Player: Cowboy:
by Rex · in Game Design and Creative Issues · 01/28/2005 (5:13 pm) · 11 replies
Here's a player character I'm currently working on aside from producing my GameSpace2DTS online guide describing the player setup. The guide utilizes the Buzz3d VTM elf mesh and moves forward from there.
The single-mesh is around a polycount of 2032 faces. I began testing the deformations and they are looking very nice for absolutely not much tweeking. The skeleton may have around 50+ bones for full hand articulation. The full amount of default Nodes will be included to allow for much attaching of items/objects. Yeeeeehhaaaw!
The single-mesh is around a polycount of 2032 faces. I began testing the deformations and they are looking very nice for absolutely not much tweeking. The skeleton may have around 50+ bones for full hand articulation. The full amount of default Nodes will be included to allow for much attaching of items/objects. Yeeeeehhaaaw!
About the author
Rex does all his 3D graphics through BrokeAssGames and is currently working on DSQTweaker, Ecstasy Motion, and other interesting projects yet to be revealed. Just ask him about anything DTS/DSQ related, he's happy to help.
#2
...ah, the details. There is a nice strap running around the ankle of each boot, original artist renders have a buckle item too! The hat is pushed up in front and very wide/round brimmed. The forearm bracers also have many lines detail for the texture artist to work from. This guy's insignia is a pair of horseshoes back to back...:). Oh, btw, the neckerkief hasn't had it tails extruded out yet, it's asymetrical and favors the right side. I'm hoping by making it somewhat asymetrical will add some organic properties to this human. The pose is the artists image plane/skinning pose, very close to a root position, ;). Good hand positioning, too, imho. The artist I contracted is very good and a fellow feature film worker, he produced/directed a documentary of the life/times of fantasy artist, Frank Frazetta, entitled, "Painting with Fire".
01/28/2005 (5:33 pm)
Thanks! Yes, from that angle the face/neck is showing a bit of narrowness, I believe I've pulled the neck out, thanks, this does appear to be an older shot. GameSpace will snap any verts near the mirrorline, to the centerline, unless a bit of value jizzling occurs. Iv'e found an Epsilon value of .1 works better than the default. The shape is scaled 1:1 in gS for Torque....ah, the details. There is a nice strap running around the ankle of each boot, original artist renders have a buckle item too! The hat is pushed up in front and very wide/round brimmed. The forearm bracers also have many lines detail for the texture artist to work from. This guy's insignia is a pair of horseshoes back to back...:). Oh, btw, the neckerkief hasn't had it tails extruded out yet, it's asymetrical and favors the right side. I'm hoping by making it somewhat asymetrical will add some organic properties to this human. The pose is the artists image plane/skinning pose, very close to a root position, ;). Good hand positioning, too, imho. The artist I contracted is very good and a fellow feature film worker, he produced/directed a documentary of the life/times of fantasy artist, Frank Frazetta, entitled, "Painting with Fire".
#3
01/28/2005 (8:22 pm)
Looks more like a pirate than a cowboy
#4
post some screens of front / side + wireframes and I will give you a decent critique.
01/28/2005 (10:07 pm)
Yeah i agree its very pirate likepost some screens of front / side + wireframes and I will give you a decent critique.
#5
one thing id suggest (which i dont know what is called in gamespace) is to look at the smoothing of the model. you should have either a way of setting smoothing controlled per face (like max) or per edge (like maya)
the entire model seems to be smoothed, which gives the lighting a blotchy look.
you might want to try 'sharp' edges at specific points to help the lighting a bit. like around the seam for the neck, wrists, top of boots, the rim around the hat, and the edge that is the seperating point between the head and the hat.
its also good to put a hard edge inbetween wrinkles, like the bunched leather/cloth you have on his boots.
01/29/2005 (5:55 am)
Yup i thought 'pirate' too. must be the hat :)one thing id suggest (which i dont know what is called in gamespace) is to look at the smoothing of the model. you should have either a way of setting smoothing controlled per face (like max) or per edge (like maya)
the entire model seems to be smoothed, which gives the lighting a blotchy look.
you might want to try 'sharp' edges at specific points to help the lighting a bit. like around the seam for the neck, wrists, top of boots, the rim around the hat, and the edge that is the seperating point between the head and the hat.
its also good to put a hard edge inbetween wrinkles, like the bunched leather/cloth you have on his boots.
#6
.....it's the hat.
01/29/2005 (6:09 am)
Thanks for all suggestions and observations, busy this morning; I'll post some more of an updated mesh, no smoothing, this was to begin looking at deformations; still very much defining it's volume......it's the hat.
#7
01/29/2005 (7:54 am)
Looks really great. I can't wait for textured version.
#8
Here's an update with a bit[crudely done-actually my image planes] of skin to begin looking at the export process. The rig has held up to binding, weighting, and the linking of the nodes. Posed into a default pistol weapon grip, everything went fine thru export. I'd been having trouble with the previous rig and had to backtrack until I expunged the corruption. I did an export per process step along the way to find where it all went foul. This 'final' export for testing has a single 1024x1024 texture applied, has 4 levels of autoDetail, and had the extra group Nodes culled[base01/start01] which appear as Nodes, while I thought the exporter automagically ignored grouping names...?!?
02/28/2005 (9:11 am)
Here's an update with a bit[crudely done-actually my image planes] of skin to begin looking at the export process. The rig has held up to binding, weighting, and the linking of the nodes. Posed into a default pistol weapon grip, everything went fine thru export. I'd been having trouble with the previous rig and had to backtrack until I expunged the corruption. I did an export per process step along the way to find where it all went foul. This 'final' export for testing has a single 1024x1024 texture applied, has 4 levels of autoDetail, and had the extra group Nodes culled[base01/start01] which appear as Nodes, while I thought the exporter automagically ignored grouping names...?!?
#9
02/28/2005 (10:23 am)
Rex you can always add start01 and base01 to the never export list in your .cfg file to remove them from the DTS shape.
#10
This is what I came up with...eh.
02/28/2005 (10:41 am)
;)...I know, took me a little while to find out which Nodes were being created...Culled just fine. On an earlier rig, I kept getting the start01 included no matter what I did?? That rig is gone.... Now, things are back to hunky-dory. I'm working on some sequencing now...:)! Also I'm trying to get some sort of view frame constructed to determine what's going to be in the FOV of the player, from inside GameSpace. I hope my crude, and unscientific method, of creating a 4-sided pyramid with a base of 2 meters square, by a height of 1 meter. I move the Axis to the Apex and rotate by -90.0 in X, Normalize Rotation, and it 'appears' like a 90 degree field of view oriented at the _eye nodes position?!?This is what I came up with...eh.
#11
02/28/2005 (3:04 pm)
Looking sharp, man. 
Torque Owner nibbuls
It looks like something might be wrong with his head/hat (too squished on an axis, perhaps), but I can see a huge amount of detail. Great job!