Can Blender be used to assign meshes to bones?

[Umbra.exe]

I know that assigning bone assignments can be very difficult and tedious... It's the main reason I haven't finished any custom mesh outfits yet.

For me, it's made even more difficult with Milkshape... I can barely navigate the program! (I've found tutorials on how to mesh with Milkshape, but they say nothing about zooming and panning and such.)

Even if I do find a tutorial, I already know how to use Blender, I've been familiar with it for a few years now. I'm no expert at it, but I'm much more familiar with the program. I think it would be far easier to just make the bone assignments in Blender, rather than start over and learn a whole new program I'll probably never use for anything else. :p

However, I have no idea if it's possible to import the rig and (base) mesh with assignments into Blender. When I import .geom files, there's no rig at all, but I'm wondering if there's a way to import it as it does in Milkshape.

Ugh, I type too much... I guess what I'm asking is, can Sim (and possibly object) rigs be imported into Blender, so I can assign the vertices there?

I really enjoy using Blender to mesh with, and I'd like to do as much of my work as possible using Blender, and not Milkshape. ^^;

I hope this makes sense... ^^; And I hope it's possible! XD

[whiterider]

To do this, you'd have to import the GEOM into Milkshape, save it in a format which includes bones and is supported by Blender, import into Blender, make your changes and do the reverse. Unfortunately, I don't know of any such format - OBJ won't work as it wipes out the bone assignments.


Btw...
2D views:
Zoom - Scrollwheel
Fast zoom - Shift+scrollwheel
Pan - Ctrl+Left mouse button drag
3D view:
Rotate - Left mouse button drag
Zoom - Scrollwheel
Fast zoom - Shift+Scrollwheel
Slow zoom - Shift+Left mouse drag
Pan - Ctrl+Left mouse drag

If you lose your mesh in 3D view, right click -> Reset View. If you want to zoom in instantly on a section of the mesh, select it, then right click -> Frame Selection.

Because it's always useful to know. ;)

[cmomoney]

I wrote a Rig Editor addon for Blender(yet to be released): http://www.modyourpanties.com/hosting/32899_111222211232-io_TS3_rig.rar . You can import sim or objects rigs, but for sim rigs you must check the 'Is body Rig' option in the file selector. For objects you must use the 'Use Hash Names' option. And for both I would use the 'use Shapes' option. Once you've imported the rig, you add a armature modifier to the mesh(es) and select the rig in the 'Object' field of the modifier.

eta: You have to put the FNV.exe in your Blender application folder.

[whiterider]

That is one hardcore duckling, cmo.

[cmomoney]

Yea, he'll duck you up. ;)

[Umbra.exe]

whiterider: yeah, I couldn't find a format either... ^^;

But that list of controls is really helpful. Thanks! I still prefer Blender, but at least I know how to navigate Milkshape should I decide to try using it again. :)



cmomoney: I saw your name on "last post" and hoped you'd have some good news for me. :D So, it's possible then, I hope?


I have a question about the files though...

Right now I have the io_TS3_rig.py in

"C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.62\python\lib"'

and FNV.exe in

"C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender"

But I'm not sure that's where they're supposed to go... I do have the io_TS3_rig.py file installed as an add-on, so does that mean that the other file is in the right place?


Also, where exactly do I import the rigs from? So far I've just been using CTU to extract the GEOM meshes. I'm not sure exactly where the rigs come from though. ^^; Do I get them somehow from the GEOM files? Or from somewhere else? Should I be using another program instead of CTU?


Sorry for all the questions... You've just got me really hopeful about this and I want to be sure I can get it to work. ^^; I've spent the past couple of hours trying to figure it out myself, but I'm not sure if I'm doing this right... Sorry, I'm kind of clueless right now. ^^;

[CmarNYC]

Sorry if this is hijacking, but it's sort of relevant - is there any mesh file format with an open specification that's used by Milkshape and Blender and maybe Maya, etc.; that includes all the necessary vertex, face, bone, uv and so on information? I'm wondering if it's possible to write a tool to convert meshes into a more universal format. But while I know data manipulation I don't know a whole lot about the technicalities of meshing or what format might be good for this. :)

[Umbra.exe]

CmarNYC: I think a while back I was looking for a filetype that Blender and Milkshape supported, that uses bones. I think .smd was supposed to keep bones and stuff, but only Milkshape had it, not Blender. Someone had written an import-export script, but I could never get it to work (although that could be my fault). I think the script is outdated though, the thread had been made a few years before.

I'm not sure if that's what you were asking... I don't know if Maya supports .smd either. But I hope that helps at least a bit?

[cmomoney]

Are you using the Blender GEOM tools to import the GEOM? If so, I've just updated them to use the rig editor and automagically import the rig. And yes, it seems you have the files in the right place.

CmarNYC: I haven't found a format that is completely compatible across the 3D apps. Collada would be one, but MS only exports it, and Blender's isn't quite right yet(since last time I tried). SMD is flukey too. Blender has a new MS3D importer, but its still under development, so the needed features aren't functional yet.

[CmarNYC]

Thanks, Umbra and cmomoney. Looks like nothing's going to be really ideal. Maybe I'll take a look at the native Milkshape and Blender formats.

[Umbra.exe]

cmomoney: I got it! :D Well, I think/hope so. I used the GEOM tools to import a mesh I had extracted with CTU, and then did what you said in post #3. Works like a charm! Well, I haven't found anything wrong anyway. ^^ The weight paint works, the mesh moves when I rotate bones.... It's great!

I have ooone more question, though. ^^; I looked at all the rigs, and I see that there's a child, toddler, and adult rig for human Sims. Will the adult rig work fine for ages Teen-Elder? It seems to line up fine, unless there's something I'm not seeing. I know the meshes themselves are different, so I'm just wondering if the same rig works for all of them.

Thanks so much for this, by the way! I feel more encouraged to make more heavily edited clothing now, as opposed to just retextures. My classes are keeping me a bit busy right now, but I can't wait to start using this! :giggler:

[BloomsBase]

I have ooone more question, though. ^^; I looked at all the rigs, and I see that there's a child, toddler, and adult rig for human Sims. Will the adult rig work fine for ages Teen-Elder? It seems to line up fine, unless there's something I'm not seeing. I know the meshes themselves are different, so I'm just wondering if the same rig works for all of them.


If you mean the RIG used in Blender then yes, the RIGs used in the game are diffrent and can not be swapped.

[ChiK_HeinekeN]

I wrote a Rig Editor addon for Blender(yet to be released): http://www.modyourpanties.com/hosting/32899_111222211232-io_TS3_rig.rar . You can import sim or objects rigs, but for sim rigs you must check the 'Is body Rig' option in the file selector. For objects you must use the 'Use Hash Names' option. And for both I would use the 'use Shapes' option. Once you've imported the rig, you add a armature modifier to the mesh(es) and select the rig in the 'Object' field of the modifier.

eta: You have to put the FNV.exe in your Blender application folder.

Hi..I used d CTU to extract d mesh but when I when I tried 2 import using Blender it gives me this error:

Traceback(most recent call last)
File"C:\user\beba\appdata\roaming\blender foundation\blender\2.63\scripts\addon\io_TS3_geom.py",line 131,in execute rt=rigGet(self.rig)
File"C:....,line 44,in rigGet bpy.ops.rig.imported(filepath=r path,is BodyRig=True,use Shape=True)
File"C:\ProgramFiles(x86)\blenderfoundation\blender\2.63\scripts modules\bpy.ops.py",line 180,in_call_ret=op_call(self.idname_py().None.kw)
Attribute Error:Calling operator"bpy.ops.rig.importer"error,could not b found.location:<unknown location>:-1

Do I screw up something?? :help:

[cmomoney]

Do I screw up something?? :help:

Please see here: http://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=443780 post #68

[ChiK_HeinekeN]

Please see here: http://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=443780 post #68

I did what u told me, but noe I got this error

C:\...,line 135,in execute self.parsefiles(self.filepath,rt)
C:....,line 375,in parsefile me.data.faces.add(numfaces)
Attribute Error:'Mesh' object has no attribute 'faces'
location <unknown location>:-1 :cry:

[cmomoney]

That's because you are using Blender 2.63. The GEOM script was broken by that version(it hasn't been out that long) and I'm still in the process of fixing it.

[ChiK_HeinekeN]

That's because you are using Blender 2.63. The GEOM script was broken by that version(it hasn't been out that long) and I'm still in the process of fixing it.

What should I do then? :new:

[ChiK_HeinekeN]

I found and download ver. 2.6...Is that one ok?

[whiterider]

Since the first line of the instructions says that the plugin is for Blender 2.6, I suspect that probably is ok. ;)

[ChiK_HeinekeN]

Thank U!!!

[cmomoney]

You need 2.62.

[ChiK_HeinekeN]

D folder with d .rigs files where in my computer do I have 2 put them?

[ChiK_HeinekeN]

Im starting 2 feel really stupid!! Now d ve 2.6 when I tried 2 imported it says: Warning: No rigs loaded.Build completed!!