It seems like everyone is avoiding...
by Brian Wells · in Artist Corner · 09/30/2001 (9:30 am) · 8 replies
I have an issue here. It seems like everyone is making player models with "segmented" limbs. This means the arms and legas are not all one mesh (like half life etc.)
This means that of course when it animates the limbs look phony, and they don't look cool and deformed like in max payne, half life, etc.
When I try to export in the "cool way" using a single mesh model (models if you inclde the lods) the exporter exports it as a keyframe animation and does not actually make use of the bone information in game. It exports it as a frame by frame vertex animation.
Does anyone really know how to do what I am attempting here, or is it not possible?
THanks
This means that of course when it animates the limbs look phony, and they don't look cool and deformed like in max payne, half life, etc.
When I try to export in the "cool way" using a single mesh model (models if you inclde the lods) the exporter exports it as a keyframe animation and does not actually make use of the bone information in game. It exports it as a frame by frame vertex animation.
Does anyone really know how to do what I am attempting here, or is it not possible?
THanks
#2
Phil.
09/30/2001 (12:15 pm)
Gimme a few weeks and I should have this covered. Depending on how much time I get free from work.Phil.
#3
What you need to do is skin your characters using the COM Skin modifier available from the Discreet opensource site. You use this instead of Physique. You can still use Biped or you could use bones. COM Skin is an updated version of the Skin modifier that ships with max. It has less features than Physique but is much faster to use. Select your mesh then on modifiers panel, add COM Skin. Click on Add Bone and select all the bones from your Bip hierarchy except for Bip01 and Bip01 footsteps. To assign vertexes to to them, click on subobject envelope and then select the bone to work with. COM Skin will paint the influence envelopes and you can adjust them by clicking on the control points and dragging. There are two envelopes, bright red = absolute influence and the rust color = falloff influence. To change default vertex assignments, select paint weights, adjust your brush size and then just click on points that you wish to assign to the currently selected bone. When you are done, turn off subobject envelope. Your mesh should be a child of scene root when using COM Skin and your bip should be in the usual shape hierarchy. Turn off collapse transforms when exporting the base shape (.dts).
Now that your char is rigged using skin and the base shape has been exported with all vertexes assigned to a bone, subsequent animation files only need to have the bone structure in them. I generally save the base max file with mesh and bones to a root directory then have subdirectories for each sequence. After the root max is ready, I copy it into my sequence subdirectories, delete the mesh from the sequence copy and create a custom .cfg in that subdirectory to export the skeleton nodes to a .dsq. ie:
AlwaysExport:
Bip01 R Hand
Bip01 R UpperArm
etc.
This will force the export of node translation data for these bones. Using COM Skin and not exporting the meshes for your sequences will speed up your workflow vs physique by an incredible amount. ( 20 minute export with physique is typically under 2 seconds using this method.) If your characters are already rigged with physique, there is a plugin (with source) floating around the discreet site that converts physique to COM Skin. I believe it is for version 4.2; havent' tested it yet.
The realtime skin stuff is very cool - I hope people take the time to learn how to use it, you can do some slick stuff. I personally am working on a real time deformation system that allows procedural animation of the skeleton. Obviously, that isn't possible unless you preserve the vertex weighting envelopes which torque does. Let me know how you make out.
09/30/2001 (8:15 pm)
Brian,What you need to do is skin your characters using the COM Skin modifier available from the Discreet opensource site. You use this instead of Physique. You can still use Biped or you could use bones. COM Skin is an updated version of the Skin modifier that ships with max. It has less features than Physique but is much faster to use. Select your mesh then on modifiers panel, add COM Skin. Click on Add Bone and select all the bones from your Bip hierarchy except for Bip01 and Bip01 footsteps. To assign vertexes to to them, click on subobject envelope and then select the bone to work with. COM Skin will paint the influence envelopes and you can adjust them by clicking on the control points and dragging. There are two envelopes, bright red = absolute influence and the rust color = falloff influence. To change default vertex assignments, select paint weights, adjust your brush size and then just click on points that you wish to assign to the currently selected bone. When you are done, turn off subobject envelope. Your mesh should be a child of scene root when using COM Skin and your bip should be in the usual shape hierarchy. Turn off collapse transforms when exporting the base shape (.dts).
Now that your char is rigged using skin and the base shape has been exported with all vertexes assigned to a bone, subsequent animation files only need to have the bone structure in them. I generally save the base max file with mesh and bones to a root directory then have subdirectories for each sequence. After the root max is ready, I copy it into my sequence subdirectories, delete the mesh from the sequence copy and create a custom .cfg in that subdirectory to export the skeleton nodes to a .dsq. ie:
AlwaysExport:
Bip01 R Hand
Bip01 R UpperArm
etc.
This will force the export of node translation data for these bones. Using COM Skin and not exporting the meshes for your sequences will speed up your workflow vs physique by an incredible amount. ( 20 minute export with physique is typically under 2 seconds using this method.) If your characters are already rigged with physique, there is a plugin (with source) floating around the discreet site that converts physique to COM Skin. I believe it is for version 4.2; havent' tested it yet.
The realtime skin stuff is very cool - I hope people take the time to learn how to use it, you can do some slick stuff. I personally am working on a real time deformation system that allows procedural animation of the skeleton. Obviously, that isn't possible unless you preserve the vertex weighting envelopes which torque does. Let me know how you make out.
#4
09/30/2001 (11:30 pm)
Wow cool I will try the COM Skin. Even if it does not work I am glad someone gave me a useable idea (I am not spitting at you Tim, honest :)
#5
The skin modifier is kindof a pain to use
I can not find COM Skin. Any ideas on a url?
thanks
09/30/2001 (11:59 pm)
ManThe skin modifier is kindof a pain to use
I can not find COM Skin. Any ideas on a url?
thanks
#6
10/01/2001 (7:58 am)
You can get the opensource stuff here. (There appears to be some kind of problem with this part of the site at the moment )
#7
11/10/2001 (11:46 am)
Hrm. I don't suppose someone has the plugin already, and can say, email it around? 
Torque Owner Tim Gift