Re: [Algorithms] Highest Quality Look for 3-d Characters

[Eric M. <mas...@ms...>]

Well, asking on how to make something better is completely relative. Without
seeing what you're using as a point of reference, makes it a little difficult to
assess what might be "wrong". Anyway, here's some of the things that I've
personally encountered:

- if a real-time preview program isn't an option for your artists, make sure
they don't judge the visual quality of the character based on renderings but
rather the characters appearance in the viewport. Renderings typically use a
form of shading that is better than what  your engine can provide. Viewports
typically use Garaud(sp?) shading which allows for a much more accurate
representation of the character

- When creating the character, have your artists setup a "extreme lighting
conditions" scenario. This would include lights of high intensities in odd
positions. This will allow your artists to better understand how light is
falling on each polygon. In polygon modeling, each edge is extremely important
for getting the right appearance if any lighting other than ambient is used.

- if your engine can handle it, use geometry detail instead of texture detail.
IMO texturing detail will always look artificial and "off". It looks
particularly odd when moving between lighting conditions since alot of the
highlights and shadows are "burned" into the texture. If you use a little more
geometry and let the lighting engine figure out the highlights and shadows, then
I personally think that the art will be better for it. Plus, your character can
then be dropped into any lighting condition without concern for the highlights
and shadows looking "fake".

- good animation! If a character has truly wonderful, believable animation, then
it's appearance seems to increase ten-fold. From experience, is seems that many
people seem to ignore many imperfections in a model if the animation is really
well done.

- simpler textures. This goes along with the statement above regarding geometry
detail and is mostly for characters. for environments, I think that alot more
attention to detail in the textures is good if a decent mipmapping scheme is
used. For example, from the distance the texture looks smooth, but as you get
right up to the wall it becomes course with all the nooks and crannies of a
typical wall. The Serious Sam engine did this very well.

- Try to avoid resampling textures. This saves some cycles and provides more
consistent visual quality.

- some form of shadows is a must in my opinion. Shadows anchor a
character/object to the ground and provide essential depth cues. I all you can
afford in terms of processing time is to drop a flat circle beneath the
character, do it. It's far better  than nothing at all.

I hope this is of some help. Take care

Cheers

E.

Matt Harmon wrote:

> When using a real-time engine that supports, for example, OpenGL and
> DirectD3D, what is the best advice I can give to 3-d artists to make it look
> as best as possible?
>
> I'm rendering out a 3-d character, and he looks pretty good.  I'm wondernig
> how much can be done with Texture Maps, Polygon COunts/Bezier Curves,
> Lights, Effects (Shadows, specular, etc.) to make him look even better or
> more realistic.
>
> What technologies are used to maximize the overall look of rendered
> characters or environments?  What tricks are required in texture maps to
> make them look best?  What is the ideal light setup?  What can I do with
> software to increase visual quality?
>
> I hope my question is coming out clearly.  I'm trying to decide if a 3-d
> character can look better, and I think it can, but how?
>
> HAPPY NEW YEAR!
> matt
>
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