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 Features
The
Basics of Designing
and Creating
Low Polygon Models
Concept
Draw first, then model
When beginning any type of character design for videogames, you
first need to have an idea. Once you have an idea in mind, then
comes the task of drawing a character. Be sure to free sketch for
a while before you jump into drawing the characters. By this I mean,
that it's a good idea to get loose so that you'll be at your best
when it comes time to drawing the actual character.
Now,
what do I use to draw with? Well, personally I use pilot pens, sharpies,
mechanical pencils, and on those rare occasions an eraser. Paper
is really up to you. If you like heavy stock paper with smooth plate
finish, or maybe you're into the rough grainy paper. When I go about
sketching, I'll use plain old 11x17 copier paper, which always gets
the job done.
The
best course to take when approaching a conceptual design is to create
a solid front, back, and side view of the character so that you
or the modeler will have exactly what you need. In the images below,
you can see that we have a generic side view of a man. This will
be the main image we'll use to create the army man. The front view
of the character has been rendered tight but kept linear to clearly
show the outfit. The other advantageous illustration you can choose
to create is an action shot of the character in one of his or her
many moods.The final image is a shot of the character in the heat
of battle. Basically he's taking on everyone.
Tags
Tags are the properties of a character that you want to stick out.
Take for instance, Batman with his pointy ears or Wolverine with
his claws. These features should be clearly visible, easily noticed
in a silhouetted shot and at a far distance. As you create your
next character, be sure to add a cool tag that will set them apart
from everything else!
Generic
The term Generic basically refers to something that looks very normal.
There are no features of the character that stick out; he's just
another face in the crowd. And in this case, we're going to use
the generic human figure. In our book Game Modeling Using Low
Polygon Modeling, we demonstrate the use of creating different
characters by using a very generic human body sketch. Once you have
established a solid character to work from, then changing the weight
and appearance is no big deal. A basic example of this can be seen
in the faces below. The first is normally structured, while the
second has been distorted slightly. The biggest difference would
be the jaw line; which has been increased, the nose was made shorter,
and the mouth and chin have been drawn much larger.
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Concept
