Guidelines For Game Character Modeling?

[dustinbrown]

I've been modeling for a long, LONG time, but I'm just getting into modeling specifically for games. It's safe to say that there are always some general guidelines for each "type" of modeling you're doing.

High-Res Modeling for Subdivision, Rigging, and Rendering:

Make extensive use of edgeloops
Try to keep the tris to a minimum and/or use them wisely
Add extra loops in the joints and other areas that need to deform
Bevel your edges to catch light
Try to think about where you're going to want your UV seams as you're modeling


Modeling For Digital Sculpting:

Quads, quads, quads
Uniform LOD across the body
Denser LOD in the face and any other high fidelity areas


So what about modeling characters for games? Anything I should bear in mind as I dive in?

[Elcura]

I would say its mostly the same, but obviously poly count is more important when it comes to games, so the type of game would influence your poly count (RTS vs say a fighting game). I'd say think a lot more about how the model is going to move and what type of movements you can achieve, it's all very well and good to have a sexy ass model, but if it can't move then it was all for naught (well, in terms of being an in-game asset).

I'd just like to mention that the for the final model, tris are fine. You just don't want them at any point before sculpting, but during retopologization (god that's hard to say)/making of the low poly I'd say they were fine - provided you were doing it for your final low poly mesh, and not being you started the model with zspheres.

In the end, it's usually all about how the final low poly model looks and how it is constructed. I don't think anything before that matters in terms of workflow as long as the end result is usable (obviously faster workflows are better).

[dustinbrown]

Thanks Elcura. Yeah, I've noticed that some folks like to model their game res model entirely with tris. I've heard it said that it gives them more control of how the low res flows over the high res silhouette, while at the same time helps keep poly count as low as possible. That makes perfect sense to me. And correct me if I'm wrong, but don't game engines convert everything to tris anyway?

[Elcura]

I think that depends entirely on the engine (I say that as a disclaimer) but generally, yes they do. Though it doesn't have to be entirely in tris, doing it manually does allow you control over everything, rather than having a computer guess what is best. Personally I let the computer guess unless told to do otherwise. The former take a lot longer unless you specfically plan to do it that way.

[thatanimator]

So what about modeling characters for games? Anything I should bear in mind as I dive in?


don't buy into the hype of "YOU NEED TO HAVE ALL QUADS AND IT NEEDS TO BE FLOWING PERFECTLY OR YOU WILL DIE!!!..also the animations will suffer"

usually blurted out by respected modelers, who for some reason never show of their excellent animation skills (seeing as they seem to know so much about it?)

do triangles if you want to,
shape before edgeloops....

[crazyfool]

yea its pretty much the same but all depends on what you are modelling etc, tris are your friend in game meshes :D

Ben 'poop' Mathis has some great tutorials on edgeflow etc http://www.poopinmymouth.com/tutorial/tutorial.htm

This was also a really good read, Rich Diamants breakdown of Uncharted 2 character pipeline http://rd3d.com/Rich_Diamant_uncharted2_character_pipeline.pdf

Some real nice info in there :) I think best bet is to rig your characters and learn as you go to learn where your edgeloops should be etc, the art is the easy part but making it animateable and user friendly is the real challenge, otherwise you just got a static mesh. but I wouldnt get bogged down with it all and never let it hinder your creativity :) ..........where theres a will theres a way :D

[Elcura]

Agreed, never let it stop you being creative, I would just keep it in mind. I rigged and weighted every one of my characters and through that I learned what topology I needed to get good deformations. Just remember that not every deformation has to be perfect and look awesome, keep in mind camera distance and speed. Somethings you just plain don't see at all.

[Mike_K]

yeah i agree with elcura

you dont need perfect topology, and often it's just a case of tweaking your edge flow or adding a few extra cuts once your model is done if the forms dont behave when your joints bend anyway.

[dustinbrown]

Cool, thanks for the advice guys. Tom, thanks for the links.

[VanVegas]

thanks , for the links!