Quote:Originally posted by morcroft
Hi KP
Thanks for looking but no, I don't think so: I have done the parenting (Par: under Objects and Links) and the shackles do move with the bones in the cs preview window - they're just in a completely different place from where they are supposed to be. The way they move is like they're attached to an invisible bone at 90 degrees to the one they're actually parented to!
I wondered if it's something strange about the scamp skeleton it's all based on but I'm guessing it's more likely something I've done.
Hi Morcroft,
If you can't find anyone else who can help you with figuring out what is wrong, you are welcome to send the necessary files to me: Blender scene, exported shackle nif, creature mesh & skeleton nifs, and the animations for the creature (unless I can use the "Scamp" animations).
Btw, good job on this creature. I'm happy that my morphs tutorial worked for you. And yes, weightpainting can be a pain in the arse.
Yeah, weightpainting can be a pain. But for what you are working with, you are probably doing it the hard way. If you have a base creature or race body to work with already that is weightpainted to your satisfaction, getting clothes & objects of similar shape to bend with the body, can be more easily done with a script located in Blender. What you do, is this:
1a) Make sure the creature/race has had any "skinned" body mesh pieces (the nude areas), joined together into one mesh with "CTRL + J". This won't delete the skinning, btw, which is good. You only need to combine the nude body meshes for the procedure below, but can otherwise use separated meshes for the nude body, for export of the nude body parts to use in CS/game.
1b) Then, click on that combined mesh, go to "Editing Mode", select all the faces of that mesh, press "W" -> "Remove Doubles". This will weld vertices together that are close enough, and makes the below weightpainting script I will mention, work more properly.
1c) Make sure the body clothing/armor has no weightpainting done on them. In other words, in "Editing" button panel selection, the "Vertex Groups" should not have any bones listed under it.
2) However, make sure each separate mesh piece has an "Armature" modifier. Be sure to unclick "Envelopes" from the "Armature modifier options. Make sure the Armature is named "Scene Root" (because most, if not all, actor skeletons have the root node named "Scene Root" <NiNode 0, in Nifskope>. Then in the "Armature" modifier options, make sure "Ob:" field says "Scene Root", too.
3) Click on a clothing/armor/accessory mesh, then click on the body mesh, in that sequence, until both are highlighted. While still in Object Mode, go to "Object" -> "Scripts" -> "Bone Weight Copy". A little window will pop up: set the "Quality" to "4" (best quality of this auto-weightpainting script). Then click "OK".
Let the script run, might take a few minutes, depending. When it is done running, you will see that the "Vertex Groups" under "Editing", now have bones referenced. Go into "Pose Mode" for your armature, and test out how the clothing bends with the body. It should already bend pretty well, though a little manual weightpainting tweaks are often necessary. But "Eureka!" - you've just had most of the work done for you!
Koniption