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3 Dimensional Chat / Mesh deform vs. Limbs

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Van B
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Posted: 30th Sep 2003 16:58
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Hiya all,

Decision time, I gotta decide whether I should use mesh deform animations or limbed animations on my main characters.

I have a bit of experience with limbed animation in 3DS-Max, I'm pretty happy to limb animate them because I'm familiar with it. However, I also have the option to use CharacterFX and mesh animate the models - however I have very little experience in mesh animation.

The reason I'm asking this now and not once I've messed with CFX is because I have to make the character models first and don't want to make the model then find I have to change it to a limbed model afterwards.

Opinions please.


Van-B

My cats breath smells of cat food.
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actarus
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Posted: 30th Sep 2003 17:13
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Most will be in favor of mesh deform,like me.

It's so much better if you're going to try to go for realism.You can have the model actually simulating breathing(scaling chest) and muscle effects if you're good enough as well as facial animation,which I'm actually working on sending some into DBP using bones...

Everyobdy wants to be loved,But no one loves everybody...

HEY!!! I'm the one who had 'Cyberspace' in his location on the older black forums,shame on you Rich j/k
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Simple
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Posted: 30th Sep 2003 17:41
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You know my thoughts about limbed anims Van So I would go with mesh deform.

But consider this >> some times it's a good idea to use both, but both rigged with a bone structure and bind the skin.

You can still use a bone rig with a limbed or partially limbed model. Plus you can also use an animated skeleton from one model on another ( by simply merging your model and binding the skin ) so no need to animate two or three simular models with the same anims

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M00NSHiNE
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Posted: 30th Sep 2003 20:48
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Yep Id go with mesh deform, it looks better and youd be gaining experience in using CFX/bones if you used them instead of limbs.

"It's amazin' what you can do with a computer and access to t'internet"
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indi
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Posted: 1st Oct 2003 12:14
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I think the type would depend on what kind of game your going to make before I would decide what to advise.

anything else is a matter of speculation.

http://www.lunarpixel.com
It's already tomorrow in Australia
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arras
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Posted: 1st Oct 2003 12:55
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Yea I have to decide the same thing now. I want to make random generator of characters for my project and I run to few problems..If I make models limb animated I can change and combine limbs and textures as much as I want. For example imagine I have 5 diferent heads, 5 chests, arms, legs... I can combine them directly in DB and I dont have to have models for diferent cloth and face combination. If I decide for mesh deformation I have to make dozens of models and textures.
What for example if I want to change outlook of my character ...let say he got new peace of armor or clothing...what now?

And I would have one related question too: In old DBclasic I could make animations directli in code so I had full control over limb manipulation. Can you make the same in DBpro with mesh deformed model or you have to use pregenerated animations (made in Milkshape or Character FX for example)?
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Van B
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Posted: 2nd Oct 2003 13:43
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It's a sorta RTS, but more arcadey - the characters will be fairly small on the screen so I'm only using about 700 polys per character, I reckon it will be easier to vert assign on my new model than the higher poly models I've messed around with. Looks like mesh deform it is then .

I'd love it if you could simply rotate or move a limb in DBPro and that mesh deformed the model for you, like even if you could have a limbed model, like a skeleton that had a mesh skin, that'd do it for me - unfortunately we have no such luxury yet. One option is to use mesh animated limbs, like a whole arm would be an object, as would a leg, torso, head etc - then you stick them together with code. One nice little bonus is that bone locations are represented as limbs in DBPro, so you can check the limbs and get the locations just as if they were limbs.


Van-B


Van-B

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M00NSHiNE
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Posted: 2nd Oct 2003 22:22
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I did that somehow...... I found a bone animated model and exported it from CharFX in the DX8 format, keeping the settings as they were. I made a quick prog in DBPro to rotate each limb (just coz i was curious to see which ones were which).

I tapped in a random limb number, and ran the program. Its leg was spinning, but strangely the mesh was stretching with the rotation - I was totally amazed as I was told this wasnt possible. I tried all the rest of the limbs and they all worked.

I did plan to paste the entire help text here from cfx, but it wont let me copy it, so I can only tell you it had 'export skin & bones templates only' ticked.

Youve got CFX aint you VanB? Check it out! Bo Selecta!

"It's amazin' what you can do with a computer and access to t'internet"
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Van B
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Posted: 3rd Oct 2003 11:10
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Ahh, I'll look into that! - cool.

Propper Bo'!


Van-B

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arras
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Posted: 6th Oct 2003 13:59
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I found it out useing Milkshape ...Ill make new post with explanation.
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