Game Ready Character

This project involved the use of Maya and Substance painter to take a pre-established character model and develop the rig for movements as well as the UV makes and textures. The first stage of rigging included the setting up of a skeletal structure within the basic form of the body and using this skeleton to pilot the mesh of the body allowing it to move. After the basic skeletal form is placed heat maps are generated which allow the mesh to deform in specified areas, as to not create any unwanted deformations. Once this is done the character then had all its parts taken individually and UV unwrapped which would allow the future textures to sit of an optimised map. After each piece had its bones in place, heat maps assigned, and UV maps created the final texturing could begin. This involved an export to Substance painter and the application of two different variations of the character being the realistic set and cartoon set. These two sets could then be applied to the final model for later animation within another project. This project allowed me to realise the complexities of character rigs and learn the work flow for creating characters and creatures that function in 3D animations as well as game engines.

Utilising the Character Creation Project I was able to investigate a new objective, this involving the basic principles of 3D animating as well as how Maya and Unreal Engine can interface with one another for the creation of game ready assets. This project first required me to take the rig and set key frames to develop the two key animations for characters within a game engine, being the walk cycle and idle animation. The walk cycled involved creating various key frames and the development of the key contact and passing possess present within all walk cycles. I then refined this animation to create a smooth walk cycle before moving to the idle animation. The idle animation was developed with subtlety at its core being an animation that has only slight movement and remains stationary as wits only applied when the character is not being piloted in the game and only serves the purpose of giving a life like quality to the character. Once both animations were developed, they were imported to Unreal Engine and applied to the imported character rig and textures. This project resulted in the creation of a functional fully textured game ready character rig, which developed my knowledge immensely regarding the creation of game and animation assets.