Patrick
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Posts posted by Patrick
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Nice work.
I didn't publish my character assets directly to Leadwerks simply due to the licensing I was told about by another artist wanting to make some assets for the community here, at least as workshop items, instead I just gave them away to developers in general outside of this specific community, it's nice to see something being made for the users though... You should probably get some training content worked up more than 3d content as I've always said, knowing what to do with the content is more of an issue than getting content to use. I think I said that almost two years ago...
I really wanted to get some assets made a long time ago for Leadwerks as a community effort, which is what I first posted about but nobody seemed interested to aid in letting me know what would be preferred so I dropped that. I had the time back then and I had the ability to get something done but no idea what the intended audience would want in terms of style or design more so than requiring any help making the stuff - xD
I think if there was more focus on dedicated learning materials in the form of either written articles or video tutorials then you would have had many more users who could have created content and likely shared back when you released on Steam and you wouldn't have had to wait so long. Just my opinion of course.
It's always nice ot see the updates though
Keep it up!
Regards,
Patrick.
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Sorry I haven't updated soon... I made some of the models already just haven't finished everything on the list, I also have yet to texture any of them, but I am working on getting these finished in my free time which is somewhat sparse as of late. None the less, I am still working on them
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I will work on these as soon as I can, there are a few things that I need to finish up before I can help you with this, but I can model out the weapons and shield pretty fast, the textures will take a little fiddling around with Substance Designer and as for the hands, I will probably hold off on making something like those for a little while, they would take a bit more time than everything else there...
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I'm looking for some decent real(ish)-(b/c of the free) medival weapons. Does anyone know where i may find some?
I'll make you an offer...
Compile a reasonable list, gather some visual references per listed item and I will work on making the medieval weapon set and upload them for free to use with commercial rights... It will be a nice chance to play with Substance Designer a little more.
First I'd work on modelling each item, then unwrapping and texturing in phases. I'm not sure how many weapon models you'd be looking for, it might not be something I can complete all in one go but I'd be happy to devote some time into getting it done and ready for everyone.
I did have a set but I can't seem to find the model files (I think I lost them with my HDD failure) all I can find relating to them from my screenshots folder is this:
http://i.imgur.com/Tt7HltX.png
http://i.imgur.com/NhKQzhc.png
http://i.imgur.com/2ajEFS0.png
Nothing special there but shows I can do it lol. The models were real nice once they were textured and detailed with normal maps but I can;t find the previews either, I grabbed these from an email I sent when working on them and stored them in my screenshot folder recently.
Kind Regards,
Patrick.
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It's a real shame that I missed this conference, I hope that you host another one. I should be able to attend that one!
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Well if someone can't make it, I'd like to step into their place... As mentioned above though there are already eleven in total listed on there :\
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This is a great start!!
Keep this up and you'll have a beastly portfolio in no time (
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Yeah, I mean stuff like this, where it's like more detailed than anything in reality that has ever existed. All those little pieces would break off his costume the first time the poor guy tried to put on his shoes.
It's interesting that the more detail you have, the more opportunities there are for visual incongruence. This character would look completely out of place next to any characters that wasn't modeled with the exact same level of detail and style.
This is why the character artists get the work contracts for more than just a single character though, they're more so paid for their style and attention to detail than anything so when making characters for portfolio work it's to stand out and not go with something that would be specifically for general purpose use or that would realistically function, so long as it can animate. I get your point of view though, but as an artist and not a game developer they're trying to stand out, and as you've said it would work really well in a world where the characters were developed by the same artist or artists. So they would get contracted for more work in the long run
but more often than not, a client would confront them with a style guideline or a set of character designs in which they would create to those required/desired specs. When it's simply portfolio or personal work, its to stand out and 'show off' so to speak...I know that when developing assets for things like storefronts and everything, that you need to gear less towards the 'main character' outlook and more towards the 'general use' though my reply was just trying to give a little perspective as to why in some circumstances it's like that.
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Just out of general curiosity...
Do you have any references to the level of quality and detail you're looking for?
Any theme specifically?
The more information you include the easier it would be for any artists out there with the skill to decide whether they would be up for the task or if its in their ball park or not.
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I've not been around for a while, but I've managed to sort out my graphics card issue and my internet connection is sorted so I may be able to be around more often
Regards,
Patrick.
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That's great news
I can't wait to get back up and running myself
once I do, if you aren't able to fulfill some of the requests I might just be able to make one or two here and there when I have the time.. I should be back in business within a couple of weeks, maybe three because I seem to have some real bad luck lately lol :\ -
Here's a preview of the Workshop page. I can't switch the app id until our Workshop is publicly viewable:
http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/page/workshop?showbanner=0
So many goats
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Road Kill is a great application, I didn't mention i due to the 3d coat request
As for what classes as high you have to think about what all is being rendered on the screen at once and in your case with Phobia its a lot less than a fast paced action shooter which would have to have a lot less in certain areas with the graphics side of things. At least to work well on a larger amount of machines.
To me personally, I consider 16k tris on the higher end but with single player games such as this its quite fine. For a game that intends on having many more things on screen and going on at once I would try to stick to a 8k tris limit with a fully equipped character.
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The polycount is definable by many variables so there isn't really a set goal so to speak, its more based on the project goals as such. From what I know about Phobia. For a character I would say that a good poly count could be anywhere from 8,000 (tris) to 16,000 (tris) as there won't be a great deal of characters or other such things on screen at once and a lot of the environmental pieces will be heavily detailed by textures/materials. This should be a nice target to stick within I think. Anything more could be overkill, as a lot of detail here can be help within a texture and the atmosphere is also quite grim and dark too.
As for edge flow, its more important than anything with game character models, it will determine how well the character will deform when rigged and is even more so important with game characters as the rig is in some cases more so limited than with a production rig.
So long as you stick to the important anatomical flow of the human body you should be ok with the edge flow but it will take some practice before you get to something that is near perfect. It also takes some knowledge of anatomy and other such similar topics, Polycount has a good few posts on edge flow for game characters, but there are suggested paths for lower poly characters to deform well and then the higher end which you're obviously able to do more with.
I have a lot less experience with UV related topics, but I typically workout which part of my mesh is less visible to the player in most cases and direct my seams there, 3D-Coat is a god send with the auto unwrap features being as good as they are, you just need to learn how to inform it of what you want. This may help you in terms of how to cut the UV islands though... http://cgi.tutsplus.com/articles/game-character-creation-series-kila-chapter-3-uv-mapping--cg-26754
I hope it helps a little mate
Regards
Patrick
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Mindtex is insanely good, even better than B2M in my opinion. And its over half the price, only £10 on Steam
The quality of the maps are very very good to.
I will probably pick it up in the steam summer sale then, I did look into it a little when I saw it release on steam I just haven't had the spare change to throw at it yet
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For textures for our project, I will be using a combination of Substance Painter and Bitmap2Material or Mindtex (B2M and Mindtex are Normal Map/Spec/Diffuse/Emissive etc map generators. I think our texture size will be 1024x1024
I have bene playing around with using modular textures with my modular level design pieces too, I have managed to get an entire in door level set created with the use of one texture, by an entire level set, to give a sense of scale I mean like the entire level of a spaceship from a scifi game or something like that, the texture size is 2048x2048 though, but its something to think about....
I saw that Substance Painter is out now, I have played with Substance designer and I love it, I will try to grab painter soon as its 50% off.
I ma looking forward to this little project coming together XD
How is mindtex? I thought it was something that did the same thing as b2m...?
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I was actually going to write up a small blog post with images on something like this and level design myself, nice find though =]
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The C++ add-on will be released this month as a DLC on Steam.
Will it be listed as the price point of the difference between the indie and standard version?
Example:
Indie edition = $99
Standard Edition = $199
Upgrade cost = $100
Just asking to be sure
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Also, if you use Maya there is a built in feature to help with that, or there are alternative external plugins that work really well with it to help make trees similar to these that have been linked above but of course it would be easier to use and manage if you already know your 3d package.
If you don;t use Maya, Blender has pretty much the same plugins and scripts from the community for similar things
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Try exporting from Silo2 with the .obj export and then converting it to an fbx file in Blender... Perhaps some information besides just the geometry and uv data is getting carried over with the 3ds file and messed up from converting to an fbx somewhere and that could be causing trouble...
I know that some people who use fbx files, don't always clean up their scene before exporting to an engine and this is the reason for my above comment, as typically this tends to cause issues somewhere. I guess that its worth a shot but beyond that I can't see why that is happening :\
If its happening with models even obtained from the internet, then I doubt that it is the above... I can't say that I have had that experience with Leadwerks and my content yet :S
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For textures / 2D:
http://www.gimp.org/ - While often compaired to photoshop, it is most decidedly NOT photoshop, but a great piece of software in it's own rigth
http://krita.org/ - digital painting software ( if your going for that hand painted look )
http://mypaint.intilinux.com/ - digital painting software
I was going to add these but had to go and get some stuff done
lol there are more too which I know of and use, thanks for listing them I will add to the main list real soon -
You forgot anotehr not so well advertised , but very capable but expensive also : MODO.
Anyway i think Blender and sculptris are a good start and FREE package
In Sculptris , what i found crazy about sculptris is that no people show videos or use in their models , multiple ojects as you can work with several (like character and armors as other objects)
For Blender, dive on Youtube and search basics tutorials for 2.6 and above.
I've done this and made videos... I think they are somewhere on youtube but not too sure, I may have taken them down some time ago.
I love MODO, but its too expensive to just up and buy and the steam edition isnt worth it in my opinion.
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This post will contain a big list of free and paid software that you can use for creating game ready art or software that can be used in the creation process of game ready art.
Before I get going with this post I would like to say that the most complete and affordable or free package is by far Blender. (currently) so if you're starting out and wanting to get into 3D, I would highly recommend getting started with this and putting up with the slightly steep learning curve (at least for some people) I will list it below.
FREE Software:
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Blender:This will allow you to do everything from modelling your mesh, unwrapping it and or sculpting upon it before rigging and animation, it even offers a game engine within it not that I have ever used that side of the application. This is well worth a look and will be the best place to start for anyone looking to jump into the 3d art industry.
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Sculptris:The best free solution to 3D sculpting without having to worry about any sort of poly count and topology. Just create the art and worry about the technical stuff later. Personally I prefer using this to Blender for sculpting however Blender will offer more for the hard surface stuff.
- RoadKill: This is a free standalone UV solution, pretty nice and very usable.
PAID Software:
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Cheetah3D:This is a Mac only application but It had to be mentioned, I have never used it myself but heard great things about it and it's one of the other applications that do offer modelling alongside animation in a seemingly affordable and professional software.
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Silo2: Now I quite like this, it offers you a very nice package for a great price. You will be able to model unwrap and retopologise and even sculpt, the sculpting isn't going to be as powerful as something like the other applications mentioned here, its not the same kind of sculpting. I personally just use the modelling and unwrapping side of this software. This software is cheaper to purchase on Steam than the main site, but also the price on Steam has recently increased to, however its worth the money, if you cannot get on with Blender like many other people out there this is a nice solution, but be warned... Run the demo just to make sure it works on your computer, with some people this software crashes unexpectedly right away, I never have this problem and Maya actually crashes on me more than this but its something worth mentioning before you spend chunks of money on something to find that you cannot use it!
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Nvil: This is a very nice piece of software, developed by one guy and often overlooked. Its not complete yet but it's being actively worked on, the community is lacking a little but there is one! I can only hope that this gets a little more popular this year, I really enjoy using it. Highly customizable and easy to use if you know the basics of modelling already. The one downside is you will have to use Roadkill or another standalone UV tool if you want to unwrap your models. Not a bad thing though. Many use this as opposed to the tools software like Maya and 3DS Max offer you anyway!
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3D Coat: This one would be the best premium sculpting application that will also allow you to access great UV tools with a nice set of retopology stuff thrown in, definitely worth the price tag and easy enough to learn how to use.
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Zbrush: Probably the most well known application for high end sculpting, be it for game or production, this software is great but it comes at a price, however a very good price for what you get but if you're on a budget 3D Coat will be the way to go, this is a very similar software but I find that using a lesser powerful machine is a lot better with this than 3D Coat so you might want to take that into consideration when marking up what you can afford and what you cannot.
- Topogun: If you want something affordable and powerful for the simple task of retopologising your models to be game ready than this is likely the best software you can add to your arsenal of applications, its easy to use, cheap and very powerful at what it does.
- Autodesk Maya: Personally I feel that this is one of the best solutions for Animation, although you can use it for a great many other things this is a complete package, modelling, uv mapping, rigging and animation along with rendering and such. It has a high price tag much like every other product by autodesk, but you really do get your moneys worth.
- Autodesk 3DS Max: Personally I couldn't get on with this one, I found navigation to be too tedious (when I started out) but I know that this is just as powerful as Maya and it has a very nice viewport renderer too. Another full package with all the tools you will need (excluding sculpting)
- Autodesk Softimage XSI: I loved this software back before Autodesk bought them out, I haven't used it since due to the price tag matching up with the others, its still a great piece of software and no doubt that it'll be more powerful than when I used it, it has a great and exstensive set of rigging tools and animation, as well as modelling and the like. Well worth a look if you plan on getting a premium software.
- Autodesk Mudbox: Another sculpting solution here, presented by Autodesk, its definitely got the power and a great feature set, personally I prefer 3D Coat and Zbrush, I believe they're actually cheaper too, but if you're looking to go with Autodesk for something like Maya, you can get a major discount for purchasing a bundle of their software including this which will be great to use in that instance.
I have to run off for a little while but this list will be an on going thing, I will add to it and expand, I have a set of 2d applications I would love to add to this along with some info regarding some other steam applications for 3d modelling that have not long ago released!
I hope that this list will help some of you newcomers and such.
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Blender:This will allow you to do everything from modelling your mesh, unwrapping it and or sculpting upon it before rigging and animation, it even offers a game engine within it not that I have ever used that side of the application. This is well worth a look and will be the best place to start for anyone looking to jump into the 3d art industry.
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For a complete package I would recommend Blender to someone who has never used another 3d modelling application before, its probably the best thing to start using, its forever growing and has a great community for support.
If you want something that is a paid for application I use Maya and would recommend that although its pricy. I use it mostly for my rigging and animation work however the modelling tools are quite adequate.
I would like to ask what you mean by complete though? (modelling, uv, rigging & animation?)
You can always use a couple of applications alongside each other which is what a lot of people do and many industry artists will tell you is not a bad thing. I find that 3D Coat is likely the best most affordable option out there for sculpting high detailed organic and hard surface objects and creatures, it definitely competes with Zbrush although they have a few differences. (I use both so I'm talking form what I know) If you use Blender you can utilize the sculpting that software offers but in my opinion its not nearly as great as 3D Coat, its definitely getting there, but its not there yet
I find myself using 3D Coat (right now) more for the UV and retopology tools than the sculpting, another thing that Blender has (the retopo tools) which Maya 2014 does too, I think that you'll find at the end of the day it all comes down to personal preference and how much you can or want to spend on the stuff.
There are cheaper solutions aside from the free Blender just encase you cannot get on with it as I know many people just can't...
Silo2: (Affordable but paid)
A great modelling solution that offers Uv tools and a set of retopology tools
Nvil: (free & Paid)
This is solely a modelling application, but you can use Roadkill alongside it for the UV requirements. A very nice and customizable application that I would happily recommend to people that are having a hard time with Blender.
There are others and I will likely go and make a full post about them with more information in a short while as to help others looking for this type of thing but I think that you will find it hard to come across a more complete package than Blender without paying a nice lump sum of cash. Like 3D Coat, its great for sculpting, UVing and Retopologising but not so great for things like creating lower poly models, it also has amazing tools to paint on your mesh very nicely too, I will make a tutorial on this very soon! So using this tool alongside your favorite modelling application will only prove beneficial.
Also, I love using Sculptris as a free sculpting application, its truly amazing and probably the easiest way to jump into the world of 3d sculpting, like YouGroove has just said, grab a cheap wacom tablet and have fun with it
I think you'll find yourself in need of a graphics tablet if you plan on creating good textures and sculpting on meshes.I hope this helps a little!
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There's also a "trading" section in the Steam forum, and some people wanted to trade some games for Leadwerks.
The problem with that is, if you already own it on your account you can't trade it
you have to buy it as a gift and have it in your inventory to trade it... :\ lol -
Well the way you would do it in Blender really isn't that different to Maya, its just different controls and interface really...
As far as animating faces goes I much prefer to handle it manually, the mocap I would only use for high quality cut scene renders or animated cinematic scenarios.
I'm not sure that Blender only supports that that, you're always able to go in and animate the face manually, if all you're looking to animate are facial expressions to express emotion to layer over other animations within your game you can easily do this without a lot of animation knowledge, all you will need is a properly prepared model (A model rigged with facial animation in mind) and know what expressions you want. Usually a rig will have controls to help animators use it and it will have pretty straightforward and easy to read facial controls. I haven't much looked into Mixamo Faceplus but I will look more into it now.
Animation itself isn't easy to literally just jump into, but if you're willing to and able to put some time into it you might not struggle in picking up some basic skills with Blender (once you get your head around the user interface) this looks like it might help give you a head start in animation as a whole as well as some cool final result for facial stuff:
http://cgcookie.com/blender/cgc-courses/animating-a-character-in-blender/
The good news is with my rigs that I create in Maya I think I can get them into Blender and set them up well enough without having to get someone else on board to help with that. I'm trying to get my head around Blender too myself as more people seem interested in a lot of art related stuff and Blender is easy to get and free so if I succeed I will use that for my tutorials and maybe even animation ones, but if I struggle too much with it and can't configure it more like Maya then I will stick to that for the tutorials I have planned :S lol
I find it hard as I have been using Maya for far too long now.After looking up more info on Mixamo Faceplus, it says that it works with both Blendshapes and joint based characters so the second is what you would want for a game character to use in an engine, blendshapes are awesome but not as engine friendly from what I have experienced.
I know there are things for software like Blender and Maya that will take your audio from your mic or recorded file and animated your model much like this providing you set it up correctly which is apparently the same as this anyway, if you read over the documentation a little here it takes a little preparation for the character in Unity to work with it. (the docs: http://www.mixamo.com/files/doc/face_plus-readme.pdf )
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but more often than not, a client would confront them with a style guideline or a set of character designs in which they would create to those required/desired specs. When it's simply portfolio or personal work, its to stand out and 'show off' so to speak...
once I do, if you aren't able to fulfill some of the requests I might just be able to make one or two here and there when I have the time.. I should be back in business within a couple of weeks, maybe three because I seem to have some real bad luck lately lol :\
lol
lol there are more too which I know of and use, thanks for listing them 
you have to buy it as a gift and have it in your inventory to trade it... :\ lol
Character Model Development
in Game Artwork
Posted
Yeah the free content available from students isn't really a viable option in my opinion either. I've donated character assets to particular open source projects from time to time usually when I am between jobs and wanting to be productive through waiting on clients to get back to me and yes it's not cheap, something many people don't comprehend before they try to hire a character artist haha.
The same goes for animations, people see mixamo and expect to pay pennies for custom animations lately. I look forward to seeing this chaarcter with a texture map and in the engine.
~ Patrick.