Anyone feel up to rigging, animating?

[Valandar]

Okay, since I cannot at this time, as far as I know, export to original flavor FF or Extra Crispy FF, I might need a little help here.

See, I've been working on a completely different "Male Basic" than the currently existing one, mostly for my own personal projects, but also as sort of an experiment. I currently have the geometry and mapping complete, and am working on making the basic Diffuse skin for him.

Unfortunately, I have Max 7, and have not figured out yet how to export a rigged and animated figure to Freedom Force via Nifskope, and Max 5 is still being a snot. Therefore, someone else would have to rig and animate it. I will be able to rig and animate it for personal projects, but these would not carry over to Freedom Force at all.

It has a complex shoulder and waist geometry that would need special care, but if rigged properly, will be able to do animations like "Hold Heavy Object Overhead" without the massive wrinkle we see in the default figures, and will bend and twist quite nicely.

It's also.. hrm... more realistic than the default figures, and a higher polycounr - 2552 tris compared to about 1000 tris. Below is a picture of the geometry, rendered in 3DS Max, and a textured version ("Base Skin") will be coming soon.



And, yes, there will be more muscular and "Brute" versions coming later though keeping the same mapping.

[Lunarman]

Wow!!!!

Need I say more? :D

[Valandar]

Okay, I have a "Freedom Force-Worthy" base skin done... nowhere NEAR enough detail for current-gen games, no specular map, no Normal map, nothing but simpe Diffuse. But the rest is easy enough for FF...





And a more "Superheroic" version of the model, probably better suited to superhero games:



Only thing really left to do on the Base Skin is eyes and teeth (it has an opening mouth, and has a "tooth block" similar to the 'Talking heads' for cutscenes)

[Podmark]

That is very cool looking Val. I hope you can get the help you need.

[djfredski]

 :o that awesome Val! :thumbup:

[Valandar]

A couple views of the "Skin" version of the "Base Skin"... looks even MORE real, dunnit?

And yes, this is pretty much how it will look in the Ctool, also.





I still need to "tweak" how the top of the ear attaches to the head on the skin, but it's otherwise pretty much ready.

[Previsionary]

pretty awesome there, val. The presence of a censor bar makes me wonder if he's anatomically correct. OMGAH, have you finally fulfilled that long ignored request by (name) from years ago? :P

[Valandar]

No, he's not anatomically correct, but there IS some bodyhair that might offend the squeamish. :P

[tommyboy]

A typically (for you) great looking mesh.
If you are agreeable, I'll give it a try to rig it, but can't promise I'll have the time or skill to do much by way of animating.

PM me if you'd like to email me an .obj of him that I can import into Max4.

[daglob]

As they say around here "Day-yum!"

[AfghanAnt]

Questions!
What's the poly count?
What does the wire frame look like?
Why fingers and no toes?

Great looking model by the way. :thumbup:

[Valandar]

Questions!
What's the poly count?
What does the wire frame look like?
Why fingers and no toes?

Great looking model by the way. :thumbup:

Poly count is 1332 when counting quads as a single poly, 2554 when counting quads as two tris...
By wire frame, do you mean the surface topology, or the mapping template?
And no toes because 99.99% of what I will be using it for will be wearing boots. :D

[Symon]

Those are really impressive! Excellent work.

[laughing paradox]

That looks really good. Congrats on the work.

[djfredski]

 :D good is not the word, that HOT! :thumbup:

[Deaths Jester]

Finally a more realistic looking male_basic! Great work Val, I  can't wait to get my hands on it and start playing with it. Though I must ask, what does the topology look like? From the pics it looks like ye staying kinda close to the normal topolgy of the current meshes but I can't really tell.

[tommyboy]

Just to keep everyone up to date, I am attempting to rig it, but it's going more slowly than I might wish, in part because it deserves to have the job done properly rather than the half-baked lazy man's physique-ing I reserve for my own meshes.
So I'm trying to do it Right, not do it Quick.
And I'm not all that good at Right, however much I may have mastered Quick.
And if I don't think that I can do it justice, I'd rather not sully this fine mesh with shoddy rigging.
I hope to get it done this week, real life allowing.
Or at least to let it be known that someone else should also be doing this. Cos they probably should...

[Deaths Jester]

If ye think ye might need some help with some animations, I've got some mo-cap data somewhere that might be useful.  If so drop me a PM and I'll see if I can find it.

[edit] I also think I might have a few tutorials from 3dWorld that might help with the rigging....must look.  If I find them I'll drop ye a PM with em to help out.

[Valandar]

Here's a front and back wireframe of it. The arms and legs are mostly similar to the current topology, mainly to save polygon count. However, the torso and head are considerably higher.

[yell0w_lantern]

It might be complicated enough to use envelopes rather than weighting individual vertices.

[Valandar]

It might be complicated enough to use envelopes rather than weighting individual vertices.

I'd actually use envelopes, then tweak individual vertices. :D

[Carravaggio]

I'm really excited about this mesh, more excited for FF content than I have been for a while, it looks incredible. its worth whatever wait Tommyboy deems necessary.

[cmdrkoenig67]

Fantastic mesh, Val...And the skin is soooo realisitic (skin texture, color, etc...).  Amazing work!

Dana

[tommyboy]

I'm afraid that at the moment i just haven't got the time (or talent) to do this right, so I'm asking if anyone else feels up to it.
I'd rather bow out now than try and fail for another week or two then give it up.
So, if anyone else wants in, please speak up.

[Valandar]

Is there any way for me to rig it in my version of Max, then save or export the rigging itself in a format Max 3, 4, or 5.1 can read?

[Deaths Jester]

I'd offer to rig it but I don't have a version of Max at all...though I did find the 3dWorld tutorial for rigging and shall post it in this forum Saturday when I get the first real chance to post something.

(edit: Tutorial has been added to the Mesh Tip's N' Tricks section)

-DJ

[Valandar]

I hate to say this, but that tutorial is for a completely different program. Nothing in it really applies at all to 3DS Max, sorry. :(

[tommyboy]

Is there any way for me to rig it in my version of Max, then save or export the rigging itself in a format Max 3, 4, or 5.1 can read?

I guess you could try to export using the NifTools  exporters, which might produce a nif file which an earlier max version might be able to import.
Never having tried this its pure guesswork, but from what I can tell the rigging is imported along with a mesh, so I assume it may be exported too...
(If you don't already have the niftools exporters/importers plugins, if you google niftools and sourceforge you should find them).

[ow_tiobe_sb]

Have you tried exporting to FBX format and then importing into 3ds max 4 or 5, which can also read the FilmBoX format?  I cannot guarantee this would work, for it may be possible that later versions of 3ds max using more recent FBX exporter versions might not be readable by earlier versions of the FBX importers on earlier versions of 3ds max.  I also have no idea how the FBX exporters might interpret the Biped data, nor do I know what possible misinterpretations might occur when trying to import the FBX file.  Just a thought.

If there is anything I can do to help (short of rigging the mesh, a process that represents my Achilles' heel), just let me know.

ow_tiobe_sb
Phantom Bunburyist and Fop o' th' Morning

[Tobor Y2K3]

Hey Valandar,
Long time no see. It is nice to come back and find you are still doing some cool work. :thumbup: I still found your work inspiring in my abscence, thinking about this place from time to time. If I can ever get my PC emptied from all of my school work and family photos, I would love to try meshing again. I have many things on my plate as well as mastering everything 3DS Max :banghead: Anyhow, I hope this works out for you.