High-fidelity pixelated futuristic character models for a GoldSrc game in development

RAWconcrete · Feb 23 2025

These characters are being done for a small FPS game called E X C A V A T I O N. They are modeled and textured in SketchUp Make, then exported to Blender for animation and further exporting.

Video of the bot (pan around at 1:45):

https://youtu.be/RuDup0QzINU?t=105
Few animations: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/i4bVahgUawA

This is MTU (Martian Tactical Unit) suit, work in progress. The protagonist is an MTU operative. Video of the model (2:07):

https://youtu.be/RyXkcY2mOjA?t=127

MikeF · Feb 24 2025

Amazing oldschool work, love what you all are doing with this project!

RAWconcrete · Feb 25 2025

MikeF said:

Amazing oldschool work, love what you all are doing with this project!

Thx, glad you like it!

iam717 · Feb 27 2025

Got spoiled, i suppose with the HQ texturing things, but i can somewhat appreciate the design/texture direction. Wasn't there an issue with blurring / merging from long distances with this style though? Unless you found a solution for that, saw all the videos, cool either way, whatever motivates your own desires.

RAWconcrete · Mar 1 2025

iam717 said:

Got spoiled, i suppose with the HQ texturing things, but i can somewhat appreciate the design/texture direction. Wasn't there an issue with blurring / merging from long distances with this style though? Unless you found a solution for that, saw all the videos, cool either way, whatever motivates your own desires.

If I may correct you, HQ is not tied to resolution. This is HQ low-res texture work. You meant hi-res and that's fine, being used to it and not finding this kind of graphics that appealing. As with everything, some will like it, some won't. Most do, which is nice. The game uses a 1:1 texture-to-unit ratio and nearest-neighbor, so blurring is not an issue.

kosmoski · Mar 16 2025

So cool

dur23 · Mar 16 2025

God damn that is beautiful!
Love that you made these in sketchup too. Absolutely amazing.

Only thing i'd lean on is your UV's. Kinda rough! But i mean, who cares if it looks good.

RAWconcrete · Mar 25 2025

kosmoski said:

So cool

Thx.

dur23 said:

God damn that is beautiful!
Love that you made these in sketchup too. Absolutely amazing.

Only thing i'd lean on is your UV's. Kinda rough! But i mean, who cares if it looks good.

Thx, glad you like it. As textures are projected UVs aren't perfect (in most areas it's fine) but yeah, overal it's ok.

pior · Apr 3 2025

"Texture first, model second" is an extremely powerful workflow and it looks like a perfect fit for this unfiltered style. I've been playing Boltgun and Slave Zero X lately, both using this Saturn-like look to great effect and I am loving the crisp visual clarity that comes from it.

These models look great. Looking forward to seeing more of this !

RAWconcrete · Apr 5 2025

pior said:

"Texture first, model second" is an extremely powerful workflow and it looks like a perfect fit for this unfiltered style. I've been playing Boltgun and Slave Zero X lately, both using this Saturn-like look to great effect and I am loving the crisp visual clarity that comes from it.

These models look great. Looking forward to seeing more of this !

Thx, glad you like these. The method though uncommon works just fine.

pior · Apr 8 2025

Absolutely.

Now a few remarks on these two models :

- While the raw unfiltered look is excellent, the in-engine footage reveals that the grey backgroud of the texture sheets is bleeding at the edges. I suppose that you are well aware of it, and It is actually somewhat of an interesting happy accident in the case of the robots as it looks a bit like worn edges ; but I feel like it needs to be adressed regardless, as it definitely cheapens the look especially on the human character.

- Also about the human character : I think it would be worth exploring various options for the eyes. As it currently stands, the sclera and the pupil being represented by three pixels (white-black-white) is IMHO bit off-putting especially compared to the quality of everything else. Whereas texture artists from the PS1 era where able to suspend disbelief under similar constraints by either completely skipping the representation of the eyeball in favor of the bigger shape of the eye socket (MGS1), or by barely suggesting the values of the sclera and pupils, but keeping the sclera within the same value and color range as the flesh (Vagrant Story). The same can be seen in traditional paintings (Zorn).

I hope this helps !

(on a side note : would it be accurate to say that you are working at about 192pix/m ?)

RAWconcrete · Apr 9 2025

pior said:

Absolutely.

Now a few remarks on these two models :

- While the raw unfiltered look is excellent, the in-engine footage reveals that the grey backgroud of the texture sheets is bleeding at the edges. I suppose that you are well aware of it, and It is actually somewhat of an interesting happy accident in the case of the robots as it looks a bit like worn edges ; but I feel like it needs to be adressed regardless, as it definitely cheapens the look especially on the human character.

- Also about the human character : I think it would be worth exploring various options for the eyes. As it currently stands, the sclera and the pupil being represented by three pixels (white-black-white) is IMHO bit off-putting especially compared to the quality of everything else. Whereas texture artists from the PS1 era where able to suspend disbelief under similar constraints by either completely skipping the representation of the eyeball in favor of the bigger shape of the eye socket (MGS1), or by barely suggesting the values of the sclera and pupils, but keeping the sclera within the same value and color range as the flesh (Vagrant Story). The same can be seen in traditional paintings (Zorn).

I hope this helps !

(on a side note : would it be accurate to say that you are working at about 192pix/m ?)

Thank you for this feedback, appreciate it. Yes, the backgrounds would be darkened, a bit later, fixing all the edges, in all models. As for the eyes, we would try to improve them, at least one other person complained about them as well. You gave good suggestions, good examples we could use for reference. We'll try different things, see what gives the best result. Btw, this face is just a placeholder, done rather quickly so not much effort went into the eyes. You can even see some bad skin pixels on the upper nose area, left and right. We'll do a proper face for the protagonist and all other humans in the game a bit later. For now these quickies would suffice.

pior · Apr 10 2025

You're welcome ! Looking forward to seing more of this project ... as well as hopefully finding the time to explore some aspects of the workflow on some personal assets. I think what you are getting at here is likely going to inspire quite a few people around here.

RAWconcrete · Apr 11 2025

pior said:

You're welcome ! Looking forward to seing more of this project ... as well as hopefully finding the time to explore some aspects of the workflow on some personal assets. I think what you are getting at here is likely going to inspire quite a few people around here.

Thx, yeah, the project reception has been more than positive so far, well received here too which is cool. We appreciate all the feedback and hope to inspire with this little unique project.

High-fidelity pixelated futuristic character models for a GoldSrc game in development

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