Rendering characters in 3D

[RocketGirl]

So I've started a game, but I've mostly been playing with the GUI system so far.

However, being a 3D animator of sorts, I've created the main character and rendered her out in 3D for all eight of the possible normal walking loops. I'll post some screenies of that at some point, I'm sure, but for now I have a question for anyone else who has done this:

What is your camera methodology?

Lemme explain: I have 3DS MAX (an ancient version, to be true, but it's legal and I'm broke, so upgrading isn't an option right now), just for reference.
I considered rendering my character out using orthographic projection so that perspective wasn't a problem, but this produced results I wasn't very happy with.
So I decided to go with a camera. But this had its own issues, namely perspective. If I placed the camera's viewpoint on my character's middle, she seemed to be looking up all the time. But moving the camera up to the face level had its own issues, such as leaving a huge empty space above the character's head if the frames were made large enough to  fit the whole character.
My eventual solution was the move the camera up a bit (to about chest level) and then tilt it down a bit, so the character filled the frame. The tilt is slight enough that the feet don't appear to shrink much due to perspective, and the head still looked like it was pointing up relative to the camera. So I tilted the head down a bit, which seemed to do the trick.
Of course, this had it's own issues, still. To maintain my lighting, I rotated the character in 3D rather than moving the camera. So now the head appeared to be pointing DOWN. Solution, titlt the head in an appropriate direction for rendering each loop's frames. On the diagonal walks, this meant tilting the head on two axes.

Ultimately, this technique really does look fine; unless you're looking for it, you probably won't notice that's it looks a bit awkward.
But I'm wondering how others who have rendered their characters in 3D have handled this issue.

[InCreator]

Perspective is easy to kill:
Add a camera to scene, put it where it has to be, and from its settings, turn on "ortographic projection".

There.

But this thread is in wrong place: there's nothing to criticise or comment.

[RocketGirl]

Perspective is easy to kill:
Add a camera to scene, put it where it has to be, and from its settings, turn on "ortographic projection".

There.

Heh. I already brought that up. I didn't like the results I got from orthographic projection. I felt they looked more awkward than having a little perspective in there.

Besides, I took a look at some of Sierra's games--like Space Quest 4, for example--and though those characters aren't 3D, I noticed that they are moving as if they are in 3D space. For example, when a character is walking forward, like AGS's "Down" loop, the forward foot's pixels are below the rear foot's. So I think orthographic projection isn't the way to go, at least for my own taste.

But this thread is in wrong place: there's nothing to criticise or comment.

I'm not so sure about that. Oh, sure, I didn't post any artwork to look at (and I will, eventually; my laptop machine is my only internet access, and only then from a WiFi site, while my desktop machine at home is my production machine, so I'll have to transfer art from one to the other to show any of it...but I will!), but there's methodology in producing such art to comment on or criticize. Surely that qualifies. It seemed to, based on the description of this forum.

And where else to you go in this forum to talk shop, artwork-wise?

[Ashen]

But moving the camera up to the face level had its own issues, such as leaving a huge empty space above the character's head if the frames were made large enough to  fit the whole character.

I don't understand - why don't you just crop out the blank space, either in an art program, or in AGS itself (Crop sprite edges")? Assuming you were otherwise happy with the results this way, of course.

I think, unless you actually have something to show, this'd really belong in the Technical questions, discussions sticky aat the top of this forum. But I guess that's up to ProgZ, now.

[RocketGirl]

I don't understand - why don't you just crop out the blank space, either in an art program, or in AGS itself (Crop sprite edges")? Assuming you were otherwise happy with the results this way, of course.

Well, I really wasn't happy with it, ultimately. And I handled the cropping right in the 3D program anyway so that when I imported the frames into AGS they were pretty much ready to go.

I'll have something to show by tomorrow, I think. I'd like to see what people think, actually.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Well, the critics lounge has always been about showing 'something' and receiving feedback, be it an image, a tune, possibly even a website.  Toss up an image of what you are working on in THIS thread so I don't need to move it elsewhere, okay?

[RocketGirl]

I'd planned to. How's this?



That's the first frame from every one of this character's walking loops. You can sort of see the perspective issues if you really look for 'em. It's especially apparent in the diagonal loops; her shoulders kinna look hunched or tilted. In truth, it's her head and the camera that're tilted, but it's all relative.

[MrColossal]

have you tried messing with the cameras FOV?

[RocketGirl]

In fact, I have not. It's worth a try, I suppose, but I don't think adjusting the FOV will help much, especially with such a small subject. But I'll see what happens.

[Kweepa]

As Mr Colossal says, you probably want to reduce the FOV significantly, say to 1/3 of its current value. You'll have to move the camera away to get the same character size, but it should lessen the apparent tilt of the shoulders. Positioning the camera slightly higher, say around shoulder height, will help too.
She could do with more of a neck.

[RocketGirl]

She could do with more of a neck.

Ah, see, now that's true and not true.

She's actually got plenty of neck...you just can't see it.
Like I said, I had to tilt her head to make her not look as if she were looking in the wrong direction all the time, and this not only concealed her neck rather a lot, but also changed the (apparent) length of her hair. It's kinna annoying, really.

But I'll give the FOV trick a try and post the results, possibly tomorrow (though with my dad in town I may not have time...we'll see).

[Al_Ninio]

Tilted or not, her head is huge.
You should probably scale it down a bit, as it seriously messes up the proportions.

[Mordalles]

aargg!

in a walk cycle, when the right leg goes forward, the right arm should go back, and vice versa, .