Character Modeling Tool: Foundations Laid

posted in VoxycDev
Published June 12, 2019
Advertisement

I'm working on a new character modeling tool. It will work like this: to start, there are two modes, vertex mode and triangle mode. In vertex mode, you tap on the device screen to create vertices, tap-and-drag to move them around and tap-and-drag outside the edit area to delete them (all this already works). In triangle mode, you tap on vertices to connect them into triangles, 3 at a time. In either mode, you can view the model from 3 different sides as you edit (XY, ZY, XZ) in OpenGL coordinates (this already works too). Vertices that are farther away show up darker and ones closer show up lighter, plus you'll be able to choose which vertices are visible and editable with buttons at the bottom that adjust the Z level.

Ideally, eventually, it'll have skeletal animation and texture painting as well. The way I came up with the idea was I needed a way-point / flight path editor for enemies / UFO's for the new space shooter game I'm making. Then I realized that that could be expanded into a model creator and animator by adding triangle mode and so on, so I decided to combine the two goals into one. Level design could be done this way too, akin to the old sector / brush way for each prefab, then combining prefabs together into one large map. If this works well, I can see getting away from voxels as the primary design tool. Voxels just take up so much darn memory. From now on and for a while, it will be the new tool vs. figuring out how to compress the existing byte structure using bit shifting (maybe storing one voxel with texture, color and bends, in one char, etc).

608077072_characterdesigntool.thumb.jpg.745ed65b9678ff888fa97ac52a17a405.jpg

0 likes 0 comments

Comments

Nobody has left a comment. You can be the first!
You must log in to join the conversation.
Don't have a GameDev.net account? Sign up!
Advertisement