CAGD 470

Video Game Production

Quest Prep 3D Modeler

Sprint 3

My goal this sprint was to continue making 3d models of the characters. I started off by making Huckleberry Joe. I had practice making 2 other characters by now so this was definitely easier to get started on. Joe is a farmer so the goal was to give him pretty plain clothing and some baggy trousers. The shirt underneath has a collar which was kind of tricky to make at first since I kept it all quads and no triangles. On top of that I extruded some faces to make the tunic on top as well as the trousers. The trousers were meant to look baggy so I went around and moved the vertices outwards with soft select on to create that effect. He also has some wraps around his legs. 

To make this, I used a helix and messed around with the proportions to get the shape I wanted. It took a while to make it wrap and conform to his leg shape. Joe’s hair is pretty fluffy and big in the concept art so I did my best to follow that. I think it will look a lot better once textured. Then, I moved on to making the bag he wears. The strap and the bag itself are separate objects. The weapon was a farming fork at first but the designer did not want that. I got rid of that model and changed it to a farming scythe which I think looks better. The UVs were also not hard to do since I have practice.

The next character I made is Shi. Shi is a ninja and wears more typical East Asian clothing. Like with Joe, she has a v neck on her shirt which took some time to make. I also spent some time on the shoulder guards. I wanted to make them look round but not too bulky since she is a smaller character. In the concept art, she has bandages around her waist. I was thinking of just adding this through texturing but thought it would look better if there was a 3d part to them. I also made her pants baggy which would give some more freedom of movement. Unlike the other characters, she is wearing sandals not shoes. This was a bit easier to make since I just added a strap around the feet and extruded the edges. 

The hardest part of this was making the eye patch and hair. I had to make the eyepatch the correct shape and size so it would cover only her left eye and not the rest of the face. Then the hair had to sit on top and not have too much clipping. I started with the eye patch and used the existing face geometry as a base to shape it. After that, I started on the hair. Her hair is short and spiky which I made by cutting different edge loops and moving them around. Then, I deleted the eye patch wherever the hair would cover it since it’s just unnecessary geometry and would cause clipping when not needed. I used a photo of a katana I found online to make mine and then the sheath on top. I think the texturing will make it look very cool. The UVing process again was not very complicated.  

The last character I finished is Terrance Maddington. He is a caped mage character. I started off making the top he is wearing which comes down to his knees. I then added the straps on top which would keep the top closed. These are separate models from the top since it would be easier to model them that way and save on geometry. After that, I made the hood that he is wearing. I thought this was going to be very difficult but I was surprisingly able to make it first try. I used a photo of a cloak I found to create the silhouette and then shapes it around the character’s head. It then comes down and wraps around the shoulders. It has 2 horns that are holding together a chain. For the chain, I made a chain link shape from a torus and then duplicated and rotated it to make it all connect. I think this made the character look unique and ties the whole look together. I took liberties with the boots and added straps to make them more sorcerer like. 

The cape/cloak looks like it is connected to the hood but it was easier to make it a separate model. At first I had it as a full cloak that wrapped around the front of the body but decided that hid too much of the model and looked too bulky. The last thing I made is the staff he is holding. I used the concept art to create the shape of the wing like extrusions at the top. I decided against adding stars and diamonds around the top since the camera will be far and won’t really see them. I used stack similar shells on the UV so the chain would not take up too much space. 

Next, I am working on the 6th character model. I hope to complete all the characters this upcoming sprint and move onto texturing. Overall, I am happy with what I was able to do. I learned a lot more about character modeling and got to practice different techniques. 

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Sprint 2

This sprint I started off by making the main character. In the previous sprint I had made a base which I would use to make my characters. Turns out there were double extrusions all over the model which I did not notice before. I tried using vertex merge and the cleanup tool but they were not able to fix the problem. The only solution I could think of was clicking each individual face, clicking delete, and seeing if there was another face under it. This took over an hour to do and was very tedious but it had to be done. I also made some adjustments to the anatomy.

My goal was to make as much of the model in 1 mesh to make rigging easier. I started by making the cloth the main character is wearing under everything else. Then I extruded the arms and hands to make the gloves. On top of the cloth there is a shirt and skirt with a belt. This is all 1 model with the body along with the boots. I had trouble making the belt which caused a lot of ngons and mesh issues. The skirt is also pretty thin which clipped other parts of the model and had weird artifacting errors. I had to manually change a lot of vertices to make the topology and normals look as intended. After that I moved onto the chestplate. I used the body as a base and then duplicated it. I changed how it looked to be more angular so it looked strong and metal like. I am not super happy with the shape but the only way to make it better was to add a ton of geometry which is not needed for the project since the character will never be seen up close. 

This was also my first time modeling hair. I looked up a tutorial on how to make low poly hair which was helpful. The soft selection tool was useful in making it look more realistic. After that I moved onto the cape which was meant to look flowy and shredded. To achieve this I use a flat plane which I pulled into the shape I wanted. Again soft selection was very useful for this. Then I extruded it to give it dimension. The final 2 things I made are the sword and shield. The sword was pretty easy to make with a reference. Then I made a simple sheath around it. The shield is attached to the arm using a strap. This would make it easier than the character having to hold it the whole time. I had never UVed a person before so I used a tutorial as a guide. I am really happy with this model.

After that, I worked on the second character, Nork. I used a cube to get his height correct and then scaled the character model to that height. Since Nork is a lot bigger than the player I added more geometry which I was able to use to create muscles. Then I made the shoulder guard. I tried to make look a bit organic like it was made of leather not metal. Then I made the strap that goes around this chest. I played around with the shape for quite a while to get something that looked natural. I always have a hard time creating curved shapes. At first I made the belt and cloth separate from the base mesh but then I decided it would be better to combine them. I also had to redo it a couple of times because I kept messing up the geometry and making ngons. The gauntlets and boots were pretty simple shapes and easy to model. 

I then moved onto the hair and beard. The hair is longer for Nork than the main character which took me a while to plan out. I think it could be a bit longer but I am okay with it. The beard was bit harder. I tried to keep it low poly but also get a decent beard shape. I tried a few different shapes and making the mouth hole visible or not. In the end I think it will look better once textured. The axe is a basic double sided axe which I found a reference photo to use. For the UVs I followed the same steps as the first model.

I worked on the modular mine next. I made 2 types of walls; stone and wooden beams. Then there are size and corner variations of those. This was all pretty simple and quick since I have practice making modular pieces. I think having a couple floor pieces will work in combining together. There will be no roof so I did not model that. I also made 2 trim pieces that will hide the seams between the pieces. 

I found a silhouette image of a rail which I used to get the correct sizing. I also made sure that the end would be able to fit with the next modular piece and have consistent sizing between the wood boards. Then I made an intersection piece for when there will be 4 pathways to take. I just used mesh combine of 4 straight pieces and then used the bridge tool to make them connect in the middle. The same process was used for the corner piece. 

The minecart is based off of an old mine cart that I found online. I added a few bevels to the edges since this is a unique prop that will be given attention. I also made sure to size the wheels so they would stay on the rail and not go outside of it. The lever is made up of 2 pieces. The lever that gets pulled and the outside contraption that holds it together. 

Then I made a counter. This was a pretty basic model but was needed for the guild hall. I made sure to keep it consistent with the character size. I also made a cave with an entrance. This was made with a basic cube and vertices moved around. The entrance was originally more worn down but the producer wanted it to be more symmetrical. Overall I think this was a productive sprint and I hope to make more characters next sprint. 

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Sprint 1

My name is Kiran and I am the 3d modeler for this project along with one other person. I will be the main person responsible for modeling the nine characters that will be available in the game. I have never done character modeling before so this is new and exciting for me. I will also be doing other props and buildings for the world. There is some awesome art made by Chris that I will have as reference on how the characters will look. 

The first thing I did this sprint was watch some videos on low poly character modeling. The videos I watched all used drawings of the body that was an orthographic view from the front and side. This helped them get good proportions. I did not have that so I had to find one online. The proportions on it were exaggerated so I had to make adjustments on my own to make it look realistic. 

I started off by making the head. This was by far the most difficult thing on the whole model. The head would look either too boxy or have weird proportions. I tried for many hours to get something I was happy with. Then, I used the drawing as reference to make the rest of the body. The hardest part was just making everything a quad and also not looking too box like. The hands also took me a while. I could not find a good way to make them how I wanted without upping the poly count on the whole model. I decided to keep it super simple and followed a video that made it super boxy with no curves. There is a little bend at the fingers though so the character can hold stuff. Overall, I think this is a decent base that I can hopefully use to make the characters. 

Then, I moved onto making the props that were assigned to me. I used my character as a size guide for how big they should be. I was allowed a pretty high poly count for everything but I kept it as low as possible while still looking good.

The first prop I made was the banners. There was a good reference image provided which I used as my inspiration. The banner itself is pretty simple and made up of the top rod and then the fabric which hangs from it. I plan to make the fabric look more torn using alpha maps in texturing. There are 2 types of banners for variation.

Then, I moved on to making the bulletin board. The reference photo was a simple rectangle. I thought this was too plain for the fantasy setting the game is in so I added a simple design at the top. This makes it look a bit fancier. I plan to add paper which can be textured to the board later so there are actually things hanging on it.

After that, I made a rectangular table. The guild hall reference photo inspired me. The table itself was pretty simple to make. The UVs gave me some issues but I was able to resolve it through vertex merging. I made the table too large at first but used the character to make it the correct size.

I made a lantern next. I was debating between making it look more modern vs a rustic older one. I think a more square and nice looking lantern would better fit the game. I added bevels to the edges to keep it from looking too sharp. I also made two types of pots. I found a photo of vases online and then used the curve tool to make the shape I wanted. 

 

Overall I am happy with what I was able to get done this sprint. Hopefully I can learn from my mistakes and do more work next sprint. I plan to work on more character models next.