I am learning right now about creating character models.

I wonder what is best way to create different outfits (clothing) for it?

Should I make a nude body first? And then add clothing ontop of it?
Wouldn't that make it almost twice poly count? Since you have the body underneath the clothing?

There can be a really large amount of different clothings so it should be somewhat simple way of editing what cloth the character model is wearing?

I am learning right now about creating character models.

I wonder what is best way to create different outfits (clothing) for it?

Should I make a nude body first? And then add clothing ontop of it?
Wouldn't that make it almost twice poly count? Since you have the body underneath the clothing?

There can be a really large amount of different clothings so it should be somewhat simple way of editing what cloth the character model is wearing?

When doing lowpoly, you should incoparate the clothing into the mesh itself. For one this keep the polycount low, saves texture space, and avoids artifacts while animating your model (clothing mesh penetrating body mesh etc...).

In low-poly game (btw. what is low poly for you ? 1k, 5k, 10k ? ) different clothings are done by using some base meshes and different textures to get some variations.

Check out this thread on PolyCount, where my friend Jesse creates a mutant league team with modular parts.

In low-poly game (btw. what is low poly for you ? 1k, 5k, 10k ? ) different clothings are done by using some base meshes and different textures to get some variations.

Well, I'm not completely sure.. I want to make art for an indy mmorpg.
I've read that most modern computers can handle around 100k-150k polys.

So to be on safe sade I chose a 100k budget.. Since there can become more than planned.
And since it's a mmorpg I want it to be able to handle very many players.
I think at least 100 rendered players.. Which can easily happen in clan wars etc or big events.

100 players = 1k poly per character to reach the 100k budget.
BUT there's going to be a lot more happening... like objects, animations, special effects from spells, weapons etc and many more things.
I really don't understand how other games manage this.. But I want to keep poly budget as close as possible to 500... not more than 1k per character.

I'm also wondering about colors for clothing..

I think it would be nice to give players a choice to dye parts of their clothes to different colors (red/blue etc)..
So lets say I give them 8 different color choices that they can chose to dye their clothes... and then have pants, shoes, shirt, hat, tie, shoulder pads, etc.. there's a lot of different possible clothes.

Does this mean I have to make a different texture with every color to the shirt.... and maybe he is wearing a thong (lol) that is yellow... I have to make a character model with each different shirt color... with each different type of clothing and different color from every clothing...
Sorry about such a messy question, It's probably because I'm completely confused about how to do it?
Because if it's like that... then I have to make like millions (not exagerating) of character models so all possible clothes + color combinations??

Because if it's like that... then I have to make like millions (not exagerating) of character models so all possible clothes + color combinations??

Of course not, in this cases usually the cloth textures are in greyscale, and the color of each part is changed using code.

...

Well.. I think that a modular character design for a MMORPG is even hard challenge for an experienced art team. There're several possibilities, just coloring a greyscale image is by far the easiest way.

Recoloring a greyscale by a gradient map:
Shading a Bigger, Better Sequel: Techniques in Left 4 Dead 2 by Valve

Character customization in brink:
Punching Above Your Weight: Small Art Teams, Big Games by Splash Damage


Btw. 1k per character is too low (that is on level of the PS2/XBox 1 ). Tri count isn't so important on modern PCs any longer, still you need to be careful. Current gen is about 3k to 8k for characters (sometimes up to 50k , sometimes less).

My advice: work on a modular character concept first and test it, until it is absolute water proof, then start to make art, not one single second earlier

[quote name='glhf' timestamp='1332517225' post='4924667']Because if it's like that... then I have to make like millions (not exagerating) of character models so all possible clothes + color combinations??

Of course not, in this cases usually the cloth textures are in greyscale, and the color of each part is changed using code.
[/quote]

Going to read up more on greyscale, Thanks
Solves the color problem.

What about mixing different clothes with eachother?

[quote name='Relfos' timestamp='1332526019' post='4924713']
[quote name='glhf' timestamp='1332517225' post='4924667']Because if it's like that... then I have to make like millions (not exagerating) of character models so all possible clothes + color combinations??

Of course not, in this cases usually the cloth textures are in greyscale, and the color of each part is changed using code.
[/quote]

Going to read up more on greyscale, Thanks
Solves the color problem.

What about mixing different clothes with eachother?
[/quote]

I'm quoting myself to say that I found out how to mix clothes.
It's done my hiding clothes that are not active... and then unhiding them and hiding the previous clothing when they are switched ingame.
Just saying incase someone else wondered how to go about it

Also, I said I would look into greyscaling but I couldn't find any tutorials about it in google.
Not even an introduction to greyscaling.

For example.. How would I use greyscaling to give players a choice to change skin color of their character?
I THINK that it might be acomplished by having different UV images that are swapped.. if that's possible?
But then I didn't use any greyscaling.. whatever that is.

So I think I might be doing something in a lot more complex way than it needs to be since I'm not using greyscaling.

"Greyscaling" isn't a technique you would look up with a Google search and find tutorials for...

The idea is that you create your textures in greyscale (or black & white), and the game would then apply your different colour selections through code. So you create one asset, that is then displayed in whatever colour the player has chosen.


Does that make sense?