Dinosaur in UDK, play test and critique needed!

SquashedTomato · Apr 2012

>>DOWNLOAD HERE 73.5KB<<

Download is for UDK version August 2011 and after, I have included two test maps titled "DinoTestMapJungle.udk" and "DinoTestMapMidday.udk" once the files are installed just open the files in the editor, right click map, play from here.

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Hi folks.

You have no doubt seen a lot of dinosaurs popping up around here and it is probably due to our university assignment; here is mine.

I'm looking for critique on my work, I would like you to give your opinion on the good and bad aspects of the completed assignment and things you think I should consider more when approaching similar work in the future, all your feedback will be documented in my evaluation next week. We're getting marked on the base mesh, high poly model, retopped model, textures, CAT rig, skinning, animations and how it looks in UDK.

My personal feeling is that the rigging, skinning and animations could have been given some more love however as a whole I'm pleased with how it's turned out.

Your feedback will mean a lot, cheers.

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Assignment guidelines:

The character should be covered in a combination of scales, hair, fur, metals or any other realistic surface texture.
The creature must have a complete texture set. Diffuse, Normal, Specular, Specular Power, Alpha (If needed), Transmission Mask (If Needed).
The character must be presented via the use of a video captured from UDK.
The character should be tested by releasing your work to the UDK Forums prior to the deadline and testing on the Universitys version of UDK.
The creature should have a simple animation tree (walk and idle cycles) and be able to move around an environment (not your own, use the one of the sample maps) as a Player Character or NPC.
You must not exceed 12,000 triangles for your final low polygon mesh. Also note that textures will be limited to 2048 pixels.

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Base mesh:

High poly sculpt:

Polypaint:

Normal map bake and specular:

Final model with textures:

Wireframe:

Final texture sheets:

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Videos:

[ame="

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hZ4ciOjVNk"]Idle Cycle[/ame]

[ame="

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jk_0gjjCB4&context=C43c5844ADvjVQa1PpcFN7RCKr_qmjha9YkM8kwiNXqy-WNU6WW8A="]Walk Cycle[/ame]

SquashedTomato · Apr 2012

Just created a quick video showing the dinosaur in UDK:

UDK Dino Test

darthwilson · Apr 2012

Looking nice, I would take advantage of using a colour specular map though in my opinion..

Your idle animation could be more fluid as well! Bend the knees, wag the tail etc.. Make it subtle. Should only take 10 minutes to do!!

dpaynter26 · Apr 2012

His arms arent doing anything.......at all, you should focus on getting those arms to move around quite a bit more, everything else looks pretty decent but the arms just throw the whole thing off and make it look robotic, Keep going

mystichobo · Apr 2012

Ok, animation crits (the model looks fine):

Never ever ever have any part of an animated organic object stationary.

It absolutely kills it, and makes the whole thing look boring and mechanical, if something is moving, the whole thing is moving, even if it's just subtle things.

The big one I can see is in the idle animation, the whole rear half of the model pretty much stays totally still. With a long animal such as this, the tail is there to balance it, so when your head and upper torso moves around around, your body and tail should as well. Shuffle the legs around a little, he's moving the bulk of his body around.

The arms have been mentioned already.

There's also very little vertical movement in either of the animations. Get some head bob happening, at the moment he's staying almost perfectly still with his legs moving.
This image from Richard William's Animators Survival Guide (which I would highly recommend reading if you can get your hands on it), should hopefully help a little with the basic key poses you should be looking at for a walk cycle.

Notice the amount of vertical movement.

Vailias · Apr 2012

+1 to mystichobo's commentary.

On the walk, the stuff is moving, but the dino isn't alive. There is no weight transfer, balance, or life in the movement. THe feet/ankles don't seem to move almost at all, and yeah the arms are just kind hanging..

The walk you have now looks like hes about to die, or is coming home from the pub after a few too many and is trying to look sober.

For the speed he's (she's?)moving I believe it will look more natural if the torso and tail are at a higher angle. like this (pardon the quick photoshop)

As far as the idle. Same sorta thing. Balance, weight transfer. Perhaps make more than one idle so he doesn't have to look around frantically all the time.

Darkleopard · Apr 2012

An idle is basically a breathing animation with subtle movements. An idle fidget is a additional action Eg: Looking around, pulling out a gun and looking at it etc) That incorporates into the idle animation.

You idle is solely one big idle fidget, way to much movement.

The walk cycle has a good start, but you need to look at the way a dino moves. The weight needs to go from side to side and as others have said, the whole body needs to move with it, especially since its a small fast raptor-looking dino

Dinosaur in UDK, play test and critique needed!

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