CompuServe Messages

Dem damn bones!

    22-Nov-94 02:56:02
Sb: #137151-Dem damn bones!
Fm: Darren Gasser 75107,2653
To: Gregory G. Gammill 75502,2625
Hi, << (namely existing projcet files I can study) >> Actually, there is a project file and step by step instructions already available for download. I am attaching the step-by-step with some additional comments. The zipped project is in LIB 3 and called bonchv.zip. It does not cover bend-aid, but Glenn Melenhorst did not use that for the arm anyway. Sorry I could not do a special project file for you. I know the Chevy is not exactly like an arm, but it should help. I am slammed with work right now. If you have trouble with it drop me a line. Joe ——————– The chevy.prj project is designed to be a quick demo of the BONES IPAS set. It has a number of bones specified in a roughly humanoid pattern and the '57 Chevy that came with your 3DS3 package. Here's how to use it with bones: 1) Load the project, press F4 to go to the Keyframer. 2) Press F12, select BONES1 from the KXP window. Click OK, then click on the base bone in the skeletal hierarchy (the linkage tree). This is the lowest spine bone. (Directly above the hips.) 3) Press F3 to go to the 3d Editor. Press F12, select BONES2 from the PXP window. 4) In the BONES2 dialog box, set #bones = 4, Tension = 4, prefix = chev. Click OK, then click on the '57 Chevy mesh. This part may take some time as the morph targets are generated. You will see messages at the foot of the screen telling you each of 6 Bent Objects are being created. When the routine is finished, the message 'PXP routine terminated.' will apear. You will probably not see the morph targets in the Editor; they are automatically hidden in 3DS4. 5) Press F4 to return to the Keyframer. You will see the morph targets here. Be sure to press F12 and select BONES3 from the KXP window. (If you don't do this part, you won't see the morphing happen.) Be sure to hide everything, and then unhide the Chevy main object. 6) Render your dancing Chevy from the Camera 3 viewport. (Or make a preview to see that it did work.) The Bend-Aid utility is designed to help you control how local areas of your mesh follow your skeletal bones. This will help you to avoid undesirable effects such as "bat wings" that result when you tell vertices in the 50P-Man mesh, for example, to follow 2 bones (# of bones using Bones2) and then you lift his arms away from his body. follow