Plan for Joe Maruschak
by Joe Maruschak · 10/11/2001 (8:23 am) · 10 comments
I suppose it is time for me to introduce myself. My name is Joe Maruschak. I was a Senior Artist, formerly of Dynamix.
At Dynamix, I was the unofficial keeper of knowledge of the DTS exporter, and I have a fairly deep understanding of how it works.
At the moment, I am busy trying to line up some work that will keep me here in beautiful Eugene, Oregon.
Time permitting, I hope to spend some time rewriting the exporter documentation to make it more user friendly, fill in the gaps that the exporter documentation doesn't cover, and hopefully make some really spiffy tutorials.
If you have any questions about how to get the skinning or animation stuff working and exporting properly, feel free to contact me. I will do what I can (time permitting) to help.
I am also willing to entertain any offers for contract or consulting work.
Joe
At Dynamix, I was the unofficial keeper of knowledge of the DTS exporter, and I have a fairly deep understanding of how it works.
At the moment, I am busy trying to line up some work that will keep me here in beautiful Eugene, Oregon.
Time permitting, I hope to spend some time rewriting the exporter documentation to make it more user friendly, fill in the gaps that the exporter documentation doesn't cover, and hopefully make some really spiffy tutorials.
If you have any questions about how to get the skinning or animation stuff working and exporting properly, feel free to contact me. I will do what I can (time permitting) to help.
I am also willing to entertain any offers for contract or consulting work.
Joe
About the author
#3
If you want node driven animation deforming the skin in the engine, you have to use the Skin modifier.
You can try this utility, which supposedly converts physique weighting to Skin weighting,
http://sparks.discreet.com/downloads/downloadshome.cfm
I have never used it, so I have no idea if it works. I plan to test it out when I have a chunk of free time....
10/11/2001 (12:44 pm)
As John said, Physique works, but it is a morph mesh, taking a snapshot of the mesh (and all it's detail levels) on every frame. If you want node driven animation deforming the skin in the engine, you have to use the Skin modifier.
You can try this utility, which supposedly converts physique weighting to Skin weighting,
http://sparks.discreet.com/downloads/downloadshome.cfm
I have never used it, so I have no idea if it works. I plan to test it out when I have a chunk of free time....
#4
Welcome to the party although it is becomming a big frustration for me..
Probably just me i think scaffolding and 3d modeling and animations just don't mix =O)
John already has been a big help to me (thanx for that man) there are still a lot of questions (and my model still didn't export without errors) but i'm pretty sure John can help me out with most of them. There are still alot of questionmarks surrounding exporting animations so any of your help will be greatly apriciated..
As for the skin stuff, i used the skin modifier that came with MAX4 it seems to be simular to COM Skin for MAX3.1 that John is using, than again i can't be sure the exporting is still giving me problems. Like i said that probably has more to do with my knowledge of the whole thing than with the exporter...
Btw did you ever get my mail and model???
10/11/2001 (1:35 pm)
Hi Joe,Welcome to the party although it is becomming a big frustration for me..
Probably just me i think scaffolding and 3d modeling and animations just don't mix =O)
John already has been a big help to me (thanx for that man) there are still a lot of questions (and my model still didn't export without errors) but i'm pretty sure John can help me out with most of them. There are still alot of questionmarks surrounding exporting animations so any of your help will be greatly apriciated..
As for the skin stuff, i used the skin modifier that came with MAX4 it seems to be simular to COM Skin for MAX3.1 that John is using, than again i can't be sure the exporting is still giving me problems. Like i said that probably has more to do with my knowledge of the whole thing than with the exporter...
Btw did you ever get my mail and model???
#5
10/11/2001 (1:47 pm)
Yes, I got you mail and replied to it, and I sent a follow up message the day after when I did not hear back from you. Did you not receive the email?
#6
I already didn't believe it, i heard nothing from you while you where the first to reply...
hope to maill will come through this time
I'll update you tomorrow, i really need sleep now =O)
10/11/2001 (2:09 pm)
No i didn't strange please try rp.bos@quicknet.nl or else dwsquadron@hotmail.comI already didn't believe it, i heard nothing from you while you where the first to reply...
hope to maill will come through this time
I'll update you tomorrow, i really need sleep now =O)
#7
10/11/2001 (6:26 pm)
It's on it's way, if you don't get it, let me know.
#8
10/12/2001 (2:05 pm)
Got it and on it's way back, thanx
#9
Any thoughts?
Phil.
10/16/2001 (7:59 am)
Joe!, I had a thought last night. It would be really really cool if you could do a simple scene with a skinned character in it with the correct setup to export an animation. Rather than trying to explain everything, just a single tutorial scene with a very simple model using biped would really help a lot of people out (essentially they could replace the mesh and have the scene work).Any thoughts?
Phil.
#10
10/17/2001 (1:15 pm)
I am going to get around to doing this once my scheudule stabilizes a bit. I have been really busy as of late. But it is on my list of things to do. 
Torque 3D Owner Phil Carlisle
I hope you can stick around and pass on some of your much needed information to some of the animators round here.
Quick question, is it even possible to use physique on a biped object and have it export animations?
Most of the issues are to do with skinned objects and exporting them with animations (i.e. weapons seem to be reasonably ok, but skinned single mesh characters seem to be giving everyone headaches).
Thanks.
Phil.