HOPA/adventure game art: How to set the right object scale

These days lots of HOPA/adventure games use 3D modeling & render solution to make the 2D scene pictures. This involves constructing the scene in 3D, putting in lots of 3D items, furniture, plants, etc.

In this article I offer a tip used by our team, about how to quickly set the correct size for all the objects in a 3D scene. I think this tip is not only useful to artists who work for HOPA/adventure games, but also to guys who handle 3D scenes for all kinds of purpose. Here we go.

First, get 3D models of two men. Like this picture.

One standing and one sitting. Make sure the height of the standing man is 180 cm, or any size you consider which is for an average man. The sitting man should be of the same build. You don’t have to create those two models, if your studio has made 3D before, you must have them. (Make sure you have deleted the character rig, bones, only keep the polygons.)

For example, you want to set the right size for a chair. Put the sitting man on the chair, and adjust the scale of the chair, to the reasonable size: (You can easily see which one below is right!)

And during the whole process, remember never touch the scale of the man.

And if it’s a sofa for three, you can juxtapose three guys to see if they can fit in:

And anything which is used by human, big or small:

Not only as the measurement for items, but also for doors, passages.

Conclusion: use the two men’s model as a ruler for generic things. And in some cases you may need women’s models. Certainly, there are occasions to break the rule, when you need to make unnatural sized objects, to achieve certain artistic goal.

More of my articles about games & art production:

http://gamasutra.com/blogs/JunxueLi/940564/

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