A complete guide to creating usable, realistic game characters with two powerful tools Creating viable game characters requires a combination of skills. This book teaches game creators how to create usable, realistic game assets using the power of an open-source 3D application and a free game engine. It presents a step-by-step approach to modeling, texturing, and animating a character using the popular Blender software, with emphasis on low polygon modeling and an eye for using sculpting and textures, and demonstrates how to bring the character into the Unity game engine. Game creation is a popular and productive pursuit for both hobbyists and serious developers; this guide brings together two effective tools to simplify and enhance the process Artists who are familiar with Blender or other 3D software but who lack experience with game development workflow will find this book fills important gaps in their knowledge Provides a complete tutorial on developing a game character, including modeling, UV unwrapping, sculpting, baking displacements, texturing, rigging, animation, and export Emphasizes low polygon modeling for game engines and shows how to bring the finished character into the Unity game engine Whether you're interested in a new hobby or eager to enter the field of professional game development, this book offers valuable guidance to increase your skills.

While the earliest character representations in video games were rudimentary in terms of their presentation and performance, the virtual characters that appear in games today can be extremely complex and lifelike. These are characters that have the potential to make a powerful and emotional connection with gamers. As virtual characters become more

The second edition of Game Anim expands upon the first edition with an all-new chapter on 2D and Pixel Art Animation, an enhanced mocap chapter covering the latest developments in Motion Matching, and even more interviews with top professionals in the field. Combined with everything in the first edition, this updated edition provides the reader with an even more comprehensive understanding of all areas of video game animation – from small indie projects to the latest AAA blockbusters. Key Features • New 2nd Edition Content: An all-new chapter on 2D and Pixel Art Animation, Motion Matching, and more • 20 Years of Insight: Accumulated knowledge from 2 decades of experience in all areas of game animation. • The 5 Fundamentals: Reinterprets the classic 12 animation principles and sets out 5 new fundamentals for great game animation. • Full Production Cycle: Walks through every stage of a game production from the animator’s perspective. • Animator Interviews: Notable game animators offer behind-the-scenes stories, tips, and advice. • Free Animation Rig: Free "AZRI" maya rig, tutorials and other resources on the accompanying website: www.gameanim.com/book About The Author Jonathan Cooper is an award-winning video game animator who has brought virtual characters to life professionally since 2000, leading teams on large projects such as the Assassin’s Creed and Mass Effect series, with a focus on memorable stories and characters and cutting-edge video game animation. He has since focused on interactive cinematics in the latest chapters of the DICE and Annie award-winning series Uncharted and The Last of Us. Jonathan has presented at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco and at other conferences across Canada and the United Kingdom. He holds a Bachelor of Design honors degree in animation.

Within the world of video games, characters become almost living entities. Through the use of logic and artificial intelligence, the video-game character is able to act and react to each situation. As the designer, you hold the character's creative expression in your control. Game Character Animation All in One is a comprehensive guide to the techniques of developing and animating amazing characters for your games. It covers not only introductory-level character-design techniques, but also advanced character-creation and animation topics. With an 8-page color insert showcasing game-character design, this book is a detailed guide to creating exciting, believable, engaging characters for your games.

Learn to use Blender to create your own 3D characters for animation and video games. About This Video Build a 3D character model in Blender Bake a normal map in Blender In Detail Ever wanted to create your own 3D characters for games and animations, from the first polygon through to the final rigged character? This is the opportunity to build your skills by learning through an interactive and engaging course. In this course, you'll explore all about 3D modeling in Blender. You'll begin by creating a base mesh of the character in Blender, understanding how to create the head, body, hands, and feet. Next, from this base mesh, you will create the character's clothes, using Blender's sculpt tools to form creases and folds. You will also UV-map the character in Blender and get to grips with creating a unified UV map that can be used to develop texture maps in external paint programs such as Krita. You'll even discover the technique of painting textures for hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes. The course will then guide you on how to bake a normal map in Blender to capture high-resolution sculpt details and apply them to a lower poly model. In later sections, you will rig the character in Blender and adjust the weights so that it deforms credibly during the animation. The course will only focus on open source software, such as Blender and Krita to help you create a character that is ready for animation in Blender and ready to be imported into any 3D game engine such as Unity and Unreal. By the end of this course, you will have learned how to effectively create exciting characters in Blender for games and animations. Downloading the example code for this course: You can download the example code files for this course on GitHub at the following link: https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Blender-Character-Creation-for-Games-and-Animation . If you require support please email: [email protected].

A unique, in-depth approach to creating realistic characters in Maya. Maya Character Creation: Modeling and Animation Controls' author, Chris Maraffi, has expertise in the field and in the classroom that translates to the knowledge and solid teaching skills needed to make this book a "must-have"! The current trend in computer graphics is greater organic realism. Many of the top-grossing movies today, such as Spiderman, Lord of the Rings, Jurassic Park 3 , and Star Wars Episode 2, all feature realistic 3D characters. There is a major need in the 3D community for educational material that demonstrates detailed techniques for achieving this organic reality. Maya is one of the main packages used on such cutting-edge films, and has an established toolset for creating believable 3D characters. Maya Character Creation: Modeling and Animation Controls is designed to take you through the process of designing, modeling, and setting up animation controls for complex 3D characters. The concepts, techniques, and Maya tools used for each step in the process are presented in each chapter, followed by many hands-on exercises. NURBS, polygon, and subdivision surface modeling techniques are shown for creating the character's skin, and skeleton-based animation controls are covered in detail. You will learn how a character's skin should deform when the skeletal joints and muscles move. Advanced MEL scripted animation controls are also covered extensively.

Character design, modeling, and texturing are the fundamental building blocks of character animation. LightWave 3D [8] Cartoon Character Creation Volume 1: Modeling & Texturing includes both general theory and comprehensive tutorials for every aspect of modeling and texturing 3D characters. Learn how, why, and when to use the most efficient techniques so you can have fun creating your own fantastic 3D characters. Book jacket.

Get to grips with the base workflow and create your own cinematic scenes in UE5 by learning to develop the main elements, animate, and combine them into a complete rendered movie scene with the help of key images printed in color Key Features Perform your entire rigging and animation workflow inside Unreal Engine 5 using Control Rig tools Create hand-keyed animations and clean up motion capture natively in Unreal Engine Learn the basics of creating 3D assets and customizing a MetaHuman for your movie needs Book DescriptionUnreal Engine 5 (UE5) offers beginners and seasoned professionals the ability to create detailed movie scenes with realistic human characters using MetaHuman and combine it with custom props and environments. It also comes with built-in industry standard animation tools to develop such scenes in a fraction of the time compared to old methods. This book takes you through the entire 3D movie production pipeline using free (open - source) software. By following the step-by-step, beginner-friendly tutorials in this book, you'll learn how to create your own custom 3D assets in Blender and texture these 3D assets in Quixel Mixer. Next, you'll take these completed 3D assets into Unreal Engine 5 and use them to build a virtual 3D movie set for your 3D movie. You'll also populate your 3D movie set by using Quixel MegaScans assets and create and customize your own photorealistic human character using MetaHuman Creator and UE5. As you advance, you'll discover how to rig, skin, and animate these 3D assets and characters using Blender and UE5's new Control Rig. Finally, you'll explore the process of setting up your movie cameras and animation sequences and rendering your 3D movie using UE5's Sequencer. By the end of this Unreal Engine book, you'll have learned how to combine different elements in UE5 to make your own movies and cinematics.What you will learn Create, customize, and use a MetaHuman in a cinematic scene in UE5 Model and texture custom 3D assets for your movie using Blender and Quixel Mixer Use Nanite with Quixel Megascans assets to build 3D movie sets Rig and animate characters and 3D assets inside UE5 using Control Rig tools Combine your 3D assets in Sequencer, include the final effects, and render out a high-quality movie scene Light your 3D movie set using Lumen lighting in UE5 Who this book is forThis book is for beginners to Unreal Engine or 3D animation and art in general who want to learn the entire process of creating 3D movies with Unreal Engine 5. Experienced 3D artists and animators new to UE5 will also find this book invaluable as it covers cutting-edge techniques for making real-time 3D movies using Unreal Engine, Blender, Quixel Mixer, and Quixel Bridge. Although prior experience with 3D software is not necessary, it will be helpful in understanding the concepts more easily.

This book takes you through all the basic steps of character design for games and animation, from brainstorming and references to the development phase and final render. It covers a range of styles such as cartoon, stylized and semi-realistic, and explains how to differentiate between them and use them effectively. Using a step-by-step approach for each stage of the process, this book guides you through the process of creating a new character from scratch. It contains a wealth of design tips and tricks as well as checklists and worksheets for you to use in your own projects. This book covers how to work with briefs, as well as providing advice and practical strategies for working with clients and creating art as a product that can be tailored and sold. This book will be a valuable resource for all junior artists, hobby artists, and art students looking to develop and improve their character development skills for games and animation.