Link - Low Poly (Evolution of Characters in Video Games) - Episode 7

the year is 1998 and the Legend of Zelda series begins its first steps into the world of 3d gaming with ocarina of time this monumental game not only represents the beginning of what 3d games could really become but it also represents Linc as a character becoming more three-dimensional and in this long-awaited heavily requested episode we're going to be checking out links journey as a 3d character through all the main series games from his very low poly humble beginnings in ocarina of time all the way up to breath of the wild so sit back and relax because this is low poly [Music] as expected we start at the very beginning on the n64 with ocarina of time now as you obviously expect links earliest models are very basic and this one stands at 726 tries in total and when I say basic what I actually mean is what's going on here with his modeling is actually pretty complex for the time young links character model as aside from saves Super Mario 64's Mario model actually features real Anatomy and isn't just blocky shapes and this is only two years after Super Mario 64 so they've already come a long way in two years as you could expect with n64 games the textures actually do a lot of the work detail wise however young link does have a very strong silhouette modeling wise with the hair and the cap and the dress is it a dress I don't know what is this the tunic and paired with the chunky UGG like boot design also creates a very strong silhouette now here's something I wouldn't usually say but let's take a look underneath the kind of skirt shorts designed thing that link wears and what we'll see here is a developer technique where they didn't actually model the top of links legs the camera in Ocarina of Time is so optimized you would never actually see link from this angle and never discover his terrible secret that he doesn't have any legs at the top so in doing this they actually save themselves a bunch of tries in the model young link kind of has mitts for hands as they really didn't need to model that kind of detail the textures as I said before do all the work and it's the same kind of deal with links face as well which is again just a texture and a pointy nose with pointy ears everything's pointy with this guy in the Mario episode of low poly we checked out the Super Mario 64's low poly model of Mario a technique they used when the camera was so far away you wouldn't actually be able to tell the difference and I was surprised to learn they did exactly the same thing in ocarina of time as well so what you're looking at now is the lower poly version of young link in Ocarina of Time he's 434 tries of low poly goodness and as far as I can tell he shares all the same textures as the slightly higher poly version he's just a little bit more angular I guess but the fact that this is almost half the amount of tries of the main version of young link in the game ever noticed on-screen whilst playing is actually pretty impressive it's only once you put them side by side that you can play spot the difference and see what's changed between each version but playing on a blurry CRT back in 1998 and shot from a great distance you'd never actually be able to tell the difference and as you'd expect the lower poly link doesn't have any tops of legs either great consistency there I think one of my favorite things about the lower poly link in this game is the fact that the ears and the Hat are kind of the same surface it all kind of bleeds into itself the more I look at it the more I realized it's mastery of modeling really and it's remarkable that they got away with it okay so now we're gonna move on and check out the adult links in ocarina of time and I say adult links because again there are two versions firstly we'll check out the main adult link model which is 679 tries and some very interesting decisions were also made with this model for instance the earrings are actually just an alpha texture put on a single plain a very smart decision obviously no modelling involved there and in a similar vein once again the textures do all the work in the face but if we actually check out the wireframe off the face we can see this weird inverted try and what that actually is is the bottom of the nose there's one vertice that's actually drag downwards to create this kind of bottom of the nose and that's literally to save one try and that's a really great optimization very resourceful as with the other young link models this link also has no tops of the legs model where they would usually join the body which also saves more tries the textures once again do all the legwork in the detail when you look at links gauntlets which actually look amazing for the time and also in the boots if we take a closer look at links kind of belt around the waist it's amazing how little is going on there to kind of create this curved surface which you really would never see while playing the game but if we look up close now we can actually see that there's really not that much going on here speaking of not an awful lot going on in terms of modeling let's take a look at the lower poly version of this same link model and straightaway you'll see that there's quite a few changes once again the ears are actually part of the Hat link looks a lot bulkier in the body where they've really cut down on tries links hands have really taken a cut down these thumbs are basically triangles links belt or waist is basically just 16 tries in a we're shape with a texture on it pair that with links dummy thick legs and the fact that yet again he doesn't have any tops of them and they don't join the body and here you have it you have low poly adult link also we have to mention the fact that links face is kind of leaning into the more Goldeneye 64 territory where it's just a box with the texture on it and if we take a closer look at the wireframe for the face we'll see yet again more corners were cut just to save tries with this kind of weird bridge of the nose where it meets the full head formation but really you were never meant to see this model up close like this so it really serves a purpose as as I was playing back in 1998 I never even knew this model existed and just for fun why don't we put these two models side-by-side just so we can see what was cut and changed just to make these more optimized within the game with the low poly version of adult link being 374 tries and almost half the size of the main model you can actually see that the modeling in these early 3d games is something to behold a perfect balance between detail and optimization I think now is a good time to move on to Majora's Mask and present the young link model that was seen in that game now I think a common off-the-cuff misconception is that the young link model in Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask is exactly the same model however that is not true if we take a look at the models side-by-side there's a couple of key differences for instance links is in Majora's Mask or a lot point here than they were in Ocarina of Time more noticeable than that is in Majora's Mask links hair is slightly different it's less poofy than it was in Ocarina of Time and also has these kind of bangs down the side of his hair I don't really know what you'd call those but that's what I'm gonna call them and also the texture of his hair is completely different and even in a different color actually more noticeable than that is this kind of over the shoulder belt that goes across his chest which holds his shield and his sword that's a new detail that they added in Majora's Mask Lynx boots also sport a slightly different texture than they did in Ocarina of Time and overall these differences a very slight but it is a different model whether this model is made from scratch for Majora's Mask always simply an adaptation from Ocarina of Time I couldn't possibly save but the likelihood is for time they probably just changed the original model to suit Majora's Mask now we need to fast forward over a decade to ocarina of time 3d now here's where the comparisons get really interesting we have base the same game but 13 years apart one made on the n64 and one now made on the 3ds hardware so why don't we check out what they did with more powerful hardware this model of young link is obviously way better than the originals with 1427 tries this is roughly double the amount of tries in the original young links ocarina of time model and the overall quality of the modeling and the textures is bumped up significantly now young link actually looks like the promotional artwork that were surrounding the game 13 years earlier and I guess with more powerful hardware you can actually model the tops of Lynx legs now and we learned that he wears green shorts so there you go there's a mystery solved now what's interesting is the textures are still doing a lot of the work for detail the biggest example still being young link space but also things like belt buckles I mean why model such things in detail if a simple 2d image can do all the work for you and mostly because the resolution of the 3ds screen is so small that everything just kind of blurs together anyway to create an overall image of details but overall I love the roundness that this model seems to have going from the n64 pointy days - this is quite a difference what are the things I particularly love is it still looks like young Lincoln and it still kind of bridges that gap between what the original n64 title did and what the 3ds title could be not straying too far from the source material while we're still on the subject of young link let's fast forward a bit to Majora's Mask 3d and if you thought that young link model is the same as Ocarina of Time 3d then you'd actually be kind of right they made a couple of changes to the model of young link in Majora's Mask 3d but they're so subtle that you really wouldn't be able to tell on a 3ds screen so let's point them out here firstly what I was saying about the belt buckles in Ocarina of Time 3d model well forget that because they actually went and modelled them this time and I gotta say well it's nice having an image do the detail for you when you actually have the detail it does kind of make all the difference another change they made is they kind of filled up the holes in the tunic where links arms meet the sleeves now it's not super noticeable in the game or even in the model but here you can actually see the difference and yeah I think it's a good job they actually did this because imagine you did cloak this in the game it would be kind of weird to see in side link I guess and apart from that they're basically the same there isn't really a lot of difference between the the biggest difference between the two is something that you actually can't see with your own eyes and that is in the tri-county you're going through 1427 to 1934 now I've got no idea where these extra almost 500 tries are coming from in the majority mask model but hey they must be some kind of modeling detail the belt buckles have got to count for something but the rest of them they've got no idea I don't visually see them anywhere but overall across the to 3d remakes of the original n64 classics I really love these models they're so beautifully done with beautiful textures and great attention to detail of course if we're talking 3d remakes we also need to mention adult link from Ocarina of Time 3d now again this is keeping in line with what the original n64 classic did whilst bringing it to modern standards so ocarina of time 3d Zolt link is 1555 tries of goodness and once again with better hardware we've got better graphics so the textures are much more improved and the modeling overall is so much more detailed and like young links models from the 3d games adult link also has the tops of his legs modelled as with the original game the textures do a lot of the work with the gauntlets and also the face I mean that's to be expected I guess and I gotta say I really love this rendition of adult link it's so kind of cute and soft looking somehow I don't really know a different way to express that but but it's definitely in keeping with the art that went with the original game and also the beautiful art that came with the 3d remake I particularly like the expressive nature of the hand models there are different models associated with different items used in the game but I've gone with these ones as they're pretty much the standard model but what they would do is for each kind of different weapon whether it be the bow and arrow or different expressive nature's where the link is making a fist or something else they would use different models and basically just attach it to the end of the arm so that covers all the link models from Ocarina of Time 3d and the original and Majora's Mask 3d and the original and we've still got so many more main line entries into the Zelda series so let's crack on on a next stop in this episode is the Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker and the beautiful and expressive Toon Link now by 2003 The Legend of Zelda series had kind of moved away from that semi realistic kind of early n64 graphics and moved into this kind of beautiful cel-shaded look and with this brand-new art design came a brand-new link this version of link is 2754 tries now looking at two links straight off the bat in this game you'd probably be thinking well maybe has very simple geometry for that very simple art style but you'd actually be kind of wrong I mean links hair alone is very complex in terms of shapes now if we take a look at the wireframe of Link's face we can actually see that the nose is basically just a separate model slapped on the front of his face and that's the same kind of thing they did with a belt buckle to have these things be the same part of the mesh as perhaps the head or the body would actually cost extra tries really no point in doing that may as well just make them separate objects Toon Link is perhaps one of the most expressive links we've ever had and most of the work is done with the textures in the face interestingly enough the eyes and the eyebrows on links face are actually texted that way and they're actually separate from the main mesh of the face that gave animators the option to be even more expressive without affecting the mesh of the face and just concentrating on the eyes and the eyebrows and moving them about the face instead of actually disturbing the rest of the model the textures on Toon Link are obviously very simple but that kind of goes hand in hand with that cel-shaded look all in all this is probably one of my favorite versions of linked in any of the games simply because he's so expressive and I have a real affinity for cel-shaded graphics so yeah it's kind of swayed in that way but this wouldn't be the last time we'd see Toon Link in a main entry to the series this model is the Toon Link from The Legend of Zelda The Phantom Hourglass and this is probably the most low poly we've seen links so far at three hundred and twenty two tries this is about half the size or half the amount of tries of the original young link model in Ocarina of Time on the n64 so who here talking really low poly now and because it was on the Nintendo DS that kind of makes sense now everything is boiled down into very simple shapes the hands are basically bowls the head is just a round thing with pointy ears and you know that the hair is basically just a texture this time there's no real shape to it apart from this kind of little pointy pot I guess as with most consoles with very small screen resolutions you would never see this model up close like we're looking at it now and it's only because we're looking at it so close that we're seeing just--how kind of ugly it is maybe I feel maybe distorted is a better word and yet it still kind of maintains that look of the character and that cel-shaded kind of feel and just like the wind waker model these eyes are separate textures so it's really cool to see the same kind of developer techniques used on a much smaller scale also a really fond of two links kind of triangle feet we'd once again see Toon Link in the Legend of Zelda spirit tracks and they used basically the same model that shares almost the same try count at three hundred and thirty two tries as opposed to three hundred and twenty two tries of spirit tracks is model not entirely sure where these extra ten tries are coming from but hey that's that's what it is they also seem to have added some new textures here and there to emphasize shading in the model but that's really about it it's basically the same model as we saw in Spirit Tracks okay let's move completely away from Toon Link now and go to The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess this beautiful version of link is 3831 tries so we're slowly moving away from being very low poly to some actual real detail in these models now I have to comment on the texture work of this model it's absolutely gorgeous every single little detail is kind of textured into the model and I think this may be the most realistic version of link we've ever had in the mainline series of the games anyway even up to this day I love the details of the chainmail underneath the tunic I love the kind of guard on the left arm I love the kind of tiny pouches that you have on the back of his belt legs always been known for carrying a ton of items and it was nice to actually see that kind of reference in the model links face actually has shape to it now it's not just an approximation of a face with a texture slapped on it and little things like links earrings are now not just a texture but they're actually 3d modelled which when you really think about it that's significant because in the past they would just use a texture to represent that but now they're able to have that extra amount of tries just to illustrate something that's very secondary like an earring and to have that not be considered wasteful in resource management it's kind of incredible when you really think about it to put it in some kind of perspective imagine that young links model from Ocarina of Time was 726 tries and these two earrings on just this model at 84 tries together in young links model just one of his legs is 77 tries that really does give you some kind of crazy perspective on just how lenient things have become now and how powerful these machines were that we're making these games while Twilight Princess isn't one of my favorite games and I know I'm probably gonna get some hate for that but I would say that I really think this is probably one of my favorite of the link models it kind of really does push link into that kind of realistic look that we've always wanted but Nintendo never really gives us I'd love to see what this model would look like with PBR textures that realistic lighting and ray-tracing I think it would look beautiful actually of course a lot of the texture work is doing the detail stuff but actually modeling wise this has got some really intricate pieces to it the most noticeable detail is actually that the fingers are now individual they're not just one giant mitt that kind of represents a hand with some expression they're actually modeled fingers I already mentioned the pouches but I love those the belt buckles modelled I really love the extra detail in the texture work of the boots even links hair is now more detailed with the texture work and the fact that they've actually model each of the kind of sections of hair this really is a gorgeous model to look at all right that's enough gushing over this model let's now move on to Skyward Sword probably in the most polarizing entry into the series now straight off the bat this model is 4390 five tries so roughly 700 more tries than the Twilight Princess model now a lot of people really didn't like the art style of Skyward Sword and looking at Twilight princesses bottle and then going straight to this one I can kind of see why this model tries to blend the kind of cartoony look of Wind Waker versus the kind of more realistic look of Twilight Princess and kind of mixed them together somehow and for that reason the texture work is very simple it doesn't have half the detail that the Twilight Princess model actually has and if I'm honest I'm kind of struggling to see where those additional roughly seven hundred tries were actually used in comparison to this model and the Twilight Princess model there's no real actual model detail in this everything looks kind of basic I guess we again have the model fingers I guess the face is slightly or shapely a more complex geometry going on somehow for instance they actually modeled the shape of Lynx lips they're not just a straight-up texture things like folds and wrinkles in the clothes actually have shape to them now that's probably where most of these extra seven hundred tries from the Twilight Princess model actually ended up being used I personally don't mind this model I kind of like the art style of Skyward Sword but I must admit I do kind of prefer the more realistic look of the Twilight Princess model I'm a real sucker for the details and they're kind of lacking in this Skyward Sword more like I don't know what else to tell you okay let's move on now to the 3ds title The Legend of Zelda a link between worlds and this link is so stylistically different from all the other links we've seen so far so let's take a look so this version of link is 1442 tries in total which surprisingly is about 13 more tries than the young link in Ocarina of Time 3d so that's kind of incredible really when you think about the amount of detail that was in that young link model compared to this one which just kind of feels stylistically basic I want to say now that's not me shooting this model down because I actually really like what this model does it kind of harkens back to a more original kind of Legend of Zelda style at least visually now looking at this model technically once again the eyebrows are separate texture put over the top of the face just so they could get that extra expression out of the character a lot of the texture work is very simple a lot of block colors with contrasting shadows here and there and this simply being for the fact that the 3ds screen has such a low resolution you would never see this amount of detail up close so it kind of makes sense in terms of the wireframe not an awful lot crazy going on here it's just a very clean mesh very well executed I particularly love the huge quiff of hair that link has in this tipos and also I have to say I love the proportions they gave this version of Link very much like the Toon Link but kind of more the style of the older Legend of Zelda's and that now brings us right up to the present day with The Legend of Zelda breath of the wild this version of link is twelve thousand five hundred and forty-one tries in total easily one of the largest in tri count of the entire series well at least in the mainline games anyway Nintendo once a again goes back to that cel-shaded look with the load detailed textures and just enough model work to really push the design in terms of what the new hardware on the switch could do specifically I'm talking about things like links hair which has easily the most amount of tries of any of the other versions of link and also links face is more expressive in this game than most of the other versions of link so naturally there would be tons more tries in the face just to push those expressions I'm thinking for whenever you pull out the camera and try to take selfies link has way more expression I love all the detail of just like the belts and how they kind of intertwine and overlap themselves just that extra amount of detail that they were able to get without pushing the hardware too much in terms of resources because this version of link had a very different thing to do with in the context of a Legend of Zelda game this was an open-world game so resources were even more strained but I have to say I really loved how just clean this model feels it doesn't overdo it in terms of detail it keeps things very basic really and it just goes to show you you don't have to go over the top in detail to present a really beautiful version of a character and obviously this is a very stylized version of link still they haven't gone back to the super realistic style that they did was something like Twilight Princess and while I stated earlier that I'd love to see something like The Twilight Princess model but super realistic I think the breath of the wild version of link is actually really well done and I actually loved this art style on a technical level there's nothing too out there with this model there's no crazy development techniques just to make it happen but yeah easily one of my favorite models in the series so that about wraps it up for the main line entries to the Legend of Zelda series and I can hear you thinking already but hey Andy what about the versions of link in Smash games for instance well I think that kind of thing needs to be tackled in its own separate episode this episodes already taken way too long to make so I definitely want to focus more on the smash models in their own separate thing but there you have it guys link has come a long way from way back in 1998 to present-day and it's always a surprise to see what Nintendo does with that character and I gotta say the future for link looks pretty bright thanks very much for watching guys if you've enjoyed this episode of low poly why not check out the episodes of Mario's or Donkey Kong this series is particularly difficult to make so why not share this around and like it and show it all the support you can also just want to share some love for my patreon supporters old and new you guys are really keeping the lights on right now and I really appreciate

Channel: A+Start

Views: 1,089,162

Keywords: The legend of zelda models, Low poly, Link, Zelda, A+Start, Video game development, Character models, video game assets, Video game models, Evolution of characters in video games

Id: jF5a6ltOsK0

Length: 23min 8sec (1388 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 22 2019