Model Animations vs Morphing
by Malcolm · in Torque 3D Professional · 11/27/2011 (8:47 pm) · 10 replies
Hi guys,
I'm hoping someone can answer this question or provide insight into the direction I need to take.
I have a model which has animation sequences, this is all good when I drop it into Torque and the animations are running.
One of the issues I'm having is that in some of my animation sequences the model morphs it's mouth in order to open however these morphs aren't carrying over to Torque with the animations.
Does T3D support model morphing? do I need to script that into the model somehow?
Regards
Mal
I'm hoping someone can answer this question or provide insight into the direction I need to take.
I have a model which has animation sequences, this is all good when I drop it into Torque and the animations are running.
One of the issues I'm having is that in some of my animation sequences the model morphs it's mouth in order to open however these morphs aren't carrying over to Torque with the animations.
Does T3D support model morphing? do I need to script that into the model somehow?
Regards
Mal
About the author
Game building is my hobby, I would love to make it my career one day with Torque.
#2
11/28/2011 (4:10 pm)
While the DTS and DAE formats support vertex/morph style animations, stock T3D does not. 
#3
I know of many, many dev's who would like to see this feature. Do you/can link to any resources that make this functionality work in T3D?
11/28/2011 (4:29 pm)
ah, thanks Chris, was wondering if it still 'worked'...deprecated in the engine but not the formats.I know of many, many dev's who would like to see this feature. Do you/can link to any resources that make this functionality work in T3D?
#4
I'll investigate how I can code in the 'morphing' vertices or it might be easier for me to actually put some bones in and animations for the mouths of my fish and sharks and move away from the morphs.
Probably will take me less time and I won't have to hack in the changes to code. Also by the sounds of it Garage Games took out morph support for good reason if it affects performance.
Thanks for your help with this I have a direction to resolution to take now.
11/28/2011 (8:48 pm)
Ah no worries guys, thanks for saving me the time of continually exporting in different ways to get the morphing working. I'll investigate how I can code in the 'morphing' vertices or it might be easier for me to actually put some bones in and animations for the mouths of my fish and sharks and move away from the morphs.
Probably will take me less time and I won't have to hack in the changes to code. Also by the sounds of it Garage Games took out morph support for good reason if it affects performance.
Thanks for your help with this I have a direction to resolution to take now.
#5
11/30/2011 (5:59 pm)
It would be more simple to bake the morphs down to a facial rig, and better for performance than trying to code something in.
#6
I've found some cool video tutorials on applying a facial bone rig to a model using Blender so I guess this can be done with a number of 3d applications.
Just for future reference if anyone is stuck on the same issue of creating facial bones to use instead of morphs.
Cool howto Video
11/30/2011 (8:28 pm)
Thanks Ken, I'm new at the artwork modelling side of things. I've found some cool video tutorials on applying a facial bone rig to a model using Blender so I guess this can be done with a number of 3d applications.
Just for future reference if anyone is stuck on the same issue of creating facial bones to use instead of morphs.
Cool howto Video
#7
12/14/2011 (10:08 am)
Once upon a time TGE used morph animations if you used Max's Physique modifier instead of the Skin modifier. Huge dts files because it saved out the vertex positions for every frame, IIRC. 
#8
The old school vertex animation (like TGE supported) were generally before bones were used and were just lists of new vertex position, to animate you just replaces the vertex positions with the new ones.
Morphs involve take the base mesh, skinning and boning it, then adding each morph target (weighted first for animation) that affects a particular vertex to the mesh.
A complex head animation might involve 30+ morphs, controlling various muscles and facial expression, then by animating the morph weight channels, lots of faces and expressions can be created.
Its very expensive and complex, and is usually the domain of the the top end AAA projects where close up cutscene animations are important. In general its too expensive to use for normal characters even when supported by the engine.
12/15/2011 (9:07 am)
Vertex Animation and morphs are two different things (though are both sometimes called morphs). Morphs to any 3D artists is a set of sparse delta position that are blended into the original vertex data (which itself is probably skinned and bones).The old school vertex animation (like TGE supported) were generally before bones were used and were just lists of new vertex position, to animate you just replaces the vertex positions with the new ones.
Morphs involve take the base mesh, skinning and boning it, then adding each morph target (weighted first for animation) that affects a particular vertex to the mesh.
A complex head animation might involve 30+ morphs, controlling various muscles and facial expression, then by animating the morph weight channels, lots of faces and expressions can be created.
Its very expensive and complex, and is usually the domain of the the top end AAA projects where close up cutscene animations are important. In general its too expensive to use for normal characters even when supported by the engine.
#9
It's been years since I took courses in Max, and I never got to the advanced animation classes. I just make placeholder art anyway - prefer programming, myself. Thanks for the clarification, though - good to know.
12/16/2011 (1:23 pm)
@Dean - then in T3D the closest we get is rigging the face to bones and adding sequences to the animation set.It's been years since I took courses in Max, and I never got to the advanced animation classes. I just make placeholder art anyway - prefer programming, myself. Thanks for the clarification, though - good to know.
#10
I'm not going to rig up the eye's just add bones and weighting to the mouth so it can basically animate open and shut.
12/16/2011 (5:51 pm)
Yeah thanks Dean, I was hoping in my case I would be okay as I'm only wanting the mouth of my fish to open and close, not really expressions etc..I'm not going to rig up the eye's just add bones and weighting to the mouth so it can basically animate open and shut.
Torque Owner Rex
BrokeAss Games
DTS and DAE support skeletal animation but I don't believe it supports 'mesh morphing', "out of box".
At one time, I do think DTS format supported 'morphing' or 'mesh animation', but it may have been deprecated or it is so resource intensive, along with actual asset exporting difficulites; made it a moot point of development.
Good luck!