This may seem like a simple enough character, but it comes with alot of complications that I had to find compromises to deal with.  1st, the character is meant to be multi-pieced where the pieces can be swapped with others, and the head capable of blend shapes and customization.  2nd, it is stuck with a 3000 poly limit.  3rd, it must be applied to a rig built for all mesh variations on this character and a 50 bone limit.  4th, it makes use of more advanced shaders, particularly normal maps and specular maps.  Needless to say, there were alot more problems, and dozens of trial and errors done figuring out the best method to achieve all these objectives. 

This is the solution I currently like.  Total 2700 polies making use multiple 512 textures.  The model is composed of 3 pieces that make the base mesh: Head, Upper Body, and Lower Body.  It then has 3 more pieces that can be applied ontop: Gloves, Shoes, and Hair.  The way it is currently setup, each character will consist of 3~6 materials.  I also have driven the seams back including the annoying normal map seams while not incurring geometry clipping.  Then I added a tynge of purple to the specular maps to give them that shine you get with silk fabrics.

I like it.  Could use some work on the hands.  At least at this resolution they look a bit skeletal.

Ohh I thought you meant work on the hands the other way.  They aren't refined enough.  When you mentioned they look skeletal I knew were that comes from.  The glove I have over the hands consists of an alpha'd chain of gems leading to finger tip covers.

However, the resolution in the texture map was an issue with this model since I used a quick method to unwrap it that took like 10 seconds.  Also the polies in the hand were extremely stripped since it was an easy place to reduce polies that would have been small enough not to notice much.  I wish I used another method to unwrap the hands but it would have created a more obvious seam.

Originally posted by Cleffy

This may seem like a simple enough character, but it comes with alot of complications that I had to find compromises to deal with.  1st, the character is meant to be multi-pieced where the pieces can be swapped with others, and the head capable of blend shapes and customization.  2nd, it is stuck with a 3000 poly limit.  3rd, it must be applied to a rig built for all mesh variations on this character and a 50 bone limit.  4th, it makes use of more advanced shaders, particularly normal maps and specular maps.  Needless to say, there were alot more problems, and dozens of trial and errors done figuring out the best method to achieve all these objectives. 

This is the solution I currently like.  Total 2700 polies making use multiple 512 textures.  The model is composed of 3 pieces that make the base mesh: Head, Upper Body, and Lower Body.  It then has 3 more pieces that can be applied ontop: Gloves, Shoes, and Hair.  The way it is currently setup, each character will consist of 3~6 materials.  I also have driven the seams back including the annoying normal map seams while not incurring geometry clipping.  Then I added a tynge of purple to the specular maps to give them that shine you get with silk fabrics.

Beautiful!!! How did you get the outfit to look so seamless?

IMO, Character Customization is a very important aspect in RPGs (or any game with 3D customization features) and it suprises how sparse the discussion is on how its done. In my MMO I desire Character Bodies to be created from modular interchangeable `parts`, but appear seamless. The system will be used for all Players, NPCs, and Mobs. I want lots of customization options, so I'm splitting large pieces into smaller parts {UpperBody:  Hand, LowerArm, UpperArm, Chest, Abs) and adding accessories such as additional limbs, wings, etc.

Parts Meshes (referred to as Parts from this point forward) are fabricated and textured with 3rd Party 3D tools like 3DMax, Cinema4D, etc. I anticipate these parts will have different opening/closings where they connect, so, I'm handling welding within the game engine at realtime.  I haven't figured out how I will deal with compensating for texture coords at this time.

Like the Character Body, the Rig is also modular to allow additional joints and interchanging animations.  I have a vague idea on how I'm going to deal with this. Rig Joints will have be included in the Part. These joints use generic names and are map to animation joints with `specified names` using association tables.

Im not really a programmer or technical artist, so I can't explain the details of how it gets done within the game engine.

My solution came to me when I was experimenting with 2 methods of creating a character.  1st was splitting it into many pieces, like a lower leg, pants, shirt, sleeves, glove, head, and hair.  I soon discovered every place it splits will always cause a seam.  So I tried another method.  You take a full nude body, then place meshes ontop.  However, this came with clipping issues when dealing with bulkier clothing.

So my end solution was to combine both techniques.  1st, I make a base body then I add other clothing ontop.  However, how I make the base body is a little different.  I use multiple meshes split at a place that causes unnoticable seams.  So I have the head with a split at the base of the head, and I have a split at the underwear line just below the belly button.  After that, I put Hair, gloves, and shoes ontop of this base mesh.  Since I keep the areas where they are placed the same and the area is so small, there are no issues of clipping. 

Finally, I make sure the rig is setup right by doing an incredibly simple task.  1st I rigged a base body that is all 1 piece to my universal skeleton.  Then I used Maya's copy skin wieghts tool to transfer the wieghts to the accompanying piece.  Finally I would do final corrections if there is anything out of place.

Originally posted by Cleffy

Im not really a programmer or technical artist, so I can't explain the details of how it gets done within the game engine.

My solution came to me when I was experimenting with 2 methods of creating a character.  1st was splitting it into many pieces, like a lower leg, pants, shirt, sleeves, glove, head, and hair.  I soon discovered every place it splits will always cause a seam.  So I tried another method.  You take a full nude body, then place meshes ontop.  However, this came with clipping issues when dealing with bulkier clothing.

So my end solution was to combine both techniques.  1st, I make a base body then I add other clothing ontop.  However, how I make the base body is a little different.  I use multiple meshes split at a place that causes unnoticable seams.  So I have the head with a split at the base of the head, and I have a split at the underwear line just below the belly button.  After that, I put Hair, gloves, and shoes ontop of this base mesh.  Since I keep the areas where they are placed the same and the area is so small, there are no issues of clipping. 

Finally, I make sure the rig is setup right by doing an incredibly simple task.  1st I rigged a base body that is all 1 piece to my universal skeleton.  Then I used Maya's copy skin wieghts tool to transfer the wieghts to the accompanying piece.  Finally I would do final corrections if there is anything out of place.

Are you creating your Models for a Game Engine? If so what Engine?

I'm on the other side of the coin, being a programmer, not an artist. The game engine I'm developing has a 3rd Party Lib to handle basic import and bone animation of single piece meshes in .3Ds, .x, .xml, and .dbo  format. However,  I have to write custom functions to assemble and animate multi-piece characters in the engine.  l have yet to find a Mesh Lib that takes in consideration assembly and animation of multi-piece characters (which would be a really cool lib).

Understanding, how a engine would work with a Multi-piece mesh could prove to be valuable in fabricating the Mesh/Rigs in a 3D App such as Maya.  Its easier to program the engine to compensate various pieces. IMHO, the ideal situation would be to put all of the compensating on the engine, not the artist. Estiblishing a `standard` of some sort between fabrication in a 3D App and use in the Game Engine could improve communication between artist and coders, accelerating production.

I believe some client-side engines use a single body mesh with clothing/accessories glued on top. With this technique, the clothing/accessories are interchangeable parts and the body uses texture color channels for  eyes, skin,etc allowing players to change colors. I don't know how popular such a technique due to increased poly count. 

This is going into a custom built engine.  It uses Cal3D as an intermittent library, but in the future that too will be replaced.

"I believe some client-side engines use a single body mesh with clothing/accessories glued on top. With this technique, the clothing/accessories are interchangeable parts and the body uses texture color channels for eyes, skin,etc allowing players to change colors. I don't know how popular such a technique due to increased poly count. "

I really don't like this method as its very ineffecient.  1st is the poly count.  2nd is the clipping with bulkier clothing unless you use even more polies or more bones.  3rd is the lack of artistic touch as you will get hard edges when the clothing touches the skin.

I have an idea on how to add customization, although its a little more taxing on textures.  You use an alpha map to designated whats skin and clothing.  Then either blend it with another texture or use scripts to adjust color values.  I prefer the blending option because it makes more accurate skin tones and there is no need to test values as you have your 2 extremes.

Looks great! do you have a close up of the face? The shadow from the hair makes it hard to see. Also the front of the clothing looks really flat to me.  Outside of that really nicely done.

Unfortunetly I lost the model rescently.  I was reformating my drive and the drive I was using as a backup corrupted inbetween when I transfered the files off and when I was going to put them back in.  I only have pieces of the former model.  I will post up a new screenshot of a revised version and several more clothing variations by the end of the week.