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3 Dimensional Chat / .x and animation and 3dstudio max 5

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MrColossal
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Posted: 7th Mar 2003 05:36
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hello there i posted a while ago with problems related to the .x file format and mirroring in 3dstudio

i think i just about have all that stuff figured out now i'm having a terrible time with animation

the act of animation isn't hard, but when i save it using the panda exporter and then view it in the browser it's all exploded and flashing colours in my face

i have a lot of patience but after months of trying to do the most basic modeling and animation, it's wearing a tad thin.

so i'm uploading the 3dstudio 5 model i made for you all to see and maybe show me what i did wrong, if i export it to a 3ds file, it flips some normals and flips his right arm around and his right foot. if i export it as an x file it looks great bu the animation doesn't work.

any help please please please will be appreciated.

eric

http://sylpher.com/kafka/junk/body.zip

blah blah my model, please don't take it tho i can't stop you and it doesn't really matter.
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dreamcrawler
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Posted: 9th Mar 2003 04:04
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I dont want to scare you, but 3ds to X export with character studio /phisique, thought there are two plug ins that are supposed to work with that, Panda & DirectX sdk's, they just dont work well. Panda rips off your model. Directx sdk export tool will crash your 3ds max (i hope you've saved the work before that)

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MrColossal
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Posted: 9th Mar 2003 23:37
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doesn't scare me, i didn't use character studio or physique, those are just box models attached with the link tool.

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Toilet Freak
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Posted: 10th Mar 2003 03:52
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how do you get animations, when I export it(3ds) I only get the mesh.(my model)

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MrColossal
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Posted: 10th Mar 2003 09:20
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in a 3ds? all i do is animate the model and then click export, name it and choose 3ds and whizbang, that's all i had to do at least

only for me his leg and arm are flipped the wrong way around

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dreamcrawler
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Posted: 10th Mar 2003 20:11
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well, the default options i use on panda to make it work is.........
3dsmax oobject options: ALL MARKED

ANIMATION: Matrix Keys marked, rest options off

XFILE: Text, top frame, left handed, convert texture map, rest options off

It works neat for me if i dont use physique of course XD

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MrColossal
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Posted: 11th Mar 2003 03:02
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well woop

i'll test those as soon as i get back to school, stinking spring break haulting my learning process

eric

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MrColossal
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Posted: 20th Mar 2003 00:36
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nope doesn't work still...

even when i export as 3ds and use the DB conversion tool...

Deep Explorer shows the animation but the frame count is something like 1799 frames...

ok so i'm desperate now

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MrColossal
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Posted: 20th Mar 2003 10:43
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well i made another model and he looks good, a little alien guy

i animated his arm moving for a little test and it animates BUT! the only problem i have is that it moves the arm to the center of his waist and animated perfectly

is there something i am missing as far as preserving coordinates?

eric

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MrColossal
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Posted: 21st Mar 2003 08:07 Edited at: 21st Mar 2003 08:29
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wellp, i'm at my wits end here...

after doing some testing i can only assume that exporting as 3ds doesn't maintain links created with the link tool...

furthermore i can't get ANY animation to appear with X in either 3dstudio 4 or 5

i was able to animate this guy in 3dstudio using link to keep his parts together:



then i save him as an .x and get this:



then i tell DB to animate him and i get this:



all the geometry is smooshed down into itself...

so then i try a 3ds and this is what happens [note the left leg]:



then when i animate it the right leg goes fine but the left leg is rotated up into his abdomen:



i just don't understand how i can not get the hang of this when it seems like everyone else does it just fine...

please please please... if i can't even import my characters i can't get to the actual harder stuff like coding and making a game any help will be so appreciated i'll explode

eric

edit: oh yea and i tried animating something in milkshape and saving it as a 3ds and x and when brought into DB... no animation

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Kohai of UWDesign
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Posted: 21st Mar 2003 10:31 Edited at: 21st Mar 2003 10:33
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While modeling your character, have you used the dreaded 'COPY/MIRROR' option ???

These will kill your model, and sometimes, mess with you limbs normals data ...

Select all limbs, and apply a 'RESET XFORM' modifier to them .... ( taht will reset pivot point, and rotation matrix )

As for the linking, you're right, they're not exported, but that shouldn't matter, as when working with Limb animation, only position and rotations are taken in account.

I'll download your file, and see if i can make something for it !

[ edit ] FILE is not working [ /edit ]

[Kohai]
[url]www.underwaredesign.com[/url] [url]www.kohaistyle.com[/url]
pIII 733/256 Ram/Geforce 256
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MrColossal
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Posted: 21st Mar 2003 12:04
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woop! well that seems to help so far except some more questions:

if i can't use copy/mirror what's another way to mirror the one side so that it's the same as the other... i model one arm and flip it, i model a leg then flip it

oh man, i'm getting happier again thank you so much

i'll upload my new alien model if you wanna mess with it, the old man model i had up there was dumb

i didn't finish him and i'm just teaching myself stuff like UVmapping and all that so that's why his face texture is so huge:

http://sylpher.com/kafka/junk/robotthing.zip

the other download works now also... but no reason to grab it really

oh lordie thank you so much... it's 5 am and i have to go to sleep but all i want to do is mess around some more

eric

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Danmatsuma
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Posted: 21st Mar 2003 15:18
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every time you do a transform like scaling or rotating a mesh in max, and ESPECIALLY if you use mirror, do as was mentioned above and use the reset transform modifier from the utilities->more tab, then collapse to editable mesh in the modifier stack, and DO THIS BEFORE YOU DO ANY LINKING!!! 'Cos otherwise things get rather messed up indeed... if in doing this your model flips just go into sub-object ->poly and select all the faces in that mirrored object, scroll down to Normals and hit flip. Now reset transform again, and collapse until it all looks right. I cannot stress enough to do this BEFORE linking anything as reset transform cannot be undone And unless you saved it things get really messy Reset transform is your friend

ZX Spectrum 48k Issue 3, Radio shack Tape drive, Rank arena 12" T.V. set.
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actarus
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Posted: 21st Mar 2003 16:14 Edited at: 21st Mar 2003 16:15
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Let's say you made your body and one arm and you want to put the other arm at the same cordinates as the other but on the other side...very simple,select the arm to clone/mirror and move it's pivot point at the center of the torso of the model and when you'll hit the mirror button,it,ll be exactly placed.

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour!
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MrColossal
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Posted: 21st Mar 2003 22:22
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well gosh golly gee wiz, it works like a freakin' charm

man you don't know how happy i am

now the only problems i have are appending models... i have a standing still 3ds and a walking 3ds and when i try and append the models together it tells me that it can't

i've been able to append other models [like the ones in the examples] but when i change the loaded models it fails

the other problem is an animation one, it was so easy before to just animate one side of the body and flip it and offset the animation, this took so long to figure out that i haven't the patience to try using Cstudio though i long for the IK

eric

so happy

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Soyuz
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Posted: 22nd Mar 2003 00:55
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MrColossal - have you got your animated model working with a texture skin applied to it, or is it just exported with vertex colours?
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Soyuz
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Posted: 22nd Mar 2003 01:10
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ooo i got it working. Seems it doesn't like biped models
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Dave J
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Posted: 22nd Mar 2003 08:12
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hmm, I've got the same problem (can't export animation with panda) and even when I export it like dreamcrawler said. I'm not using links or anything, basically just keyframed in different vertex positions.

"Computers are useless they can only give you answers."
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MrColossal
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Posted: 25th Mar 2003 09:44
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yea i still can't export anim in X either, even a simple box moving up and down

but anyway i'm having a tiny problem with appending models together

i make a standing image and then a walk cycle, i want to append them and the program tells me they can't be appended

as i said above i've been able to append the samples that come in the tutorial [which have always been X files]

any help is again, so greatly appreciated

eric

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LREM 8888
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Posted: 29th Mar 2003 13:02
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Don't appended objects have to have the same limbs or something?

And anyway when i've got this reeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaly complicated model i made, i import it into db and i get this squashed wireframe mush. Okay, okay, same solved problem as before, but it's gridlocked into wireframe! Won't change back!

Quote: "Bad computer! Bad!"


An orange can't be a tomato but a tomato can be orange...
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LREM 8888
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Posted: 29th Mar 2003 13:03
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Anyway, when you use the DB 3DS 2 X exporter, it says 'Simple 3DS 2 X Converter'. I believe it.

An orange can't be a tomato but a tomato can be orange...
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MrColossal
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Posted: 30th Mar 2003 02:29
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they are the same limbs, same names same everything

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