STALKERGB's Weighting overview

[STALKERGB]

First 2 posts updated with working pictures, have changed one or two things too. Was about time I got this back up to scratch. Any weighting questions are welcome

[scifer]

I'd like you to know how helpful is this overview. For many times I have quit character modeling, but now things are beginning to work.
Thank you very very much!

---------- Post added at 05:16 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:42 AM ----------

Once you have painted an area and you want to add it to a selection you can either do what was shown above (right click then select "new" and then name it) or if you want to add it to a selection you already have you can right click in the selections window and create a new selection, call it something like "LeftArmAdd". Then while holding "ctrl" on your keyboard, select "LeftArm" so that both selections are highlighted. Now you can right click on "LeftArm" and select "Redefine" from the options:

1. What is the point in adding a painted area to a selection created by me with a random name like "abc"? Cause I think it won't move. Will it?
2. Why create "LeftArmAdd" since you will redefine "LeftArm" along with it, ending up with two identical selections?
3. Is it possible/convenient to do all this process in 3ds MAX?

Thanks again. You are one of the very few hopes for the community.

[scifer]

Currently I'm trying to weight a woman witch is smaller than the male model. Do I have to scale it up in order to the animations work properly?

[Synide]

Currently I'm trying to weight a woman witch is smaller than the male model. Do I have to scale it up in order to the animations work properly?

Probably. It depends on how much your new character model is different in size, shape and volume. The majority of the animation files (.rtm's) have been created to work with a standard sized character model. If you then apply these .rtm animations to a new model that is too different it's going to look odd.
Here's an extreme example. Imagine you have a current .rtm that moves the standard sized characters left arm across the front of his body and replaces a mag in a weapon being held by his right hand. Now imagine your new character has an enlarged stomach, chest area and you apply the same animation. It'll end up looking like the left arm/hand is now moving through the new characters stomach/chest on it's way over to the right-hand side. Not, very good eh?

The anims are size specific. Generally, people have not made characters dramatically different in size and shape because they'd have to go ahead and create an additional set of animation .rtm's to cover all the moves this new character would be performing. While it is feasible to do this, in practice it's takes time and alot of patience and technical ability. If you have a mocap setup and a refined workflow to move the data into .rtm format then it's not so much of a hardship to have a different sized character. But, most modders don't have this sort of workflow available to them. So, they'd have to create each required .rtm by hand essentially. A rather daunting process.

-Sy.

[STALKERGB]

Currently I'm trying to weight a woman witch is smaller than the male model. Do I have to scale it up in order to the animations work properly?

To follow Synide's answer, one of the key parts of your model that will have to be the same size/position is the hands, if these are out of place it can look very messed up. With that in mind, the rest of the body has to fit the specific position of the hands so unfortunately really limits how tall or fat a model could be, as an example, the female model I'm working on at the moment is almost exactly the same size as the male models I use, the only real difference is "she" is slightly thinner and the shoulders are less square. There isn't a whole lot you can do unfortunately.

1. What is the point in adding a painted area to a selection created by me with a random name like "abc"? Cause I think it won't move. Will it?
2. Why create "LeftArmAdd" since you will redefine "LeftArm" along with it, ending up with two identical selections?
3. Is it possible/convenient to do all this process in 3ds MAX?

1 - The only selections that will move are ones defined in you model.cfg, so as you surmise, creating one called "abc" won't do anything special. The reason I use my own selections is kind of my answer to number 2.

2 - I create something like "LeftArmAdd" because if you begin painting weights onto a model and then define it to "LeftArm" it will overwrite what was already on LeftArm. A solution to this would be to select "LeftArm" before you start painting. The reason I don't do this (and create my own selection) is purely because it allows me to make mistakes without any serious consequence. So if I mess up what I was defining to LeftArmAdd I'll only have to re-start or re-correct that small selection as opposed to having to re-do or start again with the whole "LeftArm" selection. I hope that makes sense lol!

3 - As for MAX, I'm sure there would be a way, unfortunately I have almost no experience with it (I use modo) but someone more versed in it might be able to help

[HorribleGoat]

Hi as this seems to be the main thread for weighting questions I have a tough nut for you all to crack.

I have a armored car model with a turret mounted minigun on top and an ammobelt curving from the top of the gun to a drum magazine behind the gunner and I am trying to make the ammobelt move and rotate around to compensate the raising and lovering of the gun.

I've got ~30 bones for the ammobelt and model.cfg configured so the are all tied to the source= "maingun" and the whole thing works like wonder in bulldozer while I rotate the "maingun". But in game the belt part animation does not work. the whole belt moves like it was just a stationary part of the gun.

So my question is what am I missing?

As a side note I got a tank with a missilepod that rotates with the main gun but with a different axis, so basically the same idea that with this car turret. I am stumped.

Update:

I did some testing with the tank and the car. I made a box with a couple of extruded sections and tied the other end fully to otochlaven and the other end to otocvez and the middle verticles to otochlaven with blueish weight. Now with the tank the weights did work, but with the car they did not. So it seems that the weights work with a tank but not with a car.. If so that sucks.

Update II

It seems that the problem was the angle, value and phase restrictions I had set to the bones.. :I My bad. Have to work more on this it seems.