VERC: Creating Your First Character Last edited 1 year ago2022-09-29 07:54:26 UTC

Ok so you want to create your own character for Half-Life 2 right? But you probably don't know where to start. So this tutorial will teach you how.

Your first step is to start up SOFTIMAGE|XSI. Go to File and click New Scene. Now, you will see a menu on the left side. There should be a button that says Primitive. I have put a red box around the button in the picture to help you find it.
User posted image
Once you click on that, a dropdown menu will pop up. Go down to model, then to Character - Man.
User posted image
Click that and a menu will come up looking something like this:
User posted image
These options are mostly self-explanatory. When you change them they will change your model immediately in most cases. In some cases you may need to click the apply button located under the option you are trying to change. When you are all done click the X to close the window.

In your top right camera window click on where it says Wireframe and change it to Textured so you can see what your person looks like. Click on the camera icon in window B and use the fly tool to view your model. If you want to render it you can go to Render, Render - Render, Options. Then in that window change the end frame to 1 (if your only going to export one picture). Then change the image format to .jpg (or whatever you would like). And Render.

Your end result should look something like this:
User posted image
I think my guy will find a use in a mod or something.

That's it for now. My next tutorial will teach you how to give you Character bones easily.
editor's note:
Moving around the views may not be familiar to you. Here are some quick tips:

tap the "s" key
  • hold down the left mouse button and move the mouse to move the scene laterally (up, down, left, right).
  • hold down the right mouse button and move the mouse to rotate the scene.
  • hold down the middle mouse button and move the mouse to zooom the scene in and out.
or ...

tap the "z" key
  • hold down the left mouse button and move the mouse to move the scene laterally (up, down, left, right).
  • hold down the right mouse button to zoom out automatically (no mouse movement required).
  • hold down the middle mouse button to zoom in automatically.
Tap "s" (or "z") again to get out of these movement modes. Alternatively, you can hold down "s" (or "z") while you perform the above actions, and the mode will only be active for as long as you have the key pressed.
This article was originally published on Valve Editing Resource Collective (VERC).
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