Basketball video games are all about capturing the energy, intensity, and fast-paced action of the sport—and BVR does just that.
BVR is a dynamic basketball game that immerses players in the thrill of the court, complete with lifelike players, realistic movements, and intense gameplay moments. From perfecting jump shots to nailing game-winning dunks, every detail in BVR is designed to make you feel like you’re part of the action.
The BVR project presented several significant challenges in terms of rigging. We started with the following briefing:
- Use of UMA: We worked with UMA and its limitations, which involved a more closed pipeline that does not allow certain modifications.
- Ball Interaction: Characters needed to interact with a ball, including actions such as changing the hand that possess the ball, dribbling, and shooting.
- Character Customization: Characters had to be morphologically customizable, allowing variations in their physical appearance.
Table of Contents
Introduction to UMA and its Implementation in BVR
In the BVR project, was developed in Unity where Unity Multipurpose Avatar (UMA) played a crucial role in character generation and customization. This Unity plugin enables the creation of characters with diverse morphologies and outfits, offering extensive variety and flexibility.
UMA facilitates the organization of various 3D assets, such as clothing models, bodies, faces, and hair, through scripts and data structures that allow rapid integration and composition. This was essential in BVR as the characters needed to be highly customizable in terms of physical appearance.
Despite its advantages, UMA has a steep learning curve and requires adherence to certain rules regarding bones and hierarchies that differ from usual standards. This challenge was particularly evident in character animation and rigging.
One of the main challenges was the characters’ interaction with a ball. When characters did not touch the ball, their movement followed the game’s physics. However, when interacting with the ball, control shifted to fully animated actions.
This constant switch between physics-driven and animated movements, especially when changing the ball’s position, required precise adjustment and meticulous animation.
Rigging for Multi-Morphology Characters
Taking all this into account, we designed skeletons with additional bones alongside the main ones (arms, legs, etc.).
These extra bones allowed us to scale the character parts for customization. Additionally, we added extra bones in the hands, similar to those used for handling weapons, and a specific bone for the ball. This ball bone alternated between the weapon slots in the hands, allowing manipulation during animation.
Furthermore, we created four body stereotypes with different sizes and morphologies.
For each one, we developed rigs with different measurements but the same configuration, enabling compatibility between animations.
Challenges and Solutions in Animating Characters with a Ball
In terms of animation, the biggest challenge was handling the ball to ensure compatibility across different rigs.
On one hand, animations were performed in a semi-realistic-cartoon style. While focusing on body mechanics exercises (jumps, falls, ball dribbles, shots, dunks…), we respected certain laws of physics to avoid an odd or poor-quality appearance, adding a cheerful and fun touch without fear of straying too far from absolute realism.
On the other hand, animations involving the character holding the ball were handcrafted. Each bounce on the ground, each shot, pass, and dribble was manually animated to maintain complete control over ball movement.
Finally, the most complex challenge was transferring these animations to other body stereotypes. Generally, the ball bone was the one that most often needed adjustment due to changes in height and morphology.
This required us to fine-tune each animation for each stereotype, resulting in slight differences that added more personality to each character type.
Designing lifelike basketball players and arenas, as seen in BVR, showcases how realistic modeling elevates gameplay.
If you need detailed 3D animations and rigging for your upcoming game, we’re ready to assist. We’ve got your back!
Brave Zebra
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