Jason Zirpolo takes you through the steps of creating a game character and modeling realistic running movements for it. This article is based on a lecture that he gave at this spring's Game Developers Conference on the same subject. Joel Boucquemont is a french-educated digital artist and painter currently living in San Francisco. His past work includes game art for Papyrus, EA, Psygnosis, and now Akita Software - not to mention promotional work for a tattoo artist. Todd runs RealEyz Imaging and does effects for film as well as web design, game design, and 3D animation and modeling.
Video is one of the most commonly used and least understood elements of modern computer games.
When used well, it can create mood, set up game play, introduce characters and foward narrative. When used poorly, it can rip you out of the game faster than a direct rocket-launcher hit during a deathmatch. Studying human anatomy can help you improve both your aesthetic quality and the technical functionality of your character models. Creating backgrounds for 2D games is easy. You create a bunch of bitmaps in your favorite paint program and you're done.