UFO:Alien Invasion
Development => Artwork => Topic started by: Destructavator on February 28, 2010, 08:25:18 am
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OK, I've found that the new soldier model I've been working with for some time is definitely too thin and when I try to make it muscular it won't animate right with where the verts are, and the texture gets messed up as well.
This is (again) a new incarnation that is stockier and has all the verts in the right places for most animations, the texture could come later when I'm done tweaking the mesh.
I'm still adjusting the shape a bit, but, opinions?
(The old in-game body model is also shown for reference, and the head won't be exported with the body, its just there for animation purposes and will be replaced by a tag during export.)
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nice work.
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Yeah, looks good.
But I think that both models (stocky and thin) could come in handy, give some diversity to the soldiers; Not all soldiers are built like tanks (heh, a silly)
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Yeah, looks good.
But I think that both models (stocky and thin) could come in handy, give some diversity to the soldiers; Not all soldiers are built like tanks (heh, a silly)
Very true - At this point the previous, thin model is still in the data source, and I don't plan to throw it out.
I've just put the latest model in the SVN, along with a temporary, quick-and-dirty placeholder texture. This time around I think we should hold off a little on a permanent texture until I do some animation work, because I may have to adjust the model a bit and that would potentially mess up a detailed skin.
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Hey Destructavator !
Great work !
Have you looked at the makehuman nightly builds (latest versions) lately ?
http://download.tuxfamily.org/makehuman/nightly/
The models generated are naked as you know & have too much detail, but can be easily imported in blender using a python script which then adds an import-function for *.mhx (MakeHuman file format) into the import-menu of blender & you get the model imported fully textured & with all the stuff for easy posing & animating the model...
I know that these models are to detailed to be used in-game, but I am quite sure that the different head-models could be designed with makehuman, maybe then reduced in polycount & edited in Blender ?!
& their roadmap is quite interesting too:
http://sites.google.com/site/makehumandocs/road-map
especially 1.0 Beta3 where they want to integrate clothes (maybe a way to get the different armors in a more convenient way) & 1.0.1 Alpha scheduled for the end of 2010 which will integrate 'Fantasy Creatures' ;D
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@MCR: Actually yes, I'm quite familiar with the MakeHuman project, I've been following it and using that software for some time since back before any dev releases of the post-0.9.1 RC (the old version) came out. In fact, the very first soldier model I worked on was based off a model from the old 0.9x version. And yes, I've been trying out the newer test builds as well.
Thanks for mentioning it anyways, yes, it is a nice software product, and I'm amazed that something like it is available for free. :)
I've also been working on new head models using MakeHuman as well, as you've mentioned.
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@Destructavator:
Great, I did not know that you are already working on new head models !
I actually became aware of the MakeHuman project, because you mentioned them somewhere here...
Did you also try the import script for blender ?
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Hey Destructavator, I've followed your work on these models since the thin ones. I can see you're putting a lot of thought into it, and glad to see you keep tweaking. I don't know how the MakeHuman thing works, so I don't know what's easier or harder to change.
But I wondered, can you add more polys to the model for a bit better definition in the shapes? On the mapping side, mattn has basically told me not to worry about polycounts, so I imagine there must be some room on the soldier models too, and I think a few more polys could really come in handy.
Have a look at these soldier models from another game I mod for occasionally, here (http://www.ghostrecon.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=41896&st=120&p=548526&#entry548526) and here (http://www.ghostrecon.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=41896&st=120&p=548417&#entry548417). I could never make models that nice, and these are I think the best custom models I've ever seen made for the game (the original Ghost Recon), so I'm throwing up some stiff competition. But I think the visual reference might be useful in ironing out a few of the things that feel just a little bit off with the model you've got here.
1) Around the arms, your model looks like it's wearing a thick jacket, but around the waist it looks a bit more like it's wearing a tight, body-fitting outfit. If you look at the models at the links I sent, the bulk in gear and jackets around the gut actually makes the transition to the pants and around the butt much straighter. The whole area around the chest and abdomen could be much rounder. How this is handled, of course, depends on whether you want a body-suit or more of a combat gear outfit. But if you go for body-suit, I think you need more polys especially in the arms, to give them more definition and to prevent them from looking like a thick jacket.
2) In your model, the neck really stands out from the shoulders. But when a soldier is holding a gun or in any kind of combat-ready position, their shoulders are more hunched up. And if you've got a jacket or lots of gear on, the neck is going to get buried in the bulk, as you can see in the links I sent.
3) The transition between pants and boots need some puffing out. It looks like you're going for baggy pants here. If so, add some polys at the very bottom to make it look like they've bunched up above the boot.
Anyway, just a few suggestions. But these thicker models are definitely looking better I think.
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@H-Hour: Sorry I didn't respond to this before, I glanced once at your post before getting busy with other things, and forgot to come back to it.
I'll look at the links and info you provided a little later.
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No worries, just throwing it out there to help.
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Well, so far this new model seems to be working better than the last, I've got most of the body textured now, including the boots that I just did. Now it just needs a little work on the gloves and neck for the texture, then I think it will almost be there.
Here's a few quick shots, these previews use a 2048x2048 JPEG texture, although for the game it will of course be scaled down. The 2048x2048 I think would only be used for high-detail cut-scene movie clips and renders, the battlescape I'm sure would use either 512x512 or 256x256.
I also put the Phalanx logo in the belt buckle, something I thought was a nice touch. (I've learned a lot of new texture-making stuff recently.) I could also put patches or stripes on the upper arms, now that I know how to do it better.
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looks quite nice - are you still working on the tag tutorial?
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...are you still working on the tag tutorial?
Goodness! I totally forgot about that - I'll get started on that soon, as one of the next things on my TODO list.
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Nice to see him kneeling rather than crouching! The crouch always looked a bit odd and unstable to me.
The texture looks really pixelated for a 2048x2048 texture. Is it not rendered properly in these screenshots or something? I know about digital camo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_camo#Digital_camouflage), but the pixels seem particularly large.
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Nice to see him kneeling rather than crouching! The crouch always looked a bit odd and unstable to me.
The texture looks really pixelated for a 2048x2048 texture. Is it not rendered properly in these screenshots or something? I know about digital camo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_camo#Digital_camouflage), but the pixels seem particularly large.
Yeah, I intentionally made the digital-ness (pixelation) really large and exaggerated so that it would still look digital when viewed from a distance - keep in mind the battlescape camera only zooms in so far - but as I look at it again and again I'm starting to get less happy with it.
Here's an alternate - do you think this would work better?
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I think you're right that we'd need to see it in-game to really judge, but this version definitely looks better to me. Especially around the bottom of the legs, the shape is a lot more defined.
Also, in terms of sizes, I'm using 512x512 just for a wall texture, so I suspect the soldiers could even use a 1024x1024 texture in the battlescape. Would need to talk to the people who know these things, though.
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1024x1024 is ok for the body. it would also be cool if you could provide different lod models (does blender has support for this?)