Enemy Checklist

[Juras]

Very nice monster you have there! Especially for being you first one I really like the head.
The body looks like a jumpsuit for me though (the visible UV seams make it look even more like that) which isn't necessarily a bad thing cause I think it fits him quite well but I'm assuming it's supposed to be his skin xD.

My advice for making your next monsters/creatures would be to have some references of basic body anatomy when modeling/sculpting and when it comes to texturing, I would recommend learning to use atleast Mudbox (you can get a free student version) and using the painting tools that are given there. It's really easy to learn thanks to the simple UI and it will give you alot more freedom when it comes to making the texture than photoshop (if that's what you're using now) and it will make your monsters texture look alot more natural and organic, mostly because you'll be making your texture using the actual 3D model and painting on top of it.

Now that we have that out of the way, let's talk more about the "checklist". Since you have your model and texture finished all you have left is rigging and animation which will probably give you the most headache and make you want to smash your computer. The "animating" process itself will be actually fun but it's the exporting and weights that will do their best to try to fuck with you. Fear not, I have encountered pretty much every problem possible and smashed some screens already (not really smashed but I've expierenced quite some rage when I was new to this so to say) so after all that I know now how to successfully make a fully functional monster for Amnesia as I have created 6 monsters and made them work.

Now you said that you already made a skeleton but I really hope you did not do that using blender. I don't know anyone that has managed to make a monster, rig it there and animate it using blender without the engine crashing (maybe there is someone but I my case it's a no). What you should use is Maya 2011 or lower (Maya 2011 worked best for me), only then can I guarantee you that you will be able to make your monster work in HPL2. I'm not sure though if there is still a student version available on Autodesk Educational website (There was when I got it but I'm not sure if that's the case now). Anyway maya is the way to go and if you never used it before you should learn some basics and then start by making a new skeleton in there and only then animate. I'm not going to teach you how to make a skeleton and how to use maya to animate since Acies has already made a fantastic thread about all that: http://www.frictionalgames.com/forum/thread-11448.html
Most of the things that you need to know about exporting/animating should be there

Lastly I want to give some personal tips that I used myself when I animated my monsters.

1. Do some research on using IK handles and controllers for your skeleton in Maya. You have no idea how much they will make the animating process EASIER. Many here think that you can't use them and you're only stuck with joints as the HPL2 only accepts them but that is not entirely true. You EXPORT the animations ONLY with the joints, but before that you can use as many controllers and IKs you want as long as you BAKE the animations and remove the IKs and controllers before exporting. Using only the joints will make it a hell trying to make your animations look as good as the grunt's.

2. Import the grunts animations and use it as a reference when making you animations. You will need 13 animations (unless you don't want the extra 3 idles) for your monster, and the grunt has all of them. You just have to rename the grunt's animation files from ".dae_anim" to ".dae" if you want them to import in maya. Here's an example picture of how I used the grunt's "walk" animation as a reference when I was making my monster's walk animation.



The movement on my monster is not exactly the same but that's the point, you make a base movement looking at the grunt (torso rotaion, hip rotation/position, leg movement, feet position, etc..) and then you change it as you like. This method helped me alot and if want you can see how in the end, all the 13 animations turned out for one of my monsters here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nG2gk1jZ...gJQIK9Ad4g

When it will come to sounds, it will be fairly simple. You'll be able to use grunts or brutes sounds, or you own. You'll be able to add sounds at any part of any animation you want inside the model editor. That's where you will also arrange all your animations, speed, stats, etc.. but you shouldn't worry about that now.

I hope I helped you and if you'll have any questions feel free to ask me and I'll do my best to find the time to answer them and help you further. Be patient, making your monster work will require alot of work, just don't give up and you should be able to do it. Good luck!