Ok this is supposed to be a model request thread, but since it skewed towards the animations system and related models, I'll just throw in my 2 cents worth
First on the model requests. Dont really have any concrete ideas at the moment, but some simple objects that can be used with Quikly straight off. Yeah, so themed or genre related objects are ideal, and these could also be used for tutorials/examples. Top off my head, colorful geometric objects for breakout and tetris clones, player and enemy spaceships + weapons, asteroids, platformer tile stuff. Heh. I guess you can pretty much tell what kind of games I want to make.
In reference to your thread in WIP - Im going to be making some models, primarily for topdown and side scrollers. Example:
and also some level objects, but still working on concepts.
On the animation system. I was toying with the idea of a character builder tool, but from a user point of view as the coding is just beyond me. Its nothing new, just derived from standard modelling practices and workflows just packaging all the steps into a nifty tool. Just a real brief explanation.
A character is divided into segments. These segements are based on the skeletal setup and vertex weight assignments. The common verts, where the mesh deforms are the segment seams. A simple implementation is to use a base character mesh, and variations built by manipulating just the verts. In the pic, both models have identical polys and vert id's, so can be morphed to create different types. A more complex, but detailed method is to detach each segment, to be modified while maintaining the vertex count and weights where the seams are, then match them back and weld the verts. So essentially we could go from shirt to topless while maintaining a contiguous mesh and skeletal structure, and with a bit of tweaking and planning not break uvs. I dont how this can be done programmatically, like i said just from an artist worflow pov.
