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3ds max locket, need help

 
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Fiendish

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PostPosted: Thu Feb 09, 2017 10:17 am    Post subject: 3ds max locket, need help Reply with quote

I'm making a locket in 3ds max. It's supposed to be closed with the CLOSE trigger, and opened with the OPEN trigger. The triggers aren't the hard part for me, but I'm having trouble figuring out where to go from where I'm at.



This is what I have so far. The top of the locket is a separate mesh from the rest. It's the only way I could figure to get it to move the sphere half and the plane as one, plus when I had it attached to the rest the pivot was in the wrong spot if I just selected the half sphere via the 'element' selection tool.

Anyway, I can't figure out what to do from where I'm at. I need to unwrap the UVs still, I need to add the animation still, and I need to weight it still. I have no idea how to do these things with two separate meshes.

any help would be appreciated.
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 09, 2017 11:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

First, separate meshes is fine. It can also be done with one mesh, but I'd actually prefer it separate as the Skinning gets a bit tougher as one object.

Second, depending on how well you want the necklace to "move" with the avatar you can approach the product/animation two ways:
A. Derive from clothing (necklace can move with avatar movement better as it is weighted to multiple bones; open/close animation must be done with morph animation)
B. Derive from accessory (necklace will be more "stiff" as it is associated to a single avatar bone; open/close animation can be done with skeletal animation)

=======================================
For B. - the skeleton setup would look something like:
=======================================
Code:

Root (should be aligned to an avatar bone, such as Head)
    Dummy01 (should be exactly where you want the locket to pivot)
        LocketRotateNode (should be exactly where Dummy01 is at)

NOTE: The purpose of "Dummy01" node is to "ground" the rotate node. I've had issues where I'd rotate a node that was offset from the root and it just wouldn't "spin" right. If it is parented to an object in the exact same spot it always works. I hate troubleshooting things that don't work that "should just work."

You'd weight the necklace and the back of the locket to Root, and you'd weight the front of the locket to the LocketRotateNode. The LocketRotateNode contains the keyframes to rotate the locket open and closed.

For the keyframes, here's one suggestion:
Key 0, 1, 2 : the LocketRotateNode is "closed"
Key 30 : the LocketRotateNode is "open"
Key 60 : the LocketRotateNode is "closed"

This will allow you to easily export three xaf files:
Closed.xaf (frames 0 - 1)
Open.xaf (frames 2 - 30)
Close (frames 31 - 60)

For export:
* Skeleton: select Root, export the skeleton and take all defaults
* Animations: select Root, export skeletal animation, use the values above for start and end frame (0 - 1, 2 - 30, and 31 - 60).
* Meshes: select each mesh and export an xmf - you'll have two XMF files

In Create Mode on the meshes tab you'll add in both meshes (click Add to get more "slots" to browse for a 2nd mesh). For accessory, these slots don't really matter so you can have 2 or more.

For help with animation, let us know.


=======================================
For A. you will use morph animation:
=======================================
The skeleton is simply the avatar skeleton. You'll weight your necklace and all locket pieces to the avatar however you think looks best (the locket will likely be 100% on Spine03 or Spine04, but the "necklace" portion might be partially weighted to Spine04, lfClavicle, etc.). The idea with this method is to get the weighting "better" so the necklace moves with the avatar, even as the avatar turns and moves around.

In this scenario, you'll have to create a morph animation. This is a fairly simple morph animation - I'd suggest going through the IMVU tutorials on morph (the bouncing ball tutorial) to see how it all works together. Max supports a Morpher modifier, but the order of the steps of creating a morph target and linking and such are important for things to work right in imvu.

-ner
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Fiendish

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Joined: 29 Jun 2010
Posts: 118
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PostPosted: Thu Feb 09, 2017 2:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thank you! that information was so helpful!
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