[Madin]

I'm making a build collapse animation in max and I'd like to find a way to to space out the already separated mesh (see above).
The problem is that because of the way the WWSkin works, I have to select the vertices that will connect to the various bones. Detached objects vertices are very close together. I can manually space out the broken up mesh for a model with less than 5 separate pieces, but above that its a chore.
Can I select for example the 5 pieces of a mesh that has been cut and detached and add a parameter that puts an even space between each piece?


This is the mesh, if you look closely you'll see small gaps in between the mesh pieces, I did this by moving the individual pieces slightly, this is nearly impossible if you want your mesh broken into lots of pieces. The reason I did this is so that when binding vertices to bones, I can actually see where one piece ends and another begins. Without this separation you'll think your only selecting only 1 vertex when you'll actually have 2 or 3. And you find out after the process is done


These are the bones derived from the separated mesh.

This post has been edited by Madin: 21 February 2009 - 03:43 PM

[Mighty BOB!]

Afraid I don't know how to help you on that one.

[Madin]

Mighty BOB!, on Feb 22 2009, 11:17 PM, said:

Afraid I don't know how to help you on that one.

Cheers anyway, has you probably guessed it's only the painfully simple nature of my models that's making the whole process more simple. The WWSkin process is painfully archaic, intuitive, but coded crappy.

[Assassin]

If you want this structure to go from uncracked, to cracked with these pieces moving out slightly to show visible cracks in the Geometry not just the texture *which is pretty cool i might add nice work* heres prolly the best way to do it in 3dsmax.

Have your 5 seperate pieces joined to form ur perfect undamaged object to begin with. Create a Bone (a 4 poly sphere set to bone object in W3D* for each of your 5 pieces and place it in the exact middle of each piece. Add each bone to ur WWSkin Controller, then Bind ALL vertices of each segment to ONE bone each. This way they'll move as complete objects if you want them to shake apart earthquake style I'd recommend 3 bones per segment attached to different vertices for a more complex seperation animation.

Anyway once uv rigged the bones the way u want, Click Animate in max, ur animations will only occur with WWSkin in animation mode not simply by moving them outside of Animate mode in max. Do your entire animation in the time segments u want. Eg move segment A in 0-25seconds, Segment B in 25-40seconds etc.

If you need any further clarification let me know, hope that helps.

[Assassin]

On the other hand if u want a destructable object, eg they shoot at Segment A, segment A goes flying off... but rest of its still fine.

Setup ur Contactpoint codes for one in the XML for each segment so there targeted.

Stage 2, ull need to have each segment as a slaved object to a Master object *decide which segment is Critical component the Master piece which if it dies the entire thing dies*. Rest are slave objects which can be killed *shot off* and make the object appear damaged but still functional. You can bind the health of the slaves to damage the master slowly as a segment is shot off bit by bit.

This be a pretty cool feature, makes it matter where people Aim on structures.

Hope this helps if thats what u were going for. If u need any help withthe coding myself or Golan can help you out if you post any coding issues up. But give it a go first it shouldnt be too hard just a fair amount of coding.

[Madin]

Thanks for your reply. I'm 'cheating', I'm using 3ds max's incredibly powerful reactor tool. All the work is preparing the model for reactor in a way that's optimal for the sage engine. The actual reactor animation takes minutes.
I've already completed the above model along with its various animations (could not be bothered with what EA call a 'damage 2, or damage state 2 animation). I was inquiring on behalf of future more complex models.

Good to have you and Golan posting regular.

This post has been edited by Madin: 26 February 2009 - 10:33 AM

[Assassin]

No problem, using reactor is a interesting thought

If it translates to W3X animation successfully let me know I'll be interested.

[Madin]

At my skill level, there is no way that I could hope to get the kind of results I get using reactor, when it comes to destruction animations.

Check out the GBWarFacD3_SN.max file in the sample art pack for guidance on how to construct your bones/mesh/properties for use in reactor.

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