Character Model Development

So after considering how I want to animate my game in Flash, I previously talked about developing a universal character model which can take multiple character skins being mapped onto the structure of the model itself. I thought that the benefit of doing this was great because actually having a character model means that any character that is reflected in game carries off a unique but continuous style throughout the game. I wanted to keep everything very consistent, but add lots of variety within that.

So here is a preview of the original character model developed further. On the left, there is an Illustrator improved version of the original bitmap character model in the middle. I want the graphics to be sharper, and converting my model to a vector graphic will keep the high quality I want to see in the game. I'm still wondering whether the Illustrator vector can be copied onto my scene effectively and preserve all of the separate elements of that character such as the arms, legs, etc.

You can also compare this to actually developing a skin for the character model which can be seen to the right. This vector is supposed to be a cartoon reflection of myself, wearing a white shirt and black trousers (I haven't worked around getting them to look like black jeans yet, but oh well), and white trainers. Although the model itself admittedly may deserve more detail, you can see how the basic character model has more or less been stuck to for this version, and I'm wanting to do this for the rest of my characters as I think there will be a genuine consistency and really nice value coming out of this.

The detail in the "skinned" model may need more work, but as I mentioned previously I'm unsure whether I am able to import my vectors into flash whilst preserving groups ready to be animated. If all of the layers become referenced as one, I can only animate and map controls to a static image, which isn't what I want (unless it's a statue fighting game). I'll be updating a little more as to how I came to my character model conclusion some other time in my blog.