Zoobsters! 

 

It looks like the iciest member of the Zoo just got a makeover! We spoke with the Zooba Art Team to provide more insight on these changes and why they decided to revamp Fuzzy! At the end you will also be able to see the side by side comparison of his changes!

 

Let’s learn more!

 

“Zooba’s characters were launched in the simplest, fastest way to guarantee the game would kick the ground running with a fair amount of character options for the players to choose from.

It was a huge success and the demand for new great content increases constantly, as well as the players’ engagement with the characters and their captivating personalities. Going from a texture swap system to a facial rigging one made the characters ready for a wide range of expressions, bringing them to a much higher level of artistic quality.

 

CONTEXT 

When Zooba was created, we didn’t completely understand the performance restrictions, so we established a very low polycount bar (around 2k) to be in a safe area. Zooba’s characters were launched in the simplest, fastest way to guarantee the game would kick the ground running with a fair amount of character options for the players to choose from. It was a huge success and the demand for new great content increases constantly, as well as the players’ engagement with the characters and their captivating personalities. 

 

Unfortunately, we made some poor choices regarding technical and artistic aspects. The characters in the first pipeline – which we’ll call V1 in this document – had limbs wholly separated from the main body structure, flat faces with no geometry, and their expressions were animated textures. As we moved forward, the tech team found that poly count was not a chokepoint for the game’s performance, so the Art Team received the green light to significantly improve our models, which we started doing with Lizzy and Steve.

 

MAIN IMPROVEMENTS

Aesthetically we have a huge difference between the first characters and the newer ones, much better polished (for reference please see given example below*). Going from a texture swap system to a facial rigging one made the characters ready for a wide range of expressions, bringing them to a much higher level of artistic quality. Although the players might not notice it too much or compare the characters, the difference is there.

 

Finn before and after the revamp!

 

Here are the main improvements that were made:

  • Push the quality bar higher in technical and aesthetic aspects;
  • Attaching the limbs to the body’s structure and having a full facial rigging:  going from texture swap system to a facial rigging one, made the characters ready for a wide range of expressions, which brought them to a much higher level of artistic quality. Furthermore, it allowed much-exaggerated animations, which show much better the characters’ personalities.
  • Have characters much better polished
  • Allow the team to explore new animation possibilities
  • Implement the auto-rig system, which is in use nowadays for Zooba’s characters
  • Make every Zooba character follow the same art direction and unify the three different existent pipelines
  • Without revamping the older characters, we cannot create new content for them (regular and legendary skins)

 

Since the idea is to keep providing great content for the game and generate more value from exploring this, it would make sense to explore all of our character’s full potential from now on. Below you can see the before and after we did of Fuzzy’s revamp!”

 

Click for a bigger view!

 

And there you have it folks! We hope you enjoyed learning more about this revamp and hearing from our art team! 

 

See you at the Zoo!