Problems with frankensteining in Blender

[DarthStevenus]

I'm following this series of tutorials:

 

https://youtu.be/e8ML5S9KSa4?list=PLZpCZE32qt3FzHJETfTZlcGehsG7xGLH8

 

to try and learn to frankenstein two models in Blender. I get as far as the part where he says to import Luke, then when I try to import I get the message "Bone model_root not found in existing skeleton_root armature!" Anyone have any idea what I'm doing wrong?

[ooeJack]

Heya DarthStevenus.

 

I believe you should have something that looks similar to this (link below) in order for it to work. This is the final way mine looked as I exported the character and set him up in-game all working, so it's a working hierarchy. Check if you have the model_root in there.

 

Note, the "_0" after every name, I believe, doesn't make a difference in things. As long as you have the actual correct name of what the object/bolt/cap etc is in the 'Ghoul 2 Properties' part, it should be ok.

 

https://jkhub.org/images/w1gZ4Yn.png

 

If this doesn't help you out, post some screenshots of your stuff to give us a better view of what's going on exactly.

 

Good luck!

 

 

ooeJack

 

Edit: Note also you might not be up to the part where all your mesh has to be all hierarchy'd, so don't worry about that if you're not up to it yet, I'm sure the tutorial will explain it. But just to make sure that you have your model_root and the other stuff there.

[mrwonko]

What models are you trying to combine? Two player models?

 

It sounds like you're either combining two models with different skeletons (e.g. a player with a non-player model) or something went wrong during the first import.

[DarthStevenus]

Does the assassin droid count as a player model? If not then yeah that's probably my problem. I'm trying to add the assassin droid shield to the stormtrooper model to get that force field effect, since simply making a custom NPC file with the stormtrooper player model set to CLASS_ASSASSIN_DROID doesn't quite do the trick. But I think I remember getting the same error when trying to frankenstein the chiss head onto the shadowtrooper body.

[mrwonko]

I'm fairly sure assassin droids have their own skeleton so that's probably the issue here. I think you can import the droid first, then rename his skeleton (both the object and the armature) before importing the stormtrooper.

[DarthStevenus]

Thanks, I'll give that a try.

[DarthStevenus]

That seemed to do the trick, thanks. I'll report back here if I have more problems.

[DarthStevenus]

Okay, so I imported my stormtrooper, deleted the other model_roots (what are those by the way, and why am I deleting them?), I parented the shield to the stormtrooper torso_0, but when I try to export as a glm I get an error message about unweighted verts. So I searched the forums and found this thread:

 

https://jkhub.org/topic/6968-blender-lod-help/?hl=unweighted&do=findComment&comment=100949

 

Did as the last post suggests and looked up some info on weighting. The shield is full red. I don't want it to be red right, because then it would...deform? I want it to be full blue don't I? In either case, I painted it all blue but selecting the whole skeleton in pose mode and moving it off to the side drags the stormtrooper model along with it, but not the shield. It does that whether I've painted the sphere blue or left it red. I assume this means something went wrong when I tried to parent the sphere to the stormtrooper model, but I don't know for sure.

 

EDIT: I just looked at the assassin droid model and noticed the force_shield_off object was parented to hips_0 and not torso_0, so I parented it to the stormtrooper's hips_0 instead. Thought that might solve the problem, but it didn't. I'm just taking shots in the dark, I don't really know exactly what I'm doing.

[Ramikad]

Okay, so I imported my stormtrooper, deleted the other model_roots (what are those by the way, and why am I deleting them?), I parented the shield to the stormtrooper torso_0, but when I try to export as a glm I get an error message about unweighted verts. So I searched the forums and found this thread:

 

https://jkhub.org/topic/6968-blender-lod-help/?hl=unweighted&do=findComment&comment=100949

 

Did as the last post suggests and looked up some info on weighting. The shield is full red. I don't want it to be red right, because then it would...deform? I want it to be full blue don't I? In either case, I painted it all blue but selecting the whole skeleton in pose mode and moving it off to the side drags the stormtrooper model along with it, but not the shield. It does that whether I've painted the sphere blue or left it red. I assume this means something went wrong when I tried to parent the sphere to the stormtrooper model, but I don't know for sure.

 

EDIT: I just looked at the assassin droid model and noticed the force_shield_off object was parented to hips_0 and not torso_0, so I parented it to the stormtrooper's hips_0 instead. Thought that might solve the problem, but it didn't. I'm just taking shots in the dark, I don't really know exactly what I'm doing.

 

Given that the shield is also fully weighted (1.000) to the skeleton_root of the Assassin Droid I think that's not the problem.

The hierarchy isn't a problem either. I guess that only really changes the way it's dismembered, but I'm not sure.

 

Does the unweighted vertex error refer to the spherical mesh of force_shield_off_0? In that case, I can only suggest you to put aside vertex painting, which I think might miss some vertexes, and instead select the shield, enter Edit Mode, select all the vertexes (A key), then, under Object Data, Assign all the selected vertexes of the mesh to the Vertex Group Skeleton_Root, with a Weight value of 1.000. More or less the same applies in case the error refers to a different mesh than the shield.

 

The other model_root empty entities are used for LOD (level of detail) support. You'll notice model_root_0, which is the main model, model_root_1, which is the first LOD, up to model_root_3, each tied to a decreased quality version of the model, which is loaded in-game when far away or when forced. They certainly are useful, but not essential to the game.

[DarthStevenus]

The exact error message is "could not load surface force_shield_off (LOD 0) from Blender: Could not load a vertex: Unweighted vertex found!" It still gives me that error even after following your instructions to assign the verts to the skeleton_root group.

[Artemis]

Try renaming the skeleton_root vertex group to model_root?  I think that's the humanoid skeleton's bone name.

 

Edit: also click the two shield meshes, go to modifiers, and make sure the skin modifier is linked to skeleton_root.

[DarthStevenus]

I'll try that too, tomorrow maybe. Gonna go for a run now. But I did successfully make this frankenstein, just to try the process with some more similar models:

 

 

 

 

Although there's a problem of the npc staring up instead of at me.

[mrwonko]

The shield is probably still weighted to the droid skeleton, check the armature modifier. Generally I suggest learning to use Blender first...