cultjam,
well, first, make sure to use the unimesh bone tool, not the joints thing in milkshape. You do somewhere have an unassigned vertice, probably on the leg or shoe.

Here's a general guide for the lower leg/foot and some useful discussion:
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?p=1550809

and in a thread Dr Pixel posted:

The easist way to find un-assigned vertices is to use MilkShape's "Joints" tab - do NOT try to assign them with it, but it does have a way to select only vertices that are completely un-assigned, instead of having to go through a bunch of them in the bone tool looking for -1.

Just make sure all morph groups are hidden (they should have no assignments anyway), then on the Joints tab click the button [SelUnassigned]

Any un-assigned vertices will turn red, and then you can open the BoneTool to fix them.

Ok so i've followed the tutorial step by step all vertices match and everything yet i have a weird gap which i've attatched in a pic.

So i went back and checked with Extended manual edit (i used snap vertices but checked with eme just in case) and everything was fine. Then i checked the bone assignments which all add up to 100% but i have a question.

Look at the pic to understand what i'm saying.

If the red, black and green don't match on A and B but blue still adds up to 100% on both does that matter?

Yes, it matters, very observant. You're almost there.
For two vertices to function as one, they must have _identical_ bone assignments. I mention it when joining the legs together, that the bone assignments must be the same.

Bone assignments.... they tell that particular vertex how to locate itself in relationship to the 'skeleton'. Thus when the skeleton is moved by animation, the vertices follow. So by having 2 different values there, the two vertices are being pulled a little bit apart.

For your changes, check every pair and make the assignments identical. I'd suggest simply favoring one value over another (but do it the same all the way around, like always using the value from the first vertex or something like that)

As for the other part, I am not sure why one sleeve shows and the other doesn't. And the legs look uneven in the front also. Did you do exactly the same procedure to each arm? Might not the boy's overalls have been a better choice as a base mesh, as they don't have the waist shape to begin with?

Ok i changed all the bone assignments and it completely fixed my gap problem =) Thankyou so much!! The arm thing was just that the alpha had changed.

Now the problem i'm having is (i think) to do with the uv map. I adjusted all the uv mapping but am having trouble with the way the texture and alpha is applied to the mesh, which i figured is because of the uv map.

I've included a pic of the texture and how it comes out on the mesh. Only the shoes are a problem right now. I actually combined three meshes in this one (the shoes were a seperate mesh) so i'm wondering if that could have something to do with it.

Sorry for having so many questions, i'd just like the mesh to be usable for other creators.

Ameliiya, please add a screenshot of the uvmap - select your entire mesh, go into the texture coordinator, hit printscreen, close the texture window, open up paint or another graphics program, PASTE. Crop the graphic so we just see the uvmapping, and save as jpg.

there's no greater success than success itself.

i have a question though - in Milkshape, is there a way that i can edit the vertices of one group WHILE the other overlays it, without altering the overlaying one's vertices? it came up while i was editing the fat morph, even though i had the "duplicate" group selected as the working group (though i don't think it matters), when i selected its vertices, the fat morph vertices that were in the close neighbourhood of them also got selected. i had to switch between hiding and showing the fat morph so i could move only the fit group with the fat one untouched.

this is just too annoying to be left without a solution.

either way, many thanks for your efforts, time and will. you're the best.

What does this mean? I am very frustrated, I had thought building a body mesh was going to be so difficult because I couldn't figure out how to make the right shapes to do it. Then I suddenly figured it out, and was very eager to finish something I didn't even know how to start a few hours before. But now, after all that work, and being so excited to see how it looked in CAS, I tried to export it with Unimesh but got the above message.

I really want this resolved because it was such a good mesh, and it would be a shame for all that work to go to waste.

Thanks.

P.S. I used alot of spheres in my mesh and I did not assign to anything, that I'm aware of. I just want to know how to fix it without ruining my project.

You have to give every new vertex a bone assignment. This tutorial covers bone assignments. If you continue to be stuck on the project (which is beyond this tutorial) then please make a new post in the main bodyshop area (not tutorials) and show as much of your project as you can and explain what you've done and what you want to do.

it took me a while but now i understand everything covered in these 3 tutorials!!! yay!! u rawk!!!!

i have a little question for you tiggerypum, if i may!!!

at one point in the tutorial you spoke of a cheat dresser so that you dont have to go shop to get to try on your new cloths and meshs!!!

can you please tell me where to find it?

i tryed but didnt find anything!!

tyvvm!!!

DOEreoh: Hacked Dresser: http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=87456

tyvm!!! your tha best! lol!

Tiggerypum, and HystericalParoxysm(sp?), I just wanted to thank you guys so much for all of your help in learning how to mesh (both clothing AND hair). This site is so awesome, and I'll always come here during my lunch break to check up with the latest.

I'm about to open a new sims site, and waited for as long as I did (I wanted to open it back in 2005!) because I did not know how to mesh. I finally found the time/money/patience needed, and want to show you what your great tutorials have lead me to do.

Thank you so much!

:lovestruc :lovestruc :D

You can assign bones with extended manual edit, go look at the various options in the left hand corner and click on things to show what you need to.

Hi!

I ask your help. Fewer before i successeded to combine the maildelivery with a swimwear mesh, with your guide. I want to do this again with paperdelivery&tfspikeneck. I do the same way, but the result is a head with a non visible body... What can 1 do wrong? This is a mesh or a texture mistake?

Thx

extrasecret, you can look in the 'faq infocenter' for some tips on what to check.
http://www.modthesims2.com/forumdisplay.php?f=451

It's pretty difficult for me to guess exactly where you went wrong. If you have the same groups with the same name as the base mesh you were working with (probably 'body') then something should show up, if it's linked in right.

I know i've left it ages (been super busy) but this post is in regards to the toddler mesh i was making. This is the UV Map for it.

Ameliiya, take your uvmap and edit it to just be the map 512x512.
Open your texture in a graphics program that allows for layers (photoshop, paintshop pro, gimp, paint.net)
Paste in the uvmap over it, then lower the transparency of the uvmap layer so you can see your texture.
Look at the shoes. Do you see how there is the soles and there is to the right of them the top of the shoe. That's how you have to color things. You can go back to your graphic and draw onto it having the uvmap over it as a guide. You might also have luck stealing the original shoe texture and laying it over your body texture.

Whatever you do with that, make sure your alpha graphic also corresponds

Hiya!

I've got another question: there's a body and a half-sphere. Do I need to snap together the vertex, or is it enought, if i create faces between the two groups?

extrasecret, I'm not sure what exactly you are working on, but as long as you have vertices that meet and have the exact same bone assignments, the mesh should be fine. The new parts also need to be uvmapped, and must have normals (they should look silver/gray in milkshape, not black) - use 'align normals' on new pieces.

tiggerypum: on Lolo Ferrari's chest , but minimal success...

as far as i got the toturial was really helpful, but when i got to part 17, i got an error which said that milkshape had crashed and that all of my work would be deleted i tried again many times but the same thing happened every time! help me please?

fiepijah - step 17? Where you first save a milkshape file? Uhm this is tutorial #3 - did you not have this problem the whole time? Did you change something on your computer? Milkshape crashing - the usual answer is to try and install the open gl stuff if it doesn't run correctly on your system.

no, it has never happened before. but i tried again now,but now it shuts down already when i am about to import the tf_bodyhipmandarintop! i don't understand, it doesnt happen when i just import one mesh, just when i import two meshes

Hmm, I just recently had many meshes in my milkshape at once. Are you answering 'no' to the question about importing more bones after you bring in the first mesh? I'm wondering what could be overloading it. How much memory does your system have? You might try posting the _exact_ error message that appears at the milkshape forums (at their site) and see if they have suggestions.

should i answer no or yes to the question about importing more bones?