3D Character Anatomy Proportions

[Gambit37]

This is most likely a question for Cows:

I've been looking at a lot of 3D models for characters from games recently, wondering if they could be used to create sprites for RTC/DSB.

It seems like nearly every human game character has distorted anatomy: legs are much too long for the body, or overall proportions of bodies are stretched.

Why is this? I read somewhere that it's to fix a perceived perspective problem in FPS games, that characters would look too "squat" if they were proportioned correctly according to real-world human measurements. Is this true? Or do game character designers simply not understand human anatomy?

[Sophia]

If the characters are female, I can give you some other probable reasons why their proportions are not realistic.

[cowsmanaut]

I've never heard this statement about fps games. Rather that it's a design choice which was set back in the early days of comic books. They are the super hero proportions. Longer legs , wider shoulders. This in addition to your other conclusion where a number of people do not have training in anatomy and proportion.. and so yes.. they have no idea what are realistic proportions. This is something we try to combat with our students, most of them have regular life drawing prior to taking 3D and continue to draw while taking 3D for one class per week. That said, as I mentioned before, there are still the super human proportions which are a rule that is accepted in fictional environments..

Typically in a decent war game they will be of somewhat natural proportions.

Now, you can take a program like poser and get all the human anatomicaly correct models and pose them however you like.. and draw over them.. or even download outfits and props.. People do this all the time and there are thousands of items and characters..

[Gambit37]

@Cows: Right, that makes sense about the super hero proportions, I never really considered that this had been adopted in games. Thanks

[Gambit37]

I measured up Lara Croft and she does indeed have a very distorted figure: 8 heads high:

[Sphenx]

Am I understanding wrong? I thought 8 heads high was correct? I would rather say Lara's legs are too long but the height is ok.
Should I change glasses?

[cowsmanaut]

you can see here it's her torso that goes wrong, other than that the rest matches up

There are a few other things that are off from being natural.. but if we adjust them a bit she still kind of works.. but seems more plain

thing is, we do these distortions to enhance some details.. it's often accidental.. much like when a person is told to draw the moon into a sky.. they often make it 10 times larger than it actually is in a photo.. the ideas are already distorted in our own minds.. then seeing them like this and it only pushes it further.. and then creates an expectation..

[Gambit37]

Sphenx, I've read differing views on the standard body height: some say it's 7 heads, or 7.5 -- others say 8 is normal. Whereas some say that SuperHero women start at 8 heads. Cows, what's your view on that?

[cowsmanaut]

well, based on the above image where I took her to human proportions.. you can see where the lines have shifted, but note that the head size has remained and the height over all is mostly the same.. Humans are 7-8 heads tall, super human 8-9 heads tall. According to the comic book drawing artist I'm familiar with. Vitruvian man is 7, and a variety of other texts say average height is 7.5 heads for an adult, and ideal human is 8. Consider also that over the years people have been getting taller. While their heads are not always that much larger than the average person. The one thing that seems to be maintained is the golden mean or PHI. 1.618.. as far as I know even super heroes follow this.