Animation Pipeline

[Gen.Kenobi]

Indeed. Would you like me to post some orthographic shots of females?

That would be sweet - However I'd post it in spoiler tags, since some people might be offended as nudity. (some people around here are minors )

[Zaggy1024]

Khopesh, are you planning to use Blender to rig the new meshes, or Max?

[Shield Bearer]

I just made some changes to shave some polys, how is it? I removed the extra loop from the chest, but if you think its really required, then we can add it in again.

650tris.

[Enrique]

This is going to sound strange... but I would open those legs and make them thicker xD

I don't know how well will bend until I test the armature with that topology.

[Khopesh]

That would be swell...though I might not have time anytime soon to do anything with them

No worries, I've been busy myself anyway. Still got a month left at uni to go.

Could all these models share the same animations? Or will there have to be different animations made for each model?

Animation will be done on the rig, and all the humans in the game will share the same rig. So yes, all the human models can share the same animations.

However, all the animals may need their own unique rig. Similar enough animals MAY be able to share, but it's best to use as few as possible to save on memory (and cut down on lag).

That would be sweet - However I'd post it in spoiler tags, since some people might be offended as nudity. (some people around here are minors )

Sure thing.

Khopesh, are you planning to use Blender to rig the new meshes, or Max?

I would prefer to use Maya, but with 'potential' licensing issues and I need to learn Blender anyway - I think I'll be using Blender.

I just made some changes to shave some polys, how is it? I removed the extra loop from the chest, but if you think its really required, then we can add it in again.

650tris.

This is going to sound strange... but I would open those legs and make them thicker xD

I don't know how well will bend until I test the armature with that topology.

The missing chest loop should not be a problem. I'm more worried about the topology around the shoulder/clavicle. The edge-loops are a bit wild on the shoulder-blade, and there's a big gap between the neck and shoulder (also the neck and chest). I really hate doing the shoulder area. It's always a pain in the neck!

The knee and ankle should be fine. The upper thigh however MAY need another edge-loop, and I agree that it is looking a bit thin from some angles.

It's really hard to find good wire-frame examples of low-poly characters to use for reference and I'm still learning myself.

I'll have a play around and see what I can come up with. Is there a copy of those models I can use - saves having to make one from scratch?!

Edited November 6, 2012 by Khopesh

[Khopesh]

OK, here's my attempt at 576 tris.

I tried to keep the faces as square as possible (so they deform better when animating). I did have it looking a lot better but that was nearly double the poly count. This also meant I had to take the extra edge loops off the ankles/wrists, but I don't think they will be needed (I've seem some rigs that only go to the knee/elbow).

I would upload the DAE file but not sure how to (that "My Media" thing doesn't seem to do anything).

I will upload the female orthos later in the week when I have more time.

Edited November 6, 2012 by Khopesh

[Shield Bearer]

Ah, this looks much better mine is actually and edit from a much higher poly model, so I guess here and there it looping didn't come as well as I'd expected

But I like your's a lot, and it would most definitely map better on our textures.

[feneur]

I would upload the DAE file but not sure how to (that "My Media" thing doesn't seem to do anything).

I'll have to check whether the .dae extension is allowed to attach (am too tired now ), but in either case a ZIP/7-zip file is probably a better choice as that means a smaller file To attach a file click "More Reply Option" below the reply box and there you can "Attach Files" to the post

[Enrique]

OK, here's my attempt at 576 tris.

I tried to keep the faces as square as possible (so they deform better when animating). I did have it looking a lot better but that was nearly double the poly count. This also meant I had to take the extra edge loops off the ankles/wrists, but I don't think they will be needed (I've seem some rigs that only go to the knee/elbow).

I would upload the DAE file but not sure how to (that "My Media" thing doesn't seem to do anything).

I will upload the female orthos later in the week when I have more time.

DAE extension is not allowed IIRC, but just zip the model and post it, through "More Reply Options" menu.

Looks like a very nice shoulder topology . I think you should add the extra loop for the hands.

I want to take a look and UV map it .

Do you mind to make a female mesh or refine this one to a female one

[Khopesh]

Here is the file - feel free to do as you wish with it

base_male.zip

Do you mind to make a female mesh or refine this one to a female one

I'll have a go this weekend.

Edited November 8, 2012 by Khopesh

[Enrique]

This is my best attempt so far. Two things:

-Textures are mirrored at the moment.

-I had to add an edgeloop on the thigh due to how the current textures are aligned, but I still getting that ugly seam. I think it will look better on the "short tunic" version.

[Mythos_Ruler]

Shoulder textures go too far over in the UV mapping.

[Enrique]

Shoulder textures go too far over in the UV mapping.

Done, looks better now maybe not short enough?

More corrections please

[Mythos_Ruler]

The shoulder doubling (the shoulder armor) needs to be almost vertical. Also, on the legs, the mapping should probably align better where the seam is. And the shin guards (greaves) look too tall.

[Enrique]

Progress:

[Mythos_Ruler]

The upper pectoral/shoulder area needs to be pulled inward a bit. And still, the shoulder textures go too far outward. The legs look great now though.

[Enrique]

Posting for Amish to fix the hands, and I'll try to fix that shoulders, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to straighten more those shoulders due to topology.

It also happened that when trying to fix those shoulder armors further, the other unit textures looked a bit weird. But I'll do my best.

base_male_UVunwrap.zip

[Shield Bearer]

Made the changes, here's the updated version:

dudex_mapped.zip

[historic_bruno]

Really cool to see progress on this at last Keep up the good work!

[Enrique]

Some further UV tweaks and I made the forearm a little bit shorter (looked too long IMO)

If there's no more objections, should I start making the rest of unit models? or we should try if we can make this model work with the old rig first?

[Shield Bearer]

We should first rig, either old or new and then make variations. Animators, can you please suggest whats best here?

[Mythos_Ruler]

I think it would be great if we could bang our heads together one more time and try to get the game's existing rig to work with this new model, so we can at least salvage all the existing animations (some of the existing animations aren't very good, but some are very high quality). If the last-ditch effort doesn't work, then a new rig is in order!

[Shield Bearer]

I think Zaggy said he'd try one last time...

[Enrique]

Testing so far, this is what I get:

This is the test "jumping" animation from dude_5_IK from this post: http://www.wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=15552&st=240#entry247587

What I did:

- Removed the head mesh

- Set the IK bones to FK (using sliders when selecting the IK bones)

- Bake the animation (space bar, type bake action)

- Select the armature and the body mesh and export

- Changed .xml from gaul_slinger_a so the melee animation points to the test animation exported.

The only thing positive was to import the animation again in blender, the bones rotation are messed up but the animation plays correctly and the keyframes are there.

Anyone knows if I'm doing something wrong? Did someone get further than this?

[Khopesh]

I like what you've done so far.

Sorry I haven't been around, been a bit busy with uni stuff. I have 3 weeks left at uni so might not be able to do much (if anything) in that time. But should be able to do a lot more after then.