Modeling for 3rd Person games

J0NNYquid

Hey guys, I've got a few questions about making assets that will be viewed via 3rd person camera as opposed to 1st person. As you would be able to tell from my portfolio, I've only really made assets for presentation purposes. I've just signed a contract to do some remote work for a studio, and I will be primarily be making weapons and assets for their upcoming 3rd person shooter game.

My questions are:

1. Are there any major things I should keep in mind when modeling for 3rd person games? or any tips/tricks you guys have picked up over the years that you use when modeling for 3rd person games?

2. Does this change the process of texturing/normal mapping, etc., greatly, being that you won't be seeing things as up close and personal?

3. I know enough not to ask, "what should my polycount be?" but I would like to know about how many fewer poly's there are per item. Say I'm making an asset that would normally be around 1500 polys, will that change drastically for 3rd person? Same goes for texture sizes.

This has the potential to be my "foot in the door" moment as far as getting into the industry goes, so any help is greatly appreciated.

Evil raz

This is something I too want to learn. It seems interesting.

I am going to watch this thread.

pior

I've just signed a contract to do some remote work for a studio

Well here's your answer! Simply ask them for their technical guidelines and asset creation "bible". If they hire contractors they should have all that ready for you.

AlexLeighton

There's lots of variables to consider here. How much control of the camera will the player have? Is there going to be any situation where the player will be able to back into a corner and see characters and weapons up close?

GKWill

I'd just assume that you'd focus more on the back of the character, since that's what the player will spend most of his time gawking at.

J0NNYquid

@pior This studio is brand new, as in, I'm one of the first people that has worked there lol. (I suspect this is the reason they hired someone as noobish as me). They're going to be basing their timeline/poly budgets off of some of the work I'll be doing initially so I really want to make sure I've got a good idea of where things should be before I start.

@AlexLeighton excellent questions, I will definitely be asking them.

Donavonyoung

I have worked on an isometric 3RD person game, so this may or may not help. I was also in the same situation as it being a new studio. When it came to characters, I gave them 3 versions of the main character with different polycounts. It wasn't terribly difficult to produce them. Then I tested each one in the environment and gave them the results on performance vs. graphic quality.

Ghostscape

The most important thing to remember for any type of game is to pay attention to the camera location and view the work through the camera as often as possible.

You say you're making a third person game but you don't mention what you're working on - environment vs character etc.

J0NNYquid

@Donavonyoung Thanks, I'll keep that in mind when I'm modeling!

@Ghostscape In the original post I said I'll be making primarily weapons and environment assets.

Justin Meisse

From my MMO experience: players are less likely to look at the ceiling with an mmo styled 3rd person camera, I'm not saying you should neglect the ceiling but think twice before spending time on putting super awesome details in.

Another thing to avoid are spiral staircases and excessive use of switchback staircases, it annoys players.

J0NNYquid

@Justin Awesome. This is just the type of thing I'm looking for. I wouldn't have though about things like the ceilings or the stairs, excellent tips. Thank you.

Ghostscape

Ah, sorry I missed that the first time. For weapons, you're typically viewing them from behind the right shoulder, so the top/right side of the weapon is the most important area. Frequently you'll need to make adjustments to the lengths of certain parts of the weapon to get them to read better - snub-nosed guns don't read well because the barrel doesn't extend past the receiver, etc.

For a current-gen game you can easily go higher than 1500 triangles if you need to do so.

J0NNYquid

@Ghostscape Excellent tips, didn't know that about changing the length on some weapons, but it makes a ton of sense. Thanks.

J0NNYquid

Another question for you guys. So correct me if I'm wrong at any point here, but if you're modeling in Max, which I am, 96 units is equal to 6 foot tall? So 16 units is equal to 1 foot. My question is should I go through the trouble of converting the weapon/asset dimensions to generic units, so the weapons match their real life dimensions, or is that something that is handled elsewhere or by someone else? Is it as easy as just changing the unit setup, am I worrying about nothing?

gsokol

J0NNYquid wrote: »

Another question for you guys. So correct me if I'm wrong at any point here, but if you're modeling in Max, which I am, 96 units is equal to 6 foot tall? So 16 units is equal to 1 foot. My question is should I go through the trouble of converting the weapon/asset dimensions to generic units, so the weapons match their real life dimensions, or is that something that is handled elsewhere or by someone else? Is it as easy as just changing the unit setup, am I worrying about nothing?

Generally you are going to want to be working in the correct units for the project.

is this for Unreal then? In Unreal Units, yes 96 units is about 6 feet tall.