Introduction
Since February that I’ve been a member of the first online community developed video-game ever
The Project Topsecret from Acclaim.
During 6 months (in and out… Man! There been already 6 months O_O) I’ve modeled and Texture, for the devhat team, 2 characters (a mount and a rider) during my free time.
IMPORTANT (to keep in mind :P): All the models in the next images are rendered shadeless. The shading you see is painted directly in the texture. Click in the images for the HighRes version.
Modeled and textured by Rogério Perdiz
Original character design by Project Topsecret artist ryorev13
4500 Polygons; 1 image texture with 1024*1024 pixels
P.S. “by Project Topsecret artist” it’s a temp name, as soon I find the names of the artists that made the conceptual drawings I’ll replace it.
How:
mjuricek77 posted here at Blender Artist the news of an online community game being created. At the time I had just finished Orion Tear and was waiting for the Lisbon cinema festival results, so I thought “What the heck, let’s see what is this all about."
In the same day that I’ve introduce myself, the producer of the devhat team, known there as sookie (you can read an interview he gave here), shown me an awesome conceptual drawing of a character… I loved it! …So, after prove that I could do low poly work :evilgrin:, I jumped to it right away. After that I, more or less, quit and rejoin the team several times until all this was eventually done 
Modeled and textured by Rogério Perdiz
Original character design by Project Topsecret artist Espritu
2500 Polygons; 1 image texture with 1024*1024 pixels
The process:
I really never had made low poly work before, but I didn’t think it would matter; after all I like to say that “if one can model something it can model anything”.
Well it’s true, but I still had some problems hehe
First thing I’ve learned is that faces aren’t the same as polygons. Faces can have 4 or 3 sides wile polys have always 3 sides… This came up when I show them a head with almost the max poly count I could use (2500), wile saying something like: “It’s good isn’t it! And it only as this Few polys!”… Of course I was counting faces.
For videogames it seems that it’s preferable to model in triangles instead of quads, because the game engines only work in triangles (quads are converted to 2 triangles), which can be complicated. The Rider I made him using mostly quads, but for the Mount I’ve tried to model it using a combination of triangles and quads. I guess I was more or less successful.
One complicated thing to do was the textures, more exactly the seams, because all the shading in the models is painted, so it was extremely difficult to have the exact same color in the end of each seam. The 3d Paint tool of blender helped allot, but it still works a little bit clunky and more undo levels would be great. I had to go in and out Blender and Gimp, like paint in Gimp, retouch in Blender, retouch in Gimp, paint more in Gimp, retouch in Blender… countless times until it looked more or less ok. Also problematic was the fact I was used to work in 4k textures or multi textures and here the max is 1k, so I really had to count the brush strokes
Modeled and textured by Rogério Perdiz
Original character design by Project Topsecret artist Espritu
Cloth design by Rogério Perdiz
Trunks, 1 image with 512512 pixels; shoes, 1 image with 512512 pixels; Jacket, 1 image with 1024*1024 pixels
The Inkscape:
One application that this time I gave intensive use was the Inkscape.
In Orion Tear I’ve used it mostly for the menus that show up at the beginning and in the end credits, but here all the textures beauty pass were created in Inkscape and then imported to Gimp to give them shading, bumps and basely look “real”.
Every thing you see in the textures was vector drawn in Inkscape, every stitch in the shoes, trunks… the pockets, buttons, the metal stuff in the Riders body, the Mount eyes, etc. All the textures where created from nothing in it. Take a look at the back pocket Zip in the black trunks ^^ it’s drawn… the side pocket it’s drawn ^^ hehe you get the point it’s all drawn.
Modeled and textured by Rogério Perdiz
Original character and cloth design by Project Topsecret artists Espritu, ryorev13 and Asurael
Hood, 1 image with 512512pixels; suit, 1 image with 10241024 pixels
Conclusion:
Like always I’ve learned allot in the way and, after all, learning is my paycheck 
Thanks allot to sookie, the best and more dedicated producer I’ve worked for, for quickly clarifying my doubts.
Sorry my English and hope that you guys enjoy the game ^^
If you have questions (about my work, for info about the project it’s better you take a look to the project home page), I’ll be around ^~
Ja né.
-Rogério-
Edit: sookie still has allot of tasks to be done, so if you’re interested in enter to the videogames history books, he can use your help
Edit: Xmas 2010: And finally here are the models: http://rogper.wordpress.com/2010/12/15/tscharacters-released/
