How It’s Made: Game-Ready NFTs
As part of the Chains of War game development goals, the How It’s Made series showcases current progress in development and highlights how your Genesis Hero NFTs transcend to game-ready 3D characters.
From day one, Chains of War has its mind fixed on that ultimate goal: to model and sculpt NFTs that are seamlessly integrable into Unreal Engine 5 software. Allowing for smooth conversion to actual in-game use in Unreal Engine is a challenge we gladly accept. After all, we love developing. And as development progresses rapidly, we are keen for you to join us on our creative journey.
This first How It’s Made article gives insights into the production, technology and aesthetics involved, our decision-making, and how your Genesis NFTs transcend from 2D jpegs to real, playable 3D characters.
What software is used, and why we chose this software.
Quality is everything. Therefore, we use industry-leading programs like Unreal Engine 5, Blender and Maya to ensure outstanding quality. First, the 3D sculpting of the Genesis Heroes and Genesis Mounts was done in the incredibly versatile software Blender 3, a computer graphics software tool that bridges our models towards integration to Unreal Engine 5.
From a modelling perspective, Blender provides the characters with a rig: a skeleton necessary to move around in Unreal Engine 5.
After that, the animating program in Unreal Engine 5 and Maya’s graphics software application integrate animations attached to the character’s rig.
From inside to outside: 3D assets and aesthetics
From an inside layering perspective, the character’s rig enables all kinds of UE5 features to be implemented. To implement such features, the more than fifty rig bones must function and react a certain way to ensure the Hero moves naturally when a bone next to it moves. These inner 3D layers are necessities to make a Hero game-ready.
Next, what you see on the outside are interchangeable 3D assets that ensure the 3D models can wear, for instance, any armour or hairstyle. Textures and colours are added to give the 3D assets that AAA quality look, ranging from 2k up to 8k resolution, generating detail to the 3D models. For example, details like age marks and freckles on this Elvae 3D model.
Of course, all customizable layers give high-end possibilities for in-game customization when selecting a Hero to play with. With the prospect of our Chains of War marketplace coming up this year, this invites you to truly participate in how your Genesis Hero will look before he or she charges into battle.
If you’re curious to learn more, don’t hesitate to check our Discord, follow us on Twitter and we’ll keep you in the loop of the project’s progress.
