¶ Example Asset
Here’s an example of a humanoid character asset.
It includes two basic gameplay-fitted sized blank characters, and one full character.
¶ Concepting Checklist
Overall Mobile Style
- Asset will be seen in small scale, exaggerate key features of the character
- Make the silhouette recognizable and interesting
- Focus on the personality of the character
- Character should be generic / spammable, and easily customizable with colors & extra accessories
¶ Modeling Checklist
- When possible, duplicate an already existing character for the base for modeling
- For easier testing, position the character to where the Rigs are positioned
- Best is to model the character in a t-pose!
- Keep the origin of the object aligned with its rig’s origin
- Use the Mirror modifier until finalizing
- The Mirror modifier must be on top of the Armature modifier
- Enable the Clipping mode
- Objects not meant to be mirrored can be separate objects until finalizing (ie. hair)
- Make use of already existing parts and components (ie. eyes, ears, arms)
- Utilize materials already in Blender scene
- When using Sharp Edges, set Normals to Auto Smooth at 180 degrees
- If unavailable, navigate to Geometry Data and click “Clear Custom Split Normals Data”
- With Blender 4+ this has been changed into Edge Split modifier
- Polish
- Make sure limbs inside body mesh are “closed”, with a simple bevel
- Clean up bad topology like n-gons by Triangulating or using the Knife tool
¶ Rigging
Character assets in HypeHype currently support a maximum of 75 bones.
- Check if the object has a Rig (Armature modifier AND parent object set to the Rig)
- To parent the object with a Rig..
- Select the character object(s), then add one of the Rigs to the selection
- Run “Parent” with Armature Deform with Empty Groups
- To parent the object with a Rig..
- Rig should match the character’s body type (shoulder and head positions should match)
- Choose one already existing Rig, or if necessary, create a new Rig that matches the special needs of the character (ie. Giraffe’s head position)
- Weight paint the character similarly to other character assets
- Once done, test moving all movable bones of the Rig and check for bad rigging
It is best if standardized vertex groups can be used. For the example humanoid, these are, in order of hierarchy:
 |
Bone names with underscores are not deform-type, and won’t be exported, therefore are not taken into account when calculating the maximum amount of bones available. Currently, the maximum number of deform bones in one rig is 16.  |
 |
IK bones stand for Inverse Kinematics, and are configured in bone constraints of bones like arm_1 and leg_1. PT bones stand for Pole Target, and are used by IK to determine pole direction of “limbs”. Refer to the example character rig to see how they work! |
 |
Due to current technical limitations, one vertex can only be assigned to two bones. It can be examined in Vertex editing mode, by choosing one vertex. Quick way to limit this is to choose all of the vertices, and running this command:  The weights on each vertex are also limited to a normalized value of 1.0. No vertex should have less or more than 1.0 of total weights. Quick way to normalize all vertices to this limit is to choose all of the vertices, and running this:  |
¶ Animations
Animations are considered their own assets in HypeHype, as they can be used by any rigged model. It usually is good to create animations for the default character type.
Animations are made as Actions. Be sure to mark Fake Users to each Action that you want to save, and name them how users should see them. “Soccer Kick” for example.
Animation keys utilize Position and Rotation, but not yet Scale. Best is to key all deform bones to start and end of the Action. Both start and end keys should be identical for smoother transition, but HypeHype will interpolate animation switching either way.
For better quality, enable cyclic animation setting, and make sure interpolation is smooth (linear, bezier etc). Animation FPS should be 30 in Blender.
Range for an animation usually should be between 5 and 50, but longer animations are supported too.
¶ Collisions
Character assets collisions are usually Capsules. Capsule collision is generated in the engine, and uses the normal capsule collision for it. It is important to match the pivot of the character model and rig with the collision’s pivot.
Capsule collisions should be made using cylinders, because the engine generates a sphere on top of it, to create a full capsule collision to be used by physics. When making a capsule collision, make a cylinder that is mirrored to the bottom.
The image on right means that red areas are generated, and white is actual mesh. Utilize this knowledge to determine the height and width of the collision to match the character!
¶ Finalizing Checklist
- Make a collision object for the character with a matching name
- Set materials in the following order
- Primary color material
- Secondary color material
- White material for eyes, if not in use, tertiary color material
- Black material for eyes
- Remove all unused materials
- Apply the Mirror modifier, then..
- Merge possible separate objects into the main character object
- In Object mode, Run the Hypepaint add-on
- In Edit mode, select all of the mesh and run…
- “Limit Total” aka Limit Number of Weights per Vertex with “Limit: 2”
- Normalize All Vertex Groups
¶ Related Topics
Make a Playable Character Importing your own Assets Asset Editor