Archives of 34Bit:

Friday, August 31, 2012

Vograk Hammerfist

I just finished up on this project yesterday and ended another quarter at SCAD.  I put a lot of time and energy in this project; I re-did the base concept several times, and once more even after locking the look down.  I had several re-packs with the UVs.  At first I had add the elements on one layout, but then I decided to break the model up into three UV sets.  The body, the beard, and the accessories of the armor were all separated into different UVs and textures.  This helped future proof this model, and turn it into a modular dwarf generator.  Different beards, different armor accents equals an army of dwarfs. Se here is the end result from the course, but I will continue to work with Vograk and get him in a game, I do have that ogre for him to battle.  But I do think I need a couple more assets before I move on to the game play.  I think a good goblin character may be in the works.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Character Development Project

I have been working on a project for my Character Development class for my MFA, and by the name of the class if kinda gives away the secret.  I am taking a rest from the game dev for a moment and am really trying to flesh out an awesome character.  I decided to do a dwarf character and really have some fun with both the character's personality and design.  I have just completed the model, so now it is time to unwrap and start the sculpts.  I will update once I get it finished, but for now here are some of the concepts for Vograk Hammerfist.

At first I ended up creating 4 different suits of armor.  I just tried to get some different styles and designs on the character to see what they looked like.  I was leaning to the Roman style armor at first.  But then one of
my classmates gave me the idea of adding in a Viking feel to the armor because he felt it fit the dwarf, and I agreed.  So I added some more features to the Roman style armor to add in a touch of Celtic / Norse feel to the armor.  I also added in his shooting glasses as a pair of flip down goggles off his helmet.  A feature that added a nice touch and brought across some of his personality and character traits.  And this brought the armor count up to five.  But it got better and worth the extra effort.



I also did some color tests to see how the armor was working out with some color added to the mix.  I was thinking the brown / orange armor would work will with the characters blue skin tones.













The next morning after submitting this stage of the project, I realized that I did not include a huge detail about the character.  He is supposed to be a prestigious guard and had eagle / bird motif armor to match the gig.  But that was no where to be found in my design.  Okay,... here come the 6th set of armor, and by far the coolest.  It was a lot of extra effort but well worth it in the end.  Here is Vograk's model sheet, and just so
we are all one the same page... yes that is a gun / axe, well actually it is a blunderbuss and an axe.

The 3D model has gone smoothly, no real hiccups there.  I did come dangerously close to the courses poly limit though.  We had 16,000 tris to work with, and I used about 15,700 tris.  There are plenty of ploys I can reduce, but for now I will hold back at least until after the sculpt.




The checker boxes are 6" x 6" squares to give you an idea of scale.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Skin Weights Diagram

As requested by a student here is an image that shows the skin/bind weights on a humanoid character.  Not every character will follow the same weights, but this image can be used as a guideline to help get you started.  Remember it really only matters how it looks when it is moving, so if your weight distribution is not exactly like mine that is okay and expected.