Animating in gmax...

cold_electric

Ok then, I recently got fed up with animating a character model thats not segmented into limbs(as in arms, and legs parts as seperate meshes) in milkshape 3d. It may be good for animating robots but it's extremely fusterating to bip those segmented character models in milkshape especially when you cannot select them in a fully adjustable prespective view(on the lower right corner), even if you have lots of joints sepected.

Now I want to go try gmax. My main(and possibly stupid) question is, would a non-segmented model get some strange deformation when animating compared to milkshape?

p.s. I tried the tempest pack for gmax but then deleted it because it was ment to create maps instead of models but it did have a md3 export..

Sorry, I'm just still new to this thing.. Eventhough I had some experience with previous programs like Milkshape(trial version).

Sage

Why don't you just try Blender, www.blender3d.org, since any work you do in that can be sold and it also has a game engine built in. You can also try the XSI Mod tools 4.2 found at www.softimage.com. GMax seems very limited compared to Max and so does Maya PLE. I fyou decide to use gmax do a search for scripts for gmax since there are sites out there that let you import and export more files.

As for your question, it would all depend on how you model your joints, and rigged the character. If done correctly it looks great. You may want to check out www.poopinmymouth.com since Poop has written some nice tutorials about everything you need to learn to get you started quickly. Later.

Alex

cold_electric

Why am I using GMax? Because I was seeking to export my models into quake 3 arena.. I know how to create and skin them but I still havent found the right program to animate in..

If Blender or XSI Mod tools has the ability to export md3 or UT2k4 player models, then I'll take a bite at it..

XSI Mod tool might be interesting to look at because I did use Softimage a few years ago as a job training class. But a second thought, it's more likley a mod tool for HL2 rather than other FPS games like Q3, UT2K4, etc??

cold_electric

I tottaly forgot that I am more of a hobbiest when it comes to 3D modeling.

I very seldomly sell my models.

NoSeRider

If you look at the default UT2003/UT2004 character models, they are segmented. Segmenting just reduces deformation.

So no matter what software you use, you'll get weird deformation depending upon how and where you skin the vertices to the bones on continuous meshed models.

GMax is very similiar to Max paticularly in the modeling and animation portion of the software. If that's all you're interested in, then it'll do the job.

Here, I animated 4 game models, so I must know something.
http://www.planetquake.com/polycount/downloads/index.asp?author=296

cold_electric

Well you might be right on that.

But I personally think that segmented models you probably notice that it looks ugly with as you notice that the arm and legs are seperated. when in UT2k4, I hardley notice those models who have seperated meshes.

I'll ive it a try.