Bone scaling
by Michael Niedda · in Artist Corner · 09/27/2006 (3:32 pm) · 8 replies
How could I go about making bones scale correctly within a sequence?
I have a character who has claws that I want to scale outward when she uses them, I want them to shoot out kind like Wolverine. Now I was able to export them scaling but it got all wierd, the claws grew to the size of the character. Is there some sort of linking convention I must go by?
I have a character who has claws that I want to scale outward when she uses them, I want them to shoot out kind like Wolverine. Now I was able to export them scaling but it got all wierd, the claws grew to the size of the character. Is there some sort of linking convention I must go by?
About the author
#2
What happens is that when blending between sequences the scale gets crazy and the bones scale to much. Have you had any luck or experienced a similar problem with blending and bone scaling? The show tool also crashes if I have left transition radio button checked in the thread controls.
10/09/2006 (4:55 pm)
I have been using scale animation with bones to animate breathing for characters in our game. I have been able to get them to work in the ShowTool. They always seem to blend correctly, but they are behaving strange in engine. What happens is that when blending between sequences the scale gets crazy and the bones scale to much. Have you had any luck or experienced a similar problem with blending and bone scaling? The show tool also crashes if I have left transition radio button checked in the thread controls.
#3
If you create a rig like this and make an IK second joint from the end and end the IK at the start of the bend (like the pic)
If you rig the hand or what ever to the start of the bend and the growing/scaling part of the mesh to the bone that has the IK handle and then move the IK handle it will give the appearance of scaling.
This will stop any bone scaling, To be honest the idea of scaling bones freaks me out and I'm surprised you got any kind of result at all, its something thats generally not done...AT ALL haha. Same with translation. Usually the only bone that is alloud translation is the root but I have worked with some engines that don't seem to care.
Hope this helps man - theres probably a better way but this is how I do it.
Cheers.
10/11/2006 (6:19 am)
To make something scale out or atleast have the apperance of scaling/growing isn't too hard although this can have some texture problems depending on how comples the texture is thats applied to the scaling area and how detailed the scaling/growing part of the mesh is.If you create a rig like this and make an IK second joint from the end and end the IK at the start of the bend (like the pic)
If you rig the hand or what ever to the start of the bend and the growing/scaling part of the mesh to the bone that has the IK handle and then move the IK handle it will give the appearance of scaling.
This will stop any bone scaling, To be honest the idea of scaling bones freaks me out and I'm surprised you got any kind of result at all, its something thats generally not done...AT ALL haha. Same with translation. Usually the only bone that is alloud translation is the root but I have worked with some engines that don't seem to care.
Hope this helps man - theres probably a better way but this is how I do it.
Cheers.
#4
The settings for the exporter Sequence Node that need to be turned on are:
Enable Scale: on
Enable Uniform Scale: off
Enable Aligned Scale: off
Enabled Arbitrary Scale: off
*This is true for every Sequence Node the character is using. If a Sequence Node is missing Enable Scale the engine has trouble blending between the Sequences.
10/11/2006 (10:12 am)
Mark's way of rigging retractable claws looks like the way to go. Torque definitely supports translating, rotating, and scaling of bones. It is an option in the exporter. I have had good results with scaling of a bone in my character's chest to give the appearance of breathing. I am still experimenting with it, but it seems to work now.The settings for the exporter Sequence Node that need to be turned on are:
Enable Scale: on
Enable Uniform Scale: off
Enable Aligned Scale: off
Enabled Arbitrary Scale: off
*This is true for every Sequence Node the character is using. If a Sequence Node is missing Enable Scale the engine has trouble blending between the Sequences.
#5
Thats a handy one, Like I said its a rule of thumb about translation and scaling; some engines dont like translation of child bones as it scales the connected bone before it (even though that bone may still have a scale of 1, 1, 1), but if it works then great.
I guess you could use it for character setups in RPG's? Like using floating bones as morph points to allow the player to customize a characters face and body...might be worth a look if you can be bothered :)
Cheers.
10/11/2006 (1:06 pm)
Well I will definatly remember the scaling setting in the sequence node :)Thats a handy one, Like I said its a rule of thumb about translation and scaling; some engines dont like translation of child bones as it scales the connected bone before it (even though that bone may still have a scale of 1, 1, 1), but if it works then great.
I guess you could use it for character setups in RPG's? Like using floating bones as morph points to allow the player to customize a characters face and body...might be worth a look if you can be bothered :)
Cheers.
#6
All the Best,
Donnie
10/11/2006 (4:27 pm)
That sounds like a great experiment and use for this. I think that is possibly a reason that the engine supports bone scaling. Let me know how it turns out or if you have any questions. I will be keeping an eye on this thread. All the Best,
Donnie
#8
So far they seem to be working correctly in the engine, I also set up a couple of items on her which are scalled down in the model DTS. Ill check to see if those work soon, thanx again.
10/18/2006 (9:56 pm)
Thanks alot for the help guys, I got her claws retracting correctly now.So far they seem to be working correctly in the engine, I also set up a couple of items on her which are scalled down in the model DTS. Ill check to see if those work soon, thanx again.
Torque Owner Michael Niedda