Dumb Questoin? Animations
by Anthony · in Torque Game Engine · 04/03/2008 (1:06 am) · 5 replies
This might be a very dumb question, but I am a programmer and not artist, not even a little bit.
I am looking to start a project soon with a few people, and I was looking at places like turbosquid for ready-made content that is not bad. But when it comes to character models, animations are a major problem.
I know Torque works off a skeletal type animations system. Would taking an already built model, and the orc skeleton, or soldier skeleton, and kind of pasting them together be just as much of a job as animating the model from scratch? I know you have to apply weights to the vertices or something or other that "glues" the bones/joints to the actual mesh, but I am an idiot when it actually comes to the process.
Reason I ask is that, if buying a model from turbosquid or other similar websites and then paying a modeler type to apply the already made soldier skeleton is a possibility, then it will open huge doors in terms of the amount of content that can be placed in the game when it comes to characters.
Some enlightenment would be greatly appreciated.
Also, would buying vehicle models from there be a complete waste?
I apologize if this is not quite the area to post, wasn't sure which area fit exactly.
Thank you in advanced!
I am looking to start a project soon with a few people, and I was looking at places like turbosquid for ready-made content that is not bad. But when it comes to character models, animations are a major problem.
I know Torque works off a skeletal type animations system. Would taking an already built model, and the orc skeleton, or soldier skeleton, and kind of pasting them together be just as much of a job as animating the model from scratch? I know you have to apply weights to the vertices or something or other that "glues" the bones/joints to the actual mesh, but I am an idiot when it actually comes to the process.
Reason I ask is that, if buying a model from turbosquid or other similar websites and then paying a modeler type to apply the already made soldier skeleton is a possibility, then it will open huge doors in terms of the amount of content that can be placed in the game when it comes to characters.
Some enlightenment would be greatly appreciated.
Also, would buying vehicle models from there be a complete waste?
I apologize if this is not quite the area to post, wasn't sure which area fit exactly.
Thank you in advanced!
#3
My suggestion would be to use inexpensive placeholder art, that at least sort of comes together artisticly. Once you get all of your gameplay mechanics and design down, post some screenshots and maybe a youtube or gameplay demo, to attract other artists to help replace your art. People are more likely to come and join your team if you have something to show for yourself.
04/03/2008 (2:31 pm)
Personally I think rigging kork's, or any other bipeds skeleton to another model would be a waste of time. The animations will most likely look weird on other models. Kork's skeleton would be horrible for a human model, the scales are just off. Something like Adam, Ava, or Jill would be better, but then why buy a seperate model when you can just modify the existing one, deforming the mesh and changing the texture? It's already rigged and know to work well. My suggestion would be to use inexpensive placeholder art, that at least sort of comes together artisticly. Once you get all of your gameplay mechanics and design down, post some screenshots and maybe a youtube or gameplay demo, to attract other artists to help replace your art. People are more likely to come and join your team if you have something to show for yourself.
#4
As far as attraction goes, I am not exactly trying to attract artists to my project, I had learned my lesson about that a while ago. After trying to get a total volunteer team together a few years ago it became clear that if I want to create something even minutely worth while, I will need to pay an artist to do so. I was just looking to see if the amount of workload on the artist would be lower if they just took the soldiers skeleton and rigged it to a better (as in, more detailed, with normal maps, etc.) model bought from somewhere else. This was a budget decision I was looking into because if that was a possibility than getting a higher number a quality art inside the game would be possible. To pay a good artist to generate high quality art would be much more costly.
But from the looks of it, paying someone to rigg adams or soldiers skeleton to a new model would be just about as much due to time.
Thanks again, J.P. and Brian. Your help has been very much appreciated.
04/03/2008 (2:38 pm)
So pretty much the moral is that it would be the same amount of work to rigg a third party model as it would to just have someone build it from the ground up?As far as attraction goes, I am not exactly trying to attract artists to my project, I had learned my lesson about that a while ago. After trying to get a total volunteer team together a few years ago it became clear that if I want to create something even minutely worth while, I will need to pay an artist to do so. I was just looking to see if the amount of workload on the artist would be lower if they just took the soldiers skeleton and rigged it to a better (as in, more detailed, with normal maps, etc.) model bought from somewhere else. This was a budget decision I was looking into because if that was a possibility than getting a higher number a quality art inside the game would be possible. To pay a good artist to generate high quality art would be much more costly.
But from the looks of it, paying someone to rigg adams or soldiers skeleton to a new model would be just about as much due to time.
Thanks again, J.P. and Brian. Your help has been very much appreciated.
#5
Just my 2 cents
04/29/2008 (9:25 am)
Like JP said I would recomend buying the Adam, Ava or jill model then hiring your artist to do some new textures. For that one model you could make dozens of textures giving you a wide range of choices. You might even hire someone to create some new animations to give it the personal touch. However I owuld only use a pre-existing model if you are only making a demo ro school project. If you are serious about making a commercial game I would hire people to do everythign for scratch.Just my 2 cents
Torque Owner Brian Wilson
Personally, I think you'll spend almost as much effort rigging someone else's models as you would building from scratch. If you must buy content, buy something that has already been rigged and animated for your engine. There should be plenty of resources out there.
I'm sure there will be plenty of people who can comment with the exact opposite opinion, so it will be your call in the end.