#14

7th Nov 2005 at 11:21 PM
Last edited by marvine : 7th Nov 2005 at
11:39 PM.
Posts: 574
Thanks: 57944 in 56 Posts
Roxy,
This is a lot of questions... :D
To the others, please skip this post if you are not interested in meshing!!
So, the Body Chop plugins, Milkshape and LithUnwrap.
In this case, to make it short, I took different parts from different meshes (the collar and bottom from the Uni jacket, the neck, center chest and belly from a bodybuilder nude top, morphed and poly-reduced torso and arms from another)that I had saved as .obj files (the original format is not relevant as long as the orientation of the mesh is ok) and (painstakingly) assembled them, adding totally new parts such as the inner lapels or the inside of the sleeves.
Then I exported
each surface to smooth them separately (since I still don't know how to use the smoothing groups feature :D), then put everything together again
without regrouping, exported the mesh as an .obj again to remap everything in LithUnwrap, and had to do the separate smoothing again for the main torso group because LithUnwrap messed with it (but i knew it would happen, that's why i didn't regroup the parts before).
After this, I imported a random gmdc in Milkshape with the plugins, deleted the 3 groups (which are used to support the multiple assignments),
leaving only the skeleton.
I then imported the .obj file, regrouped it and triplicated it to re-create the bodymod groups, renamed the groups. I imported another top gmdc in a new Milkshape window, and copy/pasted the group comments in my new mesh, and then spent a LOT of time trying to assign the vertices properly, knowing that the trickiest part is the shoulders region. Well, studying other meshes, trial and error, and lots of testing in game usually do the trick...:D
In fact, I'm able to use the plugins for my tops and bottoms because I got rid of the "fat" and "pregnant" morphs; I use the 3 body groups just to keep the multiple assignments. And top and bottoms made with this tool don't work properly with maxis or mesh tool meshes...
About the uv-mapping, when you add new parts you have in fact to remap also the original ones, to insert your new parts in free places.
And to view your texture in Milkshape, you have to assign it to your mesh : select all, then go to materials, click "new", then the upper "none" button to browse to your texture, then click "assign".
Well, I hope this makes a little sense... :D
Marvine and Beosboxboy at
InSIMenator.net and
Gay Sims Club 2