Ironfist the making of<character modeling for beginner>

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by Bmamba, Dec 10, 2009.

  1. Bmamba

    Bmamba Well-Known Member

    Dec 10, 2009
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    #1 Bmamba, Dec 10, 2009
    Last edited: Dec 10, 2009
    Iron Fist Boxing : The Making of
    by vincent black, blackmamba and el chupacabra ([email protected])


    We been working on our game ironfist boxing for over a year now, lot of the feedback we got was about the look of the character, the following is a quick overview of our creating process


    Conception


    First, we talk about what kind of character we would like to have in the game and what would be his features... like his name, origins, his fighting style and overall design. We also write down a basic background story for him. At this stage no artwork is really needed and it doesn't take too long untill we all agree on him.

    Once we are okay with the character identity, the creation process can start.
    [​IMG][​IMG][​IMG]


    Modelling a character



    Most of our character are modeled in 3dsMAX, it's one of the software most widely used by video games companies. It's quite an expenssive licence, but we are able to create everything we need with it.
    The body and face is modeled upon the nature of the fighter, for instance we'll make him a good looking face if he's rather a good guy. The overall shape of the body should also reflect his age and origin.
    The overall design of the characters is meant to be easily recognizable and to have a lot of charisma. These are the trademark of IronFist's models.
    If you are interested in learning 3d modeling, there's a free alternative: blender 3d (http://www.blender.org/).
    There is a range of software that may retain your attention : maya, zbrush,muddbox,soft image...

    Our engine allow each character to have around 2000 triangles. It takes around 8 hours to get an ironfist model done from scratch.

    [​IMG]


    Unwrap and texturing



    Once we are happy with the shape of the model. It's time to unwrap it so we can create his textures. This could be done with 3dsMAX, but other software like uvlayout or unfold3d can do the job much quicker.
    This is when we draw all the details of his body, face, muscles and outfit. the best way to do this is to use software that allow user to directly draw the texture on the surface of the 3d object such as zbrush or bodypaint3d

    [​IMG][​IMG]

    when the texture is drawn we have a wide range of effect we can apply to the skin of the character such as fresnel, specular effect, bump or normal mapping, etc... It allows even more volume and detail, specially when the character is in motion since these effects interact with the lights.


    Skinning and rigging



    The rigging is the process of creating the structure of bones that will help to animate the characters. It's like a skeleton inside the model that you can manipulate. That is what you use to animate the character. The skinning is when you link the model to the skeleton and make it able to bend according the bones position. It's the most complex and somehow boring part of the whole process. But it's also one of the most important.

    [​IMG]


    Animations


    The animation process takes also place in 3dsMax. A whole set of moves (attacks, blocking, hittings) is created based upon a specific martial art. There are 6 different style of fighting in IronFist and we had to make sure that each one of them has distinguishable moves.
    Also a set of signature moves have been created for the Super attacks, they are unusal but powerful moves the player can perform. Each Fighter has his own set of 2 Supers no other fighter has.

    [​IMG]


    Facial animation



    We now have a character almost ready to be add to the roster...however his face is pretty static. So we need to create what we call facial morph target. It's a variety of basic expression (smile, scared, rage, pain, and more) created in order to make the character even more alive.
    During the fight the AI will display expressions according to some events such as the current health, if the character is hit, if he's winning or losing.
    The AI is also able to mix those morph target to create even more expressions during the fight. for exemple mixing rage with smile ...will create a psycho crazy look.

    [​IMG]


    Beyond iron fist boxing



    We started to work on ironfist just over a year ago. At that time the iphone 3gs was not release. When it came out we tried our best to use ability of the device. However due to the way we originally build the asset did not really fit the requierement of the 3gs. If we where to rebuild everything for scratch with the architecture of the 3gs in mind we could achieve something much better...our futures game will most definetly take the 3gs in consideration ...The future is bright for iphone gamers...

    [​IMG][​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Iron Fist Boxing 3 Prestige edition has just been released on the App Store. You can get it from this link:

    http://linktoapp.com/iron%20fist%20boxing/

    You can also check the game running at this YouTube(tm) video from this link:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73FyKVgYiZI

    Add official game thread link:
    http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=36577
     
  2. DASH

    DASH Active Member

    Wow, impressive!
    But, outch - isn't 2000 polygons per character too much? o_O
    What fps do you get on actual device?
     
  3. Bmamba

    Bmamba Well-Known Member

    Dec 10, 2009
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    Canada

    The game run at 20/30fps on ipod and iphone and close to 50fps on 3gs

    apple mobiles devices can actually draw quite a few polygon if you use it properly...for exemple you need to limite the amount of drawcall. that will boost up you re performence quite a lot...
     
  4. BlueEagle44

    BlueEagle44 Member

    Dec 10, 2009
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    Just signed up to say a very interesting read :) very useful for future reference and for someone who's learning 3dsmax and zbrush as well as doing a computer game's design course. Thanks for taking the time to write this out and best of luck :).
     
  5. c0re

    c0re Well-Known Member

    Apr 15, 2009
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    Your texture work is awesome ... Congrats !
     
  6. BlueEagle44

    BlueEagle44 Member

    Dec 10, 2009
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    I agree, one bit i forgot to mention :( unwrapping will be the death of me lol, but I'm sure I'll get used to it.
     
  7. Bmamba

    Bmamba Well-Known Member

    Dec 10, 2009
    232
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    Game dev
    Canada
    Ahahah.
    Yeah, unwrapping can be a pain in 3ds max. Even for experienced modeler
    I ll suggest you try alternative software such as unfold3d

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZz83mb9Mu8 <- check it out...
     
  8. c0re

    c0re Well-Known Member

    Apr 15, 2009
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    So true .. I once tried to model + unwrap a human in 3DS ... Was the worst days of my dev life xD

    I'm using Cinema 4D since Jan 09, and jeez .. It is 10 times more intuitive !
     
  9. GlennX

    GlennX Well-Known Member

    May 10, 2009
    761
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    UK
    Not for a boxing game when there are only a few characters on screen. The standard iPhone can manage 20,000 or so at 30FPS if you keep the draw calls and state changes to a minimum.

    Ground Effect's Level select screen (admittedly a slightly contrived case) draws over 28,000 at 30 FPS on a 2g iPod.
     
  10. ktfright

    ktfright Well-Known Member

    Dec 18, 2008
    587
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    Student,Rapper,Game Dev.
    Hawthorne,California
    this is good stuff. nice work!
     

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