• 3D

  • 3D character creator (ingame) workflow

Hi veterans, I sadly still struggle composing modular characters in 3D, unsure about how to implement each components. The following is my current thought process: But I struggle to plan out following points: 1. How do I switch between body types etc. ? Shapekeys in Blender? If yes, how do I switch between them in GODOT? And if I do, how do I adjust my Skeleton/Armature when the body proportions change? (For example when I would morph the shape from male to female) 2. How do I manage hairstyles/beards/appendable properties? I thought about implementing them as seperate Meshes in Blender, positioning them relative to the standard head shape and parenting it to the head, so it deforms when the head would shapeshift. Would that work? If yes, how would I manage to choose one hairstyle in GODOT? Just hide the other Meshes? Wouldn't that eat up ressources with multiple characters? 3. If I would shift between shapekeys, surely my rigged clothing would also break? Or wouldn't it?

    @Brainblox said:

    1. How do I switch between body types etc. ? Shapekeys in Blender? If yes, how do I switch between them in GODOT? And if I do, how do I adjust my Skeleton/Armature when the body proportions change? (For example when I would morph the shape from male to female)

    Shapekeys are transferred from Blender to Godot. There are problems with the rig setup.

    1. How do I manage hairstyles/beards/appendable properties?

    I guess not by hiding, but by adding nodes.

    @Tomcat said:

    @Brainblox said: 1. How do I switch between body types etc. ? Shapekeys in Blender? If yes, how do I switch between them in GODOT? And if I do, how do I adjust my Skeleton/Armature when the body proportions change? (For example when I would morph the shape from male to female) Shapekeys are transferred from Blender to Godot. There are problems with the rig setup.

    1. How do I manage hairstyles/beards/appendable properties? I guess not by hiding, but by adding nodes.
    1. so would you advise to wait for GODOT 4 in terms of bodytype morphing?
    2. can i make the hair deform with the head, like when I would switch from a round head to a square one? i thought about parenting the hairstyles to the vertex group of the head of my bodymesh, but I guess that wouldn't be possible if I would add them as Node in Godot?

    @Brainblox said:

    1. so would you advise to wait for GODOT 4 in terms of bodytype morphing?
    2. can i make the hair deform with the head, like when I would switch from a round head to a square one? i thought about parenting the hairstyles to the vertex group of the head of my bodymesh, but I guess that wouldn't be possible if I would add them as Node in Godot?
    3. I don't know exactly what changes in terms of morphing are planned in 4. It seems like everything you need is already there.
    4. It can probably be done. I'm working on it right now. For now, you can use MakeHuman to create a character. I made a tutorial here: MH into Godot tutorial Import textures and ShapeKeys

    There was an attempt to make a character generator for Godot based on MakeHuman. You can see that the clothes adjust to the figure, the hair can adapt in the same way: Go_MakeHuman_dot

    I've found that makehuman clothes don't fit right and have to be redone in Blender, especially if you use community clothing, etc. It's close enough that it doesn't take much work.

    @fire7side said: I've found that makehuman clothes don't fit right and have to be redone in Blender, especially if you use community clothing, etc. It's close enough that it doesn't take much work.

    There is such a problem. Unfortunately, not all authors are careful to follow the recommendations for creating clothes. In those cases where the recommendations are followed, you usually don't have to redo anything.

    @Tomcat said:

    @Brainblox said:

    1. so would you advise to wait for GODOT 4 in terms of bodytype morphing?
    2. can i make the hair deform with the head, like when I would switch from a round head to a square one? i thought about parenting the hairstyles to the vertex group of the head of my bodymesh, but I guess that wouldn't be possible if I would add them as Node in Godot?
    3. I don't know exactly what changes in terms of morphing are planned in 4. It seems like everything you need is already there.
    4. It can probably be done. I'm working on it right now. For now, you can use MakeHuman to create a character. I made a tutorial here: MH into Godot tutorial Import textures and ShapeKeys

    There was an attempt to make a character generator for Godot based on MakeHuman. You can see that the clothes adjust to the figure, the hair can adapt in the same way: Go_MakeHuman_dot

    Thanks, but I focus on a cartoonesque style, so my characters are going to be very low poly, so I don't know if makehuman will help in my case. But its good that it shows up in this thread for future visitors of this thread.

    If you are going for an anime look, you can use VRoid.

    @cybereality said: If you are going for an anime look, you can use VRoid.

    thanks cyberality, but I'm going for the Western look, like "Going Medieval"

    a year later

    Brainblox Hey there. I totally get that you're struggling with composing modular characters, so let me break it down for you. In Blender, you can use shapekeys to change the character's shape. Then in GODOT, you can set up a system to switch between these shapekeys based on player input or triggers. When the body proportions change, you'll need to adjust the armature bones to match. Your idea of using separate meshes in Blender and parenting them to the head is a good approach. In GODOT, you can choose a hairstyle by hiding or showing the corresponding meshes. This shouldn't consume too many resources unless you have numerous characters on screen at once.
    When switching shapekeys, the rigged clothing may break or deform. To solve this, create additional shapekeys for the clothing to match different body types. This way, the clothing will adjust along with the character's shape. I would also add that when it comes to 3D game ideas, it's best to think about unique concepts that excite you. Consider creating immersive worlds, engaging gameplay mechanics, or captivating storylines

        I'm very curious about this, how efficient is it to use shape keys in this way? A custom character creator that is properly well done and up to date is an asset I would definitely consider shelling out money for, seems like it's something that could be introduced even as a big paid asset for Godot 4 if people want to support the back end devs.

          I get the impression that spammers are already heavily using AI to write posts to make them look almost like real replies. And it's almost working...

          Rachel When the body proportions change, you'll need to adjust the armature bones to match.

          This is precisely the most difficult point, which the person dealing with this issue should explain in detail. It's clear that a spammer can't do that, even with the help of an AI.

          Lethn A custom character creator that is properly well done and up to date is an asset I would definitely consider shelling out money for, seems like it's something that could be introduced even as a big paid asset for Godot 4 if people want to support the back end devs.

          Not necessarily a paid one. I'm mulling over a program like this. It should be part of my project.

                Tomcat God damnit you're right, that's annoying, we'll see if they actually respond as human beings first I guess before assuming, going to have to check the history of the users first and ask the mods to ban them if they necro threads like this because I am actually interested in speeding up the Godot workflow generally.

                    Lethn we'll see if they actually respond as human beings first I guess before assuming, going to have to check the history of the users first

                    He has one message with a trivial compilation, and the most complex question does not even have a path of possible solution. All for the sake of a advertising link. Spammer — 146%.

                      Lethn I'm very curious about this, how efficient is it to use shape keys in this way?

                      Efficient (and there is simply no other way), but very expensive overhead if the shape keys are saved in-game. Usually the character generator contains all the shape keys, which are deleted when you finalize the character creation.

                        Tomcat I get the impression that spammers are already heavily using AI to write posts to make them look almost like real replies. And it's almost working...

                        lol yep. I opened this tab this morning, came back to it just now, and I was like "why is she replying to a post from February 2022? And why is she speaking broadly of 3D game ideas?" so I clicked her profile and sure enough "she" has only one post, and I saw your reply there.

                        I suppose generative AI will just teach us to ignore these patronizing TL;DR posts, lol.

                        Reminds me of Clippy from MS Office back in the day... "Hi there, it looks like you're struggling with..."

                          So, @Rachel may be a bot, but we don't discriminate against AI here, as long as they are contributing to the discussion.