Seeking help from those 'In the know' regarding animated model

[Pixel Perfect]

I recently purchased some animated human models from Dexsoft, all of which seem fine apart from their latest SWAT model. They appear to have produced an individual animated model for each seperate animation which I didn't really want, but when trying to merge animations into one I have discovered that the naming and placement of the bones for controlling the weapon are not the same between models making the merging impossible without messing up the weapon animations.

 

I'm not very 'au fait' with the modelling and animation side, and would avoid it like the plague to be honest if I had a modeller working with me, but out of interest from those of you out there who are ... is there anything to be gained by supplying individual action models like this?

[GIMPY73]

Wish i could help ya out mate , but im not to good with character rigging / animation just yet.

 

Thanks

 

Gimpy73

[ArBuZ]

What is file format of models? Is it 3dsmax files?

[Pixel Perfect]

Wish i could help ya out mate , but im not to good with character rigging / animation just yet.

No worries, I'm in the process of re-rigging it as I speak but will be writing to Dexsoft to ask why they have done this.

 

 

What is file format of models? Is it 3dsmax files?

They have provided the original max files (one for each animation) and in about 7 different other formats.

 

I'm not looking for anyone to sort this out, I really think Dexsoft should do that themselves, I just wondered if any one knew of a valid reason for supplying models in this way, they have never done this previously. It just seems bizarre to me!

[ArBuZ]

I have no idea why they did it. But if skelton is character studio biped, then its not too hard to merge all animations in one. With bones it will be more difficult.

[Pixel Perfect]

Yeah, I can merge the character animations in Fragmotion without any issue as they seem to have used the same skeleton for the human animation, the problem comes with the additional bones they have added for the weapon animation with seem to be placed differently in the skeleton heirachy in some of the animated models. They are generally named the same but sometimes one is the child of another, whilst on others not! As a result the weapon animation gets completely screwed if you combine the animations!

 

I've posted a few screenshots to demonstrate this, if you look at the bone assignments on the right hand side you can see the different placements of the weapon bones from one model file to the other:

[Pixel Perfect]

I have just about managed to rig the model using another skeleton and animations. There is a bit of fine tuning required on some of the vertex weightings but its practically there. Think I'll be writing to DexSoft tomorrow and asking for an explanation!