Topic: Tutorials - How to Create a 3D Real-Time Character. (updated 23/07/09) (Read 52255 times)

Jyujinkai · « **on:** February 26, 2008, 07:31:41 AM »

Tutorial 03 - Stream
Tutorial 04 - Stream
Tutorial 05

Part 1 - Introduction
- Stream (full version)
  - Stream Part 1
  - Stream Part 2
Part 2 - Rigging with Character Studio
- Full Version - Stream
Part 3 - Rigging with Character Studio
- Full Version - Stream - Not posted yet

01 - Creating Symmetrical Design Plates

This tutorial talks about how to prepare your design documents for use in your 3D app of choice as Design Plates. (images used to model off).

How to ensure your design is Symmetrical to aid in Symmetrical Modelling
How to ensure your front / side views are aligned to each other.
How to ensure you Symmetrical Drawing aligns to your Zero World space in your 3D application

02 - Modelling your Character off your Design Plates

This tutorial will discuss the modelling process to build your model off your design plates. Rather than simply record my making of a model, I decided to try and discuss conceptual ideas of model creation. With luck i hope to have introduced novice modellers to procedures and techniques that will enable you to build a 3D model that is easy to set up for animation and game content.

This tutorial will discuss

Symmetrical Modelling - To speed up the modelling process / Aid in the easy creation of a UV Layout
Choice of Polygons - Do i use Tris or Quads, or polygons with more than 4 sides?
Joints Setups - How to make a joint that will be easy to skin and produce decent deformation
Use of the Model T-Pose - A discussion of what pose to model your toon in to aid skinning and produce decent deformation
Easy way to build mouths and eye blink topology

NOTE:- This tutorial is a little long due to modeling being a large topic. Still I feel I have included some good information here, even though I got real board towards the end and the ending is a little rushed. I may need to redo the end of this but I will wait to see comments (if anyone watches it lol)

03 - Building Symmetrical UV Layouts

This tutorial is about how to do a more advanced UV layout to achieve two things. 1) create a uvlayout that can be easily read and thus painted on in a 2D packadge, and 2) Arrangment of UV layout so you use the space of your bitmap to full effect.

04 - Texturing
This tutorial is in a way an extension of the first.. it outlines some methods of workflow for painting your textures as well as how to streamline your UV layout during the texture process as you find small things you need to tweak.

Have fun.. hope you like it

05 - Rigging

This topic is pretty large so I am doing it in a few sections.

Part 1 - Introduction + WME Setup.

This is a introduction to rigging in general. You can if you wish skip this tutorial completely. It just focus on some very general stuff about 3DsMax and WME pipeline procedures.
How to Zero out your model (yes again.. but it is so important)
Installing and How to use the Panda Export Plugin for 3dsMax
Setting up a "Test" WME project to view your model in the game engine.
Fixing some common errors in viewing your models in WME
Getting your mesh perfectly setup and ready to start Rigging and Skinning

Part 2 - Rigging With Biped

How to Setup CS Studio
What is CS
How dose CS Work
How dose the body deform in the real-world
How to correctly align your biped to your model data.

Part 3 - Vertex Weighting with Skin

What is Skin and How dose it work?
How to adjust envelopes.
How to use mirror mode on a zero'd out model.
How to use ABS Weighting
How to use paint Weights.
Rar file contains a animation Bip of a deformation stress test

Well that is it I will update this page as needed and I hope you guys like it. I would appreciate any comments and constructive criticism.

Be excellent to each other and Party on Dudes
--Jyujinkai[/list]

metamorphium · « **Reply #1 on:** February 26, 2008, 08:37:46 AM »

Thank you very much Jyujinkai. Downloading now.

nuclear_winter · « **Reply #2 on:** February 26, 2008, 11:06:25 AM »

You use SILO!!!! Thats my favourite modeller as well!
Great tutorials man!
Keep em coming!

PS: can you try using silo2 for the UVmapping tut as well, i know the unwrapping module is a little buggy at the moment, but its good enough for a game character

Stucki · « **Reply #3 on:** February 27, 2008, 11:09:01 AM »

Great Tutorials !!
thanks very much for taking the time and the effort !
cant wait to see the other ones coming ....

stucki

mylesblasonato · « **Reply #4 on:** February 28, 2008, 02:05:10 PM »

Thanks man great work, i was thinking about doing a tutorial like this as well. Great tutorials, keep em coming.

Cheers

Myles Blasonato.

Jyujinkai · « **Reply #5 on:** March 02, 2008, 08:16:18 PM »

updated with the 3rd tutorial.... uvlayouts.

Maxim · « **Reply #6 on:** March 02, 2008, 10:07:37 PM »

GREAT JOB! I've already worked out first 2 parts and now I am to study 3d one. Thank you.

SoundGuy · « **Reply #7 on:** March 04, 2008, 04:42:44 PM »

I'm having a hard time downloading from FileFront.

Quote

There was an error processing your request; it appears to be invalid or there was an error with your conection. Please wait while your request is retried...

If you need further help with a download, please contact FileFront support.

can you host them in dead-code, mnemonic ?

Jyujinkai · « **Reply #8 on:** March 04, 2008, 04:47:33 PM »

Quote from: SoundGuy on March 04, 2008, 04:42:44 PM

I'm having a hard time downloading from FileFront.
Quote
There was an error processing your request; it appears to be invalid or there was an error with your conection. Please wait while your request is retried...

If you need further help with a download, please contact FileFront support.

can you host them in dead-code, mnemonic ?

Just leave your window open for a while and it should start ... you may need to go for a coffee

Mnemonic · « **Reply #9 on:** March 04, 2008, 04:51:43 PM »

Quote from: SoundGuy on March 04, 2008, 04:42:44 PM

can you host them in dead-code, mnemonic ?

I'd love to, but unfotunately my webspace is quite limited...

Jyujinkai · « **Reply #10 on:** March 06, 2008, 01:34:27 AM »

updated with the 4th tutorial - texturing.

I got a big work project coming though so this will be the last update for a bit.. i will get back on these as soon as i can.

imagetag · « **Reply #11 on:** March 16, 2008, 11:16:13 AM »

If you like, I could offer a mirror for these tutorials.

Jyujinkai · « **Reply #12 on:** March 17, 2008, 12:34:17 PM »

added a new section with Voeh Video Streams so you can watch online... voeh also allows you to download the full versions if you are having a problem with filefront

Streaming Video Versions

Tutorial 01 - Stream
Tutorial 02 - Stream
Tutorial 03 - Stream
Tutorial 04 - Stream

I'll be doing this with all the new ones as i get around to it... still crazy busy at work.. but i should get some time soon to finish this up.

Jyujinkai · « **Reply #13 on:** March 17, 2008, 10:08:08 PM »

ther is some problems with tutorial 2 - stream.... I will fix this shortly

Jyujinkai · « **Reply #14 on:** March 18, 2008, 04:44:33 AM »

Ok turns out that you can only webstream 20min at a time..... so here are the new links

Tutorial 02 - Full version

AceDeuce · « **Reply #15 on:** April 28, 2008, 03:57:13 PM »

great stuff!

really helpful, plese keep it coming

Jyujinkai · « **Reply #16 on:** May 09, 2008, 02:58:50 AM »

For some reason all the links to the hi rez versions of the tutorials got broken... no idea why... I have fixed them.. so you should now be able to download them again... sorry about that.

I have not forgotten about this tutorial series.. i will get to it again as soon as i have time.

Baron · « **Reply #17 on:** May 09, 2008, 02:24:42 PM »

thanks for the time and effort it is much appreciated.

Jyujinkai · « **Reply #18 on:** May 17, 2008, 01:30:39 PM »

Update

05 - Rigging

This topic is pretty large so I am doing it in a few sections. This is a introduction to rigging in general. You can if you wish skip this tutorial completely. It just focus on some very general stuff about 3DsMax and WME pipeline procedures.

Part 1 - Introduction + WME Setup.

How to Zero out your model (yes again.. but it is so important)
Installing and How to use the Panda Export Plugin for 3dsMax
Setting up a "Test" WME project to view your model in the game engine.
Fixing some common errors in viewing your models in WME
Getting your mesh perfectly setup and ready to start Rigging and Skinning

Download:- 5.of.8_3DtoonWME_Tut_part1.rar - 100 Meg

Video Streams

Full Version - Stream
- Stream Part 1
- Stream Part 2

The rest of this tutorial will be posted shortly... mabey tomorrow i would say. The next part will get into the real topic of rigging.

Jyujinkai · « **Reply #19 on:** May 21, 2008, 12:41:40 AM »

Update

05 - Rigging

This topic is pretty large so I am doing it in a few sections.

Part 2 - Rigging With Biped

How to Setup CS Studio
What is CS
How dose CS Work
How dose the body deform in the real-world
How to correctly align your biped to your model data.

Download:- 5.of.8_3DtoonWME_Tut_part2.rar - 176 Meg

Video Streams

Full Version - Stream

The rest of this tutorial will be posted shortly...

I am sorry for the length of this one.... but i am real short on time and I wasn't able to work on editing it in a fancy way with speedups and a 2nd voice over track... to ge the lenngth down. I know it is long but stick with it it has a lot of good information.

SoundGuy · « **Reply #20 on:** June 02, 2008, 06:07:36 PM »

still waiting on part 3 to be available for d/l

chrisras · « **Reply #21 on:** June 05, 2008, 10:47:51 PM »

It's the really the best tutorials for building game characters, I found on the net!

I make an adventure game in the wintermute engine for my final work in my studies,
and your tutorials are such a great help!

Looking foward to the next step!
Thank You for making such a great job!!!

Jyujinkai · « **Reply #22 on:** July 15, 2008, 02:28:55 AM »

Update

05 - Rigging

This topic is pretty large so I am doing it in a few sections.

Part 3 - Vertex Weighting with Skin

What is Skin and How dose it work?
How to adjust envelopes.
How to use mirror mode on a zero'd out model.
How to use ABS Weighting
How to use paint Weights.
Rar file contains a animation Bip of a deformation stress test

Download:- 5.of.8_3DtoonWME_Tut_part3.rar - 196 Meg

Video Streams
not yet available.

Yea i know it has taken me ages to get around to this but hey... I am busy

Still this tutorial has all the info you will need to make a working skin. As this (like all my tutorials) seam to go to long I do not completely finish the skin itself in this tutorial. Still it has all the information on skin and i leave it at a state where all there needs to be done is tweaking using already discussed techniques. VERY shortly I will release a amendment to this tutorial witch will contain the sped up completion of the skinning and the final testing in WME.

Hope this helps. This really completes the tutorial series. I will also release the final sections soon with are about animation layup and final WME utilisation. Still by the end of this tutorial you should be able to make a 100% working 3D Studio Max real-time character for animation. Have fun making your resources and check back for updates to this thread.

Thanks to everyone that has sent me emails and pms about this tutorial series i really appreciate it. Makes me feel good. So if you like this please say hi in the thread or something. I get a kick out of it.

Be excellent to each other and party on dudes.[/list]

Jyujinkai · « **Reply #23 on:** July 15, 2008, 02:38:29 AM »

hmm tut 03 link is dead.. i need a new place to host these

anyway i have fixed the link

Jyujinkai · « **Reply #24 on:** July 16, 2008, 10:37:50 AM »

Stream Part 1
Stream Part 2
Stream Part 3

Added the realtime streams for the new tutorial

yazui · « **Reply #25 on:** July 21, 2008, 02:17:50 AM »

Jyujinkai , thanks to videos

but, i don't have the video 04 - Texturing.

What link used to 04 - Texturing?
i need make download.

ttttthanks

design3d · « **Reply #26 on:** July 30, 2008, 08:38:59 AM »

Quote from: yazui on July 21, 2008, 02:17:50 AM

What link used to 04 - Texturing?
i need make download.

I have found it here.

BTW thank You, Jyujinkai. Great tutorials!

Jyujinkai · « **Reply #27 on:** July 30, 2008, 01:43:16 PM »

are the links in the 1st page of this thread not working?

design3d · « **Reply #28 on:** July 31, 2008, 07:02:09 AM »

Quote from: Jyujinkai on July 30, 2008, 01:43:16 PM

are the links in the 1st page of this thread not working?

Link for downloadable version of 4-th lesson looks as copy for 3-rd one.

Jyujinkai · « **Reply #29 on:** August 03, 2008, 02:48:50 AM »

ahh... ok thanks .. updated the links in teh original thread... sorry about that

Also updated the mirror of this thread on the wiki

How to create a 3D Real-time charicter for the game engine wintermute @ Dead-Code Wiki

Baron · « **Reply #30 on:** January 20, 2009, 04:54:18 PM »

Thanks for the tutorials, the Biped Is helping me a lot, I havent used max in ages!

Chris · « **Reply #31 on:** February 07, 2009, 11:41:43 PM »

Exporting plese

very useful

tanks a lot

Jyujinkai · « **Reply #32 on:** February 08, 2009, 12:39:14 AM »

Quote from: abcdamir on February 07, 2009, 11:41:43 PM

Exporting plese

very useful

tanks a lot

??I do not know what you are asking me... the 1st part of the rigging tutorial gose though exporting.

Jyujinkai · « **Reply #33 on:** July 22, 2009, 05:08:29 PM »

Creatyfus · « **Reply #34 on:** January 07, 2010, 12:14:53 AM »

Quote from: Jyujinkai on July 15, 2008, 02:28:55 AM

Part 3 - Vertex Weighting with Skin
What is Skin and How dose it work?
How to adjust envelopes.
How to use mirror mode on a zero'd out model.
How to use ABS Weighting
How to use paint Weights.
Rar file contains a animation Bip of a deformation stress test

Download:- 5.of.8_3DtoonWME_Tut_part3.rar - 196 Meg

Hi, i found your tutorials on youtube and they are helping me out a lot!
But i'm trying to download the file from Filefront, but the link seems to be dead... (tried alot of times now)
Could you please reupload or send me the .bip file used in Part 3 of the skinning section? ("SkinTestAim.bip")
It would really help me out...

A million thanks in advance!

Jyujinkai · « **Reply #35 on:** January 13, 2010, 11:27:26 PM »

The FileFront Links are LONG LONG dead... in fact I should fix this post to remove them..... As for the included files that were originally in those rars like the biped test animation and the UVmap test image.... well I'll have to see if I can find them... they are about here somewhere... .. .

<---- Edit

I have removed the FileFront Links in the original post of this thread
Updated all the links on the wiki
- How to Create a 3D Real-Time Character @ wme wiki

News:

Author Topic: Tutorials - How to Create a 3D Real-Time Character. (updated 23/07/09) (Read 52255 times)