Low poly human modeling questions(BLENDER)
I am working on a game and I want to make the humans and zombies right now. I have no idea how to start modeling humans though. I have done a few tutorials for 3Ds Max but in blender it is kind of hard to follow along because I don't know where the tools are. So what I am wondering how I would create a person that looked like this..Modeled by MisterGoid. So all Credit goes to him.
If anyone could help that would be nice.
Thank you
If anyone could help that would be nice.
Thank you
Replies
Anways, it depends on how experienced you are as a 3d generalist aswell as how you handle characters if they are not low poly.
Judging from your statements,id say you are relatively new to the whole designing thing. Theres an awesome low poly character tutorial by athey over at 3dtotal. You can check it out here. Its for Max but you can easily apply the principles to any software. Also go here http://www.psionic3d.co.uk/news.php
Thats pretty much the basic-intermediate information you will need to create characters for your game. The only thing which would differ is probably going to be your polycount (are you tackling the whole game yourself?). The lower the polycount limit,the lower the definition in your meshes. For example, you can see that japhir's model is real low (around 500 tris). Thats pretty much the lowest youll probably have to go if im right about how the game might look like. YOu could go lower.pretty much to any polycount you want.Heck, you could have a freaking box represent the whole body lol.
Anyways, as you can see, japhirs model does not have any fingers,it doesnt have eyes, nostrils,ears,mouth modeled in. Thats done by texturing later on. Theres the optimum number of edges present for deformation at the knees and shoulders.
A good rule of the thumb when working with game res. models is that every extra geometry you put into the model has to contribute something to the character. If the added geometry doesnt enhance the silhouette (depending on your software,youll have to do different things to see teh silhouette.For Max,you have alot of options;but you could do it by selecting "flat shaded" in the dropdown list after you right click on the top left corner of the viewport) or help in improving your deformation, take that geometry out.The only reason for being so constrained is becuase everything for a game has to be exported to a game engine. If you put wasted geomerty in the engine,its going to use up alot of resources which otherwise would have been used for something else;something more important than wasted waste.However, the above mentioned rule of the thumb has a decreasing effect as you go to polycounts which are real high (the ~10k tri range). You have to realise that you cant use fancy renders aswell.We always use the viewport screenshots.
When working with game resolution models,always remember that triangles are your best friend modeling wise. No "all-quads" model required as everything exported to a game engine is triangulated anyways.Take note that a quad is in reality two triangles. A tutorial on how your model is most probably going to be lighted in the engine by Hourences. You will also have to play with smoothing groups to smooth your model exactly how you want. Triangles play a major part of it.
Also take note that japhirs textures are hand-painted,i.e. no photos have been used in the texture .The tutorial ive linked to has pretty much everything photo sourced. I am a firm believer that hand-apint makes everything pure win though
If your a general character artist and are interested in game art,it will be a real easy switch. If your completely new to art in general,you have a long way to go with alot to learn. You wont be learning making modles like these over night. So heres what you should do;
-) head over to the tutorial and start learning
-) Also make sure you head over to the "Low-Poly "thread in P&p/
-) Check out poopinmymouth.com for hot tutorials on everything from modeling to texturing to rigging a low poly game resolution model.
-)Start your own thread in the P&P to get yourself critiqued.
The aforementioned paths are if you arent wiling to spend any money (im guessing your 16-17?).You could either earn a bachelors in game art design after your done with highschool.The school you might want to go to or if you should go to gameart school atal is highly debated-see -discussion forum). Or you could sign up for a 3d gameart course. A local session might/might not be a good idea,but its a start. If you have any big-wig instituitions to which you have access to like gnomon(google to see if theres any gnomon school near you). But going to art school is really not a pre-requisite of doing game art.Myself and alot of others here (including japhir) are self-taught;That is, we have learned everything about game art from the internet and never went to school (i THINK japhir is self-taught, heck, ive been seeing him pimp shit since he was like 15 lol). The only pre-requisite is that you should be willing to learn.
Good luck and have fun
No I am not making this game by myself. I have 3 other people doing it with me. It's not a big game maybe 4 medium sized levels.(something like Left 4 Dead).
Thank you.
I am not new to modeling characters, well okay I am. I know a lot more about low poly characters than I made it sound. I know that a lot of detail comes from Textures and normal maps.
Thank you once again for linking that tutorial! I have tried it a few times but got to mad and gave up!. This time I will not give up no matter what.
For texturing. I bought a Wacom a few months ago. Haven't used it much because I don't own Photoshop. It came with PS Elements 6, but thats mostly for fixing up images. I have GIMP but some days my Wacom won't work with it or it will freeze and crash every time I try to save.
It's a good intro to starting a character from scratch in blender. It covers basic modeling, rigging and animation with a very brief intro to materials. I pulled that link specifically out of the blender wiki and worked through it in an afternoon, mostly just because it covers a good amount for someone completely new to the software (like me) and serves as a great intro to the UI and the tools.
Blender wiki/manual: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual
There are tons of resources online for learning blender. I'd recommend checking out texturing specific links like UV mapping and painting when you finish the first one I listed. That should give you all the info you need to produce something along the lines of the example image you posted, not to mention kickstart you towards animating it and getting it into the game engine - all by yourself.
More good links: http://www.gryllus.net/Blender/3D.html
Cheers
James
Excellent links
Yeah just keep at working that tutorial and youll get it in the end. Also try those psionic tutorials (he is a real generous fellow) i put in after editing my post.
Dont know about the GIMP problem your having though.HAve you checked their forums? Dont think GIMP or let alone anything in your pc can recognise if the movement information is being sent through a mouse or a tablet, unless pressure sensitivity is turned on.
Well, not to sound rude, but from the extreme lack of information on your end, an uncredited example and an extremely vague question "how to make characters like this"- what did you expect?
It would have been better atleast for me,if you had written some more information about what you already know about characters or 3d in general or what youve tried doing. But your question "how to make characters like this?" really doesnt say much about how much you know about making characters. But nonetheles,i tried to encorprate everything i could think of conrtibuting with "If>then" operations.
You had me thinking you were a 15 year old who just plays games and thought one day to make one and posted on a forum saying "how do you make this". BAh and yoy made me write so much you already knew! meh,might come handy for someone else.
Also,
updated my first post
Use tris for knees, elbows, pretty much any joint that moves.
Most detail comes out in Normal maps and texture sheets
You dont need to model out all of the fingers and toes
Model out the Thumb and maybe the Pinky and Ring finger or Middle and Index.
There is more im sure i can think of but i am stuck haha.
For the 3D total tutorial..I have given up all ready. It really confuses me on the Foot part, but the zombie tutorial seems like something i need.
Also Butt i will read all of your Edit post tomorrow when i get home from school right now it is 1am and i cant sleep..
And really I am sorry for not typing out what I know about modeling.
Gwot- Thank you for you links and I think If I need any help you seem like the person that could maybe help me.
Thank you all for helping me out.
Ps.I am 13 not 15 =P..But don't let my age mean anything please!
Anyways here's a video tutorial on modeling a lowpoly character in Blender:
http://www.vimeo.com/1048354?pg=embed&sec=1048354
I hope it will give you some insights that you seek.
mind linking his portfolio
Thank you all!
I for the owner of the picture. It's in my first post.