[3D Pimp] UT2004 Playermodel Lupine Male

Scott Ruggels

The plan is to animate this with custom moves and get him into UT2K4. The geometry is done, and the map assignmentws are sone, so now it goes to rigging and weighting. This is in Maya, and I may release an SDK, and an SDK for Max as well, if there is interest. FO without further ado, here are the wires:


The Render


and the Roration


I'm not gonna post any flats, because I don't want Poop to laugh at me, but suffice it to say they are inefficiently laid out, with an eye towards minimal distortion rather than texture space efficiency. :0

SO, well, tel me what you think. There willbe a female version, and I am sillworking on that Imperial Japanese Soldier, but he's inno shape to show yet.

Scott

Josh_Singh

This is great! I really like. But I feel the fur could be a bit sharper and just get rid of the seam on the side of his face. Cant wait to see the armor!

Scott Ruggels

If only the 3D paint tool had a "clone" option :-) But I will be attacking the seams I can. Some are a bit of a problem. But thank you for thekind words.

Scott

Whargoul

How well do you think the UT engine will handle the sorting of the layered transparencies?

Mit Gas

I love the face! Pretty cute stuff.

Scott Ruggels

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How well do you think the UT engine will handle the sorting of the layered transparencies?

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I don't know. the Engine has not been kind to transparencies since Unreal 99, So, it's going to be a surprise. but since its all part of the same mesh, I HOPE that everything works well. The Alpah Transparency Hair in the official models seems to be fine, and there are a few Custom player models with alphas. Apparently it's one thing to have transparencies, and quite another to have transparencies, reflections, and others on the same shader in the same mesh. If it works, it work. If it doesn't, then I go back to working on the Japanese Soldier. It may be a hit on the engine that both materials are going to be flagged "2 sided".

Scott

MoP

Nice looking model. Should be very cool to see in UT2k4.

However, I was under the impression that having the alpha transparencies all part of the same mesh, would make the sorting worse, not improve it? You could always try 1-bit alpha and see how that looks. If the texture is 1024x1024, it would probably look ok, and the sorting would be fine.

Scott Ruggels

How does one set that in the UED? OR do I just make a separate 1 Bit Alpha? Yes it's 1024, so it should not look like too much ass.

Scott

Artreth

Looking good only thing I'd want to see is more powerful hind legs, since he is standing on two instead of 4.

Maybe add some blood around his mouth

Scott Ruggels

Depends on the skin. I plan on doing a few, several in fact. As for the legs, they'll do on this one, I wasn't trying for a "Quentin" look.

Scott

LeJomphe

Sweet model, the face really came out nice. The tail construction is interesting way work... I might just try that on the horse to see if it helps make it look better happens.

CleanerWolf

Woohoo! Again a lupine model from Scott!
*jumps around*
I am working on a wolf model too, but now I can skip the UT2004 version and just concentrate on the HL2 version
Thanx Scott, keep up the great work. He looks very sweet so far, cannot wait to see him in the game.

malcolm

You can use the crappy Maya 3d paint clone stamp to clean up the seams as a final pass, make sure it is the last thing you do to the texture as it paints directly on the .tga. I believe this feature was added to Maya 5.0 I have used it for low poly work and it was a huge time saver.

Scott Ruggels

Thanks for the heads up Malcom. I'm using Maya 6, so I''l poke around to see it. oddly several folks here at castaway paint their preliminary skins in the Maya paint tool. One of them in Grey scale only, and the other, just paints like he was taught in painting school. Bit then tighten up the details in Photoshop.

Cleaner HL2 seems to have a rather difficult character path at the moment. Good luck, besides I like UT's multiplayer better than HL's for the moment. But thanks for the Kind Words.

Scott

CleanerWolf

@Scott:
Yep, making characters for HL2 seems to be rather complicated.
Of course, UT2004 has better multiplayer, but my model will be for the Dracten Mod. The good thing with HL2 is, that I can use Softimage XSI, which is my favorite 3D app at the moment.
Will you do own animations for your model or just bind it to one of the existing skeletons and animations?

poopinmymouth

looking really nice Scott. One thing I would push is some dark spots in the fur to imply that it is thick. Right now the value is so light all over, its like its a solid shell of fur, you could get it looking more volumetric with small spots of dark like the underfur is showing through.

Scott Ruggels

Yes, but fur is one of thse textures that I have not mastered well. But you are correct on that. In my thiking most texture maps are temporary until the day they ship. Never finished. (Mostly because I suck at color). I'll see you this Weekend. Hopefully I'll learn something.

Scott

Scott Ruggels

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The good thing with HL2 is, that I can use Softimage XSI, which is my favorite 3D app at the moment.
Will you do own animations for your model or just bind it to one of the existing skeletons and animations?

[/ QUOTE ]

Well good luck with the mod.

I will be doing all custom animations for the male and the female. and if I can swing it, some dynamic simulations to bake in for the cloth parts. With Maya, it's fun to animate if you have a good rig. I don't know XSI well. The last time I used Soft Image was in 1993, and I did not have a high opinion of it then, much prefering Alias Power animator at the time.

Scott

CleanerWolf

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I will be doing all custom animations for the male and the female. and if I can swing it, some dynamic simulations to bake in for the cloth parts.

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Cool! The female version will be based on Asheru, I guess
Will you release a SDK, so that others can help you with the skins?

Scott Ruggels

Yes. I think, though there isn't an SDK Thread yet. I can probably manage a MAX version of the mesh, and a Maya Version. Don't have any clue about XSI Formats.

Scott

CleanerWolf

Fine. XSI can import 3ds and OBJ, so it shouldn't be a problem. And I am not restricted to XSI, it's just my favorite 3D app.
About the tail of your model... would be interesting to see how it looks in the game, not only because of possible sorting problems, but also because the look seems to be very dependant on the viewing angle and the light direction.
Some modern game engines can render fur through vertex shaders that build semi-transparent "fur shells" around the geometry. Look here to see the result. If someone could find a way to make such a shader in UT2004 that would be very helpful for everybody who wants to make furry creatures.

KDR_11k

You can build those fur shells without any shaders as long as you get the sorting right. Could be a bit hard to get it right though since most exporters don't offer any control about that.

Scott Ruggels

CleanerWolfThat shader, is pretty good. but it's based on multiple "shells" of the model where dots are arrayed on collumns our from the model. it's a common shader on the Nintendo, but not on the PC, as people have gone in different directions in terms of render optimization. Consoles wanted more shaders, and PC's wanted topmove textures more efficiently. I'd love a shader like that, but it's not in the cards for me yet.

KDR_11K Well what I was told is if I go to a 1 Bit alpha, separate, then that will always sort properly. and since the model is mapped on two 1024's the fur will still look okay. (at least I think) so that's the backup plan, at least according to Bobo_the_Seal over the Phone

Scott

Lupey

Any updates on this?

Moz

just wondering, would it be possible to set up a cube map (ala UT2004) using shaders so that the kind of shading caused by the shell's depth would be more direct when facing the player and then rolling away farther to the edges of the cube map? so that the center was dead on full, and then the outside angled? also the cube map would have to be set as 2d coords or maybe use an enviroment map instead? It wouldn't work well for edges though. Food for thought.

cep

The edge flow is ugly, I'am wondering if that was what was intended? Because of the fur? Regardless it looks decent with a skin.

DerWerwolf

That model pwns...I hope it gets released soon and everything works out alright. Oh and Cleaner I liked your q3 model even though I don't have q3 I was oing to get someone to convert it to JA for me but it never happend lol (with your permission or for jsut personal use of course)

Scott Ruggels

Model Update: Got some more done on his armour. So his armour when released will be shiney but distressed Bronze. So with1 set of maps, I now am going to start rigging and weighting. If the rigging works then off to do the animation, all custom.
Heres a pass at the armour, the butter yellow is for the bronze, but when done it will be an environment map. I can release an SDK for people interested in doing maps for themselves, but I will warn you, my mapping is a bit idosyncratic, and not efficient because I don't like Texture stretching.



So next up is to rig and weight him, and prividing the rigging goes well, then will come the animation, all custom (and that may take me a bit of time,as the job comes first (but with all the animation I am doing for Castaway, The practice is helping.) Thanks for the kind words and support.

CEP you may be correct, but having come out of a regime with hideuosly restricted polygon counts, I approach modelling with the mind that the silhouette comes first, then anything within it, like "good edge flow", which I am not yet a convert to). And a lot of this is due to the fins and shells for the fur.

My plan is to release this, and a few skins, and then a Female. and once I have base geometry and an animation set, I can do a few others based on these. (at least until I have to switch to Unreal 3).

Scott

Daz

This is a hard thing to do Scott; give an animal a humanesque stance and demeanour. But i think you've pulled it off. The armour looks a little 'airbrushed' right now. I Perhaps it just needs some texture. Still perhaps it wont really matter If it's getting an env. map.

As for the edge flow issue, well, it's not nearly as important that a game resolution model has good edge flow as one intended for smoothing. But it's still important for deformation and to a certain extent how light bounces off the model. Looking at your mesh, I dont think youve done a horrible job. You have enough edge rows in the right places for deformation, it's just that they dont tend to be contiguos. Hard to say from this size, but you might have a couple of areas of redundant polygons. Check out some of b1lls wireframes If what you seek is more attractive edgeflow. Dont be afraid to use tris in a game model either. Somehow over the last couple of years people have started to believe that a game resolution model should be all quads. It's definitely easier to work in quads, since it's less stuff to deal with visually, but tris are a lot more efficient of course. I tend to triangulate areas of deformation and leave the rest as quads. That way when the engine triangulates the model automatically, the edges are flipped in the direction you want them and not the engine.

cep

That looks very good:) I was rather forward with my first post.
I think the over all appearence is nicely done.

Scott Ruggels

Cep No worries. it's all good :-)

Daz it's even worse than you suspect! I have gotten spoiled by "per pixel" lighting where you can have the dog ugliest mesh, as long as it deforms nicely, and provides a good silhouette. Normal maps are your friend. Thanks for the kind words on the overall design though. I may snap things down here and there into tringles, but I had a quad version so I could practice musculature on it in Z-Brush. But with a versin like this, yeah I can go back and triangulate a few things.

Moz I have no clue at all on if that would work. Thanks for the tip though. "fresnel shaders do workin the engine. But I am limited in how many passes I can use.

Scott

Scott Ruggels

Okay I have an update to make. Because this is going to be a fully custom model, for the cases when the character is hit by the Orbital Laser, The Link Gun, or stumbles into Hot Lava, the character needs a smoking blackened skeleton to display, and so I modeled one. Some of tht is from a previous Human skeleton I modeled. but there is a lot of custom pieces such as the skull, legs below the knees, and a significant reworking of the Pelvis. The completed skeleton is 3872 Triangles.



Front


Side


Back 3/4



Full Rotation

So with that, I need to Map the skeleton (the new parts), and then comes rigging and animation. Progress continues.

Scott

sundance

HOLY SHIT! that's is so COOL!!!

MoP

Wow, nice stuff Scott. Looking forward to seeing this finished!

Jeff Parrott

Very nice idea Scott. That all looks really good.

DerWerwolf

Any updates?

hawken

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Any updates?

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lol, posted in the same day his update.

looking very nice, does the skellington hide inside the body till death and then... how does it work

Scott Ruggels

When the character is killed by the Link gun, the Orbital Cannon, and/or Molten lava, the models are swaped. If you look at a UT Character's UPL (the official ones and some custom ones), you can see they have a line for a replacement model. the skeleton is the replacement. Some of the Chaos UT2 Weapons also strip flesh from bones, so it's anice extra to have.

Scott

Sett

That's some big feet bones you have grandma.

Thick too. That mesh stands on it's own.

It would be cool to have both and scale the bones on the outter mesh to zero so you would have some meat some bone.

Weiser_Cain

Doesn't really fit in UT2004 but it's so well done(so far) I have to download this.

Scott Ruggels

I am adressing the toes and cannon bones, now that I have better reference for those areas.

Weiser_Cain Thank you for the kind words. yeah stylistically it's not futuristic, but not everything has to be. Was going for a more "Sword and sandal" look, but without the sandals. With Chaos UT< you can use swords , axes, maces and Daggers, and if I can get the animation calls and sequence information off of that, I'll add those to the animation and perhaps this, and the female version using swords might look a bit more appropriate.

Scott

sundance

i think it looks OK, they could be some kinda alien were-wolf like species who got dragged into the tourney, but aren't that tehnologically sophisticated, hence the 'primitive' clothes...

AlphaFoxx

Any updates on this? It was so promisingly.

CMB

zomg thread revival above.

Scott Ruggels

Well, progrtss has kind of stalled, because I hit a patch in maya, that I know nothing about. Basically what is preventing me from making the animation is the following:

1.) Figuring out a Dynamics solution for the secondary animation on the loin cloth, so that there is some colision, but having to be bones driven, with a fairly low sample rate so I can copy key frams from the beginning of a cycle back to the end.

2.) Some other rigging issues, as I am not a TD, and other than using the base company rig from Castaway, do not know how to integrate the dynamics into the base rig.

3.) scale difficulties

4.) A lot of questions on how to get custom animations into UT, and if the above mentioned scal problems are goingto be a problem, plus adding sockets and bone name aliases, and the like.

5.) learning the KAT tool properly for the karma collision model.

6.) which sequences have hard coded animation time limits, and which do not.

7.) how many of the sequences are necessary, and how many are repeats.

8.) What sequences are needed/added for use for a "melee" mod. Swordfighting ability would be good, if not esential for a "Sword & Sandal period model.


that's pretty much it.

If someone can hold my hand and use small words guiding me through this, it would probably take about 2 months to make the animation for these, and then the Female model could follow on, as well.

Scott

Alopexau

I really, really hope someone can provide the necessary help. If not, consider crossposting a request in another forum or two?

I'd hate to have only just discovered this WIP only to never see it, and the proposed female counterparts released.

Scott Ruggels

Well everything is on hold, until my Demo Reel is complete and I have a new job. I may post the images of the "Barbequed Version", which is a smoked Skeleton in heat corroded armor, as that is the latest task done. But until then it's waiting on the rigging (and the demo reel).

Hawken Said
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looking very nice, does the skellington hide inside the body till death and then... how does it work

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Actually how it works is that the model is "Swapped" at the point of Death. so it's actually a separate "character". whough it is bound to the same Rig, and Karma Critter, so that the transition is as seamless, when the outer body is blasted away as a green shell of polygons, the skeleton has a green "electricity" shader on it, until the person stops shooting it, and the skeleton then drops to the ground. It's be nice to figure out if I could attatch smoke particle emitters to it, but I'm not holding my breath.

Scott

CleanerWolf

Scott, maybe you should try a simpler version first. What I mean is, try to use a standard skeleton (the alien one with tail) and let your model use the animations from the standard skeleton. This way, you can see how your model looks in the game without much effort.
Unfortunately, I don't know anything about exporting UT stuff from Maya, so I cannot help you

Scott Ruggels

Actually it's the dynamics that are the pain, but the basic animationis easy. Just book keeping and animation. A lot of the moves are 1 frame. It's not the animation, as much as it's the Technical issues. I'm going to bull forward anyway. Wouldn't be true to myself if I didn't do it my way.

Scott

flaagan

you *need* to make that skeleton a playable character, if you can figure out how to attach particle effects to players you can give it some glowing eyes and a glowing heart... Devil Dog!

best of luck on this, scott! i'd offer help but i'm not familiar with the character stuff for ut. (oh, and thanks again for the help you gave me on the cube map / shader stuff for that dodge magnum).

Scott Ruggels

Not a problem Oddly enough to do that, you HAVE to make the skeleton a playable model, because when the character dies, it's a swap of a complete model, and then the application of the Karma tools. Making the eyes glow would be easy, but making it smoke... Yeah I'll have to look into that.

Scott

Scott