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Is it possible to scale enveloped models? [solved]

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2015 2:19 pm
by MileHighGuy
This may seem like a dumb question but, Is there a good way to scale an already enveloped model in XSI?

I can't do it with msh option and animation scaling because the collision gets messed up.

I can get it to look fine in XSI but ingame the model itself is usually too big. This is for a walker vehicle.

How did fragme scale down the AT AT skeleton? I have tried scaling the skeleton alone, setting neutral scaling, then enveloping after but then my model becomes the size of an AT AT in game.

Re: Is it possible to scale enveloped models successfully?

Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2015 1:58 am
by AceMastermind
Neutral scaling doesn't actually zero out the real scaling, this is just temporary for animating purposes.
As far as I know, Fragme didn't export a scaled down AT-AT skeleton. Although his walking Bantha skeleton closely matches the AT-AT skeleton when scaled up, I think this was a reproduction while using a scaled down AT-AT skeleton for position reference to match new nulls with, then further adjusted to fit the geometry prior to envelope. You'd have to ask him for exact details on the process he used though.

Re: Is it possible to scale enveloped models successfully?

Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2015 3:23 pm
by MileHighGuy
Thanks for your input. Do you know if there is a way to change the null skeleton back to a chain skeleton? I don't know exactly how I would change the bone length and orientation otherwise. I tried exporting as .fbx and importing with the "Import skeleton elements as nulls" unchecked, But that didn't really work.

Re: Is it possible to scale enveloped models successfully?

Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2015 4:12 pm
by AceMastermind
The AT-AT never used bone chains, just null chains. To reposition nulls just select and move.

Re: Is it possible to scale enveloped models successfully?

Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2015 5:37 pm
by MileHighGuy
Thanks for the advice. I know nulls can be used but bone chains are so much easier to visualize and work with.

Re: Is it possible to scale enveloped models successfully?

Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2015 6:23 pm
by AceMastermind
Right, but the AT-AT skeleton has no roots or effectors, this means it consist of only nulls as bones. If you were working with a null chained skeleton that used to be bone chains then you could use the null chains as a snap guide to redraw the bone chains as they were originally.

Re: Is it possible to scale enveloped models successfully?

Posted: Sun Aug 09, 2015 2:12 pm
by MileHighGuy
I figured out how to do it. In XSI, root select dummyroot and uniformly scale down the model how you want. Re-make the collision primitives. Then scale down the animation using it's munge.bat andscale down the msh the same amount in the msh.option.

I have another question. When manipulating a null skeleton with roots and effectors, do you move the bone null when you want to move the bone? or the root null? When I just moved the bones I noticed a lot of roots and effectors scattered about.

Re: Is it possible to scale enveloped models successfully?

Posted: Sun Aug 09, 2015 5:32 pm
by AceMastermind
The root and bone nulls share the same position, but not necessarily the same rotation, the effector null distance from the root determines the bone length (in a 1 bone chain for example).
MileHighGuy wrote:select dummyroot and uniformly scale down the model how you want. Then set neutral scaling and Freeze M (these might not be necessary).
Yeah you can skip that part, there is nothing here being passed to the msh file. Neutral scaling is an in-app feature and FreezeM only bakes modeling operations done to the geometry, it doesn't Freeze the Transforms, therefore the scaling reverts back to 1,1,1 on export. Anytime you alter the scale, rotation, translation of geometry (except primitives), you must Freeze the Transforms.

Re: Is it possible to scale enveloped models successfully?

Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2015 5:35 pm
by MileHighGuy
Thanks for your input again Ace. So, to change proportion of a basepose (with a null skeleton), I would translate the roots, rotate the bones (and translate ones that are not the child of a root), and translate the effectors. I did this and made a new basepose without messing up the animations.