minty-macaroni - Tumblr blog

minty-macaroni · 9 months ago

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one day i'll stop thinking about everything through the lens of "what if a videogame?" but today is not that day

“What if the sleep token guys were turned into game characters tech eval” nobody asked for but my thoughts are very loud so I need to get it out. Thank you.

Pre-amble, context, I work as a rigger in videogames. I’ve done this job for over a decade now. There’s enough tech now that it's increasingly easy to tolerate more and more complex costumes at runtime but sometimes some things are more of a pain in the ass than others. Also, sometimes there are things you WANT to do to videogame characters. Sometimes things are trends because concept artists can’t resist. Sometimes you want things to be cheaper to get in the game. Over the years (2014-) some of that has changed. However, it means that a lot of my life (i’m 31, been in games since I was 20) has been working with concept artists to achieve different silhouettes and customization that won’t bust at runtime.

Every industry of course is considering this for costume design–movies, plays, etc. This isn’t new. I recognize this isn’t specific to games, it's just that I tend to be the one whining about games-costume restrictions. For instance, did you know every EVERY SINGLE MCU hero is secretly wearing a vest? They are. It's so the chest detailing looks good when they move their arms and shoulders. But movies often will have some stuff that would be a pain in the ass to do at runtime - many strands of straps (collision wouldn’t work well at runtime), irregularly shaped dangling pieces (how many collision capsules are you investing on here), a level of detailing that won’t deform well with 4 influences per vertex (trust me).

However.

The Sleep Token guys fucking look like perfect videogame characters–moreso since III got his new look. Look, I KNOW that’s not why they’re doing it and I’m prone to running around looking at everything from High Fashion to what random people are wearing waiting for the bus and thinking “how would I rig that for runtime?” But? Like? I’d greenlight every single one of those outfits if a concept artist wanted that at 60fps in pretty much any type of franchise I’ve worked on (action rpg, 3p shooter, 1p shooter, flight sim (although we’d need to talk about the robes/capes and the enviro collision at high speeds), and horror 3p). I recognize that a lot of this overlap is probably due to the mobility (range of motion), packability (on the go), durability (many shows), and shared aesthetic. BUT I NEED TO TALK ABOUT IT. I NEED TO.

But this is tumblr. And maybe once I talk about it I can stop thinking about it. Continue reading for a costume-breakdown-for-game-tech that nobody nobody asked for haha

Let’s start with Vessel.

Fur on cloth sim is typically impossible at runtime. I joke about it A LOT being my nemesis. Cloth sim and fur tend to compete either in how they’re rending or when they’re processing. So often when an art director is like “I want a fur cape” (every game, without fail) we riggers beg and beg so they make it really short so we can cheat it with a bone chain. SOUND!? FAMILIAR!? (Gestures at fur cape). This is true either with hair cards (the hair cards can look real weird on the cloth or be pretty untenable to maintain) or with new strand based hair tech and how it follows the cloth sim-at least in the tech sets I've used. Maybe this was a real life weight issue, maybe it was a silhouette issue, maybe it was a 2-sided issue, but yep I’d rig it.

At runtime, cloth can sometimes get tangled on legs and look bad. You see this a lot with long cloth that gets kicked by the low-leg (calf and shin) a lot. It just introduces too much movement and visual noise especially if you’ve got characters doing superpowered shit. Vessel, though? His cape/robe at the back ends just behind his knees so while the lowest part of the cloth reacts just right. Beautiful. Amazing deformation. The change of costume from his older cape to the current cut just makes for some excellent movement; I’m fairly sure this is a shared point of concern but I just…love it. I love it. I love seeing things I need to worry about in games happening IRL. (Glares at straight-cut garbs I’ve had to simulate desperately)

Even hoods at runtime tend to be annoying. When you turn your head in game, the fabric pulls (expected) and can cause stretching which can cause clipping between polygons or funky textures. However, the cut and drape of Vessel’s hood (and IVs) has enough extra fabric and is pinned in such a way that wouldn’t happen. Likely for mobility, sure, but again…I’d be like “yes, thank you concept artist, make sure char-art knows to do it exactly like that”. IIs hood is tighter in a way that could cause issues around the neck at runtime, especially the bunching at the neck-but I think iis hood is literally my biggest ‘were in a game' point of contention

Then there’s the fact Vessel got rid of his multiple necklaces. Chain of bones simulating? Easy. Chain of bones simulating with 2 restriction points and collision with other accessories? At 60fps? I think the fuck not.

Moving onto IIIs latest attire, the red vampire look has exactly the same helpful cut and no pleats (pleats are annoying if impossible to do perfectly, especially if the anim/art director wants them to fan out or unfurl). The black velvet blazer thing has a slit in the tail which wouldn't pose much problem but if it did you could sneakily unify it in the sim mesh so the flaps wouldn't be likely to clip. As a side effect of keeping clearance from instrument strings, his wide sleeves on the red blazer stay at a ¾ length but would also be ideal for simulating and not slapping into the hand too much —or, if you’re short on runtime budget, just skinning. Love it. The lace duster also just screams “someone discovered alpha maps and can make things see-through”.

While swinging and simulated movement at runtime for games means added dev time and processing time, generally having abundant secondary (like cloth or physics driven pieces) makes characters look better. If their anim bugs, snaps, or if they don't have a very sophisticated anim logic tree, secondary movement will hide that. Characters with abundant cloth almost always look better at runtime even if the cloth is flimsy, clippy, and inappropriately weighted because the drag and follow-through will still be satisfying to our eyes and brains. Sure, irl cloth is drama, silhouette, fashion, and also feels good to look at but if you are going to design a game character, cloth is the bomb.

III’s new knee laces are distanced enough that they’d be pretty safe in skinning (“skinning” is the process of how to tell what parts of a 3d model to follow what joints/pivot points). I get that they are probably only on the knees in the interest of style or something, but this would also be better for a game character, too. Runtime twists can be fussy due to the linear nature of skinning blending and the difference between how things are in real life (layers shifting over each other) and the simplified meshes we are trying to keep from clipping st runtime. Ok so keeping your leg straight, turn your leg so your foot faces outward; your legs slide inside your fabric but in games, we’re often faking that and sometimes that can be annoying with tight clothes because you can see a falloff in the twist whether its at the ankle or thigh…which? Those? Details? Aren’t That low? Hello! Amazing. Clean ability for runtime deformation. (Chef’s kiss) He’s stopped wearing the checker pattern which, much as I love it, is literally what we use to debug characters when we WANT to spot things breaking in the skinning or the UVs.

Vessel’s leg straps WOULD be a little annoying to do in a leg twist BUT? THE FOOT? IS SEPARATE? FROM? THE WRAPS? I THINK? In theory, for a game setup, you could probably twist the foot with the wrap not quite on the twist bones, or minimal follow. The wraps defs don't extend to the feet, though, (concept artists love a foot wrap) which means the silhouette of the white wrap doesn't risk getting deformed by the ankle. This is almost certainly done so the wraps can layer on freely of the shoe in real life, like… I Know. I. Know. Plus “can I put wraps on it?” is the kind of shit concept artists love, just making it even more video-gamey, like, oh my god how many leg straps have I fought in my life, and if someone wanted that at runtime I would just concede on it and just fight the fussy skinning until ship and hope nobody complains too hard. Again. So game. So videogame. So so so videogame.

III’s footwear tends to either end below ankle (he’s got these like dress shoes) or above ankle (chunky boots) which makes ankle deformation easier, too, if you’re on a lower bone count rig. Amazing. D’you know how much of my life has been “can the boots not end there please?” So much. So much so that when I buy footwear for myself, I (sometimes) buy boots and shoes that wouldn’t work easily at runtime just out of spite in case we are in a simulation. (Sometimes IV seemed to used to wear some footwear that’d be like high-top or mid-high-top sneakers which would qualify as annoying to make work quite right but I don’t think i’ve seen that lately.)

And then III chopped off his hair for fashion because it looks great, I’m sure it had nothing to do with games, I’m like 100% sure it had nothing to do with games, but yknow, going with this tech breakdown idea, let's talk about video-game hair. He's the only one with visible hair. Hair historically was done with cards and faked transparency so it looked like strands but overall we are moving away from that in AAA. Still, longer hair is more work whether it's traditional cards or strand based. So short hair spares the heavy strand based simulation. Piss the tech artists (shader / material guys) or render progs off with blond hair (it has a level of color absorption other hair doesn't have to deal with) in multicolored lights at runtime but hey what’re you gonna do?

Honestly, I don’t have much to say about IVs fits, suits tend to be fine, jackets tend to be fine. His footwear aren’t ideal for cheap game deformation but it��d be salvageable. Leather jackets as cloth sim are doable but annoying (not that he's worn it lately) and most games tend to have one leather jacket wearing character that inevitably makes everyone go “it should move more! It should move less!” and then I have to flap around in a jacket as ref once every couple of years.

To say nothing of course about how forgiving facial anim would be. Firstly, humans are very sensitive to face skin shaders but they're painted black. Secondly, having eyes-only for most of them makes things extra easy. Thirdly, ii, iii, and iv all have fairly similar eye shapes (lots of revealed eyelid real estate, no hooded eyes) and you could probably share a face rig scaled to fit under there. Finally, having only a lower half of a face showing (Vessel) also makes things easier and viewers more forgiving

Anyways, if Sleep Token follows up with a videogame after this comic book (doubt it but a nerd can dream) I feel really happy for anyone on their game tech/rigging team, haha. Aside from the fact that there are 4 different body types to retarget animation onto (but would they share anim sets? Would you want them to? Probably not past proto conception if you want their movement styles to feel like them, unless you're sitting on a rigger-techanim that can do restyling like...well, me, but that's a topic for a different day.), and yes maybe figuring out sim with/without instruments (hopefully your engine has sim-setting-profile-swapping or you commit to one way or the other) they’re pretty damn good to go. I would highly DOUBT they'd make a game ($$$) but if any band was going to do it, these fuckin’ icons sure could.

"What would a videogame like that even be?" Idk i'm not a designer :P whatever you want. 3p trippy action adventure? Flight sim :P (imagine, lol)? Symmetrical horror? Platformer/metroidvania? if you made it this far, tell me your chosen sub-genre haha

#sleep token #sleep token rant #an essay #worshitposting #video games #games #sleep token vessel #sleep token iii #YES YES FINALLY #dont tell anyone that im learning 3d modeling for something that. includes the boys shhh #i actually love this #thank you for yapping #please continue #i asked btw

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