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reinitialize bones in max

polycounter
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rollin polycounter
bone_problem.jpg


hey!

ok I'm not quite sure for what to ask so I simply describe the problem:

I import a bone-system via an importer into max( 8 ) - it's not my importer so I can't change anything there

now the problem is, the bones are way to big but the links are correct (and the bone-orientation should be too)



What do I want to do:

I want to skin a model onto the bones via skin modifier

Whats the problem:

I can't use the mirror stuff bc the bones (not the links) are so messed up

What I'm looking for

Something that helps to me to mirror my skinning data to the other side of my model so I only have to do one side.

-

Would be cool if anybody has an idea how to solve this!

cheers
rollin

Replies

  • Mark Dygert
    If you go, Animation > Bone Tools you should be able to adjust the size of the bones, you might be able to do it from the command panel also.

    You might have to delete the tips of the bone chains and use "create end" because the size parameter only effects the radius of the bone never the length.

    You could try scaling the bones then reset their scale so the new scale reads as 0.
    Hierarchy Tab > reset > Scale.

    You can try adjusting the offset plane when mirroring skin weights.

    Once you get half the skeleton set up you can select the arms and legs and mirror the bones, this should allow skin mirroring.

    Be sure to check the local pivot orientation because on some of them it doesn't look right.
  • Noors
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    Noors greentooth
    yeah i don't see how the displayed size of bones could be a problem with mirroring. Just be careful with the mirror treshold in the skin modifier.
  • Piflik
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    Piflik polycounter lvl 12
    Never ever (ever ever) scale or mirror Bones. Use Bone Tools for changing size and the Mirror Tool inside the Bone Tools for mirroring.
  • rollin
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    rollin polycounter
    hey thx !

    but in my case it sees to be the best way to convert the bone objects to editable polys and change the geo only

    this allows me to change the envelopes of the skin-modifier which are used for mirroring

    bit work but gives me the best result atm
    esp because the bone-geo is also off from the link-direction what makes it hard to work with.. changing the geo only solves this problem too
  • Mark Dygert
    Piflik wrote: »
    Never ever (ever ever) scale or mirror Bones. Use Bone Tools for changing size and the Mirror Tool inside the Bone Tools for mirroring.
    Everything I talked about should be done in bone tools with the exception of adjusting the mirror offset in the skin modifier.

    You can scale bones, its why bones have a scale parameter/track. The parameter is specifically used for squash and stretch animation. Something our industry tries very hard to ignore. "One more parameter to juggle that could drastically improve our animations? PFFT! I would rather work on real time ray tracing!" It can be used for so much, yet they totally ignore it... well the majority do anyway.

    It's perfectly fine to adjust the scale on a rigid bone, as long as you reset the scale. Hierarchy tab > Reset > Scale. Something you should probably do on imported bones anyway. Provided you don't do something stupid like reset xform on the bone.

    Lastly you could recreate the skeleton using 3D snap to Pivot.
  • rollin
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    rollin polycounter
    Vig wrote: »

    Lastly you could recreate the skeleton using 3D snap to Pivot.


    this is a great tip too :)
    thx
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