3dsmax modeler question

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So when you making model and animation in 3dsmax or wc3.
What type of controllers you use ?
What type of IK solvers you use ?
How you constrain bones ?

I bumped to an error and I dont know how to solve it... so I'm looking for an suggestions. I had to animate one same character for the 6th time with each failed another another coz wc3 doesnt support most of the things.
 
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Well as far as I know warcraft doesn't support all of that. Controllers can be linear, Biezer, TCB, or Hermite. But I linearized the anims of my tank to lower file size, and its not really noticible loss of quality. You save alot of kbs with linear. You need to be more specific and tell us more about the error your getting.
 
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So when you making model and animation in 3dsmax or wc3.
What type of controllers you use ?
What type of IK solvers you use ?
How you constrain bones ?

I use only TCB and Linear (just for optimization later on) controllers.
I use HI sover.
And I don't understand the third question. But i used constraints on few of my models the LookAt constraint for the head.

Well, Wc3 doesn't support all the 3Ds max features so deal with it.
What 3Ds max do you use and I would like to take a look at your rig.
 
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OK firstly I did everything with FK. Only FK manually. That sucked. Really.
Then I used better rigg, but seems like IK spine didnt work as well xD. Also I used normal controllers what didnt work either.
Then I set my controlers; position and scale to bazier, and rotation to TCB. And used only few constrains.
So I had like HI IK for legs, and I used constrainer to control IK's position, and also that same constrainer was used for feet's rotation.

Ok here's my last rigg I tried -.-

BTW I Dont care about the size that much, more like for quality and functionality.

So what controllers should I use, all TCB ? Can I use normal controllers for constrains then or all TCB also ?

Tips, tips.
 

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depending on the level of complexity I want.

for Wc3, I use these controllers:

Position & Scale: Linear, Bezier and TCB. Bezier is the best of them.

for Rotation: Linear, Smooth and TCB. TCB is very good for rotations but you could try smooth for some objects, specially those that rotate in cycles.

For IK:

I normally use limb IK solvers for fingers and sometimes arms, the HI solver also works pretty well, specially with scripted controllers.

I also use Interactive IK sometimes when working on FK only.

You also need to add controllers to your IK chains. 2 for each, a target controller that controls the direction of the bending and an end controller that moves your solver.

to scale IK bone chains. I use scripted controllers and references to stablish the stretching.

You can also create muscles with IK systems and link them to your bone chain. This is a bit more complex and I've never used it in wc3 animating.

Constraints:

Depending on my needs.

Orientation constraints are good for controllers and IK. if you add an IK solver to a bone chain and constraint the last bone to the controller of IK chain, you'll have an easier control over your bone chain.

Orientation constraints should be used for an object to follow another's rotation.

Look At consrainst are useful for making things look in the direction of certain object. Quite useful for eyes or compass-like objects.

Now a very important constraint:

Have you ever got to the problem where you have an object, let it be a sword, stick, anything, and you want to transfer it to multiple hands? As you know parent linking cannot change during an animation, so how do you solve this problem? The answer is simple:Link Constraint. Through the link constraint you can change the linking of an object within an scene and move it from 1 chain to another. Quite useful in my opinion.
 
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Ty for info I appreciate it.
But was my problem solved ?
"You also need to add controllers to your IK chains. 2 for each, a target controller that controls the direction of the bending and an end controller that moves your solver."
"remove ALL scale keys "

Was that my problem or ? Not quite used to figuring out what are the engine limits with model and animation. Usually I would find out everything from a programmer who does the engine.
Here I'm quite confused coz I'm using new software over a very old one.

And good tip at the end blinky.


Edit: BTW how do I select scale keys only to remove them ?
And when snapping I just need to select bones that are inside chain ? From start to end right ?

Edit2: Ok now I removed all scale keys, I could also remove some position keys I assume, that are useless.
But still I dont get that part: "You also need to add controllers to your IK chains. 2 for each, a target controller that controls the direction of the bending and an end controller that moves your solver." Or I dont know how to do that part / or dont understand.
Anyway, I snapped leg, and animation isnt correct, there is huge poppin.
If I menage to figure out all of those errors I will make an full modeling and animation tutorial xD, so other people do not get same problems as I do -.-' . Learning from mistakes here.
 
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The tip >remove ALL scale keys< solves the exporting problem
Who give you this tip "You also need to add controllers to your IK chains. 2 for each, a target controller that controls the direction of the bending and an end controller that moves your solver."???

btw what 3Ds max version do you use?

And when snapping I just need to select bones that are inside chain ? From start to end right ?
yes for example:
Bone_LegQuad_B
Bone_LegKnee_B
Bone_LegDown_B
Bone_LegFeet_B
BoneEnd_Leg_B *** you have to fix the name of that bone to Bone_End_Leg_B

Edit2: Ok now I removed all scale keys, I could also remove some position keys I assume, that are useless.
Leave Position and Rotation keys. Also don't forget to place them on the start and on the end of the animation.
 
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Yes I did everything like you said, Ok will try it now again. That BoneEnd, its an error if I dont put underline between ? Those bones are actually unused, they are not bounded with the skin neither chained. But will change them.

For that "You also need to add controllers to your IK chains. 2 for each, a target controller that controls the direction of the bending and an end controller that moves your solver."

I noticed that from Blinky, read it, maybe he was not refering to me, but generally, hm...

I use 3smax9.

After I did snapping look what I get, broken leg animations Oo. I'm doing something wrong that I'm not wear of.
Also I was using wrong parameters(loop) there in curve, but fixed that also(was for smoothing).
After doing snapping I can copy fist keyframe to last one, it will look better but with some popping -.-' .

EDIT: ups forget to attach the file
 

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When IKsnapper finish his work delete FIRST the IK chains THEN the helpers.

Later when i export the model i see some problems with the legs I think maybe its up to the Skin modifier...
I think your model has too much polygons.
 

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I could reduce like 200 polys maybe with not that much difference, If I do more I think there will be noticeable difference. But this is WoW based quality model. But I think I skinned him well hm. I might try to remove those end bones. Anyone here knows how can I export this model to .m2 wow format ? So I could convert it to wc3 then.

Looks like I'm stucked. Hope someome will find the solution... or give me some good suggestion on how to make model evading similar errors.

EDIT: Btw how do you guyz animate anyway ? I'll try to make new model, just for testing... unbelivable.


EDIT2: So when snapping it adds more keys to the timeline ? you guyz sure I can constrain IK to helper and usehelper for position moving that IK. I think it should go direct over here. So I should make IK and use IK for moving and constrain bones with helpers only. So I get direct control, and not using bypass controlling.
 
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Ok Bump, and did anyone tried to connect more than 2 bones with IK ? Like this on the picture:

http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/7439/charfss.png

Also I attached .max model there. Can someone PLEASE animate just his legs in some kind of walk animation. It doesnt have to be good, just an bad example, so I can see if its possible or there is some kind of error with the mesh ? I mean I have problems in Wc3 only...

EDIT: What If I bake bones ? Or if I used mirror verticles ?

EDIT2: Also I uploaded test walk animation model. So there you guyz should find my error. Coz its simple model, and animation, and still something wrong there.

So dl and check it.
 

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Looks like BlinkBoy's script is not working properly.

EDIT: The scripts work well. I think its up to your 3Ds max. I use 3Ds max 2008 and everything works fine.
I'll show you one of my scenes. Its a bipedFK (I can't show you the real scene :p) test animation, i just moved the bones to see how it works...
 

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Looks like BlinkBoy's script is not working properly.

EDIT: The scripts work well. I think its up to your 3Ds max. I use 3Ds max 2008 and everything works fine.
I'll show you one of my scenes. Its a bipedFK (I can't show you the real scene :p) test animation, i just moved the bones to see how it works...

Thank you very much on helping me. Its crucial for project development I'm working in related with wc3.

Can you test it with IK (dont biped), and try to link IK across more than 2 bones ? Like in this picture ?
http://img198.imageshack.us/img198/7439/charfss.png

BTW bake thing wont work if I do that instead of snapping ? I mean I tried, wont work. I will try to test it on 2008 from if someone has it...

EDIT: Ok failed to open... probbly coz of max versions ? -.-'
BTW isnt 2008 = 3dsmax9 ? Coz I got 9...

Pls test with IK and inform me, I gonna see that model now.
 
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I found the solution to that problem.
But it would be nice from you to make an tutorial :). Maybe we're missing someting..

This happens when I use your IK snapper:
walk2.gif


With IK tools 3.1:
walk-2.gif
 
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