[MUTANT] Little League TEAM - skankerzero

[skankerzero]

Changing theme.

I'm going to kick this contest up a notch and make A WHOLE TEAM using the specs for a single character.

Little League Team.

I probably won't start on this until after the 1st though.

[divi]

you misspelled "wasting" there skankypoo <3

[spetch]

lol @ divi

I knew you'd jump on this, can't wait to see what you come up with.

[Dylan Brady]

schweet, sub'd

[skankerzero]

changed theme.

[equil]

...How the? This should be pretty damn interesting to see.

[MattQ86]

Brilliant.

[ScudzAlmighty]

you crazy sonofabitch...

[skankerzero]

I'll try my best to document what I do to help others think outside of the box in the future.

I'll also try and write down my brainstorming process.

[ViktorSan]

Will be around here... I don't want to miss this!!!

[skankerzero]

ok guys. Time to start this.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Modular Assets

For this 'character' I will be creating a modular asset.

By 'modular asset' I mean an asset that can act as a lego piece if you will.

During my 9 years at Terminal Reality, I spearheaded our crowd / parting system on the art side. We created characters that used a single animation rig and were made out of parts that were swapped according to an XML file. In that file we defined specific variants and the parts they worked with. We were also able to completely randomize the character using parts and creating an exception list of parts that didn't work together.

Below is a small example of some that I've done in my past.

Back in 2004, I tackled my first modular parts character for BloodRayne 2.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/example01.jpg
Every human bad guy in BR2 ended up using this technique. All of them used no more than a 512x512.

Another early example are the females from Aeon Flux.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/example02.jpg
This is probably a bad example because looking at the texture now it's obvious I didn't use the full texture. I can't quite remember what I did with these characters, but I believe I ended up cramming the male and female textures together into a single 512x512.

Following are two examples from Ghostbusters:

The first example is a single character that is meant to be viewed at about 75 feet or more away from the camera.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/example03.jpg
This is considered a single character as it has a single rig that animates all the characters. The rig is less than 32 bones and would animate all the outstretched arms and random heads and bodies to create the illusion of a crowd stirring about. The polycount falls within a single character's budget (12,254 tris). and it uses a single 256x128 texture.

The second example is the crowd system I helped design and build for the game.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/example04.jpg
This image shows 2 different characters. Both characters use the same rig and animation set. They also share a single 1024x512. This level of detail was to be 25 feet or more away from the camera. We had higher res crowds for the up close shots.
What you see here is the final assets that made it into the game. The original assets had twice as many parts but had to be cut down in order to fit the memory footprint for the levels.
Each possible variant was around 1500 - 1700 tris.
The above image is the 'low poly' character assets that I created off the 'higher poly' assets delivered to us from the outsourcers. I had them deliver the assets in such a way that I could easily piece together unique character NPCs whenever they were needed. This is all thanks to a modular setup across all character models.
For example; If we wanted Bill Murray to wear jeans and a shirt, I could easily drop his head into a scene and merge in a shirt and some jeans from the crowd system and in just minutes we had a new Bill Murray variant.

I could go on and on about creating modular crowd assets, but perhaps that would be best for another time.

For now, I'm going to apply the same knowledge and theories to create a full little league team for this challenge.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Knowing Your Platform aka: Being A Smart And Efficient Artist

First step is to know your platform. Often time there is a lot of wasted effort put into characters simply because artists don't understand the platform they're building for. In this challenge we're aiming at the mobile market.
Below are two images that show the screen resolutions for the phone and tablet platforms.
phone:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/screenres01.jpg
tablet:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/screenres02.jpg
A lot of wasted time and effort can go into details that will never be seen at these resolutions. Most detail will 'swim' or 'shimmer' because more than one texture pixel will take up a single screen pixel. The engine has to decide which texture pixel to draw for that screen pixel every frame. Thus, 'swimming' or 'shimmering'. This is why mipmaps are so important.

Knowing this, I will also choose an appropriate art and texture style to accommodate the final platform. A simpler art style will also be advantageous when I have to assign less texture space to certain parts.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Setting Up The Rules

So now I set up the rules that I will follow for this character asset.

1: 2,500 tris max per variation including equipment and fx
2: 512x512 textures per texture pass
3: 9 total unique characters to form the team

I'll further break this down.

1:
The modular asset will be much more than 2500 tris, but the final unique variations will all fall within the limitation.
2:
I will be using a 512x512 diffuse in the rgb with the specular in the alpha for all the parts. I will also be using a 512x512 rgba image for masks.
I will not be using bump maps because the final deliverable will be screenshots. Bump maps are only good for high end renders and motion. So they will be a waste of my time. This all goes into being a smart and efficient artist.
3:
I will take the modular models, mix and match parts, and squash and stretch proportions to create 9 unique characters with minimal effort. It can be assumed that each character will be on it's own rig with it's own animation set, so this frees me of the single rig limitation when it comes to proportions.
I can also go in and edit the mesh on each unique character as I see fit as long as I don't go above 2500 tris.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Identifying Parts

With most crowd characters, a lot of time is spent studying reference to see what makes up the crowd you're building.
On Ghostbusters, I watched and took lots of screenshots from the 1991 - 1992 seasons of Seinfeld. That was the year and location of the crowd I was building.
I had to identify the key elements that people wore during the fall season.
For this, I will be looking at a baseball team and breaking down what I believe is needed to achieve the amount of variation needed.

head
---
baseball cap
baseball batting helmet
catchers mask
ears x2
face x3
hair x4
tongue

torso
---
uniform upper
catchers padding
jacket over uniform

legs
---
uniform bottom x2
catchers padding
legs x3
shoes
feet x3

arms
---
uniform sleeve
jacket sleeve
baseball mitt
arms x3
hands x3

misc
---
baseball
baseball bat
tentacle that can be used as an arm or leg

All the above is subject to change, but I think this is what it will take to create a good, varied team.

The list may seem like a lot of work, but trust me, it's not. A lot of it comes from creating a good base model with uvs. From there it's only a matter pushing and pulling verts to create different shapes, moving uvs, and adjusting textures.

If time allows for it, I will also create the away team using the same textures and masks to create a whole different team.


So I leave you guys for now while I go off to create my base meshes.

[divi]

<3

[equil]

i want you inside of me

[MrHobo]

Damn, that's classy. get this man a top hat and a monocle.
Not only are you competing your taking extra time to educate.

If this thread doesnt get archived somewhere, someone is going to get punched in the crotch.

[Gannon]

:poly127: My brains just shot out the back of my head from the knowledge bomb. This may take a while to recover but I love it.

Thanks for sharing!

[Kip McSkipster]

Looking forward to this, thanks.

[OrganizedChaos]

I applaud your effort here dude. Seems like a nice challenge for yourself and great for teaching people along the way.

[Caldria]

Awesome idea, can't wait to see what you come up with for your little league team ^^

[EtotheRic]

A team is a cool idea. What you could do if you want to bump things up even one more notch is make an entire league utilizing a color mask and you'd have any number of color variants you want. You could even go so far as to make an rgb mask and utilize each channel for different color customization (ie: r- primary team color, g- secondary team color, b- skin color).

Looking forward to seeing where you go with it.

edit-oops, noticed you mentioned possible team color.

[Japhir]

Thank you so much for writing this all down! I'm really looking forward to more :).

[Sirdelita]

ummm whoa?

[Swizzle]

Oh yeah? Well I'm... uh... doing difficult UV maps! So there!

Also, holy fuck.

[TonyClifton]

Crowdy answer in one reply:

"Thank you for this, skankerzero!" "Thanks!" "Thanks for sharing!" "Excellent, thanks!" "Wow, skankerzero, thanks a lot!"

[sebas]

What a nice surprise! you are really thinking 'out of the box'.

[skankerzero]

Next Step

---------------------------------------------------------------

Creating A Proper Base Mesh

When people think of 'base meshes' they usually think of either a Z-Brush base mesh or your standard 'naked human' base mesh. For this example we're going with the latter.

In a crowd system, your base mesh should be the most average character contained within the system. This means you can push and pull the verts to extremes without having too much uv distortion.
For example:
If you're going to create 3 characters off one base mesh; A 6ft tall human, a 7 ft tall human, and a 5 ft tall human; you're base mesh should be the 6ft tall human.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/base02.jpg

Do whatever you normally do to get to this point:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/base01.jpg
This is the game mesh I made for this challenge.

Now, let's reference back to the parts list I created in the last post:
head
---
baseball cap
baseball batting helmet
catchers mask
ears x2
face x3
hair x4
tongue

torso
---
uniform upper
catchers padding
jacket over uniform

legs
---
uniform bottom x2
catchers padding
legs x3
shoes
feet x3

arms
---
uniform sleeve
jacket sleeve
baseball mitt
arms x3
hands x3

misc
---
baseball
baseball bat
tentacle that can be used as an arm or leg
Let's identify those areas on your base mesh and make sure we built the mesh correctly to accept part variations.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/parts01.jpg
I have decided to part out the hands and feet as well since they will recieve parts such as gloves, mitts, shoes, and bare feet.
Try to place your parts at clothing seams. As I have learned over the years, this is the easiest way to do part swapping.

Be sure that you have complete edge loops where you're parts meet. This will save you many headaches in the future.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/parts02.jpg

Your character should have clean cuts such as below:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/parts03.jpg

That's pretty much all there is to setting up your base mesh for parts.

---------------------------------------------------------------

UV Your Base Mesh Now

Take this base mesh and uv it quickly. Be sure to make your uv seams along the part seams you determined earlier. This will help a lot later.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/uv01.jpg
I use Headus UVLayout because I'm a winner, and so should you.

There is no need to pack the uv islands, just go ahead and unwrap it. This can save you time later when you begin to copy geometry off it to create new arms and legs.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/uv02.jpg
Using Headus UVLayout, that took be a little less than 10 minutes to unwrap and get the consistent result you see in that screenshot. (The eyes are temp, so I didn't bother to uv them.)

The next step is to take this base mesh and alter it to make all the pieces in your list.
You should always have a copy of your clean, unaltered base mesh in your scene. This is very useful when you need to build clothing over it or when you need to go back and Frankenstein a part off it.

I'll be back next time with the next steps.

[Swizzle]

Skank, you're a hero.

[ScudzAlmighty]

So, first of all I love the amount of work your putting into this, with the super thorough workflow how-to and what-nots, but I have to ask; you're making a Mutant crowd right? it's just that the base(s) here would suggest some pretty regulat folks.

[Tadao215]

good read! looking forward to the next steps

[gavku]

Nice work so far dude ;)

[Dan!]

very cool breakdown, thanks for sharing. I agree the current base could use a little something. That could be in the works though - great stuff.

[skankerzero]

So, first of all I love the amount of work your putting into this, with the super thorough workflow how-to and what-nots, but I have to ask; you're making a Mutant crowd right? it's just that the base(s) here would suggest some pretty regulat folks.

The only thing I've made so far for this is that colorful guy towards the bottom. Everything else is past work used for example images.

read through it all and you'll see what I'm talking about.

[Crash]

Ye nutjob! Can't wait to see this. :D

[ScudzAlmighty]

Oh I did read it all, but I guess I didn't look very closely at his face so he just looked like a regular little dude. Now that I'm paying attention though he doesw have a rather odd face shape, and I did forget just how much you can pull-off in a texture ;)

[skankerzero]

Oh I did read it all, but I guess I didn't look very closely at his face so he just looked like a regular little dude. Now that I'm paying attention though he doesw have a rather odd face shape, and I did forget just how much you can pull-off in a texture ;)

Yeah. A lot of people equate mutant with animal. That's not really the case. It was only really until TMNT that anthro characters became associated with mutants.

I think the perfect 'mutant' design for this competition is right here:
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=91888

He's basically a mutant that's engineered for football.

As for mine, the team will consist of mutants, skeletons, and possibly robots too.

Think of these as the children of the toxic avenger or the original characters from the original games.

[Bryan Cavett]

ugh... I sure don't miss putting all those parts and pieces on a single 512 like we did on BR2. Here you are doing it for FUN in your spare time? Your nuts man. Looking forward to some updates!

[skankerzero]

hah! hey Bryan.

yeah, those were the days. Well I've done soooooo many more since then it's almost second nature for me now.

I'm currently modeling out some skeleton arms and hands. Hopefully I'll have some updates this weekend.

[LoTekK]

You, sir, are a fucking champ.

[JacqueChoi]

/pwnage

[ranek]

on the real big ups for showing us your workflow . I'm learning alot on the buildups. I cant wait to see this paticular setup. kinda frosty.

[Ravenslayer]

wow , i love how you are documenting all of these steps!
also very cool to see such optimal use of geometry and texturespace

can't wait to see what the outcome will be

[MDSchee]

dang! very informative indeed.

[skankerzero]

just a really quick update.

I've modeled out:
mutant head
mutant arms
mutant hands
skeleton head
skeleton arms
skeleton hands
baseball cap
baseball batting helmet
tentacle legs
uniform torso
uniform pants
uniform shorts

up next are:
tentacle arms
baseball shoes
skeleton legs
skeleton feet
mutant head #2
Baseball bat
Baseball
Catchers pads

screenshots this weekend.

[ZacD]

Awesome thread so far, keep up the great work and documentation.

[skankerzero]

Next Step

------------------------------------------------------------

Making Sure Your Parts Work Across Variations

The next step after modeling out your base mesh is to begin creating the variation parts.

There are four big rules for creating parts.

1:
Make sure your verts line up across your parts at the seams.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/parts06.jpg
For example, all your sleeves have to work with all your torsos.

2:
Make sure your topology around your deforming areas lines up to ensure that there will be no piercing of geometry.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/parts05.jpg
This should really be general knowledge when it comes to game modeling, but it's easy to overlook when making characters as complex as this. Be sure to test your parts across all your variation parts.

3:
Keep your pivots at 0,0,0 across all parts.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/parts07.jpg
This will ensure that all the parts snap together perfectly when snapped to 0,0,0, such as below:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/parts08.jpg

4:
Keep your naming convention easy to follow.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/parts09.jpg
Be descriptive with the name. Identify left and right with _L and _R. If a model has similar multiple objects like toes or fingers use numbers.

For sorting purposes, I try and define the region first. This will ensure that all the parts will sort together alphabetically.
Regions can include the following:
Head_
Torso_
Leg_
Arm_
Hand_
Foot_
Sleeve_
Pants_
etc.

The key is to be descriptive so selecting parts is easy for you.

------------------------------------------------------------

Now Let's Look At How I Applied The Above To My Model

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/parts04.jpg

All parts have a pivot at 0,0,0.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/parts10.jpg
They all snap perfectly together at 0,0,0.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/parts11.jpg
I followed a naming convention that makes sense for this file:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/parts12.jpg
All verts snap perfectly across parts:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/parts13.jpg

The above image shows some of the possible combinations available.
Parts like the caps don't fit perfectly just yet because I'm waiting until I begin creating the unique variations.
There are two sets of torsos. A uniform one and one with a baseball jacket over the uniform. For the jacketed torso, I had to create a modified version of the pants and shorts to work with the overhanging jacket. The modified geometry will share the same uv texture space as the unmodified pants and shorts. The shorts are designed to be cut off at a natural seam that will be hidden be an armor plate and strap.
There is still some geometry missing, such as spikes, eyes, baseball, and possibly another mutant head.

------------------------------------------------------------

This is what I have so far.
The next part will be over laying out the uvs and the beginnings of texturing.
Also keep in mind, these are the base proportions. Once the models are uvmapped and textured, the process of reporportioning the 9 unique characters will begin. Some will be made fatter, others taller, some longer legs, others longer arms, etc.

I haven't been working on this as much as I should, or I would be further along. Been trying to balance this out with my social life. Either way, I should still hit the deadline.

I'll know for sure if I have to remove parts or if I can add parts during the uv phase.

[Snipergen]

I have the weirdest boner right now. Dude this is fantastic. Solid modeling too!

[slipsius]

This is awesome skank. My company does stuff for playstation home, so we deal with the different body parts used for clothing items for avatars. I've tried to do my own crowd system as well, which was interesting to say the least. Ill definitely be following this thread, in hopes to learn how to do it better. Did it pretty much like this, building different variations of each body part, then I just combined them in maya and exported. Is that what you do in the end of it all? combine them and export? or do you export each piece and let the programmers randomize it some how?

Also, what kind of rigging issues do you run into? In one of your first examples, there were some variations of suspenders. Is that a pain in the ass to paint the weights for to have no clipping?

Also, Great first mutant! Whats the tri count on it?

[ranek]

oh snap. dammit this is fire. social life. this month, I just threw it in the toilet. who needs friends when you have your own baseball team? Skank straight Killin it. and we get a lesson. you rock!

[Jeff Parrott]

Good word man! This is insane. Absolutely amazing take on this contest.

[Baddcog]

Really cool to see your process here. Can't wait to see the team on the ball field.

[Dylan Brady]

too early to ask for a Wiki?

[skankerzero]

Thanks for all the kind words guys!

I'm going to be uving these guys next and adding what geometry I'm missing all this week. Hopefully I'll be starting texturing this coming weekend.

Is that what you do in the end of it all? combine them and export? or do you export each piece and let the programmers randomize it some how?
For this challenge, I'll isolate variations and delete the excess.
When I was at TRI, we would export the full model with all the parts out. We would randomize it in real time with an XML sheet that contained the rules for randomization. It was all naming convention based.

Also, what kind of rigging issues do you run into? In one of your first examples, there were some variations of suspenders. Is that a pain in the ass to paint the weights for to have no clipping?
Usually there is very little issues when it comes to rigging. As long as I follow my rules then they should work just as well as any other characters.
Suspenders aren't that big of an issue. The geometry has to mirror the geometry that's underneath them. It will lead to some crappy looking topology, but they will deform exactly like the torso.

Also, Great first mutant! Whats the tri count on it?
Thanks!
Each variation is roughly 2500. I'll make sure to optimize on the final models if I have to.

[skankerzero]

just a really quick update:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/uv03.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/uv04.jpg

@_@

Everything has a basic unwrap from HeadusUV.
Next I'm going to go in there and begin mirroring textures and sharing uvs across geometry.

[Swizzle]

I want to be like you when I grow up.

[skankerzero]

Sorry for the lack of updates. I've been busy with my other side projects the past week.

Either way, here's the next part:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

UV Mapping your parts

Once you've created your parts, it's time to uvmap them.

Follow whatever pipeline you are comfortable with.
For this I'm using Headus UVLayout. I take all my parts and unfold them.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/uv03.jpg

I then take them back into Max and check to make sure there isn't any distortion.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/uv04.jpg

At this point, I take some time to go and model a couple more heads and body parts.

Now it's time to pack your uvs.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Packing your uvs

Before we begin packing our uvs, let's take a step back and think about how we want to lay them out.

One thing most game artists don't know (especially character artists) is that every 32-bit texture is actually 4 grayscale textures.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/texture04.jpg

This means that with a single 512x512 you have the same amount of pixels as a 1024x1024 if you choose to texture your character only using grayscale. This is, of course, if your game's shader system allows you to use individual channels. I'm using Terminal Reality's Infernal Engine, and it lets you do just that.

For my model, I decided that I need full RGB for certain pieces of the model, but not all of it. So this means that I'm going to use the RGB channel to color those areas and the other areas will be mapped through the alpha channel.

My first step is to separate the geometry into the two groups and pack each group into it's own space.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/uv06.jpg

Each group should now have it's own set of uvs.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/uv05.jpg

**Protip -
As I was packing the uvs, if it turned out I needed to scale the uv islands, I would collapse the stack, select both groups, and scale ALL the islands across both groups to keep the pixel density consistent across the entire model.

Once you have packed all yoru pieces, you're ready to move to the next step.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Preparing the Textures

We all have our own pipelines, but I thought I would give you guys a peek into mine. I won't break apart my pipeline as that can be saved for another time.

Here are some snapshots:

Baking lighting onto all the parts.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/texture01.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/texture02.jpg

Taking all the parts and piecing together your unique characters.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/texture03.jpg

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Up next is texturing.
Then squashing and stretching the characters to all have unique proportions.

See you guys next time.

[seven]

Holy crap... big bucket of win.

On your light rig do you have consistent intensity across all lights or do you vary them towards the bottom of the dome as fills?

[Avanthera]

Damn Jesse, You're only supposed to make one ya know? :poly124:

Awesome stuff! Very happy that you're sharing your knowledge with all of us losers. :)

[cptSwing]

amazing thread.

[Ravenslayer]

awesome post is awesome yet again

i never really thought of using the multiple uv channels combined with separating the RGB - A.

[itismario]

Have my babies.

[Sukotto]

Thanks so much for sharing your workflow, I'm learning a lot and you're still not done!

[skankerzero]

having fun with the team logo.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/logo.jpg

texture wip sneak peek:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/texture05.jpg

[itismario]

This is ballin. I can't wait for some color thrown on there

[Japhir]

That texture update makes them look a loooot cooler :). Keep it up!

[Rion411]

Wow! This is amazingly insightful... thanks for sharing this workflow. Can't wait to see the finished team!

[Swizzle]

Those textures look rad. Hell, this entire thread is amazing.

[MattQ86]

Wow, you're literally putting on a clinic in here. Those textures are looking amazing.

[bugo]

Nice work Jesse, keep that coming.
I'm glad you are still using Headus UV Layout.
I also hope Austin is treating you well.

[Bishop313]

damn skank, yr mastering here the work of a whole team... impressive!

[Tamarin]

Studying this thread closely.

[Broken_Lawnmower]

holy shit this thread. skankerzero, you are a magician

[Jesse Moody]

Yeah Skanker you nailing this shit down like a boss!!!

Will def have to do a write up about your process after this... Let's talk :)

[DockRock]

Looking stellar man, can't wait to see this team done!

[skankerzero]

left to texture:

1x head
1x arm
1x wheel leg

Should have all the texture done tonight after I eat.
Then it's all shader work left. :)

I'm finishing earlier than I expected.

[skankerzero]

Texture update.

Finished texturing all 9 characters.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/texture06.jpg
RGB and Alpha:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/texture07.jpg
I'm texturing using my own style. I developed my style as a way to make my 3d models look like my illustrations. It is very illustrative. I do a majority of it with the polygon lasso tool and a couple taps of the airbrush.
The above screens have no lighting in max.

Up next is playing with masks to color the uniforms.

Also. Have to build a base for the group to stand on.
I will also be building mock screenshots for 'menu selection' to show the characters within the context of the 'game'.

[cholden]

You're so cool. Your production values are so strong that people should bookmark this thread as a tutorial.

[slipsius]

freakin Ballin' Skanker. So well done.

Right now most of it looks very grey. Did you do that on purpose so that in unreal or whatever, you just play with materials to add colour or what?

Also, a little crit. Im personally not a fan of the shorts. Well, actually that's not true. I like the shorts, but I feel you need another variation thrown in there as well. They are all the same. Every other section of the body has variations, and it shows nicely when lined up. But when lined up, the shorts are clearly reused on EVERY model. Im sure it has something to do with the poly limits, but I feel that that is your room for improvement.

[e-freak]

This thread is a great learning resource! Really like what you pulled off.

One thing though: In your colored Texture you are using a lot of one-colored objects (each island has a very dominant color). Wouldn't it have been more efficient to use Vertex Colors for these parts as well, allowing you to use 4 individual textures (each channel one) and therefore double the Texel-Density?

edit: OT but could you show the rig for this crowd?
The first example is a single character that is meant to be viewed at about 75 feet or more away from the camera.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/example03.jpg
This is considered a single character as it has a single rig that animates all the characters. The rig is less than 32 bones and would animate all the outstretched arms and random heads and bodies to create the illusion of a crowd stirring about. The polycount falls within a single character's budget (12,254 tris). and it uses a single 256x128 texture.

[Daven]

You're so cool. Your production values are so strong that people should bookmark this thread as a tutorial.

Agreed. Man Jesse, this is pretty sexy. The breakdowns have been extremely helpful.

[Lord Fryingpan]

I couldn't help but notice each of your players have a different number.

Is there some shader magic here ?

[skankerzero]

Right now most of it looks very grey. Did you do that on purpose so that in unreal or whatever, you just play with materials to add colour or what?
you are correct. A mask image will be used to apply color to the uniforms.

Also, a little crit. Im personally not a fan of the shorts. Well, actually that's not true. I like the shorts, but I feel you need another variation thrown in there as well. They are all the same. Every other section of the body has variations, and it shows nicely when lined up. But when lined up, the shorts are clearly reused on EVERY model. Im sure it has something to do with the poly limits, but I feel that that is your room for improvement.

You're right too. I was going to give one of the robots pants, but then decided against it. So right now the two captains have the pants.

All these guys are modular, so in the end, I can add pants to whoever I want depending on the final pose.


One thing though: In your colored Texture you are using a lot of one-colored objects (each island has a very dominant color). Wouldn't it have been more efficient to use Vertex Colors for these parts as well, allowing you to use 4 individual textures (each channel one) and therefore double the Texel-Density?

You're right. I'll go back in there and add more color to the shadows.

There were a couple parts that were going to be colored through the shader (like the skeleton bones), but in the end I didn't have enough room in the alpha for their uvs, so I put them into the rgb.


edit: OT but could you show the rig for this crowd?
If I get time to. The rig for that is in Maya, and I don't have access to that right now.

I couldn't help but notice each of your players have a different number.

Is there some shader magic here ?
Nope, just different uv coordinates. If I had a programmer with me and this was an actual game, the uv coordinates for the numbers would be the same and I would use a font for the number. For this competition though, I just had to fake it.

Thanks for all the feedback guys! Hopefully I'll have time to make this as awesome as I can.

[slipsius]

Its not so much the pants that I meant. Im talking about the top half of the legs. every character has those spikes around its legs, which make them all appear to be shorts? its the upper half that i think needs variation.

cant wait to see this finished though. You've done an amazing job so far.

[skankerzero]

Its not so much the pants that I meant. Im talking about the top half of the legs. every character has those spikes around its legs, which make them all appear to be shorts? its the upper half that i think needs variation.

cant wait to see this finished though. You've done an amazing job so far.

oh hmm. Yeah. not sure what to do about that at this point. The most that can be done is variation in the spikes.

One of the limitations when it comes to making a crowd system is not being able to fully customize each character as you want to. It's all about compromise.

I think the screenshot might have something to do with the repetitive feeling of the thigh spikes. When I rotate the model around to the front, its not so noticeable. I'm hoping when they're all posed and grouped together, it will just feel 'right' and bring them together as a team.

[konstruct]

god damn skank, you`re a 1 man art army

[ishii]

This is pretty cool!

[Vailias]

Skanker: Great info. I was planning a similar submission (never got started due to real life), but I hadn't thought of using separate UV layouts in the same space for the channels. That's excelent.

[skankerzero]

some fun!
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/final_cover.jpg

more images coming soon.

[seven]

that's a taste of some sweetness right there. yum.

[MiAlx]

Jesse, sweeeet, love the team... Can't wait for more :D

Thank you very much for sharing such useful information with the rest of us, I really appreciate it!

[skankerzero]

group shot wip

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/wip01.jpg

[Tadao215]

wow awesome job, looks fun :)

[seven]

get em.

[Alberto Rdrgz]

WoW. that's all.

[LRoy]

dude you are on another level. this is all ~2500 tris?

[Tadao215]

i think each one is ~2500. this challenge allows us to make multiple characters if we want to

[Lee3dee]

looking awesome Jesse!

[ranek]

SICKKKKKKKKKK

[SsSandu_C]

Interesting process.... Really nice.

[divi]

make me a beautiful mexican baby!

[PixelKD]

so amazing...

[Nitewalkr]

Sir. Skankerzero has proven to this community that he is a 3d art machine...

>.<

[Urserker]

I absolutely loved your approach to this, building multiple characters off interchangeable parts. I'm really glad you posted your work process as much as you did, it was really insightful.

[deadpixl]

some fun!
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/final_cover.jpg

more images coming soon.

This needs to happen! Get on it EA.

[slipsius]

Any chance you could explain a bit of the shader process of how you gave the teams colours?

[skankerzero]

will do, but probably after I submit as I'm trying to get everything ready and polished before the deadline.

It's A LOT of 2d transformations on the mask images.

[daphz]

really cool entry man! Thanks for the breakdown too!

[skankerzero]

Individual character sheets:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/final_character_sheet_01.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/final_character_sheet_02.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/final_character_sheet_03.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/final_character_sheet_04.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/final_character_sheet_05.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/final_character_sheet_06.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/final_character_sheet_07.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/final_character_sheet_08.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/final_character_sheet_09.jpg

[LoTekK]

Just dropping in again to say thanks. I do love a good tech-y thread :) (the fact that there's rad art to go along with it is a total bonus)

[chrisradsby]

Wow nice, really sweet work Jesse!

[pity]

Awesome technique! Cool mutants!

[YBourykina]

they look awesome Jesse, loving 00, and 09 :)

[Jeff Parrott]

Baseball cards please! Such an awesome job on this. You're probably going to win 1st through 8th place.

[Mark Dygert]

So much awesome... artistic and technical, production and direction... wow I should have followed this more closely from the beginning but this goes down as a truly great entry and thread for all time awesomeness.

[slipsius]

I love 80 and 19, the last two.

Very good job on these, Jesse. I guess my only crit would be in your final presentation. That probably just dropped a bunch of jaws, but bear with me. 80, 09, and sort of 20, all are posed in a way that makes me think "Pitcher", instead of having unique poses that say different positions on the field. That's the only thing I think you could improve on.

You were right about the spikes on the shorts not being as noticeably identical when not standing beside each other though! Everything looks amazing.

[skankerzero]

I love 80 and 19, the last two.

Very good job on these, Jesse. I guess my only crit would be in your final presentation. That probably just dropped a bunch of jaws, but bear with me. 80, 09, and sort of 20, all are posed in a way that makes me think "Pitcher", instead of having unique poses that say different positions on the field. That's the only thing I think you could improve on.

You were right about the spikes on the shorts not being as noticeably identical when not standing beside each other though! Everything looks amazing.

Well, 09 and 20 are pitchers. You can see their stats on the left.

I'll see what I can do with 80 with the time I have left though. Thanks for the feedback! Often times it's difficult to pick up on things because you've been staring at them for so long. I really appreciate it!

Thanks for the comments guys! I have a couple of images left to produce but hopefully I'll be submitting very soon.

[EtotheRic]

Nice job! I like the variations you came up with.

[seven]

total pimp sauce.

[Shendoo]

very cool, I like the all models

[TonyClifton]

excellent models and technique! best thread!

[Graff Pirate]

nice work Jesse, how are you getting the resolution on the logos and numbers?

[skankerzero]

nice work Jesse, how are you getting the resolution on the logos and numbers?

Hey Austin!

I'm using a mask image in which the R channel is the detail for the decals, and the A is the opacity for them.

I crammed 4 masks for uniform color in the G and using a 2d transform to stretch them out and offset them before piping color through them.

Then in the B channel, I have 4 more masks for the robots and the color for the logos. I use a 2d transform to stretch them out and pipe colors through them as well.

So basically the G and B channels hold 8 256x256 texture masks.

It's a complex shader as you can imagine, but there were no shader limitations in this challenge, so yay!

[Ravenslayer]

ASK FOR CHARACTER
http://www.polycount.com/forum/customavatars/thumbs/avatar13815_4.gif
MAKES ENTIRE TEAM

:D great job man i'm amazed by the efficiency of your model/texture work

[skankerzero]

ASK FOR CHARACTER
http://www.polycount.com/forum/customavatars/thumbs/avatar13815_4.gif
MAKES ENTIRE TEAM

:D great job man i'm amazed by the efficiency of your model/texture work



hah! I love it!

screenshoted!

[skankerzero]

Updated 80s pose to something else a bit more dynamic as per request.

[MattQ86]

Other than a couple clipping errors (45's right forearm clipping through the shoulder and 00's head tentacle clipping through his torso) this is flawless.

Also you have to name 08 "The Grim Catcher".

[Graze]

Soooo cool, youve created so much what a machine. Awsome entry dude!!

[skankerzero]

Other than a couple clipping errors (45's right forearm clipping through the shoulder and 00's head tentacle clipping through his torso) this is flawless.

Also you have to name 08 "The Grim Catcher".

hmm, didn't catch that on 45, but what you're seeing on 00 is his hand tentacle, not the head one.

[Kraken]

Impressive! Congratulations!

[Lee3dee]

Awesome work Jesse! I can see why your so dead to the world at work :) You set out to do the little league and exceeded!

[skankerzero]

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/final_beauty_01.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/final_group_trans.png
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/final_cover_full_res.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8993258/mutantleague/final_textures.jpg

[MDSchee]

impressive! reads really well.

[urgaffel]

Amazing thread and work. You deserve to be made into a meme :D

[TheQiwiMan]

I HATE to think of these awesome characters going to waste! Come on Unity Programmers, make this into a game!!!

Truly amazing work my friend, well done! :-D

[Swizzle]

I wish I could come up with something negative to say just so I could feel better about myself, but you completely nailed this, skank. This is absolutely goddamn amazing and this thread should be archived for future generations.

[Tadao215]

damn skanker... job well done

[Vorge]

Dat bottom right skeleton :P

Excellent work!

[skankerzero]

thanks for all the comments guys!

I'll update with documentation on how I got the shaders working next week.

I'm tired... u___u

Also, I'm going to post a postmortem too. There was so much I wanted to do with these guys that I didn't get a chance to do for several reasons, so we'll explore that too.

[ranek]

WOW!!!! thats killer

[Tigerfeet]

I'm really looking forward to all your documentation on this skanker :) I look at your texture sheets and half of them I have no idea what's going on >_<

[r_fletch_r]

awesome work! this is why I love PC.

[seven]

Pimp man. Really dig your shader work.

[Dylan Brady]

not trying to sound stupid here, but I cant wait for you to explain whats going on with those last images.
assume it has to do with the shader-based coloring but damn... thats some next level shit mate.

[LoTekK]

not trying to sound stupid here, but I cant wait for you to explain whats going on with those last images.
Have a look at the individual RGB channels of the upper-right and lower-left images in PS to get an idea of what's going on with those. He's basically taking 3 greyscale images and sticking them into one texture via the individual RGB channels.

[JFeezey]

This thread blew my mind. Epic job, i learnt alot about modular characters and never thought about using the RGB Channels for character clothing, looking forward to seeing the shaders

[SouthpawSid]

love the style of these. grats on the work!

[hathol]

DUDE. you are awesome.
thanks for this thread of awesomeness and HUGE UPS on MAKING the assets for GRANDMAS BOY! wth! best movie ever. your the man.

[Shaffer]

Thanks for the tutorial man, a real inspiration.

[jbriggs]

Awesome thread, bookmarking this for sure! Thanks for sharing!

[kodde]

Thanks for sharing all this great info. Awesome work.

[Ravenslayer]

just wanted to thank you once again for sharing your process, had to design an npc system for a game and i implemented some of these techniques you used! Especially on the texture/shader side i'm able to do a shitload of variations now with only one texture and one shader ^^

[Eric Chadwick]

Finally got around to archiving this in the wiki. Thanks so much Jesse for detailing out your process.
http://wiki.polycount.com/SkankerzeroModularCharacterSystem