Video game character

Hello everybody!

So you probably have been, are, or have a friend who is into video games. Strong chances are that you most probably are interested how it all comes together on your screen.

That is why i wish to introduce you to a series which i will be starting soon in regards creation and development of a character for a video game.

There are a couple of steps in this process, so please bare with me.
For any grounded idea you must first have a solid foundation. What is the story, setting and the role of your character. What does it do in this environment, what is its purpose what does it look like, how does it behave.

In short. The first and most important thing is the script.
Secondary is the art direction/art style your are going for.

After this is sorted out, its time to start answering some questions.

Environment - this is very important. The place where the action takes place, must be interesting because a character is only as good as the situation he/she is put in. What is the character's origin, how did it end up in this present moment on your screen. Are the surrounding of a particular type(ruins, dungeon, city, forest, maze, labyrinth, space another dimension, etc.)?

Concept - now after we have had a rough idea where we are at, and who is our protagonist, we will begin to flesh him/her/it out.
Archetypes - does our character categorizes as a particular type. Is It a human, or a creature, does it have abilities. What physical properties does it poses.
Size, form, proportions, equipment.
In order to create a believable and coherent design you must take into account every little detail which composes your character( example: largely build man, heavy with grief of a lost friend, leaning on the wall of the decrepit ruin tavern his shoulders the width of an ox, hunched back half closed eyes staring at his shattered sword in hand and holding an elk's horn filled half way with mead in the other, his belt, intricate- littered with "trophies"and spoils of war. A seasoned veteran, a revered and feared warrior once filled with pride and boaster now remains but a shadow of his former self. His bear hide cloak weighing down. His shied strapped to his back, beat up, scratched a board missing, the rust stains on his quilted vest suggest a chain mail had been attached to it once. His boots - leather, worn and dirty - mud and blood all over. On his legs lay trousers and an apron studded with scale mail. Arms and shoulders bare, covered with tattoos depicting stories of long forgotten days of adventure. Large brass bracelets strapped to his forehands. Gloomy evening, heavy rain only the light of a camp fire in the midst of the tavern lits his face-gray beared and deep scars allover a dented helmet missing one of its 2 horns sits low on his head).

Thumbnails - essential for creative expression. These are lose sketches that will free up your imagination by introducing suggestion of detail and form their main goal is intended to be a conversation starter and brain storming. A silhouette can be determined early on the overall appearance of the subject. Based on them we can define the further development of the character.

Final illustration technical lay out - At this stage we are now well aware what we want and all details are clarified.
This is then given to the 3D or 2D department depending on the esthetics of the game.

3D modeling - My favorite part. At this point we got everything we need to create the character. We start by making a high res model then we crate a low poly version optimized according specs. In the gaming industry it is important to keep your models as low in geometry as possible while retaining as much detail as possible due polygon budget. a standard top down 3D action adventure game has roughly around 3000 polys per character. Now the technology advances new optimizations are possible and hardware is much more powerful so new titles tend to increase the poly-count but it is a safe bet not to go over 10k polys per character for a top down style game.
After you have your High poly and Low poly models you proceed into creating UV maps for them. A UV map is a 2d representation of your 3D model you "unwrap the 3D objects onto a 2D plane resembling a cut out. After you Create your UV maps you can now begin transferring your details from the high definition model onto the low definition one with Texture maps. In order to Achieve believable results you need several Texture Maps.
Normal map- tells the computer how to calculate the light on your model
Bump map-provides some height information
Height map-gives the impression of surface difference
Diffuse map- contains color information
Specular map-responsible for the shine or roughness of the surface .
Alpha map-this map can tell is responsible for depicting transparency and masking.
Incandescent map - this map is responsible for thing that Glow or shine.

Possible there are more maps but i simply haven't use them

3D animation - Arguably the most interesting topic and yet the one i have least experience with. As far as I am aware, there are 2 approaches to this aspect of the creation process. Motion capture + clean up and key-frame animations.
In order to animate a character you need to create a set of controllers skinned and weighted properly to your low poly model. As you manipulate the controllers or rig for short you can create the movements and record them in sets.

Then comes the game Engine and programing. Luckily these days a lot of great companies provide tools that are quite efficient for displaying your models in a stand alone setting to test your characters without having a complete game.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank you kindly for being part of this.
I hope as we develop our character in the fallowing weeks you will find it useful and entertaining.
I wish you all the best!

I highly recommend this book:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Skillful-Huntsman-Visual-Development-College/dp/0972667644
by Khang Le, Mike Yamada, and Felix Yoon were guided by their instructor, Scott Robertson
The skillful Huntsman