Rigging - Caps and Hand Tags

[Cerez]

Okay, I have two questions related to rigging.

 

1. How are the caps surfaces meant to be weighted? I thought I did the right thing by weighting them to the closest bones, but now my model has cuts (a break in lighting) where it's been segmented, and some of these cuts have a visible transparent space between them. I didn't move any of the parts of the mesh, so where are these empty spaces coming from? 

 

2. When I tried my model out in game, I noticed that the tags for where the lightsabers/weapons are held in the hands are off. Is it possible to move these tags? How do I fix this alignment problem?

[Wystan]

Don't know will i find the solution or not but i'd like to see the screenshots.

[AshuraDX]

@@Cerez First of all a Screenshot showing what exactly is going wrong will definitely help us troubleshoot your problem, but here's what I can tell you without seeing it :

 

the gaps indicate different weighting values effecting the vertices at the 2 ends connecting

the shading breaks are usual aswell - they are caused  different vertex normals on both sides - which I tried to fix inside JKA but enver managed to do while using carcass - you can only hide them in less obvious areas

about the tags - that might be caused by a hierarchy error - I have to see your mesh hierarchy (everything below mesh_root) but yes you can move them - just delete the skin modifier before you try doing that and then reweight the tag

[Cerez]

the gaps indicate different weighting values effecting the vertices at the 2 ends connecting

 

That'll be it. *nods* I'll try replicating the exact same weight settings for those vertices on both meshes.

 

the shading breaks ... you can only hide them in less obvious areas

 

I can't hide them on a naked arm, and the game requires that I segment the arm... :/ I guess this is a game limitation I have to live with?

 

about the tags - that might be caused by a hierarchy error - I have to see your mesh hierarchy (everything below mesh_root) but yes you can move them - just delete the skin modifier before you try doing that and then reweight the tag

 

Hmm... Could it be because I didn't weight the tags to a bone in the skeleton? Or is that for JK2 only? I might try moving the tags, since I did the hierarchy right, to the best of my knowledge...

[minilogoguy18]

Can't move forward without pics.

[Psyk0Sith]

I usually weight the mesh when it's still one piece. Doing so ensures your detached limbs will match 100% between each other. Caps should be weighted in the same manner as their parent limbs, because they also need to move in the same manner. They're sharing border vertices between two open meshes after all.

 

If the tags look off, it could be the way you positioned the hand mesh, if it doesn't quite fit the base pose than the saber will be out of alignment to some extent. You could import kyle's saber and move it into proper position there should be a tag along with it, telling you exactly where it should be. Move the rig's tag to match the saber's or use the one with the saber, don't forget to change name and re-assign weights.

[minilogoguy18]

^I do this as well, weigh first, segment later, I also make the caps after segmenting buy drawing polygons over the holes in the mesh then extracting those polygons, that way they inherit the weights of the mesh they go to.

 

You can move tags, just not bones, put them wherever you want honestly.

[Asgarath83]

1 mmm... the invisible caps triangle  section is a bug i got sometime when i collapse the extrusion of vertex when i create the caps.

it's possible to solve that selecting the incriminating face and flipping the face on the other side. i ever fix in this mode.

as told, the caps need to be rigged with same rig parameter of the edges of the limbs of the caps. example: if the l_arm edges with torso are rigged to lhumerus and lclavical 50\50 , the cap of l_arm  , l_arm_cap_torso_off, need the same, identical weight of this edges vertexes.

2: sure, you can move the tags in every part of model. for non humanoid models i make something of ...,madness. XD i have a monster non humanoid rigged with JKA humanoid skeleton,. this monster... after i end rigging i move the r_hand thag in front of his claws for dmg player with an invisible saber - claw with high damage scale. XD the tag is moved by monster movement and so player is hitted when is hitted by the tag.

i moved instead the l_hand tag into the mouth of monster, so monster can bite player and damage with it... and also shoot force powers drains draining life by mouth... ^^

i never used a saber for fix my tag position... :S but for experience of 1 years passed to rig models i see that the better position of tag is between the thumb and the index finger. o.o 

3: what program  use other peoples for making rig? D: i ever make rig after detaching mesh because if i detach a mesh i ever lost the rig of the mesh itself... D: i use 3d studio max 5.

@@Psyk0Sith i ever used your skeleton and follow your oldest tutorial on psykopat site... i learned the weight of model with it.

@@Cerez caps aren't obbligatory... some old models have not caps. But without caps character dismerbered got the limbs holed. :S