Hey folks - i'll do these dev logs monthly, stay tuned for more content.
For this one, the focus was on the actual creation of the Luminids themselves. Model work, rigging, animation tests, and trying to lock down how these creatures look and move in the game. This is the first time Luminids have started to feel like real characters instead of placeholder blobs.
Defining the Luminid Shape
Luminids are simple silhouettes, so small adjustments matter more than you’d think. A smoother head curve, slightly wider base, shorter arms. Everything changes the personality.
The goal was to find a balance between:
readable at small sizes
expressive in motion
easy to animate
distinctive without extra detail
It was solved by keeping the body a single unified mesh with soft, rounded forms. No harsh angles. No complexity. The simplicity actually forced better decision-making.
Rigging the First Luminid
Once the model was locked in, the work moved into rigging in Blender. A minimal bone setup was used.
The rig needed:
head control
spine bend
arm flaps
body squash and stretch
The trickiest part was getting deformation to feel smooth. The mesh is very soft, so better weight painting was needed to avoid dents and pinches when the body squashes.
Bringing Them Into the World
Once the first animated Luminid was dropped into the game world, everything clicked. Even simple idle/walk cycles completely change the feel of the scene. A static world becomes a living one as soon as something moves inside it.
What’s surprising is how well the animations read at distance. The squash and stretch body motion carries even when the character is tiny on screen.
What’s Next
The Luminids now have:
a finished model
a clean rig
basic animation set
working in-engine imports
Next steps include exploring:
a more expressive “surprised” animation
float/hover variations for different personalities
better glow syncing between animation and shader
testing how multiple Luminids look together in groups
This is the first week where they actually feel like characters and not prototypes. Seeing them move in-game is a big step forward.
See you next month!
Nick