HOW TO[with blender]: do a simple rig/assign vertecies with bones

[esnaz]

Console might be the black screen window behind the working window, no ?

I'm not sure, but I tried checking it anyway. Attached is a picture of what the black screen looks like

 

[snipperrabbit!!]

Esnaz, I'm not sure but you'll have to get the attached result first.

 

[dutchking]

Yeah, it looks like you're missing python.

 

[esnaz]

Yeah, it looks like you're missing python.

Ah, okay, thanks. I never noticed that. Where can I get this "missing python"?

Edit: Got the python, it was a somewhat complicated installation, but I got it

 

[Ekmek]

Ekmek, ok, i took a good look at your pack...there are a couple of things, both weird and wacky

the WACKY: there is some wacky thing that u are doing in blender...i took your "charlie_bodyandnewsuit12.blend" file, opened it in nifskope, assigned nonshader.dds to the meshes and got this..

THanks Bernie, I noticed that blender would do that automatically. When I imported a suit it would give it that mesh and when I joined the suit to the body it would assign the body to that new mesh - outside of scene root - instead of the other way around. Is there a way to avoid that.

the meshes seem to be in a strange NiNode (dont know if that even matters), this is trudeau's initial nif (my exported .blend file)...

the sequence from scene root to alex_parent, etc., seems to make more sense...

now for the WEIRD, as i mentioned, i dont really know if the above makes a difference, because Charlemange.nif is MESSED UP....yes, load up the ORIGINAL nif in nif/sceneviewer and u get that weird translucent/backside texture...i tried playing with different NiProperties (stencil, vertex, alpha, materials and specular), but could not make the texture appear "normal looking" u may try the charlieNONSHADER.nif....

Man, amazing that the two leaderheads I want to join - abe and charlie - happen to be the two messed up leaderheads. I'll give it a try thanks.

 

[bernie14]

^^ about the mesh assignments...dont really know how that could be happening, i'm working on a LH that does not require a different suit at the moment, but from what i can recall, the steps are as follows: (even though u may no longer be using charlie and abe, i will still use them in the example)

1) import original charlie.nif to blender (may try the nonshader.nif) and remove everything except head and hands. SAVE as "XX.blend"
2)import original abe nif (or fdr/churchil since we know those work) and remove head and hands, ALSO delete the bones, eyes, etc., that is, everything that is not part of the suit object. EXPORT AS "XXX.NIF" (these are basically the two suits (churchil and fdr) in the thumb.zip.
3)open up your XX.blend (the one with head and hands) and IMPORT the xxx.nif (suit). u now have seperate objects, i find it easier to "scale/fit" the suit around the neck and hands before i join, but it can be done after joining. i will usually save a "XX2.blend" before i join the objects just in case...
4)in object mode, with the heads/hands object selected, i "B key" (select) a small corner of the suit, usually around the shoulder, so ONLY the head/hands object and the suit object are lit up in pink (not the bones or boxes or nothing that does not belong to those two meshes), then in object mode CNTL-J (JOIN) the two meshes and proceed to edit mode to RIG the suit...

after rigging, when u r going to now EXPORT your CUSTOM LH, SELECT ALL (A key), so that everything, meshes, boxes, camera, etc., lights up in pink, then DESELECT (CNTL-SHIFT-MOUSE GRAB) the "camera" and "light". now, u have your custom LH ready for EXPORT to NIF

please make sure your export scripts r set to 20.0.0.4

hope this helps, let me know of your progress.....

 

[Ekmek]

Bernie I'm having an issue here

4)in object mode, with the heads/hands object selected, i "B key" (select) a small corner of the suit, usually around the shoulder, so ONLY the head/hands object and the suit object are lit up in pink (not the bones or boxes or nothing that does not belong to those two meshes),

I select the head and hands by right-clicking the mouse on a part of the head then when I hit the 'b' key it creates two dotted lines in a + pattern then click on the shoulder and nothing happens. To select the two parts I usually right-click on the head and the hold the shif-key down and righclick on the shoulder then join the two meshes. Is that wrong?


SECOND QUESTION

How do I add a trishape to a node in NifSkope. I notice that with te charlie_nonshader I have less trishapes to work with and because I'm adding abe's suit and tie it adds two trishapes more than I can replace on charlie's nif.

 

[Ekmek]

Woohoo I did it!

I know I have skinning to do - but three (probably not the last) questions:

1) I notice that backgrounds between Civ4 vanilla and BTS have an issue when you miz it with leaderheads. i.e. bts leader heads with a vanilla background get the red parts like you seen in my screenshot. How do fix that????????


2) Animations. the right arm of Jeff Davis is messed up because I stretched abe's sleeve over the army but no matter what I did it wasn't perfect. Are there any animations that don't use the right arm and work with charlie?

3) I use charlie as the base and abe for the suit and tie. What files do I need from abe just the skins? And is it ok to leave skins as tgas when I give to the comunity? they seem to work in game but I think the LH (according to nifskope) is only set to look for a tga how do (and should I) change that?

 

[dutchking]

Woohoo I did it!

Yeah! Good job man it looks good!

1) I notice that backgrounds between Civ4 vanilla and BTS have an issue when you miz it with leaderheads. i.e. bts leader heads with a vanilla background get the red parts like you seen in my screenshot. How do fix that????????

It looks like its a bit too low, open up the bg_nif and move it up a bit. Then test in game and so on and so forth.

2) Animations. the right arm of Jeff Davis is messed up because I stretched abe's sleeve over the army but no matter what I did it wasn't perfect. Are there any animations that don't use the right arm and work with charlie?

I'll let bernie take that.

3) I use charlie as the base and abe for the suit and tie. What files do I need from abe just the skins? And is it ok to leave skins as tgas when I give to the comunity? they seem to work in game but I think the LH (according to nifskope) is only set to look for a tga how do (and should I) change that?

All you need is Abe's textures. You can leave them as tgas just make sure when you upload them that you have everything in the zip.

 

[Ekmek]

Thanks dutchking I'll see what I can do with the background. Why can't I just use a dds though? or what centers it? and what should I open the nif in? nikskope?

For animations I found a few but they make his eyes really small. anyway around that?


here itis with some (quick) skinning. how do you guys do it, especially when removing a beard and adding skin back to the face?

EDIT: I figured out the background stuff - see new pic:

 

[dutchking]

Well you open it in nifskope obviously.

Well I usually use default animations, because they usually don't get screwed up. But as far as I know I can't really help you with the eyes thing.

I skin using Photoshop or Paint.Net. For getting rid of a beard use the "dropper" tool to take a bit of a color you see a lot on his skin and then paint fuzzy strokes on the hairy parts.

 

[esnaz]

Sorry to post another problem , but I rigged Alexander's clothes and armor to Julius Caesar. In Blender there seems to be no problem. However, when I export it as an NIF, a message comes up in the console saying there are unweighted vertices, and it cannot be exported. It also says that the unweighted vertices are selected. So, I naturally check the main Blender window to fix the selected vertices and assign them to a bone. There are, however, no vertices selected! Number one, I'm not really sure what a "weighted vertex" is, but I think its a vertex in a vertex group (attatched to a bone). Since I'm somewhat unsure about what the problem is, I go into weight paint. Everything is blue (like a model should be), so I decide to paint everything the "heaviest" (red). Now, I export the model. It works this time, but when I go into the game, all I see are the eyes and teeth. What I don't understand is why the model has to be "heavy" while all other Leader models are mostly blue (except for the torso, sometimes). What is the problem? Is there anything I have to do before I export? Thanks in advance, sorry this was long.

 

[Ekmek]

esnaz - you have to join the meshes (alex's suit to caesar's body) before you get options for vertices/bones - in blender.

by the way after my experience I'm thining of doing another tutorial. not that the ones out there are bad, but I found that we have learned so much since many of them were written that a lot of info needs to be consolidated and some blender and sceneviewer basics need to be incorporated.

 

[bernie14]

.....after my experience I'm thining of doing another tutorial. not that the ones out there are bad, but I found that we have learned so much since many of them were written that a lot of info needs to be consolidated and some blender and sceneviewer basics need to be incorporated.

excellent idea!! the more info, the better

about the ANIMATION ofthe right arm.... i think u have two options:

1) give the guy a stroke! , that is "paralyze" the right arm by associating all the vertecies, including the hand, with the torso bone.
2) re-rig ... i had a heck of a time rigging fdr's suit on alex (for tredeau). alex moves around A LOT....first, i tried mirroring the alex body rig (pretty bad), then, i tried mirroring the fdr body rig (not much better), finally, i ended up "winging it"....basically, i rigged the clavicles to the vertices between the neck and shoulder and very upper torso, the shoulders to the arm/shoulder crease of the suit from tip of shoulder to armpit, the biceps from shoulder to elbow, the forearms from elbow to bottom of sleeve, and hand from wellthe hand and including the very bottom row of verticies on the sleeve as well....i knowi overlaped some and it was mostly OK....itis wuch worse when u leave some unassigned vertex (?) or assigned to some point that does not move when the rest of the area moves, that it looks weird....

in any case, nice progress u r making

 

[esnaz]

esnaz - you have to join the meshes (alex's suit to caesar's body) before you get options for vertices/bones - in blender.

I did that. I guess I didn't phrase my question right. I attatched all the appropriate vertices to the correct bone, but I get that problem that I mentioned in my other post. As I said, no vertices are selected even though the console says that the unweighted vertices are.

 

[dutchking]

Go to object mode. Then export it, get the error and it will select un assigned vertices. I usually delete them or assign them to Torso. @ esnaz.

 

[esnaz]

Go to object mode. Then export it, get the error and it will select un assigned vertices. I usually delete them or assign them to Torso. @ esnaz.

I've tried that, but it still doesn't work. I even tried selecting every bone, then hitting select (so it selects the vertices associated with bones). Then, I select "select inverse" and assign the vertices to bones. Only problem is, all the vertices are assigned to bones. It's really quite frustrating I could try again, maybe it will work. By the way, I rigged the original "alexander body-julius" model using the old blender (not really sure what version...). When I couldn't import it back, I reinstalled blender as the new version. This whole unweighted vertices problem is only with the newest version of blender, so that might contribute something.

 

[Ekmek]

excellent idea!! the more info, the better

about the ANIMATION ofthe right arm.... i think u have two options:

1) give the guy a stroke! , that is "paralyze" the right arm by associating all the vertecies, including the hand, with the torso bone.
2) re-rig ... i had a heck of a time rigging fdr's suit on alex (for tredeau). alex moves around A LOT....first, i tried mirroring the alex body rig (pretty bad), then, i tried mirroring the fdr body rig (not much better), finally, i ended up "winging it"....basically, i rigged the clavicles to the vertices between the neck and shoulder and very upper torso, the shoulders to the arm/shoulder crease of the suit from tip of shoulder to armpit, the biceps from shoulder to elbow, the forearms from elbow to bottom of sleeve, and hand from wellthe hand and including the very bottom row of verticies on the sleeve as well....i knowi overlaped some and it was mostly OK....itis wuch worse when u leave some unassigned vertex (?) or assigned to some point that does not move when the rest of the area moves, that it looks weird....

in any case, nice progress u r making

Bernie,
If your no longer online I may answer this myself in the next 24 hours. Can I just open my current nif and assign the stuff to torso and then its playable or do i have to go through nifskope and sceneviewer again?

 

[bernie14]

Bernie,
If your no longer online I may answer this myself in the next 24 hours. Can I just open my current nif and assign the stuff to torso and then its playable or do i have to go through nifskope and sceneviewer again?

CONGRATS!!! how did u fix that arm BTW?

 

[Ekmek]

i went back to blender and went to the bone then selected it then removed the assignmet then assigned to torso. then nifskope etc