Alternate post title: Blame EventHubs.
A while back, there was a post mentioning
something called EF-12 -- some sort of program/engine/witchcraft that could,
reportedly, let anyone make their own fighting game. It sounded interesting, but time slipped away
from me, I jumped head-first into other stuff, and above all else I wasn’t
entirely sure if I wanted to bog myself down with something as big as making a
fighting game, even if it was the easiest thing in the world. The fact that you have to micromanage frames
for every character and worry about competitive balance means that I feel no
envy for the guys at Capcom Keep.
Still, I kept the prospect in the back of my
mind. And when talk of other, similar
programs popped up elsewhere (Siliconera’s mentioned a few), I thought back to
EF-12. Making a good fighting game can’t
be easy, but at least with those you don’t have to worry about making a
fully-functional world as you would in an RPG.
So one day I decided to look up EF-12 on YouTube to see what people were
doing with it.
I’ll save you some trouble and say that the
products of EF-12 are pretty much a Tekken
knockoff with no shortage of anime, video game, and Final Fantasy/Kingdom Hearts characters -- so basically, it
delivers exactly what it promises and puts a 3D MUGEN in the hands of the
people. What piqued my interest was a
mention in a tutorial video; it’s one thing to have EF-12, but another to have
the program that lets you make your potential characters. In this case?
Blender. And…well, you know where
this is headed, right?
Yep. I’ve
got Blender now (it’s a 100% free download), and I’ve been messing around with
it for a few weeks. Like anything
involving computers, it’s intimidating at first -- to the point of warding off
any potential newcomers -- but the tradeoff is that it’s deceptively easy to
learn how to use. Well, sort of. I’m not saying that as a guy who’s mastered
the program, but with the rudimentary skills I’ve picked up, I can at least do
more than I ever thought I could.
It’s pretty much a given that you can use Blender
to make some amazing stuff, but I grabbed it as a way to render characters
first and foremost. And while I’ve got a
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG way to go before my final products end up looking…you know,
good…I’ve at least taken steps toward
cracking open the black box of 3D modeling.
Most recently, I’ve tried experimenting with low-poly models.
The first thing you’ll note about Blender: you can
start with something as basic as a cube.
Okay. You
know in the new Smash Bros. one of
Little Mac’s costumes has him as a wireframe?
Imagine that, only applied to the cube -- except you’re the one who can
apply that to the cube with whatever frequency you wish. Or to put it a different way, you can create
plenty of vertices -- points you can push, pull, tug, and more -- so you can
create a basic shape. You can do the
same with the faces, so you can build a body just by manipulating the pieces of
your cube.
And you can take it a step further when it comes
to limbs. Like this:
The thing about Blender, I suspect, is that
sometimes you have to figure out puzzles -- that is, how to bring what’s in
your head (or in a drawing) to life. Is
it possible? Of course. But at this stage, and for me, that involves
a fair bit of trial and error. How the
heck do you make a low-poly afro? I gave
it a shot, but the initial results were less than ideal. So I trashed the hair. And at some point, I went back and worked on
the head.
As you can guess, it’s better to make the body
before you make the clothes. So I did
exactly that -- which is simple enough to do when you’re going for the most
basic of basic models. So eventually, I
ended up with this.
Looks familiar?
It should.
There’s still more to be done with that model, of
course; it’s no accident that it has no color, because that involves several
additional steps. And now I’m not too
keen on the hair, so I might do that over.
…Which I’ll show RIGHT NOW! (Because that’s what happens when you write
posts like this nearly two months before the post date.)
But the important thing is that, even if I’m only
Level 2 or 3 with my Blender skills, I have a new tool at my disposal. What’ll come of it? What can I do with it? I don’t know.
There’s no guarantee I’ll have anything to show for it months down the
line.
But I could be wrong. You probably already know this by now, but 3D
models can be used for some very
interesting stuff. Maybe someday,
I’ll give that stuff a try. No promises,
but I’d be lying if I said the prospects weren’t tantalizing. If nothing else, I know how to toss out JPEGs
of my characters. That one’s a
simplified version, but even at this stage I can do things that are simple…
And a bit more…intricate.
Breathless gasp!
Who is this mysterious character?
And will we ever see more of her?
No, probably not, because by the time you read this, she’ll have already
gone through several redesigns (and she’ll probably look better vis a vis the
render; admittedly this was just a practice run, and that face is looking roooooooooooooooooooough -- no thanks to
a camera that went all fish-eye lens on me for some reason). All things considered, you’re slightly more likely to see this guy
first.
Or this lady.
Or maybe even this kid.
Now who are these
people? Eh, probably nobody. Or maybe EVERYBODY! I don’t know.
We’ll see. We will most certainly
see.
I’ll tell you one thing Blender’s good for at this
very moment: being the subject of a filler housekeeping post.
…
…I need a distraction. Drive, you're up!
Interesting stuff. I will have to check this out. I've never heard of EF-12.
ReplyDeleteNo surprises on EF-12. It got mentioned in an EventHubs post a while back, but as far as I know, nothing substantial has come from it besides some videos on YouTube. I'm guessing that it has its audience, but it doesn't seem like it has the traction of something like MUGEN. Maybe if it became a platform for SaltyBet...?
ReplyDeleteIn any case, glad you found this stuff interesting. I don't know exactly what'll come from me using Blender -- and whether or not I'll get good enough with it to avoid fracturing my skull in the uncanny valley -- but the prospects are exciting.
If nothing else, I've gained a newfound respect for game developers. Clearly, there's a REASON why it takes months, if not years, for something to come out.
If you can make a gold cock and balls in blender, then there is no more that is needed to be learned.
ReplyDeleteYou know, the sad thing is that I could probably do something like that right now. I could even take it to the next level and add the requisite hairs.
ReplyDeleteIt'd probably be the greatest piece of art the world will ever know.
Make it so.
ReplyDeleteYou make a compelling argument. I'll see if I can add it to my to-do list.
ReplyDelete