Skeleton Binding
Now we need to attach the mesh to the joints. The skeleton essentially drives the model and deforms it for us. 1. Select the first joint of your skeleton. Then hold Shift and select the geometry so that you have both the skeleton and the mesh selected. 2. Open up the options for a smooth bind Skin gt Bind Skin gt Smooth Bind . 3. Make sure your Smooth Bind options are configured in Figure 6.4. The important sections are Max Influences and Dropoff Rate. Figure 6.4. Setting Smooth Bind options...
Tip Gkl
You can adjust the size at which joints are displayed by going to Display gt Joint Size. 4. Switch to the front view Figure 6.3, left , and you'll see that the joints at this stage all lie in the wrong place in the Y axis. You need to move them up so they are positioned down the center of her arm. If you select and move the first joint you placed, it will also move the rest, because the other joints are parented to this one and thus inherit its movement. This will put the arm into the basic...
The Three Stages of Concepting
So where do we start with our concept Do we sit down and begin to sketch Just pour out our ideas onto paper Nope. Not yet. If you go to this step too early, you might end up with a good design, but it will not be what your manager wants. Concepting usually happens in the pre-production phase of a game, and sometimes earlier. During this time the designer, along with the concept artists, will work on the game's design and overall style. You will be approached by either your lead artist or the...
character
Holding Shift when you click opens the full hierarchy. Clicking without Shift will merely open the immediate child of the object. 2. Our collection of joints in the scene currently have names that aren't associated with what they will be deforming. It's a good idea at this point to rename the joints more appropriately Figure 7.61, right . After spending time tidying the scene it would now be a good time to save. Binding and Testing We will now test the deformation of the wing, so hide...
Figure Insert the recess for the spine
Now is probably a good time to delete that history that has steadily been building up. The Stomach Moving around to Kila's front in Figure 3.12 left , we can begin to work in her stomach muscles. Split polygons and move vertices to get the general shape seen in Figure 3.12 right . Figure 3.12. Add muscle detail to the stomach. Figure 3.12. Add muscle detail to the stomach.
Working with an Alpha Map
In this section we will add transparent areas to the geometry by using an alpha map. An alpha map is basically a grayscale image. This image tells Maya or your game engine which parts of the texture page are transparent and which are opaque. In Maya, areas that are pure white values 255,255,255 in all red, green, and blue channels will render opaque black 0,0,0 will render transparent and any values in between will be translucent to varying degrees. Some game engines invert these values, so...
Figure Scene contents in the Outliner
You can also use Maya's Hypergraph Windows gt Hypergraph scene's contents. 3. Delete group1 and group2, as these are no longer of use. It's important to stay on top of object naming. Remember that other people may use your work, so try and make it as easy for them as possible. 4. Next you will need to combine the objects into a single mesh. To do this, simply select all the cubes and go to Polygons gt Combine. For the first time, you will need to switch from the default Animation menu set to...
Figure The eyelashes before and after updating
We are finished with Kila's alpha map, so let's work on Grae's wings. Creating the Alpha Map for the Wings Grae's wings are not just a single object they consist of numerous tendrils that come out of his back. To keep the polygon count down, we created the wings from a number of larger polygons, intending to add the tendrils with the help of an alpha map. Because the tendrils are solid black, the main color page for the wings can be solid black, too. The alpha map will be the one that holds all...
TIP Mns
Depending on the accuracy of the head images, you may find it difficult to get the mesh looking exactly like the front and side images at once. Don't worry try to find a happy medium. What's important is that it looks like the character when it's finished. The topology is your concern at this stage, especially if the character will have any lip-sync capabilities, as most characters do. The basic head shape is in place. Its time to work in some features let's begin with the nose. As shown in...
NOTE Hvu
As mentioned previously, simple planar-mapping of the foot from the side will provide a good enough UV layout for you to texture, because most shoes are identical on both sides. You will then just separate the base of the foot and map this separately in order to apply the tread on the sole. Creating the UVs for the shoe, as demonstrated in this section, should be reserved for feet that hold a lot of texture detail. 1. Select each portion of the foot and apply Planar Mapping to them all...
LOD Polygons 1
LOD 3 will be quite a dramatic step down because we will be able to remove a huge amount of polygons from areas where they are not seen at this distance. 1. Create the base geometry to work on. Duplicate the previous LOD's group Kila2948 and call the new copy Kila1000. 2. Create a new display layer called Kila_1000, placing into it the Kila1000 group and its contents. 3. Turn off the visibility for the layer called Kila_2948. This leaves you with just the new geometry to work on. 4. As you did...
Node window
6. Under the heading 2D Textures, select File. The Attribute Editor now changes to 7. Next to Image Name, you'll see a space followed by a folder icon. Click this folder and browse to the file called CheckerMap.jpg you can find this file on the CD in Project Files 08 . 8. Click Close to complete the material's creation. Go back to the Hypershade as you can see from Figure 8.31, the material is now named Check and the ball shows the checkered texture that is applied.
Figure The Photoshop toolbar
Marquaa looi Mh. Las amp ci tool U Q 0 gt tool Healing Brush tool Jf CIoao Stamp tool 3 Eraser too Ej. Blur tool Ft Path Selection tool A -Freeform Pen tool iPj Noles tool N Hand tool HI- Switch lo Foreground Color Reset 10 defeat coio Standard mode Gj. Standaid Screen mods Ff Full Street mode wilh mcru bar tool V Magic Wand tool W Slice twl K Brual I tool B History Brush twl V Paint B -ckel tool G Burn tool O Switch to Background Cold Background Color Quick M 3k mode- 0 Full Screen mode F Go...
TIP Kvj
Before you start to model the ear, find a decent picture of an ear on the Internet or in an anatomy book. This will help you create an accurate model or texture, depending on how the ear will be represented . 1. Start with a new scene, and create the cube in Figure 4.26 using the following configuration Width 0.5, Height 1.5, Depth 1, Subdivisions Along Width 1, Subdivisions Along Height 5, and Subdivisions Along Depth 2. Figure 4.26. Create a basic cube, five divisions high. Figure 4.26....
What Makes a Successful Character
Designing a character can be difficult not only have you got to be fresh and original, but you must also be able to communicate your ideas to others through your artwork. You don't have to be an excellent traditional artist all you need at this point is the ability to roughly sketch your ideas and put them onto paper for others to see. Once the sketches are approved, you can spend more time creating better renderings of the concepts to flesh out your basic ideas. So what are key points to keep...
The Armpit
Next comes the armpit. It is important for this part of the anatomy to be correct in order to achieve good deformation. It's wise to refer to a real armpit, so look around for a good photo to use as a guide or use a mirror . Visit one of the links suggested in Appendix B they will have many reference images. To start, split up some of the larger areas as seen in Figure 3.55 middle , giving you more pieces to work with. Using your reference as an example, move the vertices around until you have...
Figure Remove internal faces
5. Finally, clean up the area, first by selecting the edges and smoothing the normals. Then spend time working the vertices until you are happy with the final shape your goal is shown in Figure 2.77. Figure 2.77. Basic head and neck attached to the body Figure 2.77. Basic head and neck attached to the body Finish off by deleting the history on the mesh and saving your work. If you haven't already done so, now would be a good time to implement one of the mirrored instances I mentioned earlier in...
Checking the Rotational Axis
One of the most important stages in character rigging, particularly in Maya, is to check the rotational axes. The way a joint rotates depends on how the axis is aligned. This is particularly important when you are using joint chains as we have done in Kila and Grae. Look at Figure 11.23, left. Here we have our current hand for Kila, which looks fine. To get the fingers to bend and make a fist, we would select the root of each finger, then its hierarchy, and do a global rotation around the Z...
Texture Alignment
Because the UVs for Kila's top and sash have been split in two, we need to make sure they line up on the model before we begin adding details. Look at the armpit area shown in Figure 9.7, left. You can see that the front and back textures don't line up properly. Figure 9.7. Adjust the texture and UVs to line up the texture. See page C1 for color version. Figure 9.7. Adjust the texture and UVs to line up the texture. See page C1 for color version. This alignment problem will often occur at seam...
Figure Change the Lambert shader to a Blinn
2. At the top of the shader's main attributes window, change Type from Lambert to Blinn. The layout should change to that seen in Figure 9.45, right. The name will also change, to blinnl rename this back to Grae_Body. By default, a Blinn material is shiny, so in effect you are telling Maya what levels of shininess each area of the texture should have. 3. To apply a specular map, you follow much the same procedure as for applying the basic color map, except in this case we will be editing the...
Smooth Bind Settings
Max Influences specifies the number of joints that can influence each vertex. For example, setting this to 1 would mean that the forearm joint only influenced the vertices near it, which could make the character deform badly and look quite rigid. This number may depend on the game engine you are using, so discuss the setting with your lead artist first. Usually, 2 or 3 is a good number for Max Influences. Dropoff Rate dictates how rapidly a joint's influence decreases as it moves away from the...
NOTE Kty
This operation not only removes the side-finger divisions but also reduces the number of mesh divisions on the underside of each knuckle from 3 to 1. We will leave the bottom curve of the fingers intact. This will provide a little more shape than they would have if we reduced them to cubes. Once all the digits have been done, the hand is finished Figure 5.63 . Figure 5.63. Final optimized hand model Figure 5.63. Final optimized hand model
The Face
It's about time we gave Kila a face. We will begin working on her from the side, so switch to the side panel now and focus in on her face. The image in Figure 3.28 left will do for the head, but it is of very low quality. This is where our head model sheet from Chapter 1 comes in handy. Scan in the sheet and divide it up into two sections, as you we did with the body model sheet. Figure 3.28. Import the head model sheet Figure 3.28. Import the head model sheet Import the side image into the...
Figure The untangled UVs
The next problem to address is one of priority. At present the eyeball UV's are larger than her head, meaning the eye will have much more detail in the final texture. This is clearly wrong you need to adjust the scale of each set of UVs, enlarging areas that need greater detail. 3. To scale the UVs, simply select the piece of geometry in the 3D view. Then, in the UV Texture Editor, right-click and select UVs. Select all the UVs and press R to switch to the Scale manipulator. While you are doing...
Attaching the Head
To complete the head and finish this section, attach the head shape to the rest of the 1. First we need to remove some polygons. Select the area of Grae's chest directly behind the head shape and delete them. Also, remove any polygons that exist on the back of the head geometry. 2. Combine the head and body geometry then use the Append To Polygon tool to fill in the gaps, bridging the head and the torso. 3. Play around with the vertices, using a mirrored instance to help you work on the whole...
Viewing the Alpha Map in Maya
The main alpha map is complete. Next, we will bring it into Maya so we can see how it looks when applied to the character. To see the image in Maya, we will embed the alpha map into the main hair image. 1. Make sure KilaHair.tga is the active window in Photoshop. You need to work in the Channel window, so open it up by going to Window gt Channels. This shows the different color channels that exist in the image red, green, and blue. 2. Create a new channel. Just as in the Layers window, click...
Bit Depth
What about altering the bit depth Bit depth measures the amount of color information available in an image. Greater bit depth means more colors are available. An image with a bit depth of 8 has 256 possible colors one with a bit depth of 24 has roughly 16 million possible colors. Up to now we have been working with 24-bit images, but what would they look like if we reduced them to 8-bit 256 colors , and how much would the file size be reduced A 512x512 image at 769 KB would be knocked down to...
Figure Creating a new project
Sound Paiticles Rend Scenes Deplh IFR Jrnages ShidBi Tetfw Mel dPaiilTeytures T liitj Trflilxfiti Locations IwFiles _ iuiStisdewMap luifcqualMsp iwlroagei furAtliW P P mentalRay Here you can specify a name and a location for the project. Clicking Use Defaults at the bottom will automatically fill in the rest of the New Project window with names for the corresponding directories. If you do not want all the directories created, you can simply leave them blank and Maya will ignore them. Once you...
Figure Defining the shoulder and armpit
3. Now start on the front of his arm. Use the Split Polygon tool to carve in the muscles, as seen in Figure 7.16. Figure 7.16. Carve in the muscle lines at the front of his Figure 7.16. Carve in the muscle lines at the front of his 4. Following Figure 7.17, move around to the back of the arm, working on the shoulder. Don't be afraid to alter the shape of the arm slightly if the character needs it.
Figure Polygon Cube Options settings
2. Select the newly created cube this highlights it in green, and a new manipulator should appear. If this doesn't happen, press W to get into move mode, or click the Move tool in the toolbox to the left. Take a look at Figure 2.19, which shows the four main manipulators from the left, they are Move, Rotate, Scale, and the pivot point manipulator.
Figure Polygon Cylinder creation options
4. In the Channel Box, rename the cylinder to LeftArm. Then switch to the front view and move the cylinder up so that it lies over the character's left arm. Keep the center of the cylinder the center row of edges near the elbow area of the arm. Rotate the cylinder so that it matches the orientation, and then scale the cylinder until it is about the same scale as the arm in the image plane Figure 2.32 . 5. Now that the geometry is in place, you can edit it further to achieve the shape you need...
Face Deformation
Animating facial expressions, particularly using blend shapes, can be difficult and time consuming. Early testing at this stage is imperative, to guarantee that you won't have to redo work at a later stage. The best approach for testing the face is to try and create some of the more extreme facial expressions your lead artist has indicated will be needed for the character, and see how it holds up. These could include a shouting face with the mouth wide open, and maybe a face with the lips...
Viewing the Geometry
Open up a view panel's Shading menu will reveal all the ways you can view your geometry as you work Figure 2.22 . Wireframe key 4 Displays the edges of all the geometry in the view panel. Smooth Shade All key 5 Displays all the surfaces as smooth-shaded. Smooth Shade Selected Items Displays the selected objects' surface as smooth-shaded not shown in Figure 2.22 . Flat Shade All Displays all surfaces and meshes as flat-shaded, faceted objects. Flat Shade Selected Items Displays the selected...
Importing to Maya
The final part of our preparation for modeling is to import the images we scanned and cropped earlier, bringing them into Maya's panels so we can use them as guides. 1. To import an image into the front view, at the top of the panel, select View gt Image Plane, and click Import Image to open up the browser. You have already set your project, so the browser will automatically open in the correct base directory, enabling you to select the images we created earlier. For this view we will use the...
NOTE Qki
Depending on how your mapping went, this projection may be severe, but don't worrythe next steps will help you fix this. Let's first check and see where the seams lie. Select a UV on the border in the UV Texture Editor this will also show up in the 3D view, letting you see where the seam is. We want the seam to be on the bottom of the arm, so that when the arm is lowered, the seam is not as noticeable. Currently the seam is around the back of the arm, across the elbow. We have two problems to...
Figure Cylindrical mapping
Similarly, spherical mapping Edit Polygons gt Texture gt Spherical Mapping projects inward through a sphere Figure 8.3 . The three techniques mentioned so far have very similar options for altering the final projection. Let's have a look at some of the more common options, shown in Figure 8.4 these are for a planar projection but are also used on the other projections. Keep Image Ratio will lock the aspect of the projection to that of the image Smart Fit will automatically fit the projection to...
Figure Reduce the crease on the bridge of her nose
5. Our first step in reducing this crease is to split the polygons as shown in Figure 9.53b. Next, split the polygons across her forehead as demonstrated in Figure 9.53c. Finally, delete the edges highlighted in Figure 9.53d. Figure 9.53e shows the reduced crease. Although it's not completely gone, it's better than it was. Continue to look around both character models to see if you can see any more areas that need triangulating. You've accomplished a great deal so far in this chapter. The...
Creating the Hair Alpha Map
Let's look at Kila's hair first. At present, her hair is quite angular Figure 9.29 , and we can fix this by making the strands more transparent toward their ends, losing the sharp edges that the polygons form. 1. You first need to create the alpha map. Load in the current hair texture file, KilaHair.psd. 2. Create a new layer called Alpha. 3. The white areas of the image will be opaque, and black will be completely transparent. Most of the hair will be solid, so fill the layer in white. 4. In...
Technical Limitations
With all this information at hand, we have a pretty good starting point. From the introductory story, we know a little of how the game begins and we have insight into the main character's personality. Next we have the set details listed in the foregoing tables. These are explicit guidelines about the character that we must follow when we begin to design. Normally this is all you need for character design, but for the project outlined in this book we are creating a real-time character that means...
Foot Weight Painting and Testing
The final area to test in the leg is her ankle. Judging by the topology, this, too, will Figure 6.33. Almost all of the limbs can now form correctly. be fine but you have to be certain before moving on to the next chapter. So let's take a look. 1. First, reset the joints in her leg by right-clicking the joints and selecting Assume Preferred Angle from the marking menu. 2. Go into wireframe mode, and this time select both the ankle joint and ball joint. We don't need the upper leg joints to...
Figure Draw the tendrils into Graes wing alpha map
Now copy the alpha layer into an alpha channel, hide the alpha layer so that the color channels will be solid black, flatten the image, and save it. Then view it in Maya Figure 9.41 . Figure 9.41. Grae with wings textured Figure 9.41. Grae with wings textured Your next task is to go in and add highlights to Grae's eyes, as you did for Kila. That will finish him upall of your alpha maps are done. The main textures for both Kila and Grae are now complete, and you can see them in Figures 9.42 and...
Hand Optimization
Kila's hands at this point do house a lot of detail, so reducing them by 151 polygons each should not significantly reduce their quality. We should be able to have all five fingers articulated, without having to resort to a mitten hand or one with frozen fingers. So what's available for optimization We can start by removing the fingernails. Here we have to remember that when working on the fingers, if we alter one we must do the same on the other four. They all have to match or they will look...
Chapter Texture Preparation
THE KILA AND GRAE models are complete, but they need color to bring them to life. Before we can apply color to our geometry we must prepare the surface by applying UV data. Within each vertex that exists in your polygon model lies a UV point UV for short , which stores 2D coordinates that correspond to specific pixels on your texture. When you create any primitive objects in Maya, UVs are assigned by default, but these UVs are often altered when further modeling occursmeaning that they need to...
Chapter Skeleton Setup
IT'S NOT JUST a character's look in the game that makes that character appealing a lot has to do with the way it moves. To bring our characters to life, we give them a skeleton. This skeleton then drives the geometry just as our human skeletons drive our muscles and, in turn, our skin. Over the next two chapters we will explore the process of creating an intuitive skeletal structure that will make our characters move and emote realistically and with ease. We will begin by inserting basic joints...
snapshot
3. This time set the Size X and Size Y to 512. 4. Specify your place to save, naming it KilaBodyUV.tga, and click OK. 5. Finally, do the same with the hair UVs, saving these at a size of 256x256 with the name KilaHairUV.tga. You should now have three images that you can use to guide you in creating your textures. These are shown in Figure 8.87. Figure 8.87. The three exported texture pages Figure 8.87. The three exported texture pages The UVs have been successfully mapped and exported. What's...
Figure An arm with an IK Single Chain solver applied
On initial creation, the IK Rotate Plane solver looks the same as the Single Chain solver, except that you cannot alter the orientation of the joint chain by rotating the IK handle. Instead, the pole vector and handle vector Figure 12.9 define the plane on which the middle joints lie. Imagine that the two vectors make up two edges of a flat triangle, with the arm joints lying on this triangle. Since the pivots for this triangle lie on the shoulder and wrist joints, moving the end of the pole...
Tip Fkt
If a series of objects are placed in a hierarchy, you can select the children or parent by using the arrow keys. Pressing the up arrow will move up the chain pressing the down arrow will move down the chain. This process is called pick walking. Figure 6.1. For our first skeleton area, focus in on Kila's left Figure 6.1. For our first skeleton area, focus in on Kila's left This is all we need to do at this stage to build a basic skeleton, so let's continue with our arm setup.
The Teeth
Most games just adopt a simple set of teeth consisting of a flat curve of polygons with a teeth texture on them. This is what we will use for Kilait's unlikely that she would benefit from a set of fully modeled teeth because we will never get close enough to see them in detail. Besides, a full set of teeth would increase the polygon count dramatically. 1. In a new scene, create a new cylinder with the following configuration Radius 1, Height 0.4, Subdivisions Around Axis 14, Subdivisions Along...
Chapter Designing Your Character
FaceScan.tif MainScan.tif GraeColorRender.tif KilaColorRender.tif PLAYING A COMPUTER GAME is in some ways very similar to reading a book or watching a film It is pure escapism. For the duration of the game, the player becomes the hero. During these few hours they step into another world, leaving worries and troubles behind. The overall design of the hero plays a key part in the player s distraction a good design, combined with a good story, can encapsulate the player, immersing them fully in...
Muscle Line Mapping
Let s start working. Load the last file you saved in Chapter 2, called Kila_Basic.mb. Look at your character model Figure 3.1 . So far, it s quite well defined and the proportions are correct. It is a good base model. In fact, with a bit of optimization, you could use her as a low-resolution character just as she is. She would not, however, be good as our main model. We still have a few problems to address Taken statically, she looks fine, but once you start to animate her, the flaws will show....