Bone assignment tutorial help

[telefen]

I've been picking up bit&pieces here &there & learning a bit about bone assignment. I'm looking forward to learn the whole thing from ground up,learning how to reassign a body part as an example. Is there a specific tutorial or a book i can study by any chance. :)

[HystericalParoxysm]

Best thing really is to just look at a Maxis mesh that's roughly in the place that you want (if you're doing a hand, look at a hand). Select a few vertices and look at their bone assignments. Turn on bone colours in the Milkshape display thingie so you can see how they fade from one to another. Most of it's just trial and error, and examining other meshes to see how they've been done.

[telefen]

Best thing really is to just look at a Maxis mesh that's roughly in the place that you want (if you're doing a hand, look at a hand). Select a few vertices and look at their bone assignments. Turn on bone colours in the Milkshape display thingie so you can see how they fade from one to another. Most of it's just trial and error, and examining other meshes to see how they've been done. Thank you HP. I have been doing just that you mentiond however, I was wondering for example; if I wanna say change the pelvic area is there a one step & which vertices do I choose & which steps do I take to assign the area. I tried Choosing those red dots as vertices and not sure i double clicked the pelvice text or pressed (sellassigned) & the whole pelvice region tured red including the area that used to gradually turn green from almost yellow. So obviously i'm doing something wrong . I tried doing one by one method choosing a vertice and trying to adjust the weights by prssing show,adjust how I wanted it ,& press assign at the bottom right hand side. That's the only thing I've guessed true & it worked. I'm just wondering cause, doing vertice by vertice seems very novice & there must be more to learn than that. :) I'm trying to learn this from ground up & I'm sure there must be a more to it than what I've learned on my own.

[telefen]

I forgot to ask you HP, the reason I wanna learn more is because I wanna learn how to assign clothing to mach the are as well so they function right & won't clip thru. I appreciate if I can get some help so, I can get started.

[HystericalParoxysm]

No, you want to be using the Unimesh bone tool - not assigning via the Joint tab. That sounds like your problem - and why you can't really identify the bone assignments as-is. Have you done the Unimesh body tutorial #3? http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=179177 ... it's a bit outdated, but intended to follow the first two tutorials. It explains some about using the Unimesh Bone Tool to look at and change assignments - that's what you want to be using to examine vertices, and to change vertex assignments.

[telefen]

No, you want to be using the Unimesh bone tool - not assigning via the Joint tab. That sounds like your problem - and why you can't really identify the bone assignments as-is. Have you done the Unimesh body tutorial #3? http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=179177 ... it's a bit outdated, but intended to follow the first two tutorials. It explains some about using the Unimesh Bone Tool to look at and change assignments - that's what you want to be using to examine vertices, and to change vertex assignments. That's fine HP, :) I've been intending to go thru those three tutorials one more time . The last time I didn't quite follow what it was saying about the subject. That aside for now, what about if I'm trying to fix let say, a mini skirt lifted up on the waist line so, the bone assignment on it, no longer matches that of the body's pelvice area. Even let's say, I make my own mesh someday & like to assign it so it matches perfectly to the body's pelvice bones?. I know it's importatant to match up the vertices,but the bone assignment on the skirt must be correct as well right?, since, I moved it up on the waist line & they don't match anymore. That's why I wanted to learn this properly and thoroughly so,I could do such tasks confidently :) :help: Thanks a lot HP. :up:

[CatOfEvilGenius]

telefen Try this:

1) Load a skirt mesh with correct bone assignments
2) Load your new skirt mesh (do NOT load extra bones)
3) Select vertices from the old mesh and new mesh that are close together and copy the bones.

I usually do this with demon's Extended Manual Edit, but you the Unimesh tools should work fine too.
You can look at your bone assignments if you go to the Joint tab and click the color by joint box.

[telefen]

telefen Try this:

1) Load a skirt mesh with correct bone assignments
2) Load your new skirt mesh (do NOT load extra bones)
3) Select vertices from the old mesh and new mesh that are close together and copy the bones.

I usually do this with demon's Extended Manual Edit, but you the Unimesh tools should work fine too.
You can look at your bone assignments if you go to the Joint tab and click the color by joint box. AS I copy I would press ctrl+ D right? so,what do I do efter that.you mean I ..can you please explain what I should do with copied vertices I'm very confused. you see when I moved the skirt up the whole bone assignmet on the skirt moved up about 3 inches so,the green dots on it are at the same height as the red on the body.so, the body moves more radically &they are not synchronized. That's why I was concerned.Mustn't I readjust those areas or completely reassign the whole skirt choosing a lower location for the pelvice on it to match up the body pelvice region somehow? If yes, how do I reassign a whole region in this case being the pelvic?I like to learn that if possible cause eventually i'll be making my own meshes from scratch & it would be nice to know such tasks :help: :)

[CatOfEvilGenius]

No, you do not copy vertices, you copy the bone weights, manually.
Select two vertices, one from the old mesh, one from the new mesh.
Use Extended Manual Edit. Manually copy the bone weights.
If you look at my alpha skirt tutorial, in the meshing tutorials,
it has a section about adjusting bone weights, with pictures.

This is quite tedious, but there is no way to automatically readjust the bones.
wes_h made a plugin that automatically assigns bone weights to an entire mesh,
but the weights are not ideal, they are just a good starting point, and you
would have to adjust them all manually anyway.

[telefen]

No, you do not copy vertices, you copy the bone weights, manually.
Select two vertices, one from the old mesh, one from the new mesh.
Use Extended Manual Edit. Manually copy the bone weights.
If you look at my alpha skirt tutorial, in the meshing tutorials,
it has a section about adjusting bone weights, with pictures.

This is quite tedious, but there is no way to automatically readjust the bones.
wes_h made a plugin that automatically assigns bone weights to an entire mesh,
but the weights are not ideal, they are just a good starting point, and you
would have to adjust them all manually anyway. I'm completely satisfied with this answer my friend. :up: Yes through digging i saw that plug in. But I don't know where is your tutorial about alphaskirt. Is it the one with long neo-hippie skirt? BTW a I still adjust some bone in the joint section &it seems to work as well. Is that ok? cause it seems I saw my changes when I was playing around the ugly pevlic triangle maxis has made. When my sims do the marvine's dance loop, it seems that the inner thigh portion close to the triangle doesn't quite folow the pelvice movment so,I increased the pelvic weights just about 15 points rubbing from the either thighs & it fixed the ugly pelvice movents & yes i did use the show & adjusted & use the assign botton at the bottom right & they seem to hold the given eights.The hip movment have greatly imroved & the inner upper thigh does follow the pelvic side to side movement much better. This sounds tedious but, interesting don't you think? :)

[CatOfEvilGenius]

telefen Yes, it is the tutorial with the long neo-hippie skirt. It sounds like you managed to adjust the bone weights properly and to your satisfaction, so good job! It is a very good idea to test bone assignments with movement and dancing, just like you did.

[telefen]

I thank you again. Btw i have had A plugin called cat's normal's. I had no idea it was you & now I've seen many other programs that you've created . In time when I dare more I'd probably D/load'em all. You're really good at this stuff I see. No exageration. That's very imprssing. Keep up the good work&Have a nice day friend.