First up thanks for the comments so far. I'm continuing to work on this at the mo, and I think it may need a custom script... anyay..
Quote: "I like it. The texture on the shield looks a little stretched though."
Well in the update screeny you'll see I hashed up a very quick "S.W.A.T" shield, so you can see it ain't stretching at all, although admittedly there any much space on the soldiers UV map, so it's only got a tiny bit of real estate!
Quote: "Curvy Shield stuff"
Yeah you're totally right. Dang, why didn't I think of that. Only thing is, he's bang on 4 megs, and it'll be a 100 or so poly's to get it looking like a curvy riot shield. I'll give it a bash..
Quote: "what did you use to make this?"
1
Imported from FPSC to fragmotion. saved out as an MS3D file. opened in MS3D, saved as an OBJ. Opened in Maya, created shield and positioned on the character while it was in the bind pose (frame1). Added Shield to UV map in maya, and exported JUST the shield back to an OBJ. Reloaded the MS3D file and imported the correctly positioned Shield.obj. Rigged the shield to the mesh/skeleton.
2
Then tweaked every animation frame from 573 to 881 (all the pistol ones) to make sure the shield was in the right position, and the gun went around the side.
3
Exported to .x using the DirectX JT exporter. Texture in photoshop, wrote FPE file, and tested. Then repeated steps 2 and 3 about 7 times until it started to look right. Still on step 2 to be honest.
ANYWAY!
Heres a new little screeny showing his new stopped/shooting pose. Notice now that he crouches and uses the shield propperly to cover himself while shooting around the side.