Could I get some advice? Essential skills for a game designer
polygon
EDIT: Ahhh I can't change the title. I meant to write "Modeling for video games"
Hello again,
So I'm writing another article, this one talking about what it's like to be a game modeler. I wrote one about what it's like to model for industrial design, but I wanted to ask the experts here on Polycount for their thoughts on the outline I've drawn up.
I'm trying to tell people about modeling for game design by informing them of some of it's background, then going into the core skills that are necessary to become a successful game modeler.
This is supposed to be a general article that would be read by beginning game modelers as well as even experienced industrial designers or engineers.
Because of this, I've categorized three disciplines that could be considered separate (animation, texturing, modeling) as a single unit for not only brevity's sake but also because I think from the outside perspective, all those could be considered part of the same package.
I'd like to publish this tomorrow so if anyone has any additions or feedback I would appreciate hearing it before then!
I'm looking at the software section and it feels pretty sparse - most notably in free, easy to use software. Also, should I include Lightwave or Sketchup on this list?
Cheers!
Hello again,
So I'm writing another article, this one talking about what it's like to be a game modeler. I wrote one about what it's like to model for industrial design, but I wanted to ask the experts here on Polycount for their thoughts on the outline I've drawn up.
I'm trying to tell people about modeling for game design by informing them of some of it's background, then going into the core skills that are necessary to become a successful game modeler.
This is supposed to be a general article that would be read by beginning game modelers as well as even experienced industrial designers or engineers.
Because of this, I've categorized three disciplines that could be considered separate (animation, texturing, modeling) as a single unit for not only brevity's sake but also because I think from the outside perspective, all those could be considered part of the same package.
I'd like to publish this tomorrow so if anyone has any additions or feedback I would appreciate hearing it before then!
Game Designer.
Video game modeling lies near the heart of popular culture today - many of the characters you know and love like Mario, Master Chief, or Ratchet from Ratchet & Clank are most often seen as 3D game models.
3D games at home didnt start until 1991, with the release of Catacomb 3-D, the precursor to Wolfenstein 3D, which was the precursor to the now (in)famous Doom. All three were developed by John Carmack and the team at id software.
Full real-time 3D rendering technology didnt exist until 1996, with the release of Quake, also developed by id. The engine and many others like it were licensed out to other companies developing their own games, and from there the game industry has exploded in both capacity and vision, with games now requiring huge teams, sometimes more than a hundred people strong.
Game modelers make the 3d models that you see when you play video games. These models are optimized for real-time rendering. That means that all the lighting, physics, and animation is computed as you play the game. As you can imagine, this requires a lot of processing power, so one of the main jobs of the game modeler is finding tricks and techniques to give the illusion of detail to maintain rendering speed and efficiency.
Currently and in the past, video game modelers have designed for virtual environments that may or may not have any connection with the real world. However as computers get more advanced, games are able to simulate more and more realistic real-world behavior, such as more realistic lighting and more detailed physics. It may only be a matter of time until industrial designers are previewing their products in virtual game worlds.
Skills:
1) Efficiency in modeling - Both in speed, so you can make models look really good really fast, and techniques, to make sure they render quickly
2) How objects relate to each other in scale - So you can judge how different objects will interact in the game world, a dimensionless space
3) Being able to create virtual worlds to explore - knowing how to set up lighting, texturing, and animations all come together to create immersive environments
4) Able to create a wide variety of objects - so that it doesnt matter if its a hammer or a person, you should be able to do at least a bit of both
Why everyone should learn at least some of these skills:
- They make you a better modeler, and reinforce a focus on efficient forms communicating a lot more
- They improve your visual communication skills by allowing you to make more realistic demonstration shots
- virtual environments are a great way to show off your idea
software requirements:
- Fast workflows, easily manipulable geometry
- the ability to texture and animate models
- the ability to export to a wide range of formats
commonly used software and modeling approaches:
Direct modeling with some parametric modeling in programs like 3DS Max. also lots of sculpting for creating high resolution models for texture baking
software:
- Maya: Subdivision/Polygon/NURBS - Direct Modeling
- 3DS Max: Subdivision/Polygon/NURBS - Direct/Parametric Modeling
- modo: Subdivision/Polygon - Direct Modeling
- Blender: Subdivision/Polygon - Direct Modeling
- Cinema 4D (NURBS/Polygons/Subdivision) - Direct modeling/Parametric Modeling
- ZBrush: Polygons - Sculpting
- Sculptris: Polygons - Sculpting
- 3D Coat: Voxels - Sculpting
- Mudbox: Polygons - Sculpting
- MakeHuman (Subdivison) - Pre-built character modeling
I'm looking at the software section and it feels pretty sparse - most notably in free, easy to use software. Also, should I include Lightwave or Sketchup on this list?
Cheers!
Replies
Topogun 2: Retopology and Baking tools
xNormal : Baking Tool
Some of those tools are also pretty much almost all in one package.
I don't know about the term direct modeling. I usually use Box Modeling, if anything. But that's just me.
You could say Sculptris and Blender are free.
What about Mari, Poser, and a few others...
What's the goal of the article, btw ?
I didn't play Doom or Quake so I don't know, but are they 3d models ? Or are they 2d sprite ? You might want to make sure on that. There's a difference between faking 3d and real one. Wolfenstein is 2d sprite, I think. Tomb Raider, on the other hand, is 3d.
The goal of the article is to introduce core concepts and skills necessary to be a game modeler, while at the same time introducing those ideas in a way that people who don't do game modeling can pick them up and apply them to what they're doing.
I think there's an opportunity in the future to get into the nitty gritty of things like normal maps, bones, ik, etc, but for now this is just a "3d modeling for games is good to learn because X".
Doom is 2D models but with a 3D environment (I think - I'll do some more research to be sure). We didn't get 3D models until quake.
Direct modeling is vs. parametric modeling. I wrote about the two in one of my previous articles on software considerations. Box modeling, sculpting, and edge modeling are all forms of direct modeling, where users drag control points around manually to adjust the object's shape. Parametric modeling is where modeling tasks are performed via functions. It's similar to how modifiers work in 3DS Max, but I'm most used to it when it's employed in CAD modeling. Check out SolidWorks for a good example.
I mentioned Blender and Sculptris being free in that previous article, but maybe it bares repeating.
Mari's trailer mostly concentrates on CG work; is it used in game design? I know Poser has kind of a bad rep amongst artists so I'm not sure about recommending it to people. (So much Poser porn on DA :poly122:). Would love to hear more people weigh in on this.
- While games like Doom and Duke Nukem3D are seemingly "3D" games, they are not made of polygons. Besides the characters and props being sprites, the maps themselves are a mere projection of a 2D layout, which is the reason why there is no way to walk under a staircase in these games.
- On the following segment :
In medium to large studios, lighting and animations are not taken care of by the modeler and are very distinct areas of expertise. It is however quite common for modeling and texturing to be taken care of by the same person. Of course, the smaller the studio gets, the more hats one is likely to wear.
- Lastly, about that part :
This has actually been possible for quite a while, and is completely within the range of CG artists today. The reason why it doesn't happen often is that modelers specialized in product modeling rarely have the skillset required to do so (that is to say : lowpoly modeling and retopology techniques ; optimized UV mapping ; knowledge of texture-based material definition ; and overall, game engine knowledge). But most importantly, there is not much of a point in doing so, since it takes time and doesn't really benefit the product design pipeline in the first place, except for specific cases like the Forza Motorsport showroom mode for instance.
However if proper game optimisation is not a concern it is perfectly possible to export a parametric model to polygons and apply simple materials to the different parts in something like UDK, Unity or Marmoset. This doesn't take much time at all and is pretty straightforward to do.
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