6_SP_Realistic Game Character Texturing Flashcards
Art-driven character designs
- Primary focus: visual appearance
- Backstory and personality of the character less important.
- Rely heavily on art principles like: shape, form, color saturation, value.
- Principles used to convey character’s: Personality, Talents, Ablities
- Exaggeration used to clearly express: (Gameplay) Role and Functionality
- Puppets or avatars controlled by player
- Used in simple games that focus more on game play instead of storytelling
EXAMPLE:
Red from Rovio’s Angry Bird:
The various birds and pigs in Rovio’s Angry Birds franchise - while characters do nowadays have proper backstories and personality, they are more of an extension to the original game, rather that the backstory defining the actual game play. The character designs make use of the different art principles and exaggerations - each character has their own easily identifiable shape and color palette, and their silhouettes and big eyes clearly convey which direction they are facing at any given time.
Mario from Neinendo’s Mario Fanchise
Story-driven character designs
- Primary focus: Backstory and personality
- Visual appearance more subtle
- Less visual exaggeration
- Character traits conveyed through: Behavior, Quirks, Habits
- Not everything needs to be represented visually, at least in an obvious way
- Used in games that focus more on storytelling instead of gamplay
EXAMPLE: While an art-driven villain character might look like your stereotypical bad guy with big muscles, dark clothes, sharp angles, and the mandatory angry expression constantly on his face a story-driven villain may sometimes look like any other character in the game, with only subtle hints of his inner darkness - perhaps a small scar somewhere on his skin, a reminder of his violent past.
Game characters in itself is a broad subject, there are many different approaches to it, however most game characters can usually be roughly divided into two types. What are the two types?
Art-driven and story-driven characters
PBR
Physcially-Based Rendering -
- A concept of approximating relatistic lighting and material properties using surface values measured from real-world materials
- Pioneered by Disney and Pixar for animated movies
- 3D models look believable in all lighting conditions
- Real-time PBR divided roughly into two workflows: Specular-glossiness VS. Metallic-Roughness
FYI - A types of Texture Mapping is Base Color -
What is Base Color?
What other 2 other name’s are often used interchangeably with Base Color?
The literal color of aread on a given space of your textures.
Albedo/Diffuse
FYI - A types of Texture Mapping is Metallic -
What is Metallic Map?
The ability of your surface to reflect the imagery around it.
FYI - A types of Texture Mapping is Roughness-
What is Roughness Map?
The ability of your surface to reflect of absorb white light.
(White is rough, Black is smooth)
FYI - A types of Texture Mapping is Normals-
What is Normals Map?
Determines the illusion of depth and features
FYI - A types of Texture Mapping is Height-
What is Height Map?
The fake depth or height of areas on your map
FYI - A types of Texture Mapping is Ambient Occlusion-
What is an Ambient Occlusion Map?
Determines which areas are inherently darkened to simulate shadows
What are 6 types of Texture Maps?
Base Color Metallic Roughness Normals Height Ambient Occlusion
Ngon
A face or polygon that is made up of five or more sides or edges connected by five or more vertices. Anything over a quad (4 sides) is considered an ngon.
What are the three primary texture maps for Spectacular - Glossiness?
Albedo/Diffuse
Glossiness
Specular
Specular-Glossiness is supported by…?
Unity CryEngine Marmoset Toolbag Substance Tools Quixel Tools
Pros and Cons of Specular - Glossiness
Pros:
- More control over specular
Cons:
- Uses more memory (RGB Specular)
- Easier to make incorrect materials
