Newbie here.

topher · Mar 2011

I'm new to modeling and I want to learn how to model for video games.

Here's my first attempt at a female character. I still have the chest and head to work on.

Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated. : )

sketch81 · Mar 2011

Hey topher, nice start, but I think her cheeks need some loving....Study some reference and refine the buttock area, right now it's not defined and looks a little sqaushed. What platform are you developing the character for?

topher · Mar 2011

I will definitely look into the cheeks. No platform in particular, I just want to get good at modeling low/med poly models.

Shogun3d · Mar 2011

topher wrote: »

I will definitely look into the cheeks. No platform in particular, I just want to get good at modeling low/med poly models.

Be sure to stay in quads as much as possible so you have a good basis for mesh smoothing.

BenStrasser · Mar 2011

To add to Kaburan, this is especially important in the joint areas for deformation.

beta_channel · Mar 2011

You should shoot for a platform so you have a set of rules to follow. Tri count. Texture size. Etc.
IPhone
DS
PSP
NGP
ps2
Etc.

Urser · Mar 2011

BenStrasser wrote: »

To add to Kaburan, this is especially important in the joint areas for deformation.

In regards to this, I'm getting conflicting information regarding the proper way to make joints. I've heard people say to stay in quads for proper deformation, but every way I think about it it (when it comes to joints) doesn't make sense. I remember reading a tutorial that detailed that elbows and knees should come together with a tri, and they also had a diagram that showed why. I recall seeing tri's used around the knees on ChemicalAlia's spy model as well.

So yeah tl;dr, should I use triangles at joints?

BenStrasser · Mar 2011

hmm, you may be right. hopefully someone else can help us with this..

sketch81 · Mar 2011

The polycount wiki is an awesome source of information full of great examples. Here is the link to Character Topology.

I also found Pig-Brain's (not sure of his real name

) deformation tutorial to be awesome.

If your planning on modelling low poly models, be sure to check out the Mobile gaming and Web 3D forum , there's loads of information scattered everywhere and can help point you in the right direction. I also came across some constraints which Polynurb posted for an iPhone Art test supplied by Gamesloft.. (500 tris and 128 texture)...Not sure if these still apply, but it might give you something to work towards.

topher · Mar 2011

If I were to make a game I would want it to be playable on as many computers as possible. So I'm thinking under 2000 tri for characters.

Thank you for the very helpful links sketch81. : )

I have a question that I could probably find if I just looked, but if you're not planning to subdivide should you still use quads whenever possible?

sketch81 · Mar 2011

I'm not 100% sure dude, but I doubt you'll need to worry about having triangles if your not planning on doing any sculpting. The triangle will cause a pinching affect when subdivided which doesn't look any good.

I would personally pick a platform and work towards the constraints of that platform. After all your making art for video games and should get used to their respective constraints. It will give you some direction and help with any decisions you need too make. Eg. I think with a 2,000 tri model you could still take it into ZBrush or Mudbox, create a normal map and then use that normal map to paint your diffuse. That's when having all quads comes into place and it will help you with the smoothing..
If your not planning on doing any sculpting, you could always use smoothing groups which seems to work perfectly fine with triangles...

I'm no expert so this may not be the right information and I recommend you do some research... It's information I've gathered over the years which I'm more than happy to share.

topher · Mar 2011

Thanks for the comments so far.

I changed the cheeks and joints and I added the chest and head. The head I'm not too sure about, I think I might give it another try with less polygons.

I don't really know the process for making game characters and I'm not sure which platform I should aim for. : /

Newbie here.

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