Game Development Community

Character Animation - separate entities recommended?

by Josiah Wang · in Game Design and Creative Issues · 01/08/2007 (12:55 pm) · 3 replies

Hey guys, long time since I've posted on the Torque forums. Trying to get my head back into the game designing loop, and I think I'm finally ready for some character creation / animation :D

Before I begin though, I just want to ask a few things. Namely, is it okay / recommended to animate my characters (bipedal) when they are 'disjointed', as in NOT connected as a single entity? I currently have my arms as separate objects, my legs as separate objects, and my head as a separate object. Having them in separate objects makes it easier for me to animate / texture. Is this recommended / can this be valid-ly imported into torque?

Also, anyone know any import techniques from Cinema 4D?

Thanks in advance guys!
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Torque Owner Kimmy Gorden
#1
02/22/2007 (8:46 pm)
This is the question I am wondering as well-
Should I create my models as seperate parts (heads, arms, torsos and legs) or as one entity?

If I do it in parts- then my players can better choose what their avatars look like- but is that condusive to game design?

Does anyone have a pipeline they would like to share?

Torque Owner Rick Kelley
#2
02/27/2007 (12:12 pm)
It all depends on the quality that you are after. If your looking for very low polygon models, (recomended for massive online players on the screen at the same time), you may want to do seperate parts. This was accomplished in games such as quake 2, Half life 1, Unreal tournament (first version). Problematic areas were constructed that do not deform well in a low polygon environment. These included the shoulder, elbow, and knee areas. You will see things like armor like that hide this bad deformation, as well as seperate appendages. Newer games use full model entities because you can use weighted vertices.

Torque Owner Magnus Blikstad
#3
02/27/2007 (12:35 pm)
Neither half-life nor quake2 used separate parts for characters. (half-life use skin weighted, bone animated models, only one bone per vertex though. And quake/quake2 used vertex animation).

But in either case, it really depends on the models (and what you want to do with them). If it's something that can be easily separated into parts, sure, why not. Otherwise I'd use bones and weights any day over having to separate things out.