Leaning skeleton
by Russell Fincher · in Artist Corner · 03/09/2006 (8:22 am) · 6 replies
I'm in the home stretch here... almost got this Max character exporting stuff nailed. But I'm losing the lean forwards in my running cycle somewhere between Max and Show Tool:
So would this be a problem in the DTS or the DSQ file? Is this associated with the linking of the bounding box? That was my first assumption, but tweaking those still haven't been able to get the lean corrected.
DTS schematic
DSQ schematic
-Russell
So would this be a problem in the DTS or the DSQ file? Is this associated with the linking of the bounding box? That was my first assumption, but tweaking those still haven't been able to get the lean corrected.
DTS schematic
DSQ schematic
-Russell
About the author
Art Lead at Sickhead Games, focused on dev tools and prototyping, instructor/advisor at several Dallas colleges and universities, Associate Developer with GarageGames, champion of avant-garde game art at uncommonassembly.com.
#2
03/09/2006 (12:44 pm)
Sorry, my screenshot should have included the bounding box. The bounding box in the Max file is straight up and down, as it would naturally be created in Max. And the skeleton leans into his run, so you'd think the skeleton would have a natural lean in Show Tool, but this isn't the case. 
#3
"I just exported a fish from lightwave with an animation. I animated the larger part of his body swaying back and forth by rotating the object..
The rest of his animations were done with bones. When he is brought into Torque, the animation worked, all but his sway side to side.
What does this mean?
It means you can't just rotate the object, it must be done by moving the root bone, not the object itself."
(lol, i think this may be thae case with yours also.)
03/09/2006 (12:55 pm)
Note to self:"I just exported a fish from lightwave with an animation. I animated the larger part of his body swaying back and forth by rotating the object..
The rest of his animations were done with bones. When he is brought into Torque, the animation worked, all but his sway side to side.
What does this mean?
It means you can't just rotate the object, it must be done by moving the root bone, not the object itself."
(lol, i think this may be thae case with yours also.)
#4
03/09/2006 (1:19 pm)
Wow, I was looking in the wrong place for this. Because the rotation of the figure didn't change throughout the animation, it's static rotation wasn't being recorded. I had the same problem with bent arms in other animations not coming out bent, because they never changed throughout the animation and were always bent the same amount. 
#5
Just make sure there's some motion in all your bones and you should be okay.
03/09/2006 (1:45 pm)
Yep. I've learned that one "the hard way" too. Bones that never move in your sequence will be culled out by the exporter (basically the exporter tries to be clever and it ends up destroying things =).Just make sure there's some motion in all your bones and you should be okay.
#6
03/09/2006 (2:38 pm)
Working great. I've finally got everything working in-game.
Associate Matt Fairfax
Night Heron Games
Most likely. The model comes into the engine relative to the object space defined by its bounding box so if the bounding box is leaning and the model is leaning then the model will come in straight up and down. You are probably going to have to lock the bounding box upright in order to acheive the effect you are looking for.