For this character creation post I want to focus on production flow. Creating characters for games involves a lot of repetition, form the actions you perform through to the models and materials you use.
In Project Aftermath (working title) I have around 100 character models to process and export to game. When faced with numbers in the 100's you really need to think about work flow and tools which will aid that process. Imagine near the end of production, some model or material changes are required, you don't want to perform those changes on 100's of models. Apart from the time it would consume, you also have your sanity to consider.
Fortunately software packages these day have some great tools to facilitate these production problems. Our software package (Softimage XSI) has a referencing system which I've used to good effect on this project. For example the referencing enables me to have one model, lets say a Troopers head stored on disk in one location, but used (referenced) in 20 Trooper characters. Now if I decide that the geometry detail is too high or too low for the Trooper head, I can adjust it in that one location and those changes will filter through to all the other models via the referencing system.
You can do the same with materials. I have a model and materials library which I pull together to generate the 100 or so exports, knowing that changing the topology or material properties across the board is an easy task. Another benefit is that artists can work on the same character at the same time. Once the referencing is set up, three artists could work simultaneously on materials, models, and animation.
With this in mind lets take a look at how our Monster comes together.
First of all I'll export the various models to the library, in the image below you can see three of these models. A character is broken down into head, upper body and lower body portions.
At this stage the models do not have a material, just the default shading. The materials are created and exported separately to their own library.
When I want to create a final Monster character to export, I'll select the body parts I want from the library and the apply the materials I want from the material library.
This image shows the referenced model (white men in the explorer) and the User path to one of the models. The character is also animated at this stage. If I want to change the models used I just need to update the User Path (in green) to select a different model. A Delta stores the information of which mesh is constrained to which bone, and this information is retained as the model is updated or changed, so the switch happens cleanly despite of the animation.
The system, as useful as it is isn't magic! You need to ensure that models are set up correctly to work with the referencing. Pivot points and default transformations need to be the same for each model, otherwise you may get an arm or leg detaching it self. Ouch.
Until next time then...
