How to Make the Most of a 3D Human Model?

Game Low-poly

As part of the game development team, you’re tasked with creating low-polygon assets. For example, suppose you’re designing a non-playable character (NPC) for an open-world game. Creating a low-polygon version of the character ensures optimal performance in the game engine. In addition, this reduction in polygon count doesn’t compromise the overall appearance, as the character maintains its recognizable features and design.

Texturing (PBR)

In an architectural visualization (ArchViz) project, you’re working on a lifelike virtual tour of a newly constructed building. You get excellent human scans, but they must be even better to match the realism in your ArchViz. A sure way to do this is to apply physically-based materials and textures to the 3D human models within the scene. By utilizing PBR (Physically-Based Rendering) techniques, you ensure that light interacts with the surfaces realistically, resulting in accurate reflections, shadows, and overall visual fidelity.

However, most scans have only a captured diffuse map that makes the model look flat and plastic. So how do you create the remaining maps needed for a realistic PBR model? 

Rigging

As a VFX artist, you’re animating a character for a film. Rigging plays a crucial role in this process. First, you add a skeletal rig to the 3D human model, enabling you to manipulate and animate its movements. This rig allows you to control the character’s limbs, joints, and muscles, bringing it to life through dynamic and believable actions. Sounds simple. 

Well, not really. Rigging a character can be a daunting process with many pitfalls that can ruin the performance of your rig later.

Beauty Rendering

Suppose you’re working on a product visualization project showcasing a range of clothing items. You set up appropriate lighting, shading, and rendering parameters to highlight these garments effectively. By carefully adjusting these elements, you create visually appealing images or videos, emphasizing the clothing’s materials, colours, and textures while seamlessly integrating the 3D human models into the visual presentation.

The realism here is vital in portraying the right message; having well-created geometry and PBR textures will help you achieve that.

Animation

Imagine you’re developing an e-commerce platform allowing customers to customize and preview clothing items. To engage users, you animate the 3D human models wearing different outfits. This animation showcases various body movements, such as walking, running, or even specific actions like raising an arm or bending down. These animations provide an interactive and immersive experience for customers, helping them visualize the fit and style of the clothing items. But how do you do that? Animation steps on the back of a good re-topology, rigging and PBR textures. Having all those done right will set you for the best chances to create a fascinating animation that will wow your audience.