[3DS Max/Dota 2] Need help with animations
Hey guys,
I'm relatively new to modeling with professional tools, but wanted to get into it for some Dota 2 modeling. The tool I am using is 3DS Max 2010.
Most of the modeling and texturing worked fine or I could get it done with some tutorials, but the animations are a bit of a mystery to me, especially considering the fact that I picked a rather difficult thing to animate and am unsure if all ways to animate something can also be imported into Dota 2.
Now to my current issue:
I'm working on a ward model that has an anchor point as base and has a chain going up to the main ward body.
The anchor point should not move at all while the chain should move as realistically as possible when I move the main ward body.
I started putting in bones for each element and, with an HI IK solver, managed to make some (terribly unrealistic) movements.
Here's an image:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/287tx8hy4chptnq/ChainAndBones.jpg
Could someone walk me through a good way to make good-looking animations with that?
Thanks in advance!
-Infrisios
I'm relatively new to modeling with professional tools, but wanted to get into it for some Dota 2 modeling. The tool I am using is 3DS Max 2010.
Most of the modeling and texturing worked fine or I could get it done with some tutorials, but the animations are a bit of a mystery to me, especially considering the fact that I picked a rather difficult thing to animate and am unsure if all ways to animate something can also be imported into Dota 2.
Now to my current issue:
I'm working on a ward model that has an anchor point as base and has a chain going up to the main ward body.
The anchor point should not move at all while the chain should move as realistically as possible when I move the main ward body.
I started putting in bones for each element and, with an HI IK solver, managed to make some (terribly unrealistic) movements.
Here's an image:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/287tx8hy4chptnq/ChainAndBones.jpg
Could someone walk me through a good way to make good-looking animations with that?
Thanks in advance!
-Infrisios
Replies
On top of that I'll split up my main question a bit (and add some more), maybe someone can help me with parts of it:
1. What kinds of ways to animate a model can be used? Do I need to rig bones with a skin modifier?
2. More specifically, can I use expressions or spline IK solvers as it has been done in these tutorials? Expressions/Spline IK solver
3. Are there good ways to animate a chain so that it moves correctly in 3DS Max?
4. Why are my bones looking so weird? In the picture from my first post you can see them, they don't look like the bones in tutorials.
5. I am getting an error when trying to import: I suspect that it is related to me not properly exporting animations, can somebody confirm that?
Regardless of these question, an answer to my main post would still be preferable.
Again, thanks in advance!
Infrisios
For your other questions, I haven't used Max in a while, but here goes:
1. Yes, you'll need to bind your bones to the mesh using the Skin modifier, you could probably use Physique as well, but it's older and whatever exporter your using may not be compatible. Skin is much better.
2. Again this may depend on the exporter, but most allow expressions and controllers, just don't add these to the Skin modifier or exporter.
3. You could get all fancy and use a physics sim, but it would be easier and less complicated to hand animate it.
4. Looks like it's just how you have your bone display set.
5. No idea on this, check you .qc and make sure everything is correctly referenced.
Where can I set those references?
I've never modded DOTA2 so I'm not sure if the model format still comprises of .smd and .qc files, but the .qc file was were all the referencing was going on.