Two questions re character creation
Hey all,
I'm in the planning stages of starting my first attempt at a game character.
I've done characters for animation before, high poly only stuff but never anything geared towards games. All my current game based work is environment stuff and while it's what I enjoy, I've always wanted to give characters a go too.
I just have a couple of questions which are minor, and really just to get an idea of what you guys do.
Firstly, reference planes or no?
I know in an employment situation this will be dependent on whether you are given ref planes or not, but for personal work, do you use them?
I've got some ideas sketched out of the character I plan to do, and could quite easily draw up some orthographic views if necessary, but I'm thinking doing it without may allow for a bit more creative freedom (even though the character was my design initially anyway). Then another part thinks I may struggle with proportions unless I have the ref images sat behind the views.
I'm guessing it's a personal preference thing, in which case your thoughts and personal workflows are appreciated!
Secondly, one thing I've wondered when looking at the characters people have posted on here is this; do you model the inside of the mouth on the low poly?
Sounds like a dumb question I guess and of course if the character is gonna be used for any dialogue then it will need the mouth modelled, but how much does this complicate the building of the low-poly and the bake? If at all.
Having never done a character, I have no idea!
Many thanks
I'm in the planning stages of starting my first attempt at a game character.
I've done characters for animation before, high poly only stuff but never anything geared towards games. All my current game based work is environment stuff and while it's what I enjoy, I've always wanted to give characters a go too.
I just have a couple of questions which are minor, and really just to get an idea of what you guys do.
Firstly, reference planes or no?
I know in an employment situation this will be dependent on whether you are given ref planes or not, but for personal work, do you use them?
I've got some ideas sketched out of the character I plan to do, and could quite easily draw up some orthographic views if necessary, but I'm thinking doing it without may allow for a bit more creative freedom (even though the character was my design initially anyway). Then another part thinks I may struggle with proportions unless I have the ref images sat behind the views.
I'm guessing it's a personal preference thing, in which case your thoughts and personal workflows are appreciated!
Secondly, one thing I've wondered when looking at the characters people have posted on here is this; do you model the inside of the mouth on the low poly?
Sounds like a dumb question I guess and of course if the character is gonna be used for any dialogue then it will need the mouth modelled, but how much does this complicate the building of the low-poly and the bake? If at all.
Having never done a character, I have no idea!
Many thanks
Replies
1. Reference planes, Depends, sometimes I just use random photos (as visual reference, not to model by) somethings I make modeling sheets, if its a personal project I like to do it as loose as possible and experiment. You might want to model a really low poly basic man off of reference planes, take it into zbrush and just doodle, and take it back into your 3D app of choice to block in those details before taking back into zbrush a final time.
2. If you don't plan on doing any animation, don't make yourself do extra work, besides having decent edge flow.
That's a great idea about doing a base>sculpt>further base work>sculpt, I hadn't considered that way. Thanks!
With regards to the mouth thing, that's a relief I guess although should probably attempt it at some point just so I can learn how to do it.
2 - I like to add a mouth sack. For quickie sculpts and stuff, I generally dont, but any low poly character I add one. If you're making it for your portfolio especially. It's good to know how to do, but it's more a technical excersize than an artistic one. If you're just practicing anatomy and character design, it's not a big deal... but most game characters these days have mouth sacks and teeth so it'd be wise to know how to do em if you want to get into character art.
I think I will be adding a mouth to my first character just so I learn how to do it, as you say, pretty important in some cases and at least once I can do it properly then I can skip it on personal pieces later safe in the knowledge I have the ability.
Thanks again
1) For personal work, I try as much as possible to roll with the 'rough idea - concept as I model' mentality. No real reason except that it's more fun for me to think of things as I go rather than sit down and commit to something before I start modeling. I'm not really good at concepting, so going 'freestyle' works best for me. At work I tend to follow either rough model sheets or a really polished perspective that captures the character's look and feel.
2) I'd do it, it's not that hard. Unless you're going for like, PSP spec. I usually almosy have some kind of mouth bag, just to avoid any weird issues. If you plan on making more characters, you can just make a set of nice teeth and reuse them as you need them.
Apologies, yeah I wasn't sure which forum to post in, it was either this or Tech, guess I picked wrong!
2) Once again for me it depends. If I plan to have the character open their mouth I'll add teeth and a mouth sack. If not, I'll save my time.