zOMG! Behind the Scenes - 3D Model Creation

[The Rainbow Flavor]

The null looks so cool in 3D. O.O

[Mavdoc]

OMFG Taylor

:O

What is the benefit of creating everything in 3D first? Since everything ends up being 2D anyways, why not just draw them that way?

We debated back and forth which route to take when the project first started, and ultimately chose to go 3D. Here are some of the reasons:

1) If everything was 2D painted, it would be very hard to match drawing/painting styles throughout the game, and the world would look patchwork.

2) To be able to get that same tight degree of rendering with shadows and small details for instance, it would take a lot of work for the artist painting. We tend to have a saying working on zOMG! that to get an area to 80-90% complete, it takes 50% of the time, and to fully finish it with all the attention to details, the last 10-20% actually takes 50% of the time. So hand painting in 2D would actually take quite a while to get it to the same level as the current 3D rendered world.

3) Not enough artists are experienced enough (or have the interest) to paint everything in 2D to the level that we're striving for. It's not where enough artist's interests lie, and they would tend to get burned out creating so much content.

4) Editing is much easier in 3D. Turn a model a few degrees, quickly edit a wall or create a new one, or just tweak landscape because it's not working right because of pathfinding, enemy AI, room transition or collision. These are things we had to do a lot over the course of making the game. The ability to easily reuse assets in different ways helped a great deal too. Otherwise they'd need to be painted from scratch each time, and hope they'd never need to be changed.

5) Finally the biggest reason was to be ready for 3D if the company ever decided to go that route. It was hard to say if Flash or web browsers several years in the future would be able to handle 3D much better than they did at the time, and the idea of transitioning everything to 3D eventually was something that we wanted to prepare for if that day ever came. If we built this whole huge world of zOMG! in 2D, then one day decided to go 3D... we'd have to throw everything out and start from square one.

Even with all these reasons, it still wasn't a 100% clear cut decision that we pursue 3D instead of 2D, since we had no idea what the future would hold. In the end though weighing all the options, we decided that 3D was the best course of action.

[dilann]

Mavdoc

OMFG Taylor

:O

What is the benefit of creating everything in 3D first? Since everything ends up being 2D anyways, why not just draw them that way?

We debated back and forth which route to take when the project first started, and ultimately chose to go 3D. Here are some of the reasons:

1) If everything was 2D painted, it would be very hard to match drawing/painting styles throughout the game, and the world would look patchwork.

2) To be able to get that same tight degree of rendering with shadows and small details for instance, it would take a lot of work for the artist painting. We tend to have a saying working on zOMG! that to get an area to 80-90% complete, it takes 50% of the time, and to fully finish it with all the attention to details, the last 10-20% actually takes 50% of the time. So hand painting in 2D would actually take quite a while to get it to the same level as the current 3D rendered world.

3) Not enough artists are experienced enough (or have the interest) to paint everything in 2D to the level that we're striving for. It's not where enough artist's interests lie, and they would tend to get burned out creating so much content.

4) Editing is much easier in 3D. Turn a model a few degrees, quickly edit a wall or create a new one, or just tweak landscape because it's not working right because of pathfinding, enemy AI, room transition or collision. These are things we had to do a lot over the course of making the game. The ability to easily reuse assets in different ways helped a great deal too. Otherwise they'd need to be painted from scratch each time, and hope they'd never need to be changed.

5) Finally the biggest reason was to be ready for 3D if the company ever decided to go that route. It was hard to say if Flash or web browsers several years in the future would be able to handle 3D much better than they did at the time, and the idea of transitioning everything to 3D eventually was something that we wanted to prepare for if that day ever came. If we built this whole huge world of zOMG! in 2D, then one day decided to go 3D... we'd have to throw everything out and start from square one.

Even with all these reasons, it still wasn't a 100% clear cut decision that we pursue 3D instead of 2D, since we had no idea what the future would hold. In the end though weighing all the options, we decided that 3D was the best course of action.

does this mean that in the near future some areas in zOMG will be in 3D?

[Mavdoc]

Valheita

Kaitan Guo

Ohmagaaawd, I wish we could get an uber fullsize version of the null chamber to oggle at. It looks amazing from a different angle than the one we're all so accustomed to. *A*

Agreed o.o;;

The next "Behind the Scenes" posting I do will be pretty light on visuals I think, so maybe I could take that opportunity to post images of some of the things you guys have been requesting for the past several weeks. biggrin

[Mavdoc]

gataka

Good to hear. I need to catch up >.>
I'm aiming for Overlord Game Designer.
This means I need to get an understanding of everything involved.
From coding to music. Which is great 'cause I love it all.
And would do it all if that was sane.
Anyway.

@Mavdoc: I doubt you'll answer this... An example of an entirely in house area? >.>
And I can't wrap my mind around the amount of painted surface this represents. Urg.

Sure, I'll post something that was created totally inside Gaia at some point. smile

[Mavdoc]

dilann

Mavdoc

OMFG Taylor

:O

What is the benefit of creating everything in 3D first? Since everything ends up being 2D anyways, why not just draw them that way?

We debated back and forth which route to take when the project first started, and ultimately chose to go 3D. Here are some of the reasons:

1) If everything was 2D painted, it would be very hard to match drawing/painting styles throughout the game, and the world would look patchwork.

2) To be able to get that same tight degree of rendering with shadows and small details for instance, it would take a lot of work for the artist painting. We tend to have a saying working on zOMG! that to get an area to 80-90% complete, it takes 50% of the time, and to fully finish it with all the attention to details, the last 10-20% actually takes 50% of the time. So hand painting in 2D would actually take quite a while to get it to the same level as the current 3D rendered world.

3) Not enough artists are experienced enough (or have the interest) to paint everything in 2D to the level that we're striving for. It's not where enough artist's interests lie, and they would tend to get burned out creating so much content.

4) Editing is much easier in 3D. Turn a model a few degrees, quickly edit a wall or create a new one, or just tweak landscape because it's not working right because of pathfinding, enemy AI, room transition or collision. These are things we had to do a lot over the course of making the game. The ability to easily reuse assets in different ways helped a great deal too. Otherwise they'd need to be painted from scratch each time, and hope they'd never need to be changed.

5) Finally the biggest reason was to be ready for 3D if the company ever decided to go that route. It was hard to say if Flash or web browsers several years in the future would be able to handle 3D much better than they did at the time, and the idea of transitioning everything to 3D eventually was something that we wanted to prepare for if that day ever came. If we built this whole huge world of zOMG! in 2D, then one day decided to go 3D... we'd have to throw everything out and start from square one.

Even with all these reasons, it still wasn't a 100% clear cut decision that we pursue 3D instead of 2D, since we had no idea what the future would hold. In the end though weighing all the options, we decided that 3D was the best course of action.

does this mean that in the near future some areas in zOMG will be in 3D?

Nope, we have no plans currently to do anything in 3D.

[OMFG Taylor]

Incredibly interesting, Mavdoc, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us!

[Ungoliath]

And you took some time answer! Great.

As a silly question, how much time takes the outsourced company to model everything in 3D? What do you give them? Concept artwork?

So, you guys give them the stuff, they model and you later apply the textures, right?

[IVatsu]

whoa. -claps-

[IVatsu]

do our avatars get an intense 3D look too?

[Zerberius]

I want this!

[Zerberius]

and yeah maybe our avatar's may get a 3d look but if that happenes then zOMG being 3d would take longer to complete I think

[Psyri]

The Lady Delerium and I talk often...

Thanks for showing us your hard work, it's nice to see how it's done heart

... well the inspiration comes from somewhere.

[Mavdoc]

Ungoliath

And you took some time answer! Great.

As a silly question, how much time takes the outsourced company to model everything in 3D? What do you give them? Concept artwork?

So, you guys give them the stuff, they model and you later apply the textures, right?

We give them concept artwork, and depending on the size of the job (prop vs. environment), they usually have a turnaround time of several weeks to a month or more. They also do the textures, and usually follow the painting style of the concepts very closely. Even to the point where sometimes they'll actually use parts of the concept as textures.