Kay Lousberg | KayKit
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New Character Sample
🕑 Added 2023-04-04 14:23:56 +0000 UTCPrototype Pete has evolved into... just Pete! He even grew legs :)
Attached is a sample of Pete, who is pioneering the new character style I want to proceed with. The new characters are textured, rigged, and animated.
- There are lots of advantages to the new character style, it's more versatile to use, should be easier to implement, will allow for more types of animations (having legs really helps with that, who knew? :D ) and even using third-party animations too.
- Now there is one downside to switching to this new style, while accessories like hats/backpacks/capes/weapons will still be swappable between characters, bodyparts and heads will not be swappable between characters (most likely, unless I find a userfriendly way of doing it). EDIT: there's a good chance I've since fixed this issue and pieces will be swappable after all :) there's some test files in the #prototyping channel on my discord if you want to check it out.
So before going one way or the other I'd like to hear your thoughts on this :) Do you like the new style? Was it easy to implement? Did you run into any issues? Be as specific as possible (your engine, and engine version, error codes if any).
There's a specific channel (called #prototyping) on my discord, but you can also leave any comments you like on this post and I'll gather all feedback.
Here's a preview as to what the barbarian would look like in this new style :
Ultimately, if this new character type is preferred, this will replace the current/old characters. New monthly mystery characters will be in the new style, and the old ones will be remade as time goes on (will probably take a while as there are 30+ of thoseπ ).
Thank you all for your continued support π§
-Kay
Comments
0xum
It's amazing with legs!
J. G Walker
Much better with legs.
Jeffrey Stark
Thanks Kay, I'll take a look soon and let you know how Godot handles it.
Kay Lousberg
I've done some more testing on this and I think it will be possible to have swappable pieces after all, currently only tested in Unity as I've got no experience in Godot/Unreal. There's some test files in the #prototyping channel in my discord if you want to give that a go yourself :)
Jeffrey Stark
Gotcha gotcha. That makes sense. I popped the new Pete sample file open and looked at the new rig but didn't think to look at the mesh. Congrats on getting weighted meshes working, those bendy bits can be a real hassle.
Kay Lousberg
For Pete, and the new characters, they will be 1 single mesh that is weighted to the rig (instead of the old way where it's 4 seperate pieces). The head will still only be weighted to a single head bone, so if there's a way to seperate those in engine and replace with a different character it'll still be possible yes :). I guess the better way to put it, is that it'll be less simple than before
Jeffrey Stark
Can you expand on why you think heads wouldn't be hot swappable? I'm using your characters and animations in Godot. The animations are saved to the bones and currently I can swap out the geometry of various head models assigned to the head bone. Since the geometry isn't vertex mapped or weighted to multiple bones it seems like any head model would still work, with maybe needing to adjust the models origin point. I'm also a fan of the legs. I have pipe dreams of using your characters and some animated 2d mouth techniques to make a cartoon and legs would definitely help add some personality to the characters.
Jeffrey Soldan
I'm a big fan of characters having legs!
Sara Vieira
Love this new style!
