I’ve put together a simple .blend that allows you to customise a simple low poly mesh and use it as a character for your games. The mesh is UV unwrapped, Rigged and ready to use.
Here is an example of the file. It uses shape keys to modify the attributes. It’s a similar idea to MakeHuman (MH did inspire this) but this is geared at low poly characters for real time applications.
This is an old enough project of mine. Its not as far along as I’d have liked it to be but I keep putting off working on it so I figure I’ll release what I have and at least something will be made available.
Thanks for all the positive feedback guys. I’m glad you like it!
the thing about the armature is that you have to go into edit mode of it and scale & move the bones to fit right. I don’t know of any way to sync the keys and the armature deformations. It’s not a great rig anyway. Its good and works for most purposes but I’m not that much of a rigger to be honest. it’s easy to redo the rig though.
Sorry I didn’t mean to sound harsh. Its a great idea - I’m now thinking of doing
something similar. It’d be great for a video game, where there’s lots of similar characters.
It makes sense to have generic attributes/conventions in a ‘base file’ that you can duplicate, then tweak. It saves time, and helps conform each asset to the art direction.
There’s a thread where someone is complaining about Blender’s lack of construction history, and non-linear undo, etc. This is a practical, down-to-earth example that person needs to see.
I’ll admit, I’m not a big user of the game-engine but this was a very bright idea. I’m a big fan of shape keys myself and this was a very intelligent way of using them. My hat’s off too you Rorkimaru.
Ok I have the .blend. I see a text window on the left, two 3d windows in the middle and an action editor window on the right. Now what. Pressing Alt-p in the test window does nothing. Because there is no python code.
No python involved. Just use the sliders in the action window to adjust the proportions. When you want to make it permanent click [add multires] then [apply multires]. This will apply the shapekeys.
The text at the side is just instructions, legal and credits
Understandable that you would like to use your own art. This is just for people who cant/dont have the time to get good human models. The sliders only appear of the man is the active object. I think I left the .blend set up like that though.
I found the sliders. Then I maxed out all the sliders. That is an amazing range of people you can make. I suggest people at least try putting the sliders to all full or all empty to see some really disturbing monsters.
I found the sliders. They were somehow hidden in the action window. I do not recall HOW I got them to appear, but yes they are there. I will look over the documentation at blender3d.org to see just what multires does. I think that was one of the many things I just skipped over when it was added to whatever version of blender it appeared in.
