Had a few questions about how to make character mesh and I’m currently using blender.
What’re some tips for getting a basic human shape to start off.
Would a parts system be better for a character creation system i.e different ears or nose types that would add to the base mesh and how would you do that?
Thanks in advance for the help and the more detailed the better, I have the basics of blender down but I’m lost on how to create a good character mesh with it even with messing around with it for awhile.
Hi. I would start with a basic one mesh character, so that you get a base understanding for the mechanics.
Afterwards you can split everything up. One interesting aspect for this is the so called “Master Pose Component” (there are videos and tutorials out there about this topic). It is used to sync the skeletalmeshes of the sub-meshes, so that they are animated together.
Only be aware that these kind of skeletal meshes cost performance. They are really great for your main character but I wouldn’t use it for every single enemy. If you want to change skeletal meshes during the game, this is always possible. So you can create different meshes for a character and interchange them during gameplay.
Other possibilities are to attach “static” meshes to you character by attaching them to sockets (which are basically further bones, attached to your default bone hierarchy and which can be added in UE4). These attached meshes are not influenced by the weightpainting of your character and should be used accordingly.
Another really important thing at the start is that you should auto generate or manually create a physics asset for every imported character. With this you can see if your weight painting is good and if your animations will work correctly later on.
Yeah it very helpful thanks , do you have any tips for sculpting a character as i’m having a difficult time getting it to look humanoid embarrassingly enough, i’m using a mirror function with a subdivided cube to get started if that helps?
Sorry but imho it is impossible to answer such a question.
Character creation is one of the hardest things you can do when creating 3d objects and there are so many skills required, like design skills, 3d tool skills, knowledge about the human body and so on and so forth, these can not be answered with simple answers in a forum.
When you start creating things, start simpel. Create abstract characters or use premade characters (like UE MetaHumans, or assets from the marketplace or from blendswap or create a character with the tool MakeHuman) at the start to understand the mechanisms.
Than you can refine these like you want, for example with a sculpting tool
Another example would be if you use blender and need a skeletal mesh for animations you can start with Rigify Meshes, which can be simply created in blender directly but also MetaHuman brings its own rigs and MakeHuman, too.
I’ll be completely honest, if you’re starting from nothing and saying “I want to make a person”, you need to understand that the knowledge you need to accomplish that will probably take years to acquire, unless you’re willing to work 12 hours a day every day on this.
But if you’re really committed to this, then the place you need to start with is learning human anatomy. You say you’re having a hard time “getting it to look humanoid” and, well, that makes sense. I mean, how are you supposed to correctly sculpt say, the manubrium, unless you know what it looks like? The first step to making a human is to understand all of the parts of the body, and how they are shaped.
There’s not really a tip I can give you beyond that. Once you actually know what it is you’re making, the rest is simple in comparison.
, do you have any tips for sculpting a character as i’m having a difficult time getting it to look humanoid embarrassingly enough, i’m using a mirror function with a subdivided cube to get started if that helps?