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sycle — RPG squad a go-go

Published: 2004-07-31 08:29:06 +0000 UTC; Views: 4470; Favourites: 34; Downloads: 716
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Description Okay! Please note that this was speed modelled - he was for an SRPG style combat engine (think Shining Force or Advance Wars) that a friend has been coding, and I ended up with a really tight deadline. These are not characters, this is not part of a game idea, but art for a tech demo.

I sketched the concept and then modelled, unwrapped and rigged the model with biped in one afternoon, so I'm not saying this is my best work, just that it's some of my fastest The texture took another evening to finish as did the animation set (an idle, a run, an attack and a 'ain' react) and I made some minor adaptation to the model to make the archer (it might be hard to tell but the archer does have a slimmer build and is wearing gloves, as well as his pointy ears) and changed the animations to suit. (obviously the archer got a new attack anim) I then quickly adapted another two versions of each texture to get the six characters because my friend wanted to demonstrate the concept of three independent forces. (I was thinking the guys in the middle could be town guards caught up in a battle between Team Generic Good and Team Generic Evil)

If I had time I would have really liked to have made a female spellcaster model, but I didn't. It all came down to the wire and the most frustrating part about the whole process ended up being exporting the animation to something my friends engine could use. But it got done, and they worked great, they ran around the board happily and killed each other, so hurrah. I may or may not revisit these meshes, and if I do there's plenty of things I'd tweak.

Note that I've shown them close to fullbright because his engine didn't use shading so my textures took that into account. I went through and gave them poses from their animations that I thought showed some variety. My favourite is the blond archer, although the evil swordsman is a close second

Media used : 3DS MAX 6 for modelling and animating, Photoshop 5.5 for the textures
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Comments: 54

DietHandGrenade [2008-05-19 03:02:22 +0000 UTC]

Lord, I have so many questions I want to ask you right now, none if which you'll probably want to answer. >_>;

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sycle In reply to DietHandGrenade [2008-05-19 23:45:07 +0000 UTC]

Yes. I am generally reluctant to answer peoples unasked questions.

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DietHandGrenade In reply to sycle [2008-05-20 02:24:38 +0000 UTC]

Hah, I figured you wouldn't even reply. >>;
But yeah, I'm starting to get into Low-Poly development, and I have no flipping clue what I'm doing.
I was just going to as if you had any advice for a newbie.

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sycle In reply to DietHandGrenade [2008-05-20 04:55:10 +0000 UTC]

Best advice I can offer is work from reference! I almost always draw out a front and side before I start (taking care to make sure vertical details align) and have it in the 3D scene as I work.

It forces you to spot/solve problems on paper before you begin, since if you have trouble drawing a detail from the two angles then you'll definitely have trouble modeling it. It also lets you concentrate on adding visual flair with the pencil, then concentrate on the technical part when modeling.

The RPG guys were speed modeled and not particularly good, but here's a WIP where you can see the hastily sketched reference - [link] - and here's the modeled/smoothed character with wireframe visible - [link]

(for a better example of the same method check out this - [link] - just keep changing the number from 01 to 08)

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Gannix [2007-09-27 02:46:15 +0000 UTC]

The images no longer work
I was tryna show my friend.

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supahbuttahtoast [2007-05-14 22:00:31 +0000 UTC]

reminds me of little fighter 2 thats wut i thought it wuz on the thumbnail lol!

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Gannix [2006-08-31 01:08:10 +0000 UTC]

optimised as in animated? or reduced manually?
thanks for the reply ;]

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sycle In reply to Gannix [2006-08-31 13:56:27 +0000 UTC]

As in they have more polygons than they need

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Gannix In reply to sycle [2006-09-03 01:59:08 +0000 UTC]

oh ok ;]
you could prob get those to like 700-800 correct?
thats awsome, im starting to work on my 3d models now.

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Gannix [2006-08-25 00:09:43 +0000 UTC]

amazing.. can i ask how many triangles there are?
im modeling for tha psp system, and these are somthin i exactly wanted to make.

Great job.. i wish i could model chibi chara's like you ='(

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sycle In reply to Gannix [2006-08-27 14:44:23 +0000 UTC]

Heya, I just checked and the swordsman is 1178 and the archer is 1224, but neither is optimised

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TwoBlocksShort [2005-03-21 23:43:10 +0000 UTC]

I love this so much, they looks so amazing! If thats a rush job... what would a job where you had plenty of time to work on it look like !

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Usstan-uil-ilythiiri [2004-10-11 19:30:52 +0000 UTC]

Awsome job! I love it, especially the lil' evil drow like man ^_^ I feel the glory.

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marvnation [2004-09-01 21:42:43 +0000 UTC]

i like the textures, the models look great too.

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savann [2004-08-10 07:07:55 +0000 UTC]

very nicely textured. this is kickass work. The style is great. cool stuff man. fav+

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Legume [2004-08-09 03:41:29 +0000 UTC]

makes me wish I had MAX o.o

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Xiahou-rDa [2004-08-06 23:52:54 +0000 UTC]

Man I wish you could make a tutorial on how to make lil' guys like those hehe just the modeling part
+fav

xNATEx

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jimzip [2004-08-03 12:36:02 +0000 UTC]

Oh that is the coolest thing I've seen in a long time..
I would love to have my characters come to life like that, even if it was only a test! To see something I've made walk around or interact with an environment would be awesome, especially if they looked like that, you gave them so much personality!

It's a pity they aren't the characters that the game will use, but they are still really really cool characters and models, I really love them!

What language is your friend using to write the engine? That's some wicked advanced stuff.. I'd love to have those skills.
Anyway great job!! I hope you don't mind if I put this as my background.. What inspiration! Haha.
I also have to +fav it. I don't often like a piece as much as this...
Well done!

Jimzip

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sycle In reply to jimzip [2004-08-27 00:04:44 +0000 UTC]

I think you misunderstand the scope They're just models with a few canned animations (idle, walk, attack, pain) so they're not really 'interacting with the world', and while they look like that in game (minus the ground shadows of course) the image is a render, and shows nothing of my friend's engine. (and while it's a cute little project, the character animation part is actually pretty primitive, it uses Quake 2 style interpolated meshes, but he's investigating skeletal animation) It is kind of cool to see them running around whacking each other with swords though The engine itself is written in C++

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jimzip In reply to sycle [2004-08-27 06:00:50 +0000 UTC]

Haha. Yeah I know, I was just imagining kind of a World of Warcraft thingy to put my own characters in.. Plus I was going solely off your description.. ..
Smacking each other with swords is sill cool!

Jimzip

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FluffyScootabunny [2004-08-01 23:58:06 +0000 UTC]

Man, you are SO FRIGGIN talented! It's been a while, I almost forgot why I had you on my stalker's list These renders are so beautiful, I could just die! I think I will! *dies*

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sycle In reply to FluffyScootabunny [2004-08-02 12:14:41 +0000 UTC]

LOL! Sorry I've been so slack about updating lately

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FluffyScootabunny In reply to sycle [2004-08-03 12:20:30 +0000 UTC]

It's okay ^^ waiting for your art is worth the... uhh... wait!

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kimichan [2004-08-01 04:29:50 +0000 UTC]

They look wicked! So cuuute~~~ Especially since it only took you an afternoon. Are we going to see more of them?

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sycle In reply to kimichan [2004-08-01 05:24:32 +0000 UTC]

Thanks And I only modelled, unwrapped and rigged the original model in one afternoon, finishing off the texture (and variations) and animations were done later (but in an equally chaotic rush)

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kimichan In reply to sycle [2004-08-01 08:12:06 +0000 UTC]

Hehe, you've got the mad skillz ^^

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caducusangelus [2004-08-01 03:19:03 +0000 UTC]

These make me... oddly happy. For being speed-built they're awesome. My only complaint is that the sword ones don't have shoulder armor. ;.;~

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sycle In reply to caducusangelus [2004-08-01 05:22:53 +0000 UTC]

Haha yes, actually I had a shoulder plate in my original sketch, but since it was only going on one shoulder I left it till afterwards and ended up deciding not to bother. I'd definitely give him shoulder armour if I revisited these models though

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leeann [2004-07-31 21:15:20 +0000 UTC]

Whatever you say, this is very professionally done. They're all pretty cute characters, and I like the archer the best. Some of the little touches are awesome too, like the runes on that sword. Keep it up!

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sycle In reply to leeann [2004-08-01 05:19:40 +0000 UTC]

Thanks I was happy with the runes too, although I had a problem putting them on because I had mapped the sword very small because I didn't think I needed to detail, then when I decided "runes would be cool!" I had a hard time crunching them into the space without making them look like a blurry mass. I’m also fond of the green haired guy's headband

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Athey [2004-07-31 20:34:31 +0000 UTC]

I *LOVE* this. Seriously! They're so cute, and it's such an awesome varaiety with practically the same mesh. Really awesome. I'm all tempted to try something like this now. Make a simple model and see how many different texture combinations I can come up with to make them look unique. heh - Anyways, it's really cool. <3

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sycle In reply to Athey [2004-08-01 05:15:40 +0000 UTC]

Thanks! XD And yes there's a lot that can be done with textures, it's kind of cool to think about how totally different you could make a character seem just with a new map. Like Quake 1, where custom skins were just that, replacement textures, but people still managed an entire range of characters from cyborgs to monsters

My little guys aren't a very good example of it however, I was in too much of a hurry, so it's mostly just colour swaps, and a few things changed. What I was planning to do for the evil warrior was to actually paint gold etching detail across his chestplate, and put a gleaming jewel mounted in the middle, to give it a much more ornate look than the original character. Same with edging on the gloves and boots. Plus I wanted to try and make the archers chest armour look like strips of studded leather by painting in the extra separations

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talikira [2004-07-31 19:37:06 +0000 UTC]

Wow, look at them and all their 3Dish glory! xD;;
This ish awesome! I can't do anything 3D! 8D

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SeRHeLL [2004-07-31 17:32:43 +0000 UTC]

very nice!

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Spookeriffic [2004-07-31 16:20:06 +0000 UTC]

OMG these guys are so cuuuuuute! I love them to bits! +fav

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katarthis [2004-07-31 16:18:06 +0000 UTC]

*lol* That's a good concept. Team Generic Good vs. Team Generic Evil. Poor guys caught in the middle.

Team Good stops to do the "Look at my Godly goodness" pose, while Team Evil stops to argue, and the Team of Ho Hum "What are we doing here today do we have to go through this again" mops the floor with them both!

Ha. *lol* Nice work for a quickie.

k

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sycle In reply to katarthis [2004-08-01 04:57:09 +0000 UTC]

well I figured Team Generic Good would be more like your standard RPG heroes than necessarily being holy warriors of light. But I don't know, I think the guards might be undergunned - since the Evil side get all their funky powers to make them evil and the Good side have probably been levelling in the forest for the last three hours

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veloxiraptor [2004-07-31 14:25:28 +0000 UTC]

Well done! This is similar to something I'm going to have to be doing in a few months, except that your designs are neither ugly nor virtually-impossible-to-model-in-a-low-p oly-manner-without-compromising-tremendo us-amounts-of-detail! >_<

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sycle In reply to veloxiraptor [2004-08-01 04:08:57 +0000 UTC]

Thanks! Well hopefully you'll have a little longer to do yours And you'd be surprised how much detail you can put in a low poly character if you're efficient with your poly usage. Just try to keep a constant level of detail overall and don't get hung up on things like modelling the joints to individual fingers and things, unless it's supposed to be a 5,000+ poly model where you might be expected to see things like that

And remember that reference is your friend! Having accurate front and side pictures makes things so much easier, as does being familiar with the geometry of your character

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saruman-23 [2004-07-31 13:35:36 +0000 UTC]

they look great reminds me of a game called Silver i used to play religiously; great work, and an interesting little task you have on your hands there!

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sycle In reply to saruman-23 [2004-08-01 03:55:22 +0000 UTC]

Not too surprising, I seem to remember Silver being a UK developer's attempt to make a 3D game in the style of classic Japanese RPGs, so similar source material

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saruman-23 In reply to sycle [2004-08-01 15:01:09 +0000 UTC]

aah, interesting i didn't know that, all the same - good work! i love the little folks my favourite's the evil swordsman - his sunken cheeks look great!

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Kata [2004-07-31 11:50:31 +0000 UTC]

Awesome job Tim! These guys are so cute and the archer is my fav too hehehe ^.^ I'd so love to see these little guys in action lol

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vaporotem [2004-07-31 08:54:35 +0000 UTC]

perfect! it really looks awsome
women allways pushd away xD

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TheQueenofKawaii [2004-07-31 08:54:13 +0000 UTC]

I wanna play the game, it looks cool. Boooo on not having time to make female characters though. Boo indeed.

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sycle In reply to TheQueenofKawaii [2004-08-01 03:48:59 +0000 UTC]

;_; I wanted to! I really did!

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TheQueenofKawaii In reply to sycle [2004-08-01 07:25:37 +0000 UTC]

We'll forgive you, this time.

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synti [2004-07-31 08:47:34 +0000 UTC]

Hahah! Those are great! Especially for an speed modeling!
Looks like a game I would want to play

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Maeth [2004-07-31 08:43:09 +0000 UTC]

makes me want to play the game. Its good. That right there is my dream job actually.

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sycle In reply to Maeth [2004-07-31 09:29:47 +0000 UTC]

Your dream job is to play games?

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