Game Character Design Questions
greentooth
Hi, I am still learning a lot about character modeling for games but I am still unsure about many factors in this. If anyone could help me somewhat with the following questions or point me in the right direction, it would really be appreciated.
The first problem involves how you break up your character. Is it better to have one piece for everything or many pieces. (i.e. should the head be its own mesh?) If this is the case how do you know what to break into separate pieces and what not to.
The second issue has to do with transitioning between maya and zbrush. I find when smoothing my models in zbrush to make a high rez sculpt the spacing between my uvs change which causes so pretty bad errors when returning to maya.
The next issue has to do with creating maps in zbrush. I can never seem to get clean textures or normal maps, they always end up blurry no matter the resolution. I also find that when rendering with mental ray they look even blurrier than in maya's workspace when viewing in high quality mode. I figure there is something I am doing wrong with my rendering settings.
My last question has to do with making shaders for game characters. I have no idea what I need to include. (i.e. AO, normal maps, etc.)
sorry if these questions seem all over the place but this is the best way I can think of asking them.
The first problem involves how you break up your character. Is it better to have one piece for everything or many pieces. (i.e. should the head be its own mesh?) If this is the case how do you know what to break into separate pieces and what not to.
The second issue has to do with transitioning between maya and zbrush. I find when smoothing my models in zbrush to make a high rez sculpt the spacing between my uvs change which causes so pretty bad errors when returning to maya.
The next issue has to do with creating maps in zbrush. I can never seem to get clean textures or normal maps, they always end up blurry no matter the resolution. I also find that when rendering with mental ray they look even blurrier than in maya's workspace when viewing in high quality mode. I figure there is something I am doing wrong with my rendering settings.
My last question has to do with making shaders for game characters. I have no idea what I need to include. (i.e. AO, normal maps, etc.)
sorry if these questions seem all over the place but this is the best way I can think of asking them.
Replies
1: situationally dependent i.e are there guidelines as to how the mesh needs to be constructed, are things interchangeable, polycount, what gives the best/cleanest bake for normals/ao etc.
2: i don't think i've seen this happen personally but sounds like something that could happen. Maybe you could adjust your uv map border or edge padding.
3:without knowing any of your workflow or seeing any of your work or results- I'd default to saying your Uvs aren't layed out to give proper resolution.
4:color,specular,normal can be enhanced by other maps such as gloss, reflection, opacity, parallax etc AO probably will be included in your color map- although this can change if for some reason you are doing ao swaps in the material(which seems more prevalent in environment pieces than characters).