- Page 1 of 1
Software Discussion
/
3D Studio Max
Importing Morph Targets (and other questions)
-
msampson 24 posts31 Mar 2007Hey everybody!
I have to make this pretty quick because its crunch time but heres the jist of it. I'm in a month long class where we, as a class try to create a one minute animated short.
Easy enough, but one problem:
In that month, we use three programs we haven't learned:
3d Studio Max 8, Zbrush, and MotionBuilder
We are handicapped by not knowing the programs and learning the process of creating a production pipeline. Everything is due Sunday.
The question is as follows:
We are making face blendshapes for a character using the morpher modifier.
Due to some problems, we have to use a morph target to open the jaw. To speed up the process I exported the geometry as an obj and rigged the jaw in Maya because I know the program much better.
Only problem is after I import the geometry back into Max, everything seems fine until I right click on an empty morph target button and "select from scene" I cannot select the imported geometry. What gives?
At first I thought it has something to do with taking it to maya, but then I tried importing a different face shape that was done in max into the scene and it would not work either.
using XREF and merging it into the scene seems to work, but that is not an option with obj files i think.
Any ideas? -
31 Mar 2007Make sure the topology is the same! OBJs can sometimes screw with welded vertices.....do a vertex count on the OBJ model, as well as the native model in your scene...make sure the numbers match up exactly!
Next time use .fbx
-
msampson 24 posts31 Mar 2007I believe I tried fbx first, but Maya wouldn't accept the file. It CAN import them, so odds are I had a setting wrong or something. Thanks for the info.
I ended up just struggling with putting a jaw bone in max and using the paint weights tool. Got what I needed from it. (By the way, is there a smooth function on the paint weights tool or do you just add a very small value onto something to blend?)
I should have posted questions a long long time ago, not two days before its due. I'm sure a lot of people on these forums could have saved me and our team a lot of grief! Its so frustrating learning a new program in a few days for a production! Grrr.
I'll post our finished product once its completed if I can. Its kinda neat. Again, when I'm less tired and busy I'll explain. Its really kinda neat how the class works. And our class is the first to do a short film, so we're kinda the guinea pigs. Unfortunately it means the instructors don't know much about the problems we've been running into much either.
Now I need to figure out how to add junk to the reaction editor or something (the rigger added some sliders for finger animation but its missing a few things) -
msampson 24 posts31 Mar 2007New question... doubt anyone will answer at this hour, but i'll be in lab till 9am probably, so .....
QUESTION/PROBLEM
We finaly got the mouthbag for our character. It includes bones to move teeth and mouthbag accordingly. (Actual mouth opening will be done with a blend shape already made and the teeth will be synced to it. Its a dirty workflow but there is no talking and time makes this the only option. Mistakes, etc)
Now the bones are weighted and will just be attached to the head. Only problem is the bag needs to be edited, verticies need to be adjusted.
The Editable poly mod is below the skin modifier and is dependant on the poly mod. Obviously moving verts is a no no. There should be a workaround though. Heres whats happening.
After moving the verts (not even deleteing any faces) and going back to the skin modifier, the weighting is lost and the mouthbag doesn't move at all.
Before editing anything I tried going into advanced parameters and saving the UV set (at least I think thats what that option is for) but loading the saved set doesn't bring it back.
In fact, if I "edit evelopes" after moving the verts, it looks like everything is still weighting correctly, judging from the vert color. Even further, complely deleting the skin mod and reapplying a new one doesn't allow me to move the bag geometry.
In conclusion.... HALP!?1ONE -
31 Mar 2007a) If you have a skin modifier that uses only envelopes, changing underlying topology won't affect the skin weighting
b) If you've typed in ANY weights, it'll screw things up because as soon as you add/delete verts in the underlying topology, each vertex's ID number changes
If you NEEED to change some kind of topology but already typed in your weights, you can try adding an Edit Poly modifier ON TOP of the skin modifier, and doing your changes in that one. That being said...it doesn't work very well very often...but it's at least 1 plan of attack if you need to make the changes -
msampson 24 posts31 Mar 2007You are like a ninja with your quick responses.
That seems like a clever work around that I probably NEVER would have though up0. However, I ended up making a morph target for the mouthbag above the skin mod and it seems to be doing the job.
It also seems like the way to go as I'm going to need to apply these changes to three other animators working on other scenes who already have the original bag in place.
We'll see where I am after that I suppose. One other quick question. No need to go too in depth with the process, its just I don't know where to start looking...
We had some original morph targets for the face and the rigger made some sliders (edit: sliders on the GUI) but the morphs were kinda lame and we've since made more. Rigger isn't here though now. I have no idea where the interface creator is even located. Any hints? Its not that big a deal, I can key right from the modifier attributes, would just be a little easier.
Appreciate all the help, kind wizard ninja of doom.
-
31 Mar 2007Well...there's no interface creator
What he would have done is created some objects in the viewport (can be any kind of object, but shapes or point helpers are usually best) and then wired the positional values of those to the morph values.
Ie....you could do this by
a) Creating your morph target
b) Creating a helper object in the viewport
c) Zero-ing out the helper object's positional values
d) Wiring the X-Position (left/right) value to the morpher value of the thing you want to control
Then, when you move that object left/right in the viewport....your object's morpher value changes -
msampson 24 posts31 Mar 2007Really? Hmm.. I don't think I have the time to mess with that, unfortunaly, but just to clarify, I took a screenshot of what he has on the interface. It suprises me that its not somehow imbedded into max as it gives realtime updates of the value of the slider right on the GUI.
(Perhaps the realtime stuff and title of slider come up when the link is made..... just guessing.
Maybe I wasn't understanding what you ment. Sorry for the flickr link. Needed something quick.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7582353@N07/440548727/ -
31 Mar 2007Ooooh...yea he's using slider objects You can do that too. You can find the slider object in the "Manipulators" group.
Slider objects can be really nice for single controls, but a lot of time when animating a face using a viewport GUI it's nice to be able to combine horizontal sliders with vertical sliders, hence my suggestion to create a custom one -
msampson 24 posts31 Mar 2007Heh ok cool. Unfortunaly I've been up over 24 hours and i've still got at LEAST 8 more hours of work to do so i'm gonna fry if I try to figure that stuff out right now. Thanks again for the info. I think the brunt of my questions should be about done. Time to stop beating around the bush and actually set the blendshapes, etc.
Thanks again for the info. It was very helpfull! -
31 Mar 2007No problem man! Glad I could help
-
01 Apr 2007Show us once it's done!
-
msampson 24 posts01 Apr 2007Oh I will!
I feel like I'm losing my mind. lol. tired. Been up since sunrise friday. I'm sure we've all done worse, but anyways..... I have to go home for a moment and then back in 20 minutes for another 4 hours of lecture.... then... maybe sleep.....
Its starting to look really great though. Can't wait to show you guys! -
01 Apr 2007Haha...well don't destroy your sleep cycle too much! I already screwed mine up from working late night
...its 4:45am here and I'm not even tired -
01 Apr 2007I reckon the pen attribute holder 2 is perfect for this job and free.
you can wire anything to the sliders and then save them as poses
well cool
- Page 1 of 1
Simply CG Contributors
