http://www.makehuman.org/

This might be a handy program to assist modelling clothing and other character related mods.
It is also has a good license http://makehuman.org/doc/node/makehuman ... cense.html

I have checked that program a while ago, but found the quality somewhat lacking.

Maybe it has been improved. Do you have experience with it? If you can make a nice model with it, please post some screenshots.

I only just came across it yesterday, so I've not spent much time with it.
My initial thoughts were much the same as yours.
I have been thinking how I can make clothing and was looking for a way to create a mannequin mesh I could use as a template.

From the looks of it you can export the models as and .obj so at least they could maybe be used as a starting point.
Time will tell.

The thing about MakeHuman is that although the meshes provided are quite bad, they can be used as a base for further improvement. If you check the official gallery on the site, you can see some pretty high quality work. http://www.makehuman.org/gallery

Most of it is done by taking the base mesh provided by MakeHuman into a sculpting tool such as Zbrush, and then continuing to add details to the mesh as well as paint higher quality textures onto it. You could also re-topologise the model to make it more suitable for your game engine if you so wish.

I actually did something similar for a part of my masters thesis. One section of my thesis involved producing a shader in UDK to emulate Fable 2's concept art. I didn't have the time to model a suitable test mesh, so I instead got a basic base from MakeHuman, took it into Zbrush, sculpted the hell out of it, polypainted it, and then exported the mesh and subsequent diffuse/normal textures. Managed to get a decent result in little time, and thanks to the Creative Commons 0 license I can use the final mesh however I want.



Considering you already have a base mesh you use for all the female characters, I honestly can't see you using it unless you were feeling really experimental. That said, you could use it to help create the male player models (now that I think about it, are there any mirrors in the game? I don't recall seeing any in the gym).

@NTNgear

Good explanation. The gallery does contain some nice CG images. I can see how you could use the MakeHuman software that way.

We do already have both female and male base meshes to work with.

It would be great if you could create good looking models with MakeHuman without the need for a lot of post-processing.

Check this out!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZTN-jRRM30
Face tracking couldn't be much easier.

@Mundawei

Is indeed a great way to do face tracking.

Although I am not sure if it's accesible to any developers :\ . But it could get handy

I also think making a mesh that reacts correctly to the markers is not easy. Especially opening the mouth and those kind of things.

There is a reason why I only make simple static objects, that level of tech is beyond me. Maybe one day.