When 3-D designers, game studios, or CG production houses design a new character, they often invest significant resources.
Iconic characters can come to represent a game or even an entire studio. And that's to say nothing of the merchandising and other opportunities for characters if a game really takes off.
Because of the high stakes, it's essential for studios to get character design right. Good character design is no longer just a matter of creating a visually appealing 3-D model.
Throughout a game franchise or production, a character might appear in a wide variety of different environments and lighting conditions. Different scenes might have different weather, for example, or take place during different times of the day.
Savvy game studios and production houses are increasingly testing their character models in various real-world lighting conditions and weather conditions before moving them into production.
These character look tests are an important part of the overall character design process. They ensure that character models will look great when textured, rigged, lit, and placed in nearly any environment.
Real-World Lighting for Character Look Tests
Imagine that you've created an exciting new character concept for an upcoming FPS game. You create a character model in a 3D design tool, rig your character, finalize your topology and add textures.
When creating a moodboard or otherwise presenting your character, your natural inclination is probably to light the model in a way that shows off the textures and topology in as ideal a way as possible.
That's a good start, but what if your character ends up appearing in a scene with challenging lighting conditions in your actual game or production?
Maybe your character will appear in a scene on a stormy day. Or what if they appear in a moody street scene lit by colorful neon signs?
A reflective metal texture that looked great in your original study might not look so good with tons of jarring, colorful lighting. Or you might not see it at all in a night scene.
That's why many studios are now testing character models in a variety of real-world lighting conditions. This process helps 3D designers and other stakeholders visualize how a character will look, no matter the conditions that the model is ultimately placed into. Organizations like our friends at CAVE Academy (featured in the image above) offer courses on the technique.
Using HDRi Maps for Character Look Tests
If you want to test your character models in a variety of real-world lighting conditions, where do you get the data to simulate those conditions?
Many studios are now using HDRi Maps to import real-world lighting conditions into their 3D rendering tools, allowing them to test characters on rainy days, sunny days, night scenes, and everything in between .
Professionally produced HDRi Maps, like the premium HDRi Environments and HDRi Maps we license here at CGI Backgrounds , include image-based lighting data.
When photographers capture the HDRi Map in a real-world place, they capture visuals, but also exacting data on the lighting conditions present in the actual scene. All of this data is stored in the HDRi Map, and in the case of our RAY.HDR maps , is fully calibrated.
All that data comes in handy when doing character look tests. 3D designers can import their character models into 3D rendering software, download a variety of HDRi Maps for different lighting conditions, and quickly apply those real-world lighting conditions to their model.
This allows 3D designers to quickly see how their prospective character will look in a variety of conditions. By choosing the appropriate HDRi Map, designers can simulate the lighting on rainy days, bright sunny days, overcast days, and more.
They can even simulate different times of day for the same scene, visualizing how their characters look with different sun angles and light color temperatures.
Because collections like ours include a variety of night HDRi Maps, designers can also see how their character model will look with street lighting, urban lighting, and more.
Once designers have seen how their character looks in different lighting conditions, they can tweak textures, change topologies, or make other changes so that their character model matches the intended look and feel of their game or production.
Using HDRi Map for Visuals
In the cases described above, the designer would use the HDRi Map only for the embedded lighting data. Of course, the designer can also use the visuals in a map to place their character into a real-world location.
For example, a designer working on a character for an FPS could place their character model into a warehouse or urban setting.
This could help to visualize how the character might look in a game environment, as well as light the character automatically using the image-based lighting data in the HDRi Map.
Using the visuals in an HDRi Map can be a great tool if a final game environment has not yet been designed.
Although HDRi Map lighting data can be easily imported into popular engines, such as the Unreal Engine, in some cases at the very early stages of the design process, it's helpful to see a character both lit and visualized in a real-world environment.
HDRi Maps are the perfect fit for that. They’re also a helpful tool when designing mood boards to showcase your characters.
Conclusion
Using image-based lighting data, or lighting and visual data, to perform character look studies is a great way for game studios and production houses to get a fuller sense of their characters before moving into production.
Testing characters in a variety of leading conditions gives designers the confidence to know that their character will look their best no matter what virtual environment they are ultimately placed into.
If anything looks out of place in a given lighting scenario, they can make tweaks at an early stage before they become more costly and time-consuming.
Using HDRi Maps for character look studies is a helpful practice for 3D designers at agencies of all sizes. With our new Freelance plan , even freelance character designers can access premium HDRi Map with full IBL data for an inexpensive monthly subscription.
Check out our plans and pricing page to learn more about options for obtaining HDRi Map for your own character look studies, and subscribe to our newsletter for more information on innovative uses of HDRi Maps.
