Building a new character model

Our third tutorial will be to build a new character shape from scratch.


Getting Started

Our goals for this tutorial are to:

Naming objects in the Shape

The naming convention for player models are different to those used for simple shapes. Because the player models have been built using Character Studio's BIPED plugin, the naming hierarchy makes use of the default name generated by the plugin (denoted by BIP before each of the objects)

The BIPED plugin generates a skeleton upon which meshes can be linked to achieve a skin layer to the model. Don't rename any of the BIP objects otherwise your model will have problems exporting.

Step-by-Step building the Character Shape

In 3DS MAX start a new scene. Follow each of the steps to create a rough model of your character. Because of the number of boxes to create you will have to use your own judgement on look, feel and sizes. I would recommend exporting at several points through out the making of the model, and view it under theTorque Game Engine model viewer.

NB: Currently the model seems to float about 2-3inches above the terrain in the Torque Game Engine, I believe it has something to do with detail described in theMAX2DTSExporter Documentation

"Likewise, ground animation is based on the animation of the bounding box. So if you want to export a running person, you would place the bounding box around the person at time 0, with the origin of the box at the persons feet. As the person runs, you would animate the bounding box to keep pace with the person. Note: the easiest way to do this would be to link the bounding box to the hips, and set it to only inherit y-position." Unfortunately, I can't get this to work!

A copy of the "player_box.max" is available under tge/tutorials/simplecharacter/ directory.

Biped & Pivot

Player
9 Steps to build the Character shape
1. Create the BIPED skeleton
  • select the biped object from the (Command Panels -> Create -> Systems -> Biped)
  • change the number of "Spine Links" to 3
  • create a biped position it at 0,0,0 and make it's height about 2.00 GU, or roughly (63 inches, 5'4)
2. Create the Bounding box
  • create a box whose name is "bounds", position so it surround the entire shape. The box must encompasses fully the model you have created otherwise you may get any error when exporting.
  • set the pivot point of the bounding box - blue axis points towards the top of the shape, the green axis towards the front of the shape, and the red axis towards the right of the shape.
3. Create LOD detail objects
    You must have minimally one level of detail object, however a typical model would have several created for various distances from the camera.
  • create a dummy object and name it detail145, and make it's parent the "Bip01" object
4. Create the Head
  • create a box, name it "head145", position it to sit over the head part of the skeleton
  • make the head145 parent the "Bip01 Head" object.
5. Create the Torso
  • create a box , name it "torso145", position it to sit over the following Biped objects, "Bip01 Spine", "Bip01 Spine1", "Bip01 L Clavicle", and the "Bip01 R Clavicle" part of the skeleton
  • make the torso145 parent the "Bip01 Spine1" object.
6. Create the rest of the Upper Body parts
    We need to basically repeat step 5 for each of the other parts. (Some of the part I just clone, move and rename to reflect the opposite side of the body, ie. l_upperarm -> clone to r_upperarm)
  • create a box, name it "l_upperarm145", position it to sit over and make it's parent the "Bip01 L UpperArm".
  • create a box, name it "r_upperarm145", position it to sit over and make it's parent the "Bip01 R UpperArm".
  • create a box, name it "l_orearm145", position it to sit over and make it's parent the "Bip01 L ForeArm".
  • create a box, name it "r_forearm145", position it to sit over and make it's parent the "Bip01 R ForeArm".
  • create a box, name it "l_hand145", position it to sit over and make it's parent the "Bip01 L Hand".
  • create a box, name it "r_hand145", position it to sit over and make it's parent the "Bip01 R Hand".
7. Create the rest of the Lower Body parts
  • create a box, name it "waist145", position it to sit over and make it's parent the "Bip01 Pelvis".
  • create a box, name it "l_thigh145", position it to sit over and make it's parent the "Bip01 L Thigh".
  • create a box, name it "r_thigh145", position it to sit over and make it's parent the "Bip01 R Thigh".
  • create a box, name it "l_calf145", position it to sit over and make it's parent the "Bip01 L Calf".
  • create a box, name it "r_calf145", position it to sit over and make it's parent the "Bip01 R Calf".
  • create a box, name it "l_foot145", position it to sit over and make it's parent the "Bip01 L Foot".
  • create a box, name it "r_foot145", position it to sit over and make it's parent the "Bip01 R Foot".
8. Add several additional dummy objects to enable the sequence
    Since we intend to use this new model to replace the player.dts model, we must provide some additional dummy objects which the Torque Game Engine player code will link the animations with.
  • create a dummy object and name it Unlink, and make it's parent the "Bip01" object
  • create a dummy object and name it Cam (add to front of face about normal eye height), and make it's parent the "Unlink" object
  • create a dummy object and name it Eye (add to front of face about normal eye height), and make it's parent the "Bip01 Head" object
  • create a dummy object and name it Mount0, and make it's parent the "Bip01 R Hand" object
  • create a dummy object and name it Mount1 (add to the back of torso, like a backpack), and make it's parent the "Torso" object
  • create a dummy object and name it Mount2 (clone Mount1, and leave at same spot as Mount1), and make it's parent the "Torso" object
Last but not least!
    Try exporting the model as PLAYER.DTS, then copying it into the tge/example/data/shapes/player/ directory. Run the Torque Game Engine, the new model will be available in all the missions. It's not pretty, but it should work. There's still a lot of work to go, adding textures, additional dummy object for additional animations, etc.. But that's another story!

Exporting the Shape

NB: Make sure when exporting that the "Command Panels -> Utilities -> DTS Exporter Utility -> Parameters -> Collapse Transforms" on the Utilities Tab menu is not checked! Otherwise the Bip01* transforms will be removed from the .DTS shape, and the sequences won't be able to attach.

The exporter requires a dtsDefault.cfg file for each shape to be exported, the following is the minimum detail required to export the player_box correctly. The .cfg needs to be in the same directory as the .MAX model

filename: dtsDefault.cfg 
AlwaysExport:
eye
cam
mount0
mount1
mount2

NeverExport:
Bip01
Bip01 L Finger*
Bip01 R Finger*
Bip01 L Toe*
Bip01 R Toe*

=Params::T2AutoDetail 250

Adding additional Levels of Detail

This method of doing LOD requires the MULTIRES plugin.

Each shape must minimally have one level of detail dummy object (the highest level), however a typical model would have several created for various distances from the camera.

To add additional LOD's to the shape, create a dummy object, name it "detail#" where # is the LOD, and link it to the "Bip01" object.

Select all of the body meshes you created in steps 4 - 8, and select the Edit -> Properties. Add the following two lines of text.

MULTIRES::SIZES = 145,80,60
MULTIRES::DETAILS = 1.0,0.794521,0.630137

...Todo: Explain MultiRes sizes/detail relationship

Skinning the Model

...Todo: Still investigating!