Animating Real- Time Game Characters-P5

Animating Real- Time Game Characters-P5: My intent in writing Animating Real-Time Game Characters has been toshare my work methods, thoughts, and ideas about animating real-timecharacters in 3ds max 4™ and character studio 3®. Any factor that affectsthe animation process using these two tools has been covered.
Nội dung trích xuất từ tài liệu:
Animating Real- Time Game Characters-P5108 Animating Real-Time Game Characters FIGURE 3.24 The Initial Skeletal Pose option helps you go from an animated to unanimated state. FIGURE 3.25 Assign all the upper arm vertices to the UpperArm link. (think knee and thigh). Vertices that are farther above the elbow will be less influenced by the forearm, and vertices below the elbow will be less influenced by the upper arm. Chapter 3 Weighting a Character Using Manual Vertex Assignment 109Whenever its a certainty that two links will be influencing a set of vertices like theelbow, go ahead and assign them all an equal weighting (1 to the parent link and1 to the child link). Of course, these values wont stay that way for all the vertices,but its a quick way to assign them to the right links simultaneously, causing thedefault Currently Assigned Links Only to be a boon and not a handicap whentweaking the values. Zoom in on the elbow area, and only select those vertices that makeup the elbow. Bring up the Type-In Weights dialog box, click All Links,and assign the vertices to Betty R Forearm by clicking on it and typing in1 (the vertices will turn dark green). Toggle Initial Skeletal Pose back andforth by unchecking and checking its box to see the effects the weightingchange has on the elbow (Figure 3.26).FIGURE 3.26 The elbow here has equal influence on both the UpperArm and Forearmlinks.Unfortunately, the Forearm link does not immediately follow the UpperArm linkin the Type-In Weights dialog box. Several links that are children to the Forearmappear first. Be careful not to accidentally assign weighting to a Hand link whenyou think youre assigning it to the Forearm (Figure 3.27)! While the weighting doesnt look bad, giving all of the vertices equalinfluence from both links detracts from the intent of the geometry, which110 Animating Real-Time Game Characters FIGURE3.27 Beware the confusing out-of-order Forearm link. is to portray a thick elbow pad. Therefore, a few adjustments need to be made. By toggling the Initial Skeletal Pose box on and off, you can get a rough feel for what the values of the vertices should be changed to. For example, the vertices at the top of the elbow need to be influenced less by the forearm so the elbow can retain more of its shape, but the vertices at the bottom of the elbow dont need to be changed as much. Turn your Initial Skeletal Pose back on, and try the values shown in Figure 3.28 for the elbow area. Now when the elbow is bent, it looks better and keeps the shape of the elbow pad intact. (Figure 3.29). That solution solves the problem with the back of the elbow, but the front of the joint (the bottom of the bicep area) needs to be tweaked as well. With a weighting of 1 and 1, the arm crimps enough to make the bleep shrink, instead of remaining the same or bulging. However, if you bias the vertices more toward the UpperArm link, the forearm geometry will look strange (Figure 3.30). A solution to the forearm deforming the way it does is to lessen the contrast of the elbow juncture; transfer some of the influence from the forearm vertices over to the UpperArm link. It doesnt have to be much, and can vary from character to character. Select the three vertices at the top of Bettys arm in the bent position, lock them, and add the Betty R UpperArm link to the links that influence the vertices. A value of 0.1 should work fine (Figure 3.31). Chapter 3 Weighting a Character Using Manual Vertex Assignment 111 FIGURE 3.28 The elbow needs to be biased more toward the UpperArm link.FIGURE 3.29 The elbow looks better with the new weighting values.112 Animating Real-Time Game Characters FIGURE3.30 Biasing the front of the elbow joint to the UpperArm link causes a strange deformation. FIGURE 3.31 Adding the UpperArm link to links that influence these vertices helps deform the forearm better. Chapter 3 Weighting a Character Using Manual Vertex Assignment 113 This juggling of weighting influence between adjoining links is neces-sary to get around th ...