Topic: 3D Modeling WIP Topic

[kat]

Another couple of items made for IMVU (VIP Bundle for new sign-ups) using Blender 3D (version 2.49b). Because the environment was relatively large it had to be 'filled', the simplest way to do that is to use trees. Obviously putting fully fledged trees everywhere would increase the polycount of the entire scene dramatically (and have a seriously deleterious effect on frame-rate and performance). Instead a series of textured flat plains were placed liberally around the outer edge. Simple but effective. The scene itself was then padded out using 'proper' trees once all the accompanying furniture items were placed. Main room was just a little over 2000 polygons.

[kat]

Meant to post this before the above, but this was another recent project for IMVU, the recent 'Witch House', in Blender showing the 'front' elevation (just under 2500 polygons for the entire environment). IMVU doesn't have a particularly good lighting system and absent vertex painting or generating a lot of unique or low-resolution textures, shadows and shading is tricky to put into place. In then end the best option is to take a middle ground and tile a texture left/right with 'shading' top and bottom.

This was the first mesh to use IMVU's 'show/hide' system where special markers are used to identity elements that can be hidden from view when seen face-on. It allows users to see and use the inside of objects without having to maneuver inside (with all the annoyances that causes due to the cameras limited capabilities).

[ratty redemption]

cool, that looks like a fun project to of worked on.

[kat]

Another IMVU room project made with Blender (Candy Land & Gingerbread House). The new updated script means slightly more complex meshes can be put together which included vertex painting and 'morph' animations ("Shape Key" sequences). Candy House: 9037 tris. Build Time: c.7 days.


Shape Keys shown keyframed to a sequence on a selected Object, each one typically uses a different set of Shape Keys so the shape of the mesh can be different for each item.



Textured and Wireframe view of the scene in Blender. Using layers the objects are separated and exported as groups for ease of management - multiple meshes are exported as separate objects.


Final scene put together and shown in IMVU avec Avatar.

[ratty redemption]

looks cool, no pun intended.

[kat]

lol

[silicone_milk]

Probably not the greatest of ideas to unwrap the UVs for a model while polys aren't final but things are going better than expected - first UV unwrap attempt (shifted seams on tunic to sides rather than front/back middle)



And a quick paint to block out colors:

[kat]

If you think about how the clothing would be made in real life, that's largely where seams can be hidden by disguising their presence through artwork (obviously bearing in mind Smoothing issues that might occur based on UVW seams). She has small feet so I don't know if you might want to play around with making those larger to see how they look in comparison (especially once you get the mesh into the game). Very cute character otherwise.

[silicone_milk]

That's a good point on the seams. I was only thinking in terms of "what's not likely to be seen if I bring the camera in close".

Ok, good, the feet were bothering me for a little while and I wasn't sure what exactly is off with them. I thought they might have been on the small side but dismissed it. I'll scale them up and see how that looks. Also, the boots look like formless ugg boots to me and I don't think texturing can fix that so I'll have to mess around with the vertices there as well later on.

Thank you   She still needs to get the back of her skull and some hair before I bring her in to Unity. I'm also considering tweaking her into a neutral position rather than t-pose so her shoulders stop being retarded during deformation. I hear the neutral pose is a tad harder to rig but makes joint deformations less of a pain.

[kat]

So long as you pose the mesh with outstretched arms to some degree you should be OK, avoid the arms-by-the-side pose, it'll cause you no end of trouble. And you're welcome.

[silicone_milk]

This is what I'm referring to by 'neutral-pose'




Supposedly the IK chains will be better off as well if the limbs are slightly bent while in 'rest pose' so they have a clear pivot point.

[kat]

Yep that's the one. You shouldn't need to worry too much about Armature/IK bends if the model is built with a correct centre-of-gravity as that naturally tends to 'kink' the arms and legs taking care of the problem you mentioned (but yes it is something to watch out for absent using a 'knee' target bone set-up, which may not be exportable/usable).

[silicone_milk]

got more work done on the rig. Scaled the feet, set up ik arms and some rotation constraints on feet/hands.

Shoulder/Elbow/Wrist Deformation (Front/Angled):



Needs a little work and the elbow bone seems to be slightly off. Not going to worry about it for now.

Having a hell of a time with the skirt part... I wonder if another edge loop might help.



The Rig:


As exciting as it was playing with IK constraints (one of my first for even a skeletal rig) for the first time, I'm really burnt out on messing with the skeleton. But I can do some pretty neat things with it now.

Time to give her hair and a proper diffuse.

[ratty redemption]

looking good milk. i assume the ik bones don't get imported into unity?

[silicone_milk]

They do but IK animation is only part of the pro license. You'd use them, from what I'm seeing, through scripting where you can take IK bone positions and have them target game objects for grabbing things and whatnot.

You can still create animation clips in Blender to import though.

Here's unrigged/non-animated character in Unity with a quick scale down: