Gents. I'm trying to create a mounted archer unit imported from WoW that combines a horse and a character model. I plan for this unit to be able to fire on the move and thus turn his body to face the target he's firing at while moving.
I'm still new to Max, but thanks to the sterling and expedient assistance you guys provided on my recent questions, I've been making steady progress. I've figured out how to combine the mesh of the horse and the archer so when the horse is playing its walk animation the archer is fixed on its back, by connecting some bones. I face two problems at this point.
One, is creating the Turret_Z attachment point on a bone at the archer's waist. From reading past threads on the topic of turret_z I understand I have to create an attachment object, name it "ref_TurretZ", and attach it to the bone of the same name. Following this, I renamed the waist bone on the archer accordingly and attached an attachment object with Select n' Link. No dice. There appears in the model data in the cutscene editor (previewer) for the model a new attachment point, but what's there is
: [Unknown], Bone = 5 (Invalid!)
When clearly it should be something like,
Ref_TurretZ: [e_attachRef_TurretZ], Bone = 5
I exported a siegetank model and experimented with its Turret_Z point. What I gathered from that is once I remove the Ref_TurretZ attachment point, it's hard to put it back on, so I figure there are probably other things I have to attach the attachment point to, or have things attached to it.
Two, is mixing the walk/attack, run/attack, and stand/attack animations of the horse/archer models. I have very little experience with animations in Max. First I need to know if this is possible. Since the Goliath and SpartanCompany models are able to walk and attack while retaining both animations, so I figure it should be.
I notice that animations like the goliath "Attack" and infantry "Stand Left" and "Stand Right", animates only the upper body and lower body respectively, so animations that affect the other parts runs without problem. This is what I'll be gunning for. The question then is how do I replicate this in a custom model in Max, and set it up in data to display this correctly?
I don't know about combining animations. You can ask about it at the official art tools thread on us battle net forum. TurretZ work in both, I just don't remember all little tricks about the m3 exporter. ANd I recommend to switch to Art Tools, since is an official tool, has no bugs or restrictions, and it's easier to use (but it doesn't have an importer, so if you need to import, you better keep the m3 exporter too).
Well, place Ref_TurretZ to (0, 0, 0), don't attach to anything, thn create a bone and place it to (0, 0, 0) too. Set bone's orientation to (0, 0, 0), attach the bone to the Ref_TurretZ, use this bone to skin your turret. Should work.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Gents. I'm trying to create a mounted archer unit imported from WoW that combines a horse and a character model. I plan for this unit to be able to fire on the move and thus turn his body to face the target he's firing at while moving.
I'm still new to Max, but thanks to the sterling and expedient assistance you guys provided on my recent questions, I've been making steady progress. I've figured out how to combine the mesh of the horse and the archer so when the horse is playing its walk animation the archer is fixed on its back, by connecting some bones. I face two problems at this point.
One, is creating the Turret_Z attachment point on a bone at the archer's waist. From reading past threads on the topic of turret_z I understand I have to create an attachment object, name it "ref_TurretZ", and attach it to the bone of the same name. Following this, I renamed the waist bone on the archer accordingly and attached an attachment object with Select n' Link. No dice. There appears in the model data in the cutscene editor (previewer) for the model a new attachment point, but what's there is
: [Unknown], Bone = 5 (Invalid!)
When clearly it should be something like,
Ref_TurretZ: [e_attachRef_TurretZ], Bone = 5
I exported a siegetank model and experimented with its Turret_Z point. What I gathered from that is once I remove the Ref_TurretZ attachment point, it's hard to put it back on, so I figure there are probably other things I have to attach the attachment point to, or have things attached to it.
Two, is mixing the walk/attack, run/attack, and stand/attack animations of the horse/archer models. I have very little experience with animations in Max. First I need to know if this is possible. Since the Goliath and SpartanCompany models are able to walk and attack while retaining both animations, so I figure it should be.
I notice that animations like the goliath "Attack" and infantry "Stand Left" and "Stand Right", animates only the upper body and lower body respectively, so animations that affect the other parts runs without problem. This is what I'll be gunning for. The question then is how do I replicate this in a custom model in Max, and set it up in data to display this correctly?
As always, I appreciate the help n' input.
r u using art tools?
No. Should I be? Are these easy to do with art tools?
I don't know about combining animations. You can ask about it at the official art tools thread on us battle net forum. TurretZ work in both, I just don't remember all little tricks about the m3 exporter. ANd I recommend to switch to Art Tools, since is an official tool, has no bugs or restrictions, and it's easier to use (but it doesn't have an importer, so if you need to import, you better keep the m3 exporter too).
Noted.
People have worked with adding Turret_Z before art tools was made available. I'd like to explore my options without it first.
Well, place Ref_TurretZ to (0, 0, 0), don't attach to anything, thn create a bone and place it to (0, 0, 0) too. Set bone's orientation to (0, 0, 0), attach the bone to the Ref_TurretZ, use this bone to skin your turret. Should work.