This week I continued working on the NPCs by rigging them and animating all of them so that they all have an idle animation. I also worked on the bandit model as my group decided that we were going to need an enemy in the game that the player can attack. This allows players to learn the combat mechanics of the game before they reach at the boss battle at the end of the game.
NPCs
This week I worked on rigging the NPCs. I don’t have much experience with rigging, so this took a couple of attempts for me to get right. I initially followed the rigging tutorials that were posted on Blackboard, however I couldn’t achieve the movements that I was looking for with this type of rig. Since the NPCs were standing idly in the village, they just needed a simple breathing animation which I thought could be achieved with squash and stretch. I then searched for a tutorial for a squash and stretch rig and found the following video:
This rig was perfect for the type of movement that I needed for the NPCs, as I just needed the squash and stretch to create their idle animations.
(The rig shown is the same in every NPC)
Once all of them were rigged, I the animated all of them to move up and down, which was supposed to represent them breathing.
(The animation is identical for every NPC, so I’m only including this one as an example)
Bandit
The bandits were a last minute idea so we didn’t have time to create concept art for them this late into the project. Since we originally considered a wolf boss fight before scrapping it for our current deer boss, I decided to give the bandits a wolf theme.
To speed things up I re-used elements from the NPCs and main character models but this time I gave the character a wolf mask. I used the mask model from the NPCs but added a sphere and cones to represent the ears, fangs and a snout to make a rough design for the mask. I then sculpted the mesh to get the right shapes. I then used the quad-draw tool to create the mask model.
I then changed the cape design by making the cloak look like it was ripped. To do this I used the multi cut tool and and cut out different sections of the cloak and deleted the faces. I then used the bridge tool to close up the gaps at the end of the cloak.
Once the model was finished, I worked on the UV maps and then used Mixamo to rig the model as again we wouldn’t have enough time to allow me to work on the rig myself.
I then imported the model into Substance Painter, and used the same style of texturing that I used for the Main Character and the NPCs.
Overall I’m quite happy with how the bandit looks, considering they are a last minute decision for a game. If I had more time I would have liked to work on this model from scratch, instead of reusing the NPC/main character design to help give the enemies a more unique look.