Blender and Torque Characters
by Masser · in Artist Corner · 09/17/2007 (9:18 am) · 12 replies
I'm having trouble getting a Torque character rig to work and export using Blender 2.44.
I have been trying for weeks to get a handle on the art of creating characters for Torque, using Blender. Unfortunately, I come recently (a few months ago) from the world of Unreal and 3DS MAX (which I no longer have access to), so I'm still a bit unsure of myself here (though with years in those I have a firm grounding in the principles). I was excited to find a working rig with the "Orange Guy" at:
http://www.garagegames.com/blogs/35183/13546
I am able to export this character and use him in starter.fps with zero problem. I went to the next logical step of bringing in my own character mesh and the problems began. Orange Guy seems to have a default pose that is a bit strange -- he stands semi-crouched and in gun-holding pose, not the basic "stick figure" (arms and legs out to side) that I expected (is this the way all Torque charcters work?). My character mesh, is, of course, in the other pose. I tried moving/scaling the bones of the rig around to where they needed to be, THEN parenting from the mesh to the armature and then creating some fast vertex groups for the bones (turning off envelopes). The bones snap right back (to gun holding pose) in pose mode and the mesh becomes a ball of yarn. I've also tried clearing rotations after reposing the rig, but it doesn't seem to help.
One side note: To test that my nodes and structure were at least correct, I tried just parenting to the armature with no assigned vertices and exporting. It exports fine and can be viewed in Showtool Pro. Of course, the skeleton animated right beside him, kind of "out of body". But that's to be expected.
My questions are:
1) Is the semi-crouching, gun holding pose normal for default poses on Torque characters? Do you normally create meshes in this pose?
2) Is there a way to move (and scale) the bones around in a way that allows me to attach a mesh in the pose of my choosing, while still maintaining the integrity of the rig and its associated animations (my goal here is to use the basic starter.fps animations as a basis for my own work, so they must work with my new rig)?
I know I sound like a total noob, but I greatly appreciate any help you can provide. I hope to get past my immediate challenges and allow my knowledge to kick in.
Thanks,
Masser
I have been trying for weeks to get a handle on the art of creating characters for Torque, using Blender. Unfortunately, I come recently (a few months ago) from the world of Unreal and 3DS MAX (which I no longer have access to), so I'm still a bit unsure of myself here (though with years in those I have a firm grounding in the principles). I was excited to find a working rig with the "Orange Guy" at:
http://www.garagegames.com/blogs/35183/13546
I am able to export this character and use him in starter.fps with zero problem. I went to the next logical step of bringing in my own character mesh and the problems began. Orange Guy seems to have a default pose that is a bit strange -- he stands semi-crouched and in gun-holding pose, not the basic "stick figure" (arms and legs out to side) that I expected (is this the way all Torque charcters work?). My character mesh, is, of course, in the other pose. I tried moving/scaling the bones of the rig around to where they needed to be, THEN parenting from the mesh to the armature and then creating some fast vertex groups for the bones (turning off envelopes). The bones snap right back (to gun holding pose) in pose mode and the mesh becomes a ball of yarn. I've also tried clearing rotations after reposing the rig, but it doesn't seem to help.
One side note: To test that my nodes and structure were at least correct, I tried just parenting to the armature with no assigned vertices and exporting. It exports fine and can be viewed in Showtool Pro. Of course, the skeleton animated right beside him, kind of "out of body". But that's to be expected.
My questions are:
1) Is the semi-crouching, gun holding pose normal for default poses on Torque characters? Do you normally create meshes in this pose?
2) Is there a way to move (and scale) the bones around in a way that allows me to attach a mesh in the pose of my choosing, while still maintaining the integrity of the rig and its associated animations (my goal here is to use the basic starter.fps animations as a basis for my own work, so they must work with my new rig)?
I know I sound like a total noob, but I greatly appreciate any help you can provide. I hope to get past my immediate challenges and allow my knowledge to kick in.
Thanks,
Masser
#2
So for now, my only available approach seems to be tweaking my mesh to fit the weapon holding pose? I think this is what I hear as the only solutions in that thread were pointed at 3DSMAX and Milkshape users?
EDIT: By the way, I want to thank you for contributing the Orange Guy to the community. Whether or not you realize its impact (and I'm sure you do), the ability to develop an art pipeline that revolves around inexpensive (or free) tools really propels the mission of getting indie games produced. First steps like this allow others to take the torch and provide guidance/tutorials to new users.
09/17/2007 (10:01 am)
Thank you, Joseph. Is this script that you're working on for Blender? Can you please keep me posted on its progress? I'd love a copy when you're ready and I can help test it.So for now, my only available approach seems to be tweaking my mesh to fit the weapon holding pose? I think this is what I hear as the only solutions in that thread were pointed at 3DSMAX and Milkshape users?
EDIT: By the way, I want to thank you for contributing the Orange Guy to the community. Whether or not you realize its impact (and I'm sure you do), the ability to develop an art pipeline that revolves around inexpensive (or free) tools really propels the mission of getting indie games produced. First steps like this allow others to take the torch and provide guidance/tutorials to new users.
#4
09/17/2007 (10:54 am)
Thank you again, Joseph. Let me know if there is any way I can help.
#7
09/21/2007 (10:50 am)
Thank you so much, Joseph. I will try them out as soon as I get home today and report back.
#8
EDIT: Another question: Since you're using the buffer in this approach, is this a situation where I have to complete the entire set of instructions in ONE session? What I mean is, if I want to just get to the point of running the first 2 scripts and save my progress, can I return to that point and continue to the third script (like if I make mistakes) after saving a reopening the file?
EDIT2: Update: So far everything looks good. I've done some very rough tests and my mesh seems to be assuming the default Torque pose and I can export him with the same result in Showtool Pro -- the animations seem to affect the right parts of the mesh. However, now I'm at a point where my lack of skinning skill is rearing its ugly head. Some vertices left behind and really ugly deformations but I am pretty sure it's all me. I'm going to have to go back to the books and refresh my knowledge of vertex weighting in Blender. This might take awhile, so my testing ends here for now. I really appreciate what you've done, Joseph. This looks really good. Thanks.
09/22/2007 (10:45 am)
Joseph: I'm not the fastest person when it comes to skinning, so this is taking time. One question: You said in the instructions that I can pose the rig any way I want. Does that include SCALING its bones? Some of the bones (in particular, the gorilla-length arms and shoulders) need to be scaled to match a humanoid skeleton. I'm doing that right now, so I hope it's not a problem.EDIT: Another question: Since you're using the buffer in this approach, is this a situation where I have to complete the entire set of instructions in ONE session? What I mean is, if I want to just get to the point of running the first 2 scripts and save my progress, can I return to that point and continue to the third script (like if I make mistakes) after saving a reopening the file?
EDIT2: Update: So far everything looks good. I've done some very rough tests and my mesh seems to be assuming the default Torque pose and I can export him with the same result in Showtool Pro -- the animations seem to affect the right parts of the mesh. However, now I'm at a point where my lack of skinning skill is rearing its ugly head. Some vertices left behind and really ugly deformations but I am pretty sure it's all me. I'm going to have to go back to the books and refresh my knowledge of vertex weighting in Blender. This might take awhile, so my testing ends here for now. I really appreciate what you've done, Joseph. This looks really good. Thanks.
#10
It seems that the scaling is not having an adverse effect so far, but we'll see. Still struggling with the vertex weights but I'm getting closer.
That's good to hear about the buffer. I was a little worried because I know I won't get this the first time.
Just curious, but is there a way to save the renaming part too (as I will likely have to do this many times)? Does it have to be parented to the control rig, instead of the export armature?
Thanks again for the awesome scripts and guidance.
09/22/2007 (6:48 pm)
Yeah, the character I'm working is only a kicker, so this rig won't work, as-is. :) j/kIt seems that the scaling is not having an adverse effect so far, but we'll see. Still struggling with the vertex weights but I'm getting closer.
That's good to hear about the buffer. I was a little worried because I know I won't get this the first time.
Just curious, but is there a way to save the renaming part too (as I will likely have to do this many times)? Does it have to be parented to the control rig, instead of the export armature?
Thanks again for the awesome scripts and guidance.
#12
Thank you for the help.
09/25/2007 (11:23 pm)
Sorry for the delay, Joseph. Your scripts look like they're going to do the trick and I am forever grateful. One harsh reality has hit me in the process of working through this, however. I am a much better modeler than an animator. It will likely take some time before my finished result looks acceptable. Back to the books for me.Thank you for the help.
Torque Owner Redacted