Entry 16: Unwrapping and Unity Issues

The unwrapping stage was relatively easy to do. I drew upon experience from character models in previous models and the puppet master's unwrap, which I'll also be showing as I forgot to include it in previous posts, to act as a guide in order to get the correct seams and avoid texture stretching as much as possible.

The most difficult part of the models were deifntely the heads for the NPC's. Trying to get the seams in the correct places was definitely a challenge, and even required looking at various YouTube tutorials by differing artists to ascertain what would work best. I made large use of the pelt map and relax tool combo to get the best results possible. I broke up the Puppet Master, Mum and Dad NPC's into 3 different texture ID's in order to allow for the biggest amounts of details as possible.  Below shows the UV checker texture applied to all the finished models, as well as their respective unwraps.

The Puppet Master

The Dad

The Mum

Unity Issues

After the unwrapping was finished, each model was exported in an FBX format for the programmers and animators to use. Unfortunately, a few issues cropped up that I didn't realise till after the first FBX's had been created. These including incorrect placement of the hair models on the NPC's heads, feet not fully on top of the slippers, and within unity engine being unable to place the highlighting outline on the models.

The slipper and hair issues were easy to fix through correcting the placement. However, the Unity issues took longer to solve. Different issues were tried, including exporting two meshes over each other, which although worked unfortunately caused the two meshes depth of field to collide with each other. Exporting the model out with an extra texture slot also failed to work. The eventual solution was to export out one model with 3 texture slots, and one model with only one texture slot. These were then placed over each other in the unity engine, with with all the main textures, and the other with the enemy highlight, which then worked successfully.

The next post will look at the set up for mudbox exports and basic texture renders.

Entry 15: NPC Final Modelling

Carrying on from the last post, as I did with the dad mode, I added eyes and hair to the mum's base mesh, as seen below. The mum's hair was a little more difficult to get a good block shape for, and was something I would probably need to tweak to get a little better in the future.

Additionally, the items that come with the parents were also completed. The slipper models needed a little overhaul due to their blocky look and polygon placement. This was easy to achieve through use of reference material. The rolling pin was left untouched, as it was good to use as it was. The torch got a turbosmooth and hard edge combo to make it look smoother. Before and After shots are shown below.

Before

After

With this all done, the parent NPC's were ready to go on to the unwrapping phase. Below are a few render shots of how they looked at the time before the unwrapping process began.

The Dad's Renders.

 The Mum's Renders.

For the most part I am happy with how these two turned out, considering these are the first two human characters I have made from scratch. There are a few things that will need touching up in Mudbox, but for the most part I am happy with what I have produced.

The next update will show work done for the unwrapping stage.

Entry 14: NPC Modelling Part 4

Carrying on from the last entry, the next step was to attach the head to the base mesh, and the continued work done to the same mesh.

Going back to the base mesh, further tinkering with topology and use of turbosmooth was done. I assembled the whole body together, and took a few renders to get an idea of the overall progress made.

The exaggerated proportions were working out nicely, particular in the chest, leg and back areas. The contrast from thin to large helped to add to this effect, and was something I aimed to continue to work with as the work went on. There were a few problem areas, such as attaching the feet to the legs, as their was a difference in the number of polygons at the attachment point. Luckily, they could be attached on when the model was turbosmoothed, though it was something I knew that I would have to come back to at a later point.

After this, I attached the head to the body and began to work on the female base mesh. This again required me to follow tutorials in order to understand how to create correct topology for her breasts. Aside from this, the rest of the model just required small edits here and there, mainly in the face, to change the base mesh to a female gender.

I then did full renders of both the mum and dad base meshes to see how they looked.

I was happy for the most part, although there were a few areas I wasn't happy with, which were predominantly the meshes hands. They looked too flimsy and wiry, so again I knew that I would have to look up reference to model them correctly.

I went onto Google and found image of both the palm and back of a hand, and placed it on a plane within the WIP Max scene. I then duplicated and detached the hand from the mesh, and placed it roughly over the image to match. I then used the alt+x combo to make the hand transparent, and according to the image, adjusted the hand to match it as best as possible, The setup and progression shots are shown below.

Doing this allowed me to add in details such as finger nails and a proper thumb, which helped to improve the design of the hand greatly. Once satisfied, I reattached the hand back onto the base meshes.

The next stage was to add in some of the smaller details, such as the eyeballs, which were simple spheres placed inside the eyes, and the hair, which was created by duplicating the top of the meshes head as a template, and then extruding and editing the hair to match the concept.

It was also at this point that the parents were correctly scaled up according to the other character models. Below shows a line up with the dad, mum, one of the children, the Puppet Master, and his robot puppet. The meshes were scaled up using the tape helper, which helped to work out the original height, and then multiplying it by 6 to get the correct scale for use within the unity game engine.

At this point the meshes were really starting to come together, and were close to being completed. The final modelling stages will be touched upon in the next entry.

Additional Note: Heres the link the tutorial used to help create the female base mesh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiqQzokwEF0  Modelling Femal Charcter Pt1 3DS MAX by Red Lynx

Entry 13: NPC Modelling Part 3

This post looks at the techniques and methods used in the creation of the face for the base mesh.

Since I have very little experience in creating human faces, my first port of call was to find a tutorial that could help me create one. I found a brilliant tutorial for this, which I will leave a link for at the bottom of this entry.

Having found the the necessary tutorial, I created the same setup in order to follow it as closely as possible. These also made use of the tutorial images in order to make it easier to follow the workflow. An example of the setup used is shown below.

After the setup was created, I began to follow the tutorial. The modeller gave a lot of specific directions as to how each part of the faces topology should be created. Small steps were key to creating the whole model in a steady workflow.

The beginning stages were a little difficult to follow at first. Sometime the instructions felt misleading, either due to some parts being unclear or through following the instructions on the wrong side of the face. As this was face was going to be modified later on to fit the game's style, I didn't worry too much about getting the exact topology shapes, but instead going for a rough match that would allow for easy editing.

As the tutorial went on, the humanoid shape was starting to flesh out pretty nicely. From time to time I would also apply the turbosmooth modifier in order to get an indication of how it would look later on.

At this stage the head shape was getting to a point where I'd be able to manipulate to the style that I needed. I duplicated the half I was currently working on, and placed them close together to see an example of how the whole head would look. Note its best to work in halves so that any mistakes made on one half can be easily changed, instead of having to editing both halves of the model.

Satisfied with the current shape, I began to exaggerate the face in order to match the concept of the Dad. This included stretching out the chin, narrowing the eyes for a natural tired look, and elongating the face as a whole. It helped me to realise that certain features, such as the chin, would have to be worked on in Mudbox in the normal map.

It was at this point that the tutorial moved on to one of the more tougher parts of the head that needed to be modelled: the ear. The ear is not an easy shape to model, largely due to the curvature of its geometry. However, following the instructions as closely as possible, I was able to create an adequate ear that again could be further changed or touched up in Mudbox as needed.

With the head nearing the end of the modelling stage, the next step was to incorporate it onto the main base mesh, and then adjust the mesh to fit the two genders for the mum and dad. This will be explored in the next update.

Additional Note: Heres the link for the tutorial that I used to help create the face for this base mesh and an image example.
http://fastutorial.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/3d-modeling-human-head-in-3d-studio-max.html 

Entry 12: NPC Modelling Part 2

Its been quite a while since my last entry, largely due to focus on the FYP module, which at the time since the last entry I felt needed more attention.

So in order to help plan out the remainder of the work for this project, the team decided on a schedule that would be workable after the FYP module was handed in, which in accordance to this will now show the work produced since that module's hand in since early March.

To continue from the last post entry, work had begun on the NPC models. Since then, the models have gone through the unwrapping stage, but I still aim to provide details as to the pipeline followed in the making of these models.

With the basics haven been worked out in each asset area, the next step was to continue to refine the base mesh into the correct shape and proportions. Making continuous use of my references from the previous blog, I continued to add and manipulate the mesh's topology in order to acquire that stylised feel that we are going for in the game.

Work on the hands also began at this point, which were created via extruding out the arm, adding edge loops, then extruding again to create the fingers. Shaping of the back, torso and legs was also explored at this point. Additional extrusions were also created around the stomach and shoulder areas in order to build up a t-shirt, as the base mesh was focusing on the dad's concept at the time.

Other vital parts of the mesh, including the feet, were looked into. Following a handy tutorial from a youtube source (see bottom for links), I was able to create a basic foot using extrusions and edge loops, and through using turbosmooth was able to create a foot the fitted in with the games style, as shown below.

The toes were probably the hardest element to nail down, as through research of images of feet, the are different varieties of shape sets that toes can form depending on country, birth origin etc. I studied many of these, as well as making use of general foot photos, to get a better of the how it could look.

The feet were then added to the WIP base mesh, with further additions being done to the model itself. This included shaping out the arms and legs, and additional folds to the clothes, and working out the topology needed to attach the feet to the base mesh itself.

Whilst the base mesh was starting to shape up nicely, the next obvious step was to start the creation of the head. I knew this would be tricky as it would be the first time modelling a human shaped head. The process for this stage will be shown in the next update.

Additional note: As mentioned earlier, here are links showing the tutorials I followed in aid of helping me create these models, as well as a refresher of tutorials mentioned and used in earlier blog entries.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKUo4-zskGE - Foot modelling tutorial by Tauhidul Iqbul
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IU4_-di1Pw - Creating a character base mesh by Lee Jackson