3Ds Max Skin Question
polycounter lvl 18
We are under a ridiculous deadline, but I am used to it, having worked at 3do in my past. the problem I have found is that I need a solution for a logisitcal problem about the character.
I have to base player models, male and female. they were not modelled by me, but in true fashion, after the fact the design calls for 4 different heads for these soldiers. So to save time, it was decided to pop he heads off and model new ones that fit in the holes left in the old one. This is for the Vicious Cycle Engine, and I used "skin" to bind the characters to a standard biped.
How can I save time, or avoid having to vertex by vertex weight the character 3 more times. How can I transfer the binding to another copy of the male and female (now headless) Bodies.
And if anyone uses the Vicious Cycle engine, would it be simpler to make new entities. Or make some soort of snap in head objects?
Scott
I have to base player models, male and female. they were not modelled by me, but in true fashion, after the fact the design calls for 4 different heads for these soldiers. So to save time, it was decided to pop he heads off and model new ones that fit in the holes left in the old one. This is for the Vicious Cycle Engine, and I used "skin" to bind the characters to a standard biped.
How can I save time, or avoid having to vertex by vertex weight the character 3 more times. How can I transfer the binding to another copy of the male and female (now headless) Bodies.
And if anyone uses the Vicious Cycle engine, would it be simpler to make new entities. Or make some soort of snap in head objects?
Scott
Replies
Hmmm let me understand something. You bound the characters, THEN the heads were removed? In this case, you should just be able to delete the heads and the Skin should adapt.
Alternatively, you can Save the envelopes to a .env (in the "Advanced Parameters rollout of the Skin Modifier), delete the skin modifier, do whatever tweaks you need, then apply Skin again, Add the proper bones, then Load the envelopes. This SHOULD work even if you delete faces and whatnot after you've removed the skin modifier, but if I were you, I'd delete and add the geometry, etc., that needed to be done, THEN save out the weights, then adjust the positions of the vertices... this way the vertex count is sure to stay the same.
scott
it is quite robust. However there are exceptions, though deleting and attaching meshparts should work fine most of the time.
The safest way to transfer the weighting in your case, would be to use the Skinwrap modifier or the Skin-utilities. With Skinwrap you can bind your new mesh to the old skinned one without needing an initial Skin modifier on the modified one. You then can collapse that to Skin.
Skin-Utilities is in the Utility-Tab of your Command Panel by default I think. If not do a search on Scriptspot and similar pages.
It allowes you to safe the weighting to a separate mesh and to retrieve it from there. Skindata mesh and Target should always be of the same kind, e.g. both Epoly or Emesh. You can then even tweak the Skindata mesh to fit your new mesh if necessary, as long as you simply move vertices around. The Data is stored in the uv-channels, so you shouldn't be messing with those. The Target Mesh needs a Skinmodifier, ideally with the same bones that were stored in the Skindata mesh. Simplest way is to keep the Skin modifier on your mesh or copying it over from the original one.
Found the Untility there, so the step by step would be to.
1.) place the dupllicqate headless Mesh over the original one.
2.) Add a skin Modifier to the new Mesh.
3.) Skinwrap to the first Mesh.
4.) Collapse the new mesh down to the Skin Modifier.
5.) Delete Old mesh?
6.) Add new head.
7.) weight head
8.) Bring in Next Head and skin Wrap it.
9.)Export new Mesh and heads separately.
10.) engine specific B.S. that wwould make Buddha go postal.
How does that sound?
Scott
Scott
Scott
Actually it will crash every now and then when collapsing to skin and then selecting the now greyed out SkinWrap modifier even if you do everything right.
The simplest workflow would be like this:
On the one hand you have your skinned mesh, on the other your new one with the modifications. You don't need a Skinmodifier on that new one, just add your head and then the Skinwrap. You might want to save before you add SkinWrap if you are of the timid, cowardly kind. Select an influence radius,(or whatever it is called), of 0,01 or so and check "weight all points". Test the outcome and then convert to Skin. Save! Select the greyed out Skinmodifier and delete it. Weight your head.
Done
edit: Your new head would be in the same mesh with the body then. If the new head is a separate object and all you need is your old mesh without head, just delete it. Skin should handle it fine.