[...]... He is a regular speaker at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose, CA and serves as an Advisory Board member for Game Developer magazine Paul Steed lives and works in the Seattle area and can be reached at st33d@nak3d.com XIX Animating Real -Time Game Characters A great real -time game character can be measured by the success of five elements: the character's design, the model built on that design,... successfully fits whatever genre the game is being placed under, whether FIGURE 1.2 Some character designs need to differ while maintaining common design elements Animating Real -Time Game Characters that is sci-fi, fantasy, or Western Finally, the polygon count of a character impacts its design, although this is also an important technical consideration Because of real -time characters' polygonal nature,... the real -time character The difference that 1,000, 2,000, and 5,000 triangles make in a character's design is huge, but ultimately a good artist will accomplish plenty with whatever budget is handed to them Games played on the new consoles like Xbox™ and PlayStation 2™ are seeing characters that have up to (and sometimes more than) 5,000 polygons However, main characters seen in PC-based real -time games... original first half In addition to saving time and effort during the building process, this technique also saves time and effort in the 14 Animating Real -Time Game Characters texturing process as well (more on texturing later) By creating a reference when mirroring a copy of the geometry you're working on, you can effectively build both halves at the same time using a reference of the half A reference... result 7 8 Animating Real -Time Game Characters MODELING: FORM Great character animation relies on the foundation of a well-built model that adheres to and successfully translates a well thought-out design into 3D The most important aspect of a model in this regard is its form Suggesting mass and identity, form is defined by the proper distribution of vertices, edges, and faces A great real -time character... Sometimes the background image needs a little jumpstart to show up sure the Start New Shape box is unchecked, so you don't end up with a bunch of separate lines (Figure 1.11) FIGURE 1.11 Uncheck the Start New Shape box to avoid the step of attaching the lines together later Don't worry about the complexity of the line as you create it, since it will only be used as reference 12 Animating Real -Time Game. .. computer games for companies like Origin Systems and id Software Author of Modeling A Character In Max, Steed is best known for his work on the best-selling Wing Commander and Quake series Currently, he runs his own contracting firm making real -time games and demos for companies like Sony Pictures Digital and WildTangent, that can be downloaded over the Internet He is a regular speaker at the Game Developers... modeling real -time game characters, polygon modeling is usually the best approach Patch modeling is particularly useful when creating organic or soft-surface geometry like hair, cloth, or an undulating surface like water Other modeling methods, such as non-uniform rational B-splines (NURBs) and sub-divided surfaces, are valid and valuable tools but are more appropriate for rendered characters than real -time. .. clicking on Viewport Background (or just hit Alt-B) Load your reference in by clicking on the Files button at the top of the Viewport Background menu and finding the appropriate image file Once 10 Animating Real -Time Game Characters the file is loaded, make sure the Match Bitmap, Display Background, and Lock Zoom/Pan boxes are all checked (Figure 1.9) FIGURE 1.9 Bringing an image into the viewport background... here, so bear with me As a video game "enthusiast," let me be the first to admit that there are a ton of gamers (read addicts) working in the comic book business and they have been following with great interest the incredible technological advances the video game industry has made in recent years And, yes, that's how I justify (read rationalize) playing hours of computer games Research, ya know! All the . Paul. Animating real -time game characters / Paul Steed. p. cm. ISBN 1-58450-270-3 (paperback with CD-ROM : alk. paper) 1. Computer animation. 2. Computer games—Design. 3. Videogame characters. 4. Real -time. many to consider. My intent in writing Animating Real -Time Game Characters has been to share my work methods, thoughts, and ideas about animating real -time characters in 3ds max 4™ and character. member for Game Developer magazine. Paul Steed lives and works in the Seattle area and can be reached at st33d@nak3d.com. XIX