How do skins in games like League of Legends work rig-wise?
polycounter lvl 2
So I'm trying to understand the workflow for this kind of games. I'll be using League of Legends as an example, but any game with skins like DotA, Fortnite, Brawl Stars, etc, would work.
As far as I understand there are 3 main type of skins:
- Chromas: they are no more than a recolor of an existing model, changing it's color palette. Some very old skins seem to go as far as changing the theme of the skin without using a new adapted model.
- Standard Skins: things are added to the base model of the character or it seems as if they have worked on top of it as a base mesh to add some new forms.
- Deluxe Skins: Model seems to be created from scratch to give it an entire different look. These are obviously the most expensive.
Here are my doubts:
For Chromas I understand that, as they use the same model, they don't need to go through a process of skinning, and they can use the same rig and animations from the standard character. Right?
Standard skins, they would have to use a new model, so that means mapping, and skinning would need to be done too. They would reuse the existing rig and maybe add some extra stuff to it if the model has any new animatable piece. As far as I understand, animations can also be recycled and would be retouched in case of any new controllers being added. In this example, both models would use the same rig, but controllers might be added to the wings on her trousers, and maybe to the wing of her hat and shirt ¿collar? depending of the level of detail desired. Skinning would be necessary:
Base character Standard Skin
Deluxe skins are made from a new model from scratch, so that includes making a whole new rig if you aren't lucky to adapt the existing one as a base for the new one, skinning and redoing all the animations as they can't be recycled. I've arrived to this conclusion with the following example, as the whole shape of the model (forms, silhouette, etc) and additional pieces like the exo-skeleton arms look nothing like the base character. (I'm sorry I couldn't use the same pose because there are no matching poses I could find with the base character).
Please let me know if I'm wrong at any point and please correct me!
Thank you very much!
As far as I understand there are 3 main type of skins:
- Chromas: they are no more than a recolor of an existing model, changing it's color palette. Some very old skins seem to go as far as changing the theme of the skin without using a new adapted model.
- Standard Skins: things are added to the base model of the character or it seems as if they have worked on top of it as a base mesh to add some new forms.
- Deluxe Skins: Model seems to be created from scratch to give it an entire different look. These are obviously the most expensive.
Here are my doubts:
For Chromas I understand that, as they use the same model, they don't need to go through a process of skinning, and they can use the same rig and animations from the standard character. Right?
Standard skins, they would have to use a new model, so that means mapping, and skinning would need to be done too. They would reuse the existing rig and maybe add some extra stuff to it if the model has any new animatable piece. As far as I understand, animations can also be recycled and would be retouched in case of any new controllers being added. In this example, both models would use the same rig, but controllers might be added to the wings on her trousers, and maybe to the wing of her hat and shirt ¿collar? depending of the level of detail desired. Skinning would be necessary:
Base character Standard Skin
Deluxe skins are made from a new model from scratch, so that includes making a whole new rig if you aren't lucky to adapt the existing one as a base for the new one, skinning and redoing all the animations as they can't be recycled. I've arrived to this conclusion with the following example, as the whole shape of the model (forms, silhouette, etc) and additional pieces like the exo-skeleton arms look nothing like the base character. (I'm sorry I couldn't use the same pose because there are no matching poses I could find with the base character).
Please let me know if I'm wrong at any point and please correct me!
Thank you very much!