Quick question for any of you design geeks out there: how hard is it to make and update a 3D avatar with puppet strings in something like Blender or Maya? would the pictures of the pre-gen characters do for skinning the avatar, or would that need to be another step in the design process?
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digital template: charcter avatars
Fri, 2011-09-09 22:20
#1
Covariant
digital template: charcter avatars
Mon, 2011-09-12 14:48
#2
thelabmonkey
Re: digital template: charcter avatars
How much experience do you have with 3D software? And can you clarify your definition of Avatar? What would you be using if for? (i.e. just a headshot that you put in as your user-avatar icon in the forums, or a full body avatar that is made into a printed marker for use on a battle mat?)
You could try this: http://poser.smithmicro.com/
but you would still have to make your own clothes and accessories I think.
In something like Maya, you'd have to make/import your own model and rig it. In theory, once you've built the model, textured, and rigged the skeleton, then posing it with different lighting would be trivial. The work to get there would not be.
Does that help?
Wed, 2011-09-21 05:28
#3
Rada Ion
Re: digital template: charcter avatars
I know this is slightly off from what the OP is talking about but I thought I would throw it out here anyway since I think I have a pretty good source for character portraits/avatars if anyone is interested. I have been playing Eve Online (MMO) for about 5 years now and just recently they upgraded their avatar system and graphics to make possible their new Incarna expansion, where you can get out of your ship and walk in stations quarters. So anyway the avatar creator is very nice. I don't really make too many custom avatars for EP, but what I did was go to really busy solar systems and capture portraits in local chat. Some are almost photo realistic IMO. If anyone is interested and needs a few avatars (or many) you don't even need a full account. Just make a trial 2 week account (no money down, and the account won't actually go active unless you go to the account management and activate with your CC info, so it isn't a auto start up type thing), and capture some avatars. Now some people were really uncreative with the portraits, and there are about 12 base bloodlines in game so allot of peoples characters look like they are from the same gene pool LOL. Some peeps did get quite creative though and there are some good avatars to be had. Here are some examples if any one is interested.
https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=12026&find=unread