considering 3d model site
Blitz3D Forums/Blitz3D Programming/considering 3d model site
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| Hi, I am very new to blitz3d, about a week into it now. I find that having code with no models is kind of depressing :) I am an Architect Student and I have done 3d models for a few years now. Recently I began doing low polygon models to play with, and I find I am good at it. What I would like to know is if anyone in the blitz community thinks it would be a good idea to set up a website that sells low polygon models for cheap? I bought the domain name lowpolyshop.com, and I am considering putting some stuff together mainly for games. If there is a demand for this, I will focus a lot of my energy in this direction. Also I would be looking for others to add collections for sale, as well as give away some free models. My question(s) are this. a) Is this a good idea? b)what should be included-- texture? animations? Please give me feedback here c)would custom character design appeal to anyone? :) If there is big demand, I start right away. Thanks! |
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| Considering I am completely useless when it comes to creating my own models, I would be very interested. Also, I would be very interested in ANY models from houseplants to aliens to medieval castles etc. I require all sorts! Just be wary of competition there really are lots of websitse offering similar stuff. |
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| This sounds like a good idea to me. I know a lot of people (including myself) don't really like 3d modelling, so I think it would be great to offer a good place for people to get models. The only thing I would suggest is that you should not make them too expensive, and that they are royalty free. Also I would definatly want textures included, or at least already be UV mapped, so I can make my own textures. |
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| a) Is this a good idea? Yes. Lack of media is clearly a big stumbling block for many Blitzers. b)what should be included-- texture? animations? Please give me feedback here If it's a character, yes, it should include animations and textures, because people who can't model almost certainly won't be into rigging a character and/or UV mapping it. c)would custom character design appeal to anyone? Yes, but custom work is going to be expensive for you, and considering the amount of money the average Blitz game earns, there isn't a lot of money going around. If you can find a way of doing it reasonably cheaply, then go for it. I can model my own stuff, but it's still a time consuming business and I would certainly consider buying models if I could find what I wanted at a decent price. |
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| Fair enough. What would be a *decent* price range? I was thinking anywhere from 5-50$ depending on the complexity of the model, texturing, and animation. I need to know what type of models people are looking for? Also are buildings needed? Since I am an architecture student, buildings just may be my specialty! Once I have a bunch of things together I will do free stuff too. I am not a money hungry hog just trying to get cash. I really would like to upgrade my equipment, get better software, and stay alive since I work independantly :) But mainly I would do it because I really enjoy it and could spend day after day just producing :) Since Im new to game programming, what would be standard animation sequences? waiting, running, jumping, dieing? So many possibilities. Thanks for the suggestions so far! It sounds like this should be a go. Also, I was thinking of offering various ranges of detail for the models, none being over 800. Maybe the same model could be offered in 200, 400, or 800 , depending on the detail you want or the speed you want in your game? Of course 200 count would need an incredibly UV map to strut its glory :) |
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| Characters are the biggest problem most people have. I would say that buildings are of limited use since most games want unique building. Of course a select of exteriors for use in sim city/ command and conquer games may be useful but characters are definately what most people want. As for detail i would say that most people will expect 800 polygons to be the minimum amount. Most of my characters tend to be in the 1200 range and that is fine for use in blitz. I just need to make a character based game now :) |
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| you should have a free bit where ppl can donate their models if they want :D |
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| Absolutely! I would imagine I would have it all together by the end of summer ( I know that its a little ways from now, but its a lot of work, and I dont like throwing something together with no content :) ) The suggestions are great! Please keep them coming while this is in the preliminary stage :) |
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| bombone, There are 21694 website (still growing) that offers that for free/sell. Don't think: I can make much money , you can't :( Why: real game designers (make games for money) make things self because they have a one or more 3D-2D Designer('s) The people who going to buy thinks are people who don't want/can't make 3d models. But they don't buy a expensive ($5) model because they can get it for free on the very big internet. But if you have the time and good connections and very very very good models then you make a change in this hard world :) ---end message |
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| There are not lots of websites selling/giving away this stuff. Very few sites sell nigh quality, low poly models. Most of the sites have high poly, low quality models. I agree with Binary Moon that 800 polys should be the bare minimum for a character. I also aim for around 1200, and I have one that's 1500. Anything more than that I find is wasted without support for weighted bones in Blitz. Buildings will probably be of limited use, but internal stuff like low-poly furniture might well be popular. I bought a couple of packs of low poly furniture from Geometricks, but the price is VERY high unless I render them for use in a 2d game. Vehicles are usually popular, but they're not so hard to model and there are more floating around. I'd imagine characters would be your most popular stuff. |
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| I agree that while there are many sites giving away/selling 3D models, very few are of a high quality or designed for use in games. Characters in particular are VERY hard to come by (whereas I know of a few sites/model packs for stuff like weapons and vehicles.) This is why I had been thinking of opening an online shop to sell animated low-pol characters designed for use in Blitz. It's still an idea I am considering but the project has been postponed (possibly indefinitely unfortunately) while I work on other things. And don't be fooled by his referring to $5 as expensive. Maybe sold as a bundle individual models would be that cheap but individually you should probably price models around $20-25 (same as you would for a shareware game.) I'm assuming it is of a high quality and includes textures and animation (otherwise nobody will buy the model for any price.) |
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| What are more popular ideas for characters? Since characters seem to be the overall consensus of requested models, what types would be good? Soldier, Fighter, standard, muscular? So many kinds.... Alien? Dog? Dinosaur? Robot? OR all of them :) |
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| Perhaps a good starting point would be a Generic Male and Female in skin tight lycra appearance. I'm not really a modeller so I'm maybe talking rubbish here but would it be possible to add in a few extra vertex at strategic places so they can be modified or scaled to a certain extent.For example you could have a pair of vertex circles around the thigh where short trousers would end - one set could then be extruded slightly if required.You could do the same around the ankle area as well for long trousers. This would increase the polycount but it would be more versatile. If you include with the textures a UV template then people could create their own custom textures as well. I'm sure people would be more willing to buy models 'off the shelf' so to speak if they were confident that they could customise it to some degree. |
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| Do you mean someone that would have the model would open it up in a modeling package and extrude the vertices from there? Or, are you talking about doing it within blitz3d? If it is done with blitz, I would need to find out more about how it is done in blitz from a veteran user. Also, there is no problem including a uv template file and a file explaining what parts of the template affect specific parts of the model. |
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| The changes would have to be made in a modelling program. If designed with this in mind then your model could be used either just as it comes or as a base mesh tweakable by the user. The problem with creating finished models is that you would probalbly have to build quite a large number while catering cater for each individual. If you produce a generic model then you can put all your efforts into making That one model and animation. |
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| well I plan on making hundreds of them.. but I think some should be generic but enough detail so that a new texturemap would make an entirely different character. Before opening the site to the public, I am going to have a nice collection first. Like I said before, this will probably happen in August. (thus giving me enough time to make a whole lot of models) Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated, and I thank all who have posted, this feedback will help make a nice place run by the people for the people. |
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| How about some basic character types, with a variety of textures: Sci-Fi Army type 'Normal' (ie. Tshirt & Jeans) Fantasy/Medieval Ensure male/Female versions of both! |
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| im writing a section on my website / blitzbasic it will have a small place for uploading and download models. it will be for registered users only. So wait untill then. iv just started it.. but the link is inactive Should i resume work faster? http://www.neomancer.co.uk/ |
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| "well I plan on making hundreds of them..." This would be why I am postponing my art store, because it will take a long time to create the models to sell. Bombone, I don't know if you have ever done a character model but it takes a LOT of time. Remember, besides the model you have to do textures (this is the most time consuming part really) and animation. While you can (and should) start with a smaller library of the most common characters people would want and add additional models over time to fill out the library, even an initial rollout of ten characters (about the minimum I would consider to start such a store) will take a lot of work to prepare. To give you some numbers, creating a character model of high quality so that people will want to purchase it will take several days working full time (longer if you're working part time and/or you haven't done many character models before.) Thus between now (and I mean RIGHT now, if you started today) and August, assuming you are doing this full time AND already have skill/experience creating low pol characters, you would really have to hustle in order to complete 10 characters. And even then the models may not be good enough to sell if you weren't very good at character models to begin with. To give you some reference on quality, look in the Interactive section of my website. If/when I get around to creating my store I'll be shooting for a level of quality similar to the Organist but at a minimum the Motorbike Rider is probably high enough quality to sell. |
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| Mr Hocking, You have many good and true things to say in your email above. I have been doing 3d modeling in Architecture for 3 years now and have played with modeling a year or two before that. I have recencly started character modeling when I decided I wanted to learn to write games as a hobby. I am interested in making character modeling my profession since I really enjoy doing it a whole lot. I have made a couple models in the last few weeks and was surprised at the results. One of the characters I made was an Easter Island statue, nicely textured, in about 8 hours. The result was that the model look exactly like the picture and I was very impressed. I believe the years of modeling Architecture helped me really understand the world of 3d, so I should not have much problem. Also since I have been texturing buildings very carefully (not just slapping on a repeated texture), I find texturing a character is a similar process. The only department that needs study is the animation part. Last week I created an animated spider and I think the results were pretty good. I am surprised at the response this forum has received in a day. Perhaps my idea to do this professionally is possible. I would also like to know what types of animations are common? It helps from the start to understand the minimum requirements so you can go beyond! Thanks again everyone. |
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