but will slide off the deep end as the bigger and bettersoftware comes out

TIP

There are trueSpace and Photoshop tutorials located on this book’s CD-ROM that will help to introduce you to these programs I’ll cover modeling and tex- turing using these two powerful tools, so

I highly recommend that you check those out if you’re new to them.

Besides having a computer, you may find it comes in handy to have a graphicstablet when creating textures for your game environment Mine’s a Wacom 6×8that you can pick up for something like $250 Textures are a vital part of game art-work — the detailed images that are applied to walls, floors, and other 3D objectsthat give them the illusion of realism — and a graphics tablet makes hand-paintingthem much easier, since it’s much more like working with pen and paper.

Also, a digital camera is invaluable; if you’re going to texture or model anything, byall means go outside and take snapshots of the real thing This will help you keepthings looking realistic and acceptable In fact, many textures in games are compos-ites — that is, images derived from a photograph combined with artistic effects thatyou apply

When it comes to games and graphics, use this list when prioritizing what your tem should have, in order of importance:

sys-1 Video card with 3D acceleration.This is probably the most important feature

of a computer when playing games or making graphics and animations Yourcard should have a high-end processor and as much memory as you canafford — games store their textures and graphics in this lightning-fast mem-ory, and without it your system will appear slow My card has 128MB, and thegraphics are smooth and good (for now) If you invest in a brand-name cardlike a 3DLabs Wildcat or a card with a GeForce3+ chip onboard, you’re set.Also pay attention to the processing ability of the card’s graphics processingunit (GPU) — if the card has a fill rate of over a billion pixels per secondand/or a processing rate over 30-million triangles per second, you’ll tearyour graphics up!

2 Pentium III central processing unit (CPU) or better. Much of the newer 3Dsoftware and games can barely run on anything less than a PIII; I can barelyeven run 3D Studio Max 4 on my old P-II Again, it comes down to what youcan afford (and how much time you want to wait when rendering), but keep

in mind that even if you have the baddest video card around, it won’t make ahill of beans of a difference if your CPU is slow You have to strike a balance:

If your video card is fast and your CPU is slow, the computer will lag becausethe video card is waiting for the CPU to chew away on the data Conversely, ifyou’ve got a hot P-4 2GHz CPU and a lousy video card, things will appearvery fast but you won’t have nearly the resolution and/or color informationyou’d like

3 Computer memory.I think we’ve reached a bit of a plateau in the memorybusiness; the average system seems to have around 256 MB and does fine I’d

recommend that you have at least 512MB, however, because when you startdoing renderings and animations, you’ll find that memory speeds things up.Programs like trueSpace and 3D Studio Max are extremely math and graph-ics intensive; to aid in their processing, they use as much RAM as is available

to store temporary data Besides, memory has become fairly cheap

4 Monitor.After all, you’re a graphics person, and you need to see what you’redoing, right? Personally, I hate having to constantly scroll all over the place

to see my work The larger the monitor, the easier it is for you to see thing You should have, at minimum, a 17-inch screen; fortunately, monitorsizes are continuing to go up and the prices down I have an (now I’m going

every-to brag) NEC 21-inch monievery-tor; once you’ve worked with that for a while, youwant to cry any time you try to work on something smaller I can see fromhere to the moon with this thing I’ve also installed a second video card in

my system and hooked up a smaller 15-inch screen to that If you’re runningWindows 98/Me/Xp/NT2000, you can tell Windows to split up the desktop

across both screens, so you can see your work on one screen and have another

window open on the other screen Kind of neat, huh? This really helps mewhen I’m modeling, since I can put all my pilot windows on the smaller screen

5 Hard drive.Most computers purchased after 1998 have at least 10GB of diskspace If your hard drive is low on disk space, this will be a problem

Programs like Photoshop, which you’ll use extensively, cache out tons of porary data on the drive while you work; without free space, the program willslow to a halt, sometimes freezing your system Make sure that your systemhas a good 5GB free disk space after all your programs are installed, espe-cially since graphic images and animations pile up quick Hard drives are socheap nowadays anyway that it almost hurts — for $100, you can pick up a40GB drive, more than enough to contain all the programs you’ll need withplenty of space left over If you want some serious drive power, however, con-sider purchasing an Ultra160 SCSI card and drive combination — these twocomponents (most commonly purchased from Adaptec) make your datatranfers between your hard drive and the rest of your system absolutely rock

pic-7 Tape backup unit.I can’t tell you how important it is to back up your data!

As an artist, you’ll spend hours and hours creating and animating, sometimesjust one object or scene If your data isn’t backed up daily and your harddrive crashes, you risk losing your work, and, as a result, throwing your goodcomputer out a second-story window Backup units are somewhat cheap, and

I think spending $150 to save countless hours of work is worth it You can useyour CD-writer to back up the data effectively, but the advantage of the tapeunit is that the storage space is typically 10 to 20 times more than that of awritable CD I have a two-week library system, 10 tapes in all, in which Irotate the backup sets This way, if I need to restore work I’ve deleted or lost,

I can go back as far as two weeks ago and retrieve the data

8 Input devices.Having a tablet, camera, scanner, or any other device that willallow you to capture and process images is always helpful, but not necessary.They do, however, make your life easier and more productive, and at thesame time help you make your work more original

9 Software. The last, and most obvious thing you’ll need to have, are the grams required to perform your game art creations This book primarilyteaches the use of trueSpace, an excellent 3D modeling program with a pow-erful NURBS (non-uniform rational b-spline) interface for creating highlyrealistic organic models; DeepUV, for unwrapping and manipulating texturecoordinates on 3D models; Photoshop, one of the most powerful 2D art andimaging programs in the world, which we’ll use for the creation of textures;and 3D Studio Max, one of the most widely used modeling and animationsprograms in the gaming industry All of these programs are included on thisbook’s CD-ROM as demo versions

pro-Well, I hope this helps a little Remember, this is all about money and what you canafford I happen to be a computer professional as well, so over the years I’ve

amassed quite a bit of equipment (in fact, I can’t even see my desks anymore) Idon’t expect you to have a $15,000 system, but if you consider my list and priori-tize, you should be good to go — you can always add on or upgrade later on

How This Book Is Organized

This is a fairly large book because there’s so much material to cover and so many cooltutorials That said, I couldn’t possibly fit every technique the gaming industry uses

in 10 books, let alone one I’ve tried to arrange things so you can get your feet wetand gain some experience, with the hopes that you’ll set off in your own direction