Making a game-ready character with multiple subtools
vertex
Hi everyone
Im starting to make a game with a group of people. I have been assigned to do everything from concept to sculpting to retopologizing characters, and make them nice and ready to be rigged.
So I am working on this character in Zbrush atm, and he needs some armor and stuff, ofc I make new subtools and all that.
But I just started wondering, when I have retopologized all the parts, made UVs and all that, is it okay to send the rigger a character with 8-14 different parts? Or would you recommend doing some kind of merging?
Also, what do you do with meshes that cant be seen? Right now he has a shirt on, but he also have bare skin underneath the shirt, should I just delete his torso? I just feel like stuff right here start to go wrong.
Any links to some tuts that could help or got any advice yourself?
Thansk beforehand!
Im starting to make a game with a group of people. I have been assigned to do everything from concept to sculpting to retopologizing characters, and make them nice and ready to be rigged.
So I am working on this character in Zbrush atm, and he needs some armor and stuff, ofc I make new subtools and all that.
But I just started wondering, when I have retopologized all the parts, made UVs and all that, is it okay to send the rigger a character with 8-14 different parts? Or would you recommend doing some kind of merging?
Also, what do you do with meshes that cant be seen? Right now he has a shirt on, but he also have bare skin underneath the shirt, should I just delete his torso? I just feel like stuff right here start to go wrong.
Any links to some tuts that could help or got any advice yourself?
Thansk beforehand!
Replies
"So I am working on this character in Zbrush atm, and he needs some armor and stuff, ofc I make new subtools and all that."
Ofc ofc.
I'll cut straight to the chase here : don't do that. As in : do yourself a huge favor and leave Zbrush aside for now. You need to realise that whatever you do in Zbrush (that is to say : fine surface details) will merely represent about 5% of the character you are working on.
There is of course some value in exploring the look and art style of your project through sculpts ; but when it comes to actually putting stuff in the game, and based on your questions, you have much more important things to figure out first.
Here's the plan :
Stop any sculpting you are currently doing, and built some simple gear models technically representative of what the game will be using (mostly in terms of density. You can ignore UVs and textures for now). Start the discussion with the game designer, programmer, rigger and animator about what gear you need and how they are supposed to be combined. Adjust your simple models accordingly. Figure all this out practically with the rigger. Get a full character up and running in the game, with gear working as it should.
Then, and only then, will be a good time to open Zbrush again.
Or ...
Refactor your game design so that it doesn't require any gear swapping.
Just joined to post my own issue on this forum but was reading a few threads and saw your post, you are saying leave Zbrush and focus on the armour, what program would you be suggesting he is using to do that?
I looking to start a career in 3D modelling for games and have been using Zbrush to train on but also will be using Maya down the line, wondering what other programs would be the mainstream ones and what you were thinking he is using?
blender, modo, maya, max they are all fine with their own set of strengths and weaknesses
We have been working on the project for 6 months, we have made levels, we know the lore and so on. We are at a part, where we need playable characters in the game. We have some dummies in it now to test abilities and such.
The game is going to be something like Smite, Heroes of the storm and league of legends, in the sense of you select are character to play. So there aint going to be any clothing customization, I guess in the long run we make skins and such, but thats just making a new model with the same shape so it fits the same skeleton.
I am so sorry I didnt specify this, I didnt expect to get answers like that so I kept it short.
I just wanted to ask a specific question about this, and I said Im asking somewhere else not because "Until Im getting the answer I want" (Btw, rude) but so I could get an answer to my question.
I have downloaded overwatch characters to see how they were made, but they were actually the reason I started to wonder about this. So I dont think downloading Dota characters will do any different (well, maybe I haven't done it)
So if you want to keep telling me how to do the whole pipeline, then save your fingers from typing, I can't use that, I know it. But thanks for your advice and wanting to help, Im sure you have great CV's and know a lot, so sorry for wasting your time. Hence why, Im asking somewhere else then.
But as to why Im writing here, is because I have doubts if its fine to give the rigger a model with 12 parts (when it has been retopped , UV'et and mapped.) Or if I should first do what I can to "weld" most of the parts together? Would you also recommend deleting his hands inside the gloves, since we are never going to see his hands anyway (And also, would you delete the hands while sculpting, or wait till you have made the retopped model?)
Okay, lets say you are going to make a human male, with a trench coat, pants, a chest plate, boots and gloves. What would you do? Remove his whole body since its covered in cloth (except neck and head) and weld or merge all the parts together? I would myself delete the insides to reduce the amount of faces. But Im curious as to what you others do. I have tried looking at tutorials, I even have a plural sight account, but its mostly just monsters that end up being 1 mesh anyway(2 with eyes), or others just skip that part.
Jesus this became long, apologies. What would you recommend? What do you do?
If you have any links to guides or video tutorials I will happily see them.
Sorry for seeming rude, I was just a bit annoyed.
You will never find a (well built, professionally crafted) game character with hands and thin gloves built as two separate, floaty, interpenetrating parts. Therefore there is no reason for you to do that either (the fingers would all clip with the gloves on top of them, and cross sections would not match). You rigger will tell you many detailled horror stories as to why this setup would be problematic - ask him about it, he'll tell you !
Second question if it can't be seen it should be removed to free up resources for things that can be seen.
Alright, thanks for your help everybody, sorry for the misunderstanding, ill try out some stuff now.
https://youtu.be/NGzDI2wUqf0?t=32m51s
(Skip to 32:50 if the link doesn't do it automatically)