Creating Low-poly character meshes

#1 As far as I know there is no low poly character generation software out there. However, you can very easily take an existing, free, low poly model and modify it to suite your needs. Just by changing a few proportions, textures, and props you can customize say the brave tree characters or even the "tutorial guy" very easily.

That is if you're after a bipedel charactet. If you want somthing exotic you are pretty much sol unless you can find somone to create it for you.

#2 Or you can purchase premade models at www.turbosquid.com

#3 Well if you have about 200 bucks your willing to spend there is creature creator and they have another item called creature labs that is a plugin for a 3d app.

http://www.fxrealm.com/products/creaturecreator/safeatures.htm

you just kind of pick what you want and it makes it.

#4 Thanks for the tips... I'll check out the Creature X programs as well...

On the same note, I have access to pretty decent naked high poly (like, over 150k polys) male and female models. Here's my plan:

There must be a way in 3dsmax for me to take a simple plane object, and shrink wrap it around the meshes for the high poly models... that way, I can recreate the models in a low poly form. I know, I know... You're going to say: What about multires and optimize? They don't give me the desired effects... at below 30k vertices, the model start resembling bad claymation characters from the 80s. :D I.E. not usable.

Also, learning how to do that will help me create clothing...

I'm playing with the "Skin Wrap" and "Projection" modifers... with not very good results, but I'm sure I'm not doing it right (3ds max 7).

I found I can do it by hand, vertex by vertex, with the Edit Mesh modifier... but, there must be a better way.


On a similar note... here's a quick tutorial on applying normal maps from a high poly mesh onto a low poly mesh. I've heard about this as "baking", and the results seem lovely! Here's the tutorial if anyone's interested:
http://www.monitorstudios.com/bcloward/tutorials_normal_maps9.html

Can that be applied to character modeling for TGE?

#5 Game Developer Magazine had an article a few years back on doing this sort of thing procedurally. I think it may have also been published as a feature article on Gamasutra, but I'm not certain. I'll try to remember to dig for it when I get home from work, and post the issue info.

#6 HOLD ON THERE -there is a program to reduce poly's

http://developer.nvidia.com/object/melody_home.html

not merely is it free but it can generate normal maps as well as strip down poly's :)

#7 The problem is shrinking it down while keeping it able to animate, considering usually when you make low poly characters it takes certain techiniques to keep all body movement from looking akward on the mesh.

#8 You can do normal mapping with dot3 blendmodes in DX7 and GL. DTS doesn't currently support it in TGE allthough it should be possible in the new TGE art path were developing. Unfortunately it's still not that straightforward.

Doing world space or object space normal mapping is possible but what you really want is Tangent space normal maps. The first two aren't very efficient and only work with static shapes with certain restrictions in regarts to their orientation.

Tangent space needs shaders in order to pull off deforming meshes with the hope of getting any kind of useable performance, and also allows tiled textures . Thats why your best bet is going to be TSE.

You can use optimization tools like multires to reduce polycounts, but it's quite fiddly working with selection sets, I find it's usualy better to use the target weld tools and edge turn tools and do it by hand. Edit poly now allows you to move verts around and weld whilst maintaining UV's as best as it can. Works quit well all things considered.

#9 @Cristian: I checked the website and: "Please note that progressive mesh decimation (LOD creation) has been removed in the latest release. This allows Melody to generate normal maps for significantly larger models." So it seems the poly reduction has been removed. :(


@Matt: True, but I haven't even tried my hand at animation yet... I've made a really good skeleton, and now I'm turning the gears in my brain to figuring out meshes :D Everything before this point has been done modding games, not making them from scratch... so... I have some catching up to do.

@adrian: So... no normal mapping on character models in TGE, huh? Bummer... hrm... I hope it will work in TSE (I do plan to get it, but... I'm kinda shy about actually using it as an engine right now, since it's not finished yet). Hopefully, whatever work I do in TGE can be ported into TSE and improved upon.

In regards to modifying the high poly mesh by hand... Wouldn't it just be better to redo the mesh from scratch, while using the high poly one as a visual aid? I mean... we're talking about 150k polys :D

#10 Redoing model using original as visual aid sounds like a good idea.. tis the route i would go..

the silhouette of the models is one of the main things you should remember.. it cant be faked through good texturing
where as the detail of the body looking straight on can...

extra edges at joints (knees,elbows etc) are a big must
3 rings of edges at these joints is the norm in general
1 ring is the middle of the knee, one is the top of the knee and one is the bottom
this way when the knee bends it doesnt look unnatural

besides that, learning the human proportions is a good thing if your not a natural artist!

#11 Anthony, Im a bit surprised by this statement:

"there simply must be a better way to create unique meshes for characters in your game other than modifying by hand the individual polygons in max."

Thats exactly how you create a mesh for anything, character or otherwise. It's the job of an artist to pay attention to details, down to individual polys.

#12 "In regards to modifying the high poly mesh by hand... Wouldn't it just be better to redo the mesh from scratch, while using the high poly one as a visual aid?"

Yes, I'd say that is what I would reocommend. I know some very good modelers and they use some learned techniques to really keep all the limbs of a player from not folding within themselves upon animating. Its not really the skeleton (though obviously part of it) as much as knowing where to slice the geometry, where to put seems... where to have "face loops" (or whatever they call it, lol I'm a programmer and a mediocre modeler). Theres a lot to learn but there are also a lot of resources out there.

#13

Quote:On the same note, I have access to pretty decent naked high poly (like, over 150k polys) male and female models. Here's my plan:

There must be a way in 3dsmax for me to take a simple plane object, and shrink wrap it around the meshes for the high poly models... that way, I can recreate the models in a low poly form. I know, I know... You're going to say: What about multires and optimize? They don't give me the desired effects... at below 30k vertices, the model start resembling bad claymation characters from the 80s. :D I.E. not usable.

How about Silo?
it's a software that cost only $109 and it has the Topology Brush
which can be useful for what you want to it if I got it right.
Watch the video here

#14 @Anthony: "I checked the website and: "Please note that progressive mesh decimation (LOD creation) has been removed in the latest release. This allows Melody to generate normal maps for significantly larger models." So it seems the poly reduction has been removed. :("

Sorry about that I guess I didn't see that one trough- I didn't see if there is an older version that supported LOD creation available...if not - why isn't there? I mean if they are going to cut a feature in the new release why don't they make it so that people can get an older version after all allot people would be interested in it for the LOD creation not the normal maps:)
Anyway sorry for giving you false hope :)

#15 Holy Christ I need to get Silo :D 109 bux well spent, thanks bro.

#16 Im glad that I can help, don't forget to check the Demo version
or the Learning Edition, plus check the videos of version 2 they add some
great features.