Metasequoia modeler tutorials and Keynote translated plugins

[Creatura]

I've spent a couple of days working on this model and finally I'm done with it but when I try to animate it, it plays on my nerves!

I know how to setup bones and anchors (at least I think I do) and I've set it all up but when I move 1 bone it affects other parts which are not connected to it (this doesn't happen to pelvis and legs).



what might I be doing wrong?
I've checked all the anchor cubes and they are connected properly.

[airflamesred]

Your pic is not showing creatura So its hard to say whats going on.
Make sure the bone is clad in the same mat as the anchor and that the whole mesh is covered in anchors

[Creatura]

I have done it correctly

let me repost the image:

[airflamesred]

Sorry mate it loaded a second time.
I'm pretty sure it an overlapping anchor - the top of arm anchor. I guess you auto generated the anchors so my previous post is viod.
post the zip if this doesn't sort it.

[Creatura]

http://www.mediafire.com/?8r4eysga4bdso06

here's my model.
It doesn't have any textures.

[HwitVlf]

Very nice skeleton Creatura- the eyes are definitely a creepy touch!

The problem where the arm was pulling on the chest was because a | symbol was missing in the object name. There were other problems too like meshes that were poking out of their anchors. But the good news is that AirFlamesRed figured out a way to set up models without using anchors. It is MUCH easier for SoM.

To set up an anchorless bone, cover a bone in a unique material, then add that material's name to the end of the object that will move with the bone. For example, the 'chest' bone would be covered in a material named 'chestMat' so you would name the chest mesh object 'chest-chestMat' (the dash mark is required). I changed your skeleton to work without anchors (attached). It should work much easier for you now.

Some other problems:
You need to change the angles on your bone-triangles. A triangle should have an angle over 90 degrees where it attaches to another bone or a line (see attached picture). You may have problem with animation or converting to MDL if you don't.

SoM requires that you have the 'root bone' at XYZ=0. The root bone is the 'first' bone in the skeleton; it moves all the other bones with it. In SoM, the shadow will follow this root-bone. Make sure you never move the root bone up or down (Y axis). But, DO use the root-bone to move your model forward/sideways (ZX axis) during walking etc. I moved the root bone where it needs to be and also added a second bone above it- use this second bone to move your model up and down (Y axis) by selecting the bone and pressing Ctrl+E.

Don't use spaces in object or material names. It can cause conversion to fail.

SoM expects your NPC/Enemy models to face down the Z axis (blue line). Otherwise, they'll face away from the player ingame.

[Creatura]

Wow thank you love how it actually works.
Although I should have noticed that anchor was smaller on the skull.

But there still it one tiny problem:
The skull doesn't react to any bone and I want it to move and take jaw and eyes with it.
Is it also possible tom make the eyes better? I mean is there a way to make them look at the same spot while moving 1 bone. If you move it it will rotate the on the center of both eyes and I want them to rotate on their own with single bone which will work as a focus point.

And thank you 

[airflamesred]

Yeah pretty much what John said. Unless you need deformation (think moving skin) then stick with the anchorless system cause it saves a lot of messing about with the anchors. You had a sort of combination of the two systems going on. If you're going to use anchors then use the sdef or bdef tag for the mesh (conected or not)
On the upside I thought your bones were very good - you obviously did your homework.
Though your exported mesh was around 95k polys which, and John will know more than me, seemed a bit high. If its OK i'll look at this tomorrow and see if I can reduce them a bit.
Great effort though - You have put a lot of work into it

[HwitVlf]

I don't know what the max-polygon count is for a SoM animated model, but less is always faster so Mark's offer sounds like a great idea to me.

I messed up the skull earlier by covering the 'root bone' in the skull-bone's material- duh The root bone doesn't need any material since no mesh is attached to it.

There is a way to make both eyes rotate as a set (using the 'constraint' setup in Mark's Keynote tutorial), but it's also nice to make them move independently in case you want him to look cross-eyed etc.

Attached is a copy with the skull's bone fixed.

[Creatura]

Thank you all
now about the poly count what if I just remove the patches. the model won't look that good but at least the concept will be kept :)