We can help you with great character creation and modeling. Hyperlink Infosystem developers work according to proven, agile development methods. Also, we adhere to the current design guidelines of the respective platform and develop your apps using coding best practices. Current design guidelines are often criteria for posting in the application stores. Using best practices means that the source code we create is clean, maintainable, and of high quality.
Design Process And Creation Of Characters For Video Games
The truth is that, by the very nature of the industry to which this is directed, it is not an easy task. Sometimes it can be a very long process, in which a lot of effort and resources are invested. It can take weeks of continuous work between different development teams.
The creative process can be similar to that carried out for an animated film, although it has its own characteristics. In general, aspects such as facial expressiveness are not determining factors in the final design as much as elements that make it recognizable at first glance, patches, weapons, hats, large claws, or helmets (or simply its silhouette).
Personality
A character can be the protagonist, one of the enemies, or perhaps the final antagonist. The use of archetypes is especially useful for this. They could be tanks, sorcerers, assassins, adventurers, etc. From here, the elaboration of his history, past, and life trajectory will help to know him better, the motivations for his actions, and what determines his character.
Our experiences determine our life trajectory and make us completely different from each other. That personality must be reflected in our design, his psychology, what will define his way of acting and behaving.
Appearance
This will give the players information about the character, such as gender and age. The use of archetypes can determine the type of body structure.
This is perhaps the moment when we should start with an extensive and exhaustive search for documentation. Our references can come from the most diverse sources as long as they help us to define that character better. Real actors, animals, monsters, etc. Colors, textures, costumes, props, all kinds of material that can be useful.
Visual Style
The definition of the visual style right now is the next determining factor of the character design. We have many possibilities, cel-shading, cartoon exaggerations, minimalist styles, as many as we can imagine, and that will effectively direct the visual appearance, along with the establishment of an archetype, which, in essence, will let the player know how they are going to play this character in particular.
Scan & Thumbnails
Now is the time to sit down at the drawing board or pen tablet and establish a design process. We need to do small tests, sketches, which are known as thumbnailing. Basically, an exploration, a small brainstorm in which we will try to quickly explore all the available paths and discard all those that do not work.
The search for an effective and recognizable silhouette is one of our priorities, but we must understand that this silhouette will largely depend on how our characters will be visualized in the game. We have game genres in which we will continuously see the protagonist with his back to us.
Color Palette
Choosing a suitable color palette is vital. It should be perfectly recognizable against any environment in which the action takes place, and many times, it is necessary to include elements that become focal points on the screen. Likewise, that color palette has to be consistent with the general coloring of the game and our character's personality.
Identity
We have to find defining elements of that character that allow us to understand his identity and function at first glance. On many occasions, we will have to resort to exaggeration to enhance these characteristics.
We must never stop taking into account which visualization technique we will use in the game, 2D or 3D. It is especially important that we provide the modelers with enough information for their execution in the latter case. Images from the front and back, and sometimes from the side, paying special attention to those areas that may be hidden.
Tools To Make 3D Characters
When developing a game, the characters are always the key point. You can always turn to a tool that allows you to build the character of your desire if you don’t have the necessary skill. The tools allow you to change facial aspects, clothes and others by clicking and modifying some parameters.
Autodesk Character Generator
Autodesk character creator is very useful in creating characters for the background or characters that do not need much details. It allows the creation of characters with a low number of polygons. Which makes it great for non-interactive characters and others.
MakeHuman
MakeHuman is a free tool that allows creating characters in great detail. They will come rigid and ready to be placed on any platform when exported. It has a wide variety of options to use and allows modifying the face, body and clothing features. It also allows rendering the character to have a more detailed view of how it will look with its materials and with correct lighting.
DAZ Studio
DAZ studio is an interesting tool to create characters. What is most striking is its animation system. The detail you can achieve with it is great despite the need to download quite a few things. It has many sliders that allow you to adjust many details of your character. You can even add your own content. And it allows you to render certain parts of your character quickly to see how it is looking.
iClone Character Creator
The character creator for iClone can blow many people's minds when it comes to creating a character. Its interface is similar to that of Daz Studio. Among its best things is its automatic age system, with which developers can increase the age of the character and certain parameters can be modified.
