characters design & lowPoly

I progressed with the level layout of this particular map:
http://renderhjs.net/bbs/polycount/c...rogress_05.jpg
I added plants, mushrooms a big statue and some wooden details. I am not yet satisfied with the overal detail amount so propably next will be to define the static camera positions and based on those add more details to the areas those cameras can see.
The pink path indicates the walkable area- so to say the collision vectors for the pathfinding later- so the character automaticly avoids obstacles, curves, ect..

That statue is cool - has a real central american feel to it which I like :) You make this stuff look so easy and fun! The whole reason I love video game authoring is that whole constructive aspect where you get to create your own little world. You really excel at translating the vision in your head into real pieces of content.

All of that stage is going to be playable!
This game is going to be sick.
How is the camera going to move, Resident Evil style?

dough.

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Originally Posted by Never_land:(

All of that stage is going to be playable!
This game is going to be sick.
How is the camera going to move, Resident Evil style?
dough.

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first off static,- just like the first 3 resident evil games or the final fantasy 7 game- so the camera switches once you leave the camera area.
I thought about using panoramas or animations (turning cameras) with equasions in flash to control their position or frames of the animation depending on how I want to focus the camera but that´s future stuff.

I need a lot details because in some cases the camera might be pretty close

Great stuff, isn't this a university project? Is anyone else on your team doing anything? LOL.

"turning cameras) with equasions in flash to control their position or frames of the animation depending on how I want to focus the camera but that´s future stuff."
(tree scenario)http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/i...renderidea.jpg
I saw this camera scrolling in a ps1 game, I don't remember the name.
good luck.

PS. The first three resident evils rocked but the 4th was the best, I'm looking forward for the 5th, too bad I am a Wii owner, now I need a ps3 or Xbox360 (damn capcom)

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Originally Posted by Alluvian

Great stuff, isn't this a university project? Is anyone else on your team doing anything? LOL.

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they did but less as I did so far. It seems that I am faster with 3d as they are. But the other guy started already with the inside building and its rooms- I hope to see some progress of that too ;)
The girl in our team started with some concept drawings for the characters (so that´s not my drawing):
http://renderhjs.net/bbs/polycount/c...troduction.jpg,- quite the opposite of what I did with my anime alike character- w´ll see what turns out later.

@Never_land:( that would be than an animation just like quicktime VR does- although they claim its something different. In the end you have like 360 frames stored and just gotoAndStop to the frame the camera currently looks at.
But that idea could be transported far more complex- like a moving camera towards or away from targets- like a chasing scene.
Alternativly I could render loops of animations for things like beeing on moving items like trains and having the background move in a direction. But that´s all not my first goal- I´ll try that if I might have some free time towards the time goal,- wich is like in 3 months- so the whole thing will be more like a concept to show how something like a adventure game could be produced inside flash.

back on my part:
added a few details and some camera setups for the game (draft renderings):
http://renderhjs.net/bbs/polycount/c...rogress_06.jpg

a overview of all that:
http://renderhjs.net/bbs/polycount/c...rogress_09.jpg
next are textures and unwrapping of the geometry

wanted to drop in and say something here because i recently moan so much about various 3D stuff made in flash:
i think you´re doing a great job and wisely doing one of the ways of 3D and fake3D/prerendered combination that actualy makes sense to do in flash, always a joy to see updates of it :)
Too bad you´re not into working on a full game with others cause otherwise i´d bring you into our team to make a 3D game together :D

@tomsamson: I am in a different position as you are. My projects are not meant for commercial purposes they are for my portfolio and for what comes after my university (e.g job application). I dont have that much time for a project as propably you have because of my busy timetable here at the university.

But I developed already some important stuff to me that will come in handy with commercial jobs some things like the camera mapping approaches to mix interactive and changeable stuff in flash with pre- rendered animations or images (I bet there are a lot of agencies who´d like to play with that).
But who knows I thought perhaps using this project in my finals to add some xtra stuff I dont have the time now for - and to make it more round.

What most (not all) others release here at FK are mini games with mini content, if I could pick I would of course rather go for the big project but that´s sadly very uncommon in the flash industry. Not seeing square-enix, sega or other famous games creators I like to switch to flash anytime soon. Perhaps this project can create a bridge ;)

render: Is it your goal to be working with flash professionally? I mean would you like to work at a web agency or are you aiming toward the gaming industry in general?
I'm not offering you a job or anything :D I'm just curious since I think about these things myself a lot

render: haha, its funny you say an university student has less free time than me :)
Don´t want to talk down your schedule, workload and dedication, we all see how much effort you put into your stuff but yeah, you´d reconsider your statement if you knew how many hours i usually work per day ;)
Also once one has to earn income its more difficult to get back to the state of beeing able to totally freely pick what to do next.

I´m sure some of the stuff you do could techwise be quite interesting to many agencies, yes, personally i´m less into doing realtime 3D in flash as you know so my statement was more based on seeing your dedication and creative skill,not so much the engine behind the stuff :)

And yes, i´d prefer working on bigger scale projects with more creative freedom,too, again i think this is easier as long as you´re a pupil/student, once you have to earn money constantly it can take a while to get into a position where you can just do something you personally want to do for 3-6 months.

@Kianis: Flash itself was never a goal for me- my aim was always more towards multiple key-qualification skills. Aiming just for a pure Flash position would be the most boring thing imo.

@tomsamson: might take it back,- just wanted to point out that even though this is university related I still dont have much time for it.


started with unwrapping and texturing:
http://renderhjs.net/bbs/polycount/c...rogress_40.jpg
with some textures I am already quite happy, the rocks need some improvements though. I wrote a maxscript that replaced fixed UV poly´s with unfixed poly instances- wich speeds up the workflow so I unwrap 1 mesh and apply it to all instances afterwards.
I used a new texture resource this time http://www.cgtextures.com/ wich I can recomend anyone working with 3d.

some previous camera angles:
http://renderhjs.net/bbs/polycount/c...rogress_38.jpg

looks realllllly nice bro. dont really know what else to say... looks nice

Working commercial for so many years would probably make my passions on focused art fade. You better do other things with your talent Render; stand alone creativity is interesting when it does not involve corporation. I feel sure that at least you have things you would like to do in the future.

Keep up the great work.

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Originally Posted by renderhjs

I am in a different position as you are. My projects are not meant for commercial purposes they are for my portfolio and for what comes after my university (e.g job application).

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IMHO you need to start working as a freelancer and not as an office plankton ;)
You have a good graphics skills together with strong programming background (rare mix today) and as a result of this I think you can be capable to make small projects for the Ad agencies with much more money then in case when you'll be working in the office. Your portfolio even now looks great and don't need any further improvements, just keep it updated with the last work and you'll be ok.

Great modeling there. About the panorama idea for camera panning, my plan was to attach parts of a 3d render to polygons making a box in flash similar to a sky box but it doesn't work very well with affine texturing.
I'm sure I seen a successful panorama made in Papervision somewhere and would like to check it again for distortions.
As for 3d, I made a realtime 3d floor, but have gone back to pseudo for now as the renders look better (even with smoothing on bitmap fills). I've sacrificed the realtime 3d for the clearer light/shadows smoother look of a render :)

almost finished all textures and unwrapping tasks for this level:
http://www.renderhjs.net/bbs/polycou..._colors_01.jpg
the glow stuff was done in MentalRay (renderer in 3dsmax) with a hidden shader called lume- and glare effect, so no photoshop there. A good tutorial on the net explains how to unlock and use it.
I decided to go for a brick texture on the statue simply to make it more interesting by having even more details (looks more complex this way). The rocks around it are just 2 rock instances wich I copied a few times and scaled/rotated them slightly- works pretty well.
http://www.renderhjs.net/bbs/polycou..._colors_02.jpg

some little detail, the telescope:
http://www.renderhjs.net/bbs/polycou..._colors_04.jpg
the telescope has a dirt texture that was computed in a similar way as ambient occlusion is done by generating a convex/concarve map. It gives the object a little bit more depth/ contrast and dirt look on the texture.

there is now also a somewhat stable logo for the project
http://www.renderhjs.net/bbs/polycou...rogression.jpg
(the pic shows actually a progression of it)

Obviously you don't need me to tell you this, but that looks amazing. To be honest I've done very little actual 3d work, so I'm not even aware of what goes in to making something like this. But, it looks good, that's what I can say for sure.

Astonishing! Very solid and professional look. I like the renderer you used, it give a some kind of depth which IMO can be seen in the movies. Deep black colors and mysterious games of light and dark areas. The logo fits perfect the atmosphere and continues with the same look and feel. The only one question left is where and when we'll see the final product?
;)

Hey Render, just a suggestion. Have you tried placing an internal shade or a inner shadow in the text for your logo? Just a thought; since this is about light and darkness sort of.

i wasn't going to say anything because i don't have anything positive to add that hasn't been said already (it looks fantastic).

but! there's something that bugs me about the statue. there's no edge to it. it reminds me of the design of the lego star wars games. i think making its face quite a bit meaner perhaps could have a positive impact. again, i only mention it because everything looks so good and i want it to be just that little bit better!

Jesus thats amazing!
You are seriously gifted.

Looking like good stuff as usual Render. However I am compelled to ask, if you have the free time to model these things, why not wrap up Tank Move?

tank move was a smal side project for the uni-to be excact for my psychology housework. This is a main project meaning I get automaticly more time reserved for it.
so no more tank move dsicussions here :p

instead another female character model: the mother:
http://www.renderhjs.net/bbs/polycou...r_progress.jpg
I am not yet pleased with the texture because its little bit boring around her belly and some more xtra details might be nice (like the hairs and her neck).

At first I worked on this sketch but then I noticed that she looks so different from my first character so I played a little bit with her. Changed the eye- style,- gave her a little bit more volume in the head.

Looking good. Maybe you should edit the font abit. Looks like it says AN EBIC ADVENTURE

looks good. i still think it needs a little shading to give it some roundness. it looks a little flat right now

more details and shading:
http://renderhjs.net/bbs/polycount/c...re_mother2.jpg

since I finally can use animations in my engine I made this walkcycle test - to be tested soon in my engine:
http://www.renderhjs.net/bbs/polycou..._cycle_ani.gif
some animator at a different forum said that having such a few polygons around the arms might be a problem - but I think it still works pretty well wich is a relief for me right now- as I thought there might be some problems there as well.

Very, VERY nice work, render. :)

Loving that little hip sway. Nice nice motion. Great engine... you've even got me inspired enough to have been rendering in 3dmax so keep up great work.

awesome walkcycle dude. a small crit if i may;
i don't think the head should move right to left. it looks like she is lookin all aver the place.
the feet fall right in front of each other. like she is walkin on a tight rope.
you may have both of these on purpose because; a) she IS lookin everywhere b) she will walk in some tight spaces. it's just that they look a little odd without an environment.

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Originally Posted by BlinkOk

the feet fall right in front of each other. like she is walkin on a tight rope.

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Actually, I've seen in psychology books and animation books, women's walk cycles being described as "tightrope-walking", caused by evolution. They put one foot out in front of the other, taking small steps so that their legs cross in front of each other, protecting the... (Flash Kit is G-rated, right?)... important bits that lie in-between.

I think the animation looks a bit artificial and also the upper body walks a bit like a body builder. I would probably try tugging the arms in a bit, the shoulders a tiny bit down and pull the thumbs in, to make her look more relaxed.
She is a MILF though :D

well guys I wrote walkcycle test,- you´d be suprised how quickly I crunched together that animation- just as a test animation. Not even sure if the mommy will walk at all,- she´ll rather will do some laundry work or cook in the kitchen- so more static type of animations.
But what I liked already about that test animation is the skirt how it moves even though its very low poly (about 300 triangles now).

The main girl however will have 2 walkcycles (normal & sprint)- I´ll post them of course once I start with them. But since I am yet to code some of the important animation code I´ll start with this mommy walkcycle test first,- to see if it will work with the timing in the engine.

Haha, alright alright :D The skirt really does move well. I think I'm speaking for all when I say you need to stay up all night, so you can show us some more :D

character progress:
http://www.renderhjs.net/bbs/polycou...racters_01.jpg
the girl gets new textures,- the old ones were to boring and to bright. The tall guard is actually done by a friend of me,- the rest is my stuff

Wow man, I love it. Cartoon style textures work really well. Looking forward to the end product. The idea behind the game reminds me of Dreamfall - The longest journey.

This project is awesome! ^_^

You have inspired me to have a go at some 3D for flash too.

Would you mind sharing how you modeled the hands for your low poly character? I can't seem to work out how to do it :(

Thanks, and good luck!

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Originally Posted by renderhjs

some animator at a different forum said that having such a few polygons around the arms might be a problem - but I think it still works pretty well wich is a relief for me right now- as I thought there might be some problems there as well.

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What kind of problem?Seems ok to me, do you care of posting the link to this other forum?

@Incrue: usually for a propper rigged character you need at least 3 or 5 loops round bending elements such as elbows, knees and the neck- without them shapes can collapse esspecially if they dont have much voume like the arms of my characters.
about that other forum,- it´s polycount

still many textures in progress but I wanted to share a larger piece of the characters so far:
http://www.renderhjs.net/bbs/polycou.../family_02.jpg
today I have been working on the textures of the sick sister:
http://www.renderhjs.net/bbs/polycou...ter_web_01.jpg
as you can see all have a absolutely polygon limit of 300 triangles as this is a value I seem to have good results in my engine displaying 2-3 characters animated ot once.