Unlimited Character Customization, 1 Material! [Prismatica DevLog #11] 

Big systems require big explanations... I hope you've got a drink and a snack because this feature-length Development Log doesn't slow down!
In this video we take a look at my last month of work, creating a robust character customization system so that Prismatica can be full of unique and colourful characters. This system also allows for individual assets to get much more usage than usual, saving production hours in the long run and also allowing players to really dig deep in to how they appear in game!
The whole setup results in only 2 draw calls per character - one for the entire mesh and one for the singular material that covers it. This is SUPER handy for performance and allows us to have many characters on screen without slowdown, and also makes changing parameters a breeze. I also explain the setup for the UV atlases and how all the huge material functions function. We also jump in to Blender and explore how the different body types for the characters is achieved!
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
----Character Atlas Shenanigans----
04:30 Material Overview
05:20 Draw Calls SUCK
07:20 No Repeated Instructions
08:55 The Fabric of Reality
15:40 Assigning Slots in Blender
17:10 Atlasing Alphas, not Results
18:00 Variable Texture Atlas
19:45 Modular Character Models
21:40 Texturing an Element
24:15 Contextual Parameter Atlas
28:24 Contextual Damage Effects
----Character Body Type Stuff----
34:05 Shader Displacement Morphs
37:50 Authoring Displacements
44:35 Baking Weights to Vert Colour
46:23 Extra Considerations
----Skeletal Mesh Merging----
48:05 Skeletal Mesh Merging
52:12 Find out more!
---------------------------------------
Patreon: / prismaticadev
Discord: / discord
Twitch: / prismaticadev
Twitter: / prismaticadev
RU-vid: / prismaticadev
----------------------------------------
Computer Specs:
Ryzen 3900x 12-core CPU
MSI Geforce RTX 2080 Super
64GB Corsair RAM
One of those fancy nvme m.2 SSD's
Programs of choice:
Unreal Engine 4 - (Game Dev)
Blender 2.8 - (Animation and Modelling)
OBS - (Video/screen capture)
Davinci Resolve - (Video editing)
Adobe Photoshop - (Graphics and Texturing)
Quixel Mixer - (Texturing)
ProTools 11 - (Compositions and mixing)
OldSchool Runescape - (Chillax time)
Filmed using:
Sony A7s2 body
Sony 24-70mm f/2.8 GM lens
Yonguo YN360 LED's for colour
Yongnuo YN760 chip LED w/ Godox softbox for key
My lovely cats names are Boycat, Girlcat and Ladycat :)