As I had planned I started to learn how to create my own custom mesh from scratch. I jumped back and forth between a few videos, and I couldn’t find any that matched my needs fully. I grabbed a few tidbits here and there and began to try it with my own hand, and see if I could create my own way like I did with the orange prototype I made. It wasn’t so simple with more complicated shapes, especially the upper body since it’s connected to so many muscles. If you check the pictures I have a colorful model so I could try and assign it to the appropriate muscle. It still doesn’t out quite perfect, but maybe it doesn’t have to be as smooth as a crazy high end model.
A lot of hours was spent trying different ways to get the proper syncing of model to bones, in the end I think I settled on one that was good enough to match the animations of the normal mannequin in game. Though it might look worse with more complicated animations, I still have to try that out later on. The next step it adding clothes and details to the model so it becomes more ready. That is even more worrisome since it still has to line up with certain bones I believe.
I lost my internet for a few hours, so I couldn’t keep watching tutorials. I just continued to mess around. The red blanket was a test to see how easy it would be to add a shirt and add a clothe simulation in the engine. It doesn’t look good. The best route would be to add clothes and knick-knacks to the model itself so it comes together properly. My brain is getting real busted with Blender and modeling, and rigging. It’s a whole different world than the sprites I used to work with. Good bye pixels hello sleepless nights where I wonder how to fill in the gaps between the 3D model.
GoldenGratus Games 