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Hey, I got a couple question about creating unit models.
1. Can it be done in the free version of XSI Modtools 6?
2. What exactly is rigging and weighting, and would I need to do that?
3. Is it considerably hard to do, or does it get easier once you learn the basics?
4. What is enveloping? (or something like that)?
Any answers to these questions would be greatly appreciated, I have been wondering about this for a long time.

ColonelKlink wrote:Hey, I got a couple question about creating unit models.
1. Can it be done in the free version of XSI Modtools 6? It can be created in every version, but exported only via 5.1 or 5.11 I believe

2. What exactly is rigging and weighting, and would I need to do that? Rigging is setting up all of the things you need and orgnize them in XSI by putting them into different layers, not too sure about weighting though.

3. Is it considerably hard to do, or does it get easier once you learn the basics? It gets easier with every time you do it, but it is tricky at the beginning

4. What is enveloping? (or something like that)? Enveloping is fixing parts of the model to certain bones. BF animates the bones, not directly the model, so you need to attach points of the model to the bones in order to move if the bones move too.

Any answers to these questions would be greatly appreciated, I have been wondering about this for a long time.

If anything is unclear (or wrong :s) tell me.

spidey you got it right but some other things


Envoloping is asigning parts of the mesh to a bone, and when the bones are animated (which are the animations) the mesh that is envoloped to that bone will move with it, For example, an arm envoloped to an arm bone would move with it.


Weighting is really just making different verticies on the bone be assigned to a different bone. again for example. if you had a long kama, part of it would be assigned to the leg bones, you dotn want that, so you would wieght it to the pelvis so that it moves with that.

it cant be exported in mod tools 6.0 because meshex doesnt handle envolope, animation and bones(bones im not sure)

and as spidey said, the first time will be quite diffucult, but it gets easier and easier

ColonelKlink wrote:...
Any answers to these questions would be greatly appreciated, I have been wondering about this for a long time.

There is no need to wait for information when it already exist under your fingertips, just launch XSI and press F1 then search for keywords about anything that puzzles you, reading the provided documentation is by far the quickest way to learn new things about what you're doing.

Darth_Spiderpig wrote:Rigging is setting up all of the things you need and orgnize them in XSI by putting them into different layers...

The term rigging is probably the most misused 3d term in this community, a "control rig" can be built easily using the Biped guide and Rig from biped guide tools in XSI which makes animating skeletons easier. Rigging is not really necessary for simple animations and it certainly isn't needed if you aren't animating anything. You can read more about rigging in XSI HERE.

Okay, so I could create a model in Modtools 6, but then export it to 5.1 somehow? I think Gametoast has links to trial versions here for that version, would those work for enveloping?

And, just so I understand this correctly, Enveloping gets certain parts of the model to stick to bone, which is used as a root for animating that part? Like getting a bicep or upper arm chunk to stick to a bone?
And Rigging...... sets up the actual bones, or skeleton?

(A Little Off Topic) Is there a tutorial that I could read, or watch, that takes you step by step through the whole process, sort of like the "Basic Modeling in XSI" tutorial?

Thanks for your help!

A tut for getting a playermodel into Battlefront: Clicky!

ANDEWEGET's video tutorials: Link

Most important one: The XSI FAQ