Need help - Game character pipeline

#1

Hi, I’m new to the forum and to most of the 3D art environment.
I came here to ask a simple but frustrating question: what is the correct workflow for creating a videogame character?

I’m trying to make a simple videogame but I’m more of a programming guy so I don’t see myself looking for a job in the CG art industry. However I’m really interested in character modeling and animation and I would like to know the steps you’d go through for creating one from scratch (what’s your pipeline, what programs do you use…).

I know the question has been asked a bunch of times already but I didn’t find the detailed information I was hoping for. The fact is that I googled for the last two weeks and I feel overwhelmed by the variety of articles, tutorials and other resources, which focus on a particular aspect and forget to provide a global overview. Also I don’t seem to be able to find anything useful about game development specifically.

So far I’ve sculpted a high poly model of a little dragon, which is my very first approach to Zbrush. As far as I know it has two problems: bad topology and… bad topology :slight_smile: :

  • it contains triangles, and I don’t how to and if I can get rid of them (started with ZSpheres)
  • it shows artifacts where the polys are stretched (in HD Geometry mode it looks just fine though)
    Although I don’t mind re-doing it again, it would be nice to try recovering it…

I feel like I have a million questions to ask you. Thanks for your help and your time, and sorry for my bad english.

#2

Well, if you’re going to want to animate your model you probably don’t want to start in ZB, unless you’re going to retopologize in Maya or whatever. And its for the reason you already stated, bad topology.

I know some will simply use ZRemesher and call it done but I’m not so sure it will give you exactly what you need.

You could simply export your low subdivision obj into Maya, Max whatever, make your topology adjustments and then project your details back on in ZB. But it will have artifacts depending on how much you changed so you’ll have to fix them in ZB as well.

Or, depending on how much topology needs to be changed, you could use that same obj in Maya and recreate the model using that obj as a reference model. I’ve seen it done both ways and I think it comes down to personal preference as long as you end up with a clean mesh thats good for animation.

Personally, I wouldn’t start in ZB unless you’re strictly doing concept work only.

As far as workflow, its generally:

Base Mesh
Sculpt
Texture
Rig
etc.

But again, personal preference comes into play and it may still change depending on adjustments and changes that need to be made.

#3

Thank you ArsMod, I’ll follow your advice.

But wouldn’t I need to retopo my high-poly model to a low-poly, game-ready version in any case? I doubt the starting base mesh would be fine for animation purposes… Also somtehing might change during sculpting, so I would need to build a different low-poly model to match the new details.

Sorry for the probably trivial question, I really need to understand this part of the process… :banghead:

#4

bump

Anyone else who wants to share their pipeline?

#5

-Block in base mesh in 3d studio max (this base mesh will not be reused for game mesh)
-Import base mesh in Zbrush and sculpt
-Decimate sculpt and import into 3d max for retopo of the game mesh
-Unwrap game mesh
-Bake maps
-Texture in photoshop / bodypaint 3d
-Rig

#6

Thanks for sharing, Psyk0!