Character Creation for Videogames

UPDATE!

Since I got this tutorial up I’ve been getting a lot of really good feedback, so I’m going to go over the process and explain what could be updated and where with the most recent versions of the sofware.
I’ve also noticed some websites trying to sell a DVD with these free tutorials. I’m trying to make sure they link it back to the website so people realize they are free! Also I want to make sure they read the latest updates and provide comments and feedback so I can keep them alive.

Please let me know if you find these tutorials for sale anywhere else. They are supposed to be FREE!

This set of tutorials should give you a overall idea of the process of character creation. It does not go into technical details of the sofware that is being used, but should give you ideas and suggestions of different tools and methods in the process.
This is the process I used to make characters during 2009, this means most tools have been updated and Zbrush now has Decimation Master or GoZbrush, while max has an improved UVWUnwrap process.

Let me know if there are any issues with the videos, this was recorded in screen resolution of 1200?720 and with Youtube HD it should be pretty clear (just maximize the video to see details)
Enjoy!

Lesson Outline (01 lessons)

PART 1
Using the base template, adapt it so the silhouete matches the concept art
1. Prepare mesh for Zbrush work (UVgroups/Polygroups)
2. Align mesh to concept art
3. Align head to concept art
4. Tweak head details
5. Tweak eyes and hair position
6. Fix arm angle and overlapping issues
7. Cleanup mesh in Max

01 - Matching low-res template to Concept



COMMENTS:
Nowdays I just go straight to Zbrush and do my High res there not thinking about the base mesh until the end. Usually a base mesh will be used later when you are making the low res. If you are doing a head, it just saves you a lot of time to have a good base head (or hands for that matter) but for the overall body, you dont really need one.

So I would say analyze the concept art to understand the different “parts” and prepare your sculpture from there.

You can do primitives for small parts like shoes, suspenders, or buttons on the shirt in an outside 3D app and import them back to Zrush to further sculpt.

Lesson Outline (02 lessons)

PART 2
Detail overview of Unwrapping the low-res Head
1. Prepare different groups
2. Tweak Jaw
3. Tweak mouth
4. Tweak Eyes
5. Cleanup and test Unwrap
6. Prepare UV groups for Zbrush

02 - Unwrapping the Head part 1



02 - Unwrapping the Head part 2



COMMENTS:
Following the comments for the previous chapter, you dont need to Unwrap your model until the END of the high res sculpture and after you have made the low poly that will be used in the game.

Lesson Outline (03 lessons)

PART 3
Starting with the base template head we sculpt a High res head using the concept as guideline.
1. Basic shape and overall layout for the main shapes
2. Working on details
3. Creating Hair
4. Review Head

03 - Modelling High Res Head part 1



03 - Modelling High Res Head part 2



03 - Modelling High Res Head part 3



Lesson Outline (02 lessons)

PART 4
Creation of the High res body following the concept and then the low res version to use ingame.
1. Review of the concept and preparation of the model
2. Review of basic High res model in Max and changes from the original concept
3. High res modelling in Zbrush
4. Retopologize body in Zbrush
5. Export to max

04 - Modelling Body part 1



04 - Modelling Body part 2



COMMENTS:
For retopologizing I would suggest you use the Graphite Tools from 3Ds Max 2010 onwards. They are a LOT more powerful than the retopo tools that you get with Zbrush and it will be a lot easier to understand and tweak the topology.

Looking back I would have also made separate geometry for the suspenders (something I ended up having to do in the end) and separate the UVs and texture. This would have allowed me to texture them much more easily and even remove or replace if required at the end.

Same issue with the buttons. Its always a good idea to separate items, specially since we aren’t that much limited on the polycount (and this guy is pretty low res). If I had made the buttons as a separate mesh I could have repeated the same UV texture for as many buttons as I wanted making it easier to change them if required, scale them up or down or completely remove them if needed.

In the end we had to redo all the costumes (and this guy never got used!) and since this game had a LOT of different clothing items (over 100) we had to scale down in terms of uniqueness and share a lot of stuff.

Lesson Outline (03 lessons)

PART 5
Preparing model to be textured in Photoshop. Includes importing all the low and high res parts into Max, Unwrap them and create Normal and Ambient Occlusion maps.
1. Import Low and High Res Head
2. Fix geometry, topology and UVW map for Low res Head
3. Optimize High res Head in Polygoncruncher
4. Create Normal and AO pass for Head
5. Unwrap Low poly body
6. Export High Res body from Zbrush and batch optimize
7. Create Normal and AO pass for Body
8. Review mesh in Asset Viewer

05 - Prepare Model for Texturing part 1



05 - Prepare Model for Texturing part 2



05 - Prepare Model for Texturing part 3



COMMENTS:
Its much easier to use Zbrush 4 Decimation Master to reduce the polycount of your High res mesh rather than Polycruncher or any outside tools. Some artists also like to use Xnormals to bake the ambient occlusion and Normal maps in your mesh. I kinda like 3ds max since I can see what is going on and usually do final tweaks on the geometry and UVWUnwrap as I do my bakings. I also sometimes do several bakes to allow me to get the AO projection of some models on others.
It is also important to know how to work on your UV shells and separate them (or not) in different smoothing groups to get a normal map as perfect as possible. There are many good tutorials out there on these issues so I wont cover them.

I would also have laid out the UVs differently, specially for the clothing. If I had relaxed the UVs lot more, on the texturing videos I would have been able to just paint the stripes directly in Photoshop without going back and forth with the Projection Master. I would still need to do some tweaking on the seams area and overall there would be more distortion but it would have worked MUCH better.

Lesson Outline (03 lessons)

PART 6
Final step of the model creation. Texture work in Photoshop and any aditional tweaks to the low poly geometry to support the textures.
1. Create base texture for head
2. Create base texture for hair
3. Create base texture for shirt and tie
4. Create base texture for trousers
5. Create base texture for shoes
6. Clean up and review textures.

06 - Texturing Model part 1



06 - Texturing Model part 2



06 -Texturing Model part 3



COMMENTS:
Check the comments in the PART 5. Buttons and suspenders should have been separate geometry, laid out in their own UV area and would be much much easier to texture.

Lesson Outline (01 lessons)

PART 7
Review of the model and any changes that were made in the end. Overview of aditional texture and geometry tweaks and what could be improved.
1. Geometry changes
2. Texture changes
3. Normal map Editing
4. Conclusion

07 - Review Work and Conclusions



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