All right, i have a question here.

How is a character transformation done inside game. I am talkin about organic characters in this case. Like a human transforms into a demon with wings and muscles and split mouth and such stuff. Now if I have to even show it as a cut scene, how is this transformation animation done??

Does any1 have the info regarding this one??

There are thousands of ways to do it...

Do you have an example of what you want to achieve? Like a video clip? Image?

More details please.

Originally Posted by Carl Brannstrom

There are thousands of ways to do it...

Do you have an example of what you want to achieve? Like a video clip? Image?

More details please.

Hmm ye... The ones in the resident evil series like in the link below

Top 10 Resident Evil Transformations -...

thats the thingy i am lookin for..

Half of those are clever camera cuts, the other half is prerendered videos or non- realtime engine cutscenes.

You don't even see most of the transformations in that video. Looks like a lot of off-screen model swaps most of the time, and some blend shapes, bone scaling, etc.

I know that most of it you don't see.. But the focus here is, we have a normal human being as Start point, and a mutated huge weird "OMG WT THE HELL IS THIS" Creature as the end point. So, I wanna do a transformation from the human to the creature..

Here is another example..

Parasite Eve - Rat Transformation - YouTube

play lots of resident evil , they have a lot and the best character transformation in real time or at least cutscene ( no CGI cinematic)

ZBrush and its morph targets would be a good starting point for you to read up on OP.

Originally Posted by JZAcH

I know that most of it you don't see.. But the focus here is, we have a normal human being as Start point, and a mutated huge weird "OMG WT THE HELL IS THIS" Creature as the end point. So, I wanna do a transformation from the human to the creature..

Here is another example..

Parasite Eve - Rat Transformation - YouTube

You are asking a very vague question still. Each of these transformations is different conceptually.

As mentioned before, most of these animations are clever camera cuts with model swaps. Each model is animated to deform and morph slightly. So they start with an original character, the final character and make a few unique models to be swapped in between the transition.

It all depends on how you storyboard the transformation. It involves a well thought out concept of the transformation, followed by a story board that describes each scene swap as far as angle,lighting, animation etc. It is all an illusion of a seamless transformation. There are very few cases that a full animation is made without any camera cuts. A very massive transformation is quite tricky to do in realtime and ingame so games mostly resort of full motion video.

Originally Posted by Fuse

There are very few cases that a full animation is made without any camera cuts. A very massive transformation is quite tricky to do in realtime and ingame so games mostly resort of full motion video.

Imagine you are assigned the task of doing one. As som1 mentioned that there are many ways of achieving this and you say that it is very tricky, there must be 1 probable way (even though it might take a really long time) to accomplish it right. All i want to know is one way to do it completely. I posted the videos because som1 asked me what exactly i was lookin after... But i do believe i have shown the picture of what here is looking to be accomplished..

You would have to do something with vertex animation, like morph targets, which I believe is doable in UDK. So that could be a good start point. You would do a morph, coupled with blending two normal maps. The setup is quite tricky though, should do some googling on it.

But I don't think camera cuts are avoidable. At some point you'll need a model-swap.

Originally Posted by JZAcH

Imagine you are assigned the task of doing one. As som1 mentioned that there are many ways of achieving this and you say that it is very tricky, there must be 1 probable way (even though it might take a really long time) to accomplish it right. All i want to know is one way to do it completely. I posted the videos because som1 asked me what exactly i was lookin after... But i do believe i have shown the picture of what here is looking to be accomplished..

So what you are asking is a comprehensive explanation and a step by step solution to your unique technical problem ?

Like it's been said, it depends on what kind of models you want to transform. What is your concept specifically? You are asking a vague question and asking for an exact perfect solution to be spelled out for you. There is rarely one.

Do you have an idea in mind? A concept?

The best real time example that comes to mind is the mutated lambent in Gears of War 3 but even then. Their realtime transformations are minor and reserved strictly to extending of their extra tentacles which is likely a mixture of animations of the stretching/extending, model swap and particle effects to hide the seams and transitions.

Gears of War 3 Demo - E3 2010 Microsoft...

I believe Prototype just hides model swaps with a bunch of particles.

Also write out the word "someone", shortening it to "som1" makes you sound unintelligent and discourages people from providing advice.

It might be easier if you just said what you were trying to do so people could offer suggestions for how to get it done. As in, "I want to turn this guy into this guy."
Even if you're not able to show the actual character a simple Reg Dude into Bat Dude would be helpfull.

Mashru Mishu used I think a blend of vertex animation and an animated normal map to turn this guy:


into this guy:

(his chub gallery has wire's and stuff.) This example rely's on having both models share the same topology/UV layout. He had a pretty good wip thread for it but I lost the link long ago.

Your problem is a fairly intricate one. One that can vary in it's complexity depending on your specific problem.

Even if you were asking a very simple question like "how do I uv something properly". There is no perfect answer, you have to provide concrete examples.

Here's one example:

Realtime Character Morph - YouTube

freak morph test - YouTube

http://www.polycount.com/forum/showp...3&postcount=50


And another

http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/TessellationDX11.html

Couple of examples from Dead Space. The second one's clearly just a full model swap, but the first one still uses morphs, particles, and flickering lights to hide any jarring transitions.

Dead Space 2 - Necromorph transformation...

Dead Space - Infector close ups - YouTube

Taking a look at the rat example, my guess would be:
Bulging skin- morph targets
Mouth and eyes peeling- morph targets
Elongating teeth- scaling separate meshes
Split tail- model a closed tail, cut seams, pose in the open position, model the interiors
Limbs extending- probably bone scaling
Final result- entirely different model

And all of those closeups are most likely entirely different models built specifically to show the transformations in detail.

Originally Posted by Justin_Meisse

Also write out the word "someone", shortening it to "som1" makes you sound unintelligent and discourages people from providing advice.

Sorry .. my bad ...

Thanks Snowfly.. the 1st one was what i was looking for.. well almost.

Originally Posted by JZAcH

Thanks Snowfly.. the 1st one was what i was looking for.. well almost.

For the most part, that's just pushing two models through each other and lots of particles.

The skin rips off with very well done alphas and texture blending. I'm almost certain that's the same face geometry you're seeing at the end, just with a great morph target.

I must play Dead Space Here's a simpler example in which wings and horns spawn as separate meshes and get scaled:

You Tube

in the end i guess it comes down to what kind of human exactly you want to morph into what kind of creature, can you show both of your targets so we might have a chance to think about it? it can be pretty simple with just morphing from one state to another with the same topology but different normalmaps or it could need a lot more effects beeing applied.

Skyrim's werefolf looks like a simple combination of skeleton stretching and model swapping by way of some animated alphas.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZh-hv_jfLY#t=12s
Simple effect, but it does the job well enough.

Depending on what exact effect you want you can use any combination of high bones, vertex animation (morphs/blend shapes), camera cuts, and other dirty tricks. FX like this are all about dirty tricks. It's been that way since makeup FX first began and it's still true in the digital arena. The tools are just different. The old saying "if it looks right, then it is right" applies."

Originally Posted by dustinbrown

The old saying "if it looks right, then it is right" applies."

lol.