Low-Poly (sub-1000 tris) character model hands for FPS blend shapes?

Oblivion2500

I'm making a low-poly character for a game that is less than 1000 tri-polygons. The character will have low-poly hands. How did games back in the late 90s like UT99 or Quake 3 do hand animations? Blend shapes? The character is going to use a gripping pose when holding weapons and open/relaxed when not holding a weapon. Do I use blend shapes for this? Is this achievable for UE4 from Maya?

Here's a screenshot of the hand:

Brian "Panda" Choi

Rig it.

If you're attempting to animate that much with blend shapes, you're going to have a heck of a time making ALL those blendshapes.

Oblivion2500

Brian "Panda" Choi said:

Rig it.

If you're attempting to animate that much with blend shapes, you're going to have a heck of a time making ALL those blendshapes.

That makes more sense. Any tips on rigging low-poly characters with low-poly hands? Do I just make a bone for each "finger" (basically just two fingers bones & thumb bone for this hand)? Something that can be easily transferable to UE4?

Brian "Panda" Choi

Start here:
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Animation#Rigging

I can say right now, your topology is not going to support proper deformation of the fingers.  Wrist, same issues if it were to do a twist or bend.  I would check this across the mesh as well if this is the quality you have here for the hands.

Oblivion2500

Brian "Panda" Choi said:

Start here:
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Animation#Rigging

I can say right now, your topology is not going to support proper deformation of the fingers.  Wrist, same issues if it were to do a twist or bend.  I would check this across the mesh as well if this is the quality you have here for the hands.

So far the whole body is good to go for rigging except for the hand, I already made a rig and animated it with some idle animation and crouching animation. The hand is just static and moves along with the arm. I'm trying to make the game be as if it was made in 90's. Do you know of any examples of games or projects that use low poly hands with rigs? I was just looking at Unreal Tournament (1999) and each character got even lower polygon hands than my model but they still animated from "open/relaxed hand" to grip and that it. 

Brian "Panda" Choi

Look for mobile game art assets.