Orc character- geometry
by Radoslaw Marcin Kurczewski · 11/23/2006 (3:04 pm) · 7 comments
I knew it... I just knew it. Cool looking designs in most of the cases does not work in real life (or animation for that matter). Large shoulderpads, bulky armpit protection- it all looks really cool but if you want to make it move you need to either make your heavy plates bend with each move or cheat on player. Nothing bad with either option but it's frustrating that cool concept does not really work as you'd expect it to do. In any case- most of base mesh for ORC is here, what's left is headgear and neck protection. When that will be done I'll jump into texturing (before making high poly to have normal maps laid down correctly). At the moment model is at 3424 triangles so it's quite light in terms of polycount but I am sure that hands and head details will take like 500-600 poly. Anyway- here's how it looks like at the moment
#2
11/23/2006 (3:50 pm)
I think if you put from 1 to 10% weighting on the pads they will be less likely to bend with the rest of the body. Another thought is to not attached them to the bones on the shoulders, use the chest, and animate them by hand to retain their structural integrity.
#3
Hands up ? Grenade throwing animation ? Ragdoll ? Dozens of things that can go wrong and in fact in99 out of 100 cases they do- i bet it's one of this "Murphy's law for game artist" things.
Infinity miniatures are brilliant example because they look just so great that one does not bother with thinking "hey, how they are supposed to FIGHT in something like that".
Having said that- I am quite determined to make this one run and dance in TSE. Coding... that would be much worse.
11/23/2006 (5:21 pm)
Oh sure, I did it before ( I have been working on characters with unrealistically large shoulderpads) - after all if everything else fails it's also possible to attach shoulderpads to separate bones. What I mean is that when I am looking at cool mini or concept drawing it quite often makes so "natural", life-like impression that I tend to forget that- for example- exaggerated shoulderpads will be royal pain to work with. I agree, posing arms different helps but it does not solve problem of not-quite-so-realistic-armour (certain sequences are necessary no matter what your default pose was). Hands up ? Grenade throwing animation ? Ragdoll ? Dozens of things that can go wrong and in fact in99 out of 100 cases they do- i bet it's one of this "Murphy's law for game artist" things.
Infinity miniatures are brilliant example because they look just so great that one does not bother with thinking "hey, how they are supposed to FIGHT in something like that".
Having said that- I am quite determined to make this one run and dance in TSE. Coding... that would be much worse.
#4
11/23/2006 (5:30 pm)
I'd say that the makers of UT did a good job with bulky armor. ;D
#5
By no means trying to put myself in one line with them (even comparison is a compliment already) but just for sake of discussion (and to make me feel a tiny bit better)- it's much easier when you can modify anything you want and something quite different when you have guidelines created by somebody else you got to follow.
Here's what I have by now- as you can see upper chest and neck are still untouched but... it's 4.40 am and I think I did enough for this morning
11/23/2006 (5:46 pm)
Yeah, but they had advantage of using own designs :). I am not trying to say it can't be done (it can, in some cases quite easily)- just as any other design task it has own rules and tricks you gotta learn to do it right. By no means trying to put myself in one line with them (even comparison is a compliment already) but just for sake of discussion (and to make me feel a tiny bit better)- it's much easier when you can modify anything you want and something quite different when you have guidelines created by somebody else you got to follow.
Here's what I have by now- as you can see upper chest and neck are still untouched but... it's 4.40 am and I think I did enough for this morning
#7
11/25/2006 (12:41 pm)
As it is - 5100. I am planning to add up to 8 000. 
Torque Owner Thak
Shoulders and shoulder pads are always tricky. You have to get creative a bit there and also eventually restrict the movement a character wearing such a suit will be able to perform. The T-Pose is also a bit tproblematic, it is better to angle the Arms at 45 degrees. Then you can place and rig the Pads diffrently as well.
Looking forward to your progress Mate