A truly talented 3D model and graphic artist

What do you do when you're not doing this?

I 3d model and do graphic design work, as well as play PZ relentlessly, and sometimes work on pz tile or Map mods! I also have a very healthy relationship with the show It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia [hence the name. It's not an obsession I stg]

Did you have any of these skills before Zomboid, or did you learn through developing mods/frameworks?

I've been messing around in photoshop and other graphical software's since I was a little kid, so I am very comfortable in the environments used to create things for PZ.

How long have you been at it, and what was the first thing you shipped that actually worked for Zomboid?

I am still new to zomboid modding and don't have many self published works out there yet. I have many personal projects in the works though. Map mods I've worked on in free time to learn mapping and to have some special things for my own personal SP playthroughs. Maybe some day I will bring one or more of these maps to a finished release state. But the amount of work that goes into each map can take weeks, even months to get right. And I am a bit of a perfectionist so I will wait to release things until it's just how I want it.

What made you go from "I play this game" to "I'm going to make something for this game"?

After playing this game for some time and seeing all the beautiful mods creators put out for the community, knowing this game was mostly done via 2d pixel art framework, and having a background in working in photoshop my entire life, it seemed like something I was capable of trying out. So I got curious about tile making and map making and just started deep diving. Next thing I knew I was offering my time up to ATF admins, and the rest is history.

Walk me through your setup. What tools/software/process do you use?

I started just using photoshop and drawing out the furniture/wall tiles by hand. Through doing more and more tiles though, I started wondering if it wouldnt be easier for me to set up a 3d rendered environment, using the same rules as zomboid [isometric rendering set at a particular angle] and use that to make my furniture shapes mor complex and have nicer lighting values on them, all while keeping the final renders low poly/low pixel like the game to match the visual style more. I now use a combination of 3d and 2d elements to make my tiles as I like this process more!

Where does an idea start for you? A new potential game mechanic, a bug, a screenshot in your head? Just wanting to do something cool?

I see this game for what it is and the potential it has. Through modding, this game could literally be anything, any game we want it to be. And that idea alone entices me to try new things to push this game in different directions and see what sticks!

How many hours goes into your work? Per mod, per week, per month, however you want to describe it.

A single tile can take anywhere from a couple minutes to do, to entire days/weeks depending on how complex the tile is. For instance, if I'm just making a simple wall tile, it's as easy as loading up a tile template I have in photoshop and painting the wall out with pixels. However when I was making the shops for After the Falls Economy mod, each shop took several full days of work as I had to rough draft them out, get approval/suggestions from a board of people, 3d model a bunch of items and the base shop parts, position everything how I wanted it, paint it up, render the scenes, and then bring the into photo shop to position them and add stuff/re-touch/paint over them for the final look. Then after that they still need to be split into the weird way PZ reads tiles. So it really is dependent on a multitude of factors. Complexity of the objects you are making being the biggest one!

Was there ever a time you spent weeks working on something just to throw it out?

Nothing digital is ever truly thrown out. That being said I have spent months working on things before only to come to a brick wall on things I don't know how to resolve [or general annoyances with how PZ works in general] that push back and make me stop. It's a frustration with creating anything really.

What's the part of your work nobody notices but you're proudest of?

If I had to pick something recent it would be the fact that the Economy shop tiles are 3d rendered, giving them better lighting and shadow effects than normal 2d tiles. It allows things to look a lil more real/believable in this low-ish-rez fake zombie survival sims game!

What's the most useful thing a player or the community has ever done for you?

Gus Puffy has personally helped me. He came over and saved my cat from a burning tree and also cured my mothers illnesses. I also saw him personally save all babies. All of them.

What's the most damaging or discouraging thing a player or the community has ever done to you?

Players in the PZ community, just like with any community, can show toxic sides and have negative effects on others. I am grateful that so far none of that has been heavily directed at me. The community really can show a dark side though sometimes and I'd say they really should think of the fact mod makers are just people with interests doing stuff they think might make the game cooler. It'd be great if we didn't scare good people like that away from creating great mods!

What should real support actually look like?

Encouragement. Constructive [and warranted] Criticism. Offering to help. Advice from professionals. And ofc monetary donations are always good for creators. If you see a mod creator, and you've used their mods in every play-through you've played, and you see they got a patreon or ko-fi or something. I'm not saying go broke for anyone, but if you are able to help out even a little, it helps mod authors justify all the work they do to know that sometimes they get little kick-backs from the work they did!

What tool or resource is missing that someone should build?

It would be cool if there was 1 single unified social network for the PZ community to network, share ideas, look for players to group with, look for servers and what they offer, and offer a safe space for people to discuss PZ problems/concerns with the MP community members. Something that is just for PZ and not linked through discord ideally

What mod author is underappreciated or should be known?

That depends on how much time you have to talk about our lord and savior, Gus Puffy? The person who is almost single handedly taking it upon themselves to burn themselves on the cross of trying to solve all the issues of why PZ MP doesn't run as it could, and how to make optimizations in nearly every single area the devs failed to consider for MP interactions.

What needs to change in the way players, server owners, or the community in general treat mod authors?

Players need to remember mod authors are humans with lives and do not have any obligation to update their mods for any reason whatsoever. What they make they make for fun and to put something interesting out there. But never take that free work for granted. Server owners could do well to remember all the above as well as server owners should be more aware of their communities at large, and what effect can come from allowing bad actors to remain in said communities. These communities survive only because the constant work of the admin teams surrounding them and because of the modders who make the game more playable.