Looking for a mesh piece take two...

[daglob]

I posted this in my skins thread, but what I need is help on Octopus Jimmy. It is body transplant dropping Pulp Versatile into Male Basic 6-Arms with the  sleeves duplicated and moved around. In Nifscope, the arms and sleeves line up fine, but in Herotool, they go in different directions. I've also tried to re-assign the texture the extra arms use, and it hasn't worked. if I can get a scope that works, I'm hoping to convince Atomic Robot to skin it.

Then there is this:



It doesn't have to be exactly like this, but it can't be a right triangle or an equilateral triangle. I want it to make The Hangman's (MLJ) collar. Tommy has a lot of parts that almost work, but nothing I've seen yet.

[SickAlice]

I had the same issues with the 6 arm mesh, be that trying to put other meshes into it or take it's arms elsewhere, both the weird movement in Ctool and texture assignment ones. I gave up and made my own (see Salaak in the GLW1 release thread). Mine have a bit of a clipping issue but it really doesn't stand out as much in game and the GL keyframes are a contributing factor (the ring and extras that originally were on that mesh clip and have issues staying on their contact points as well). You could try taking those arms and repositioning on whatever mesh, PV for example. I don't think I skinned them separately but you should be able to reskin the meshes and then weight them again in Blender or Max (or I could do it for you). Personally I'd go with making a new set of arms from PV so they match it. All I did was delete most of the body except a chunk between the arms then shrink the vertexes between for male basic before.

[daglob]

I had the same issues with the 6 arm mesh, be that trying to put other meshes into it or take it's arms elsewhere, both the weird movement in Ctool and texture assignment ones. I gave up and made my own (see Salaak in the GLW1 release thread). Mine have a bit of a clipping issue but it really doesn't stand out as much in game and the GL keyframes are a contributing factor (the ring and extras that originally were on that mesh clip and have issues staying on their contact points as well). You could try taking those arms and repositioning on whatever mesh, PV for example. I don't think I skinned them separately but you should be able to reskin the meshes and then weight them again in Blender or Max (or I could do it for you). Personally I'd go with making a new set of arms from PV so they match it. All I did was delete most of the body except a chunk between the arms then shrink the vertexes between for male basic before.

I can shrink parts to "0" (I'll try this when I get home), but I don't actually know how to delete parts. Blender and I have never gotten along well...

[hoss20]

Daglob, if you want to send the skope my way, I might be able to help out. I'll PM you my email address if you don't have it handy.

[SickAlice]

If you mean In Blend? Right click on the mesh to be edited then switch to Edit mode (hitting Z in Edit mode makes everything more visible). B is to bring the crosshairs to select vertexes with. Once selected, Delete is to delete them. S is scale them. S+(X,Y,Z) to scale on a specific axis.

That's it really. So you would Import whatever nif, like Pulp Versatile. Select the mesh, switch to Edit mode. Select most of the mesh, pretty much everything from the pelvis/lower torso down to the feet and Delete it. Delete everything from the neck to the top of the head. Select what's left of the torso between the arms and shrink it until it's a tiny dot. Go back to Object mode and Export the nif (unhiding anything you had previously if you had). That's all in Blender.

Open the arms nif in Nifskope and Copy the arms into another mesh (in the example Pulp Versatile). That would mean selecting the mesh itself, not the node, and Copying it then Pasting it into the Node where it normally goes. So for example the mesh in most male_basics would be Editable_mesh. That gets copied and pasted into the " male_basic " node. Once it's copied move it into a new position, down or south in otherwords until you feel it looks right. Personally I found it helpful at this point to shrink the arms mesh to .95 or .90 in size. It won't show in game but it will keep the arms from clashing with the ones already on the final work.

A tip will doing the Blender part, when selecting and shrinking the bit between the arms, try to not select any vertexes attached to the arms/shoulder/armpit. If you can't help it and do move those vertexes back to their original position before shrinking the mass. If those vertexes are shrunk into the center they will have the tendency to " jump out " to their original position where the arms are during animations and make it look really strange.

Remember in the end of the day CTool is a looking glass. Being that it shouldn't be an accurate measurement of how things look in game. The clipping issue I mentioned above for example is really only an issue in CTool. In game the eye won't take stock of it and the effect just blends into everything else.

- I'm making a note to myself here to make a few basic arms meshes (where others can just scope pre-made arms to whatever they like) for users and release them. I did a 4-armed male heavy effects for one of the Green Lanterns last night. Maybe this will be more helpful in the long run.

[Cyber Burn]

- I'm making a note to myself here to make a few basic arms meshes (where others can just scope pre-made arms to whatever they like) for users and release them. I did a 4-armed male heavy effects for one of the Green Lanterns last night. Maybe this will be more helpful in the long run.

That would be helpful. 

[SickAlice]

I'll squeeze it in, shouldn't be too hard. I place my arms on the same skin as the regular mesh but I'm thinking for these I'll put two sets of arms and two legs on a texture called extra_limbs. I can probably get them out by the same time as GLCW2. I was thinking male suit, male basic, female basic, female Gren, female Ink and male heavy. Those cover most of the multi-limbed characters I can think of. Any others I should do this with?

[Cyber Burn]

That covers anything I can think of off the top of my head, and having the extra limbs on a separate texture file sounds like a good idea as well.

[daglob]

If you mean In Blend? Right click on the mesh to be edited then switch to Edit mode (hitting Z in Edit mode makes everything more visible). B is to bring the crosshairs to select vertexes with. Once selected, Delete is to delete them. S is scale them. S+(X,Y,Z) to scale on a specific axis. ( a lot deleted)

I've copied this into a document and will try it when I get home.

THANKS!

[daglob]

I'm bumping this to the top because I'm still looking for that triangular mesh piece.

[SickAlice]

I'm looking at the covers for said character, not a lot of ground to cover and I think what your looking for is two triangles like that, each on one side of the head of a male basic with the apexes meeting inside the neck (I can't find an image where I can actually see under the chin?). Sound about right? That should be simple and I'll do it of no one else gets to it. May be a bit as I'm still in the throes of a fever.

[daglob]

That's it exactly. I'm not really sure of the practicallity of the thing, but, hey, it worked in the comic book.

[SickAlice]

It's to strike fear into the hearts of evil men. No one is going to mess with someone wearing a big scary collar like that. That's why Dracula wore one.
I'll get it up in about a day.

[SickAlice]

K, here's what I put together. I'm dropping it here rather than a PM so anyone else who has a use for it can have access. Sooner than later I'm going to add a page for " basics " to the site and move it there. I made it so that there are two separate pieces to the collar rather than the traditional single piece collar. I did it this way as you initially indicated not being able to find a standard triangle mesh piece so no yourself or whomever also has triangles to work with for future use as well as the collar. I formated the parts for easy Export/Import in nifskope, where the obj can be easily brought into any 3d program and manipulated or outright replaced with a 3d model of ones choosing without a fuss.
http://catman.freedomforceforever.com/temp/male_basic_hangman_collar.rar

[Cyber Burn]

K, here's what I put together. I'm dropping it here rather than a PM so anyone else who has a use for it can have access. Sooner than later I'm going to add a page for " basics " to the site and move it there. I made it so that there are two separate pieces to the collar rather than the traditional single piece collar. I did it this way as you initially indicated not being able to find a standard triangle mesh piece so no yourself or whomever also has triangles to work with for future use as well as the collar. I formated the parts for easy Export/Import in nifskope, where the obj can be easily brought into any 3d program and manipulated or outright replaced with a 3d model of ones choosing without a fuss.
http://catman.freedomforceforever.com/temp/male_basic_hangman_collar.rar

Do you mean like just making basic shaped Mesh pieces? Like Triangles, Circles, Spheres, Rectangles, Etc.?

If so, that would be really cool.

[SickAlice]

More like " male_basic+X, female_basic+X, male_heavy+X " and so on. Like the meshes with extra limbs. Between releases and just generally screwing around a amassed a lot of meshes that just have parts stuck to them with no other real purpose. The Basic Lanterns were meant to provide those who haven't a real strong understanding of how to model and/or can't afford expensive 3d programs a shortcut to make their own meshes, but I'm revising that to something a little more accessible with an attached tutorial walkthrough. I would do more shape attached meshes if prompted, though as far as I knew there's a simple shape for most types on can think of (spheres, circles/disks, boxes, rectangles, cones/spikes) already out there that users can work with. Daglob may be on to something with the triangle though, I poked around a bit first and didn't see much of anything. The closest were the glove additions on Ink's Batman and Batgirl meshes. So more like male_heavy_textured_limbs, female_piercings_versatile, male_interchangable_heads, and the like. I made many body types as a result of the Lanterns project, and have several more to go. I may copy them into basics as well though I personally feel that may be redundant as they're already accessible on their native nifs. It won't be done anytime this month with the way I'm going anyways, just something I've been piecing together when I have the time and motivation.

[daglob]

I need a lightning bolt. I used the one that is part of the Shazam! effect with Yellow Lantern's golden age Captain Marvel, but, after I shrink it down and put it in place, then duplicate it, it slows down the Qwardian Johnny Quick to "normal". Storm's earrings were my first choice, but re-sizing them and alterning the width of the piece distorts it.

Suggestions, please?

[Cyber Burn]

THe only other lightning bolts that I can thing of are from the "Thunderer Of Qward" Mesh from Tommyboy.

[SickAlice]

I usually cheat when it comes to perfect lighting (fur and foliage this well as well) by finding a good lower poly match 3d model at the freeware sites then conforming it to the mesh. If you have a picture of how exactly you want the bolt to look that you can share I can probably remember offhand a donor match and would be willing to size it for you.

[daglob]

(sometime later...)



This is what I need. They look just fine, as you can see. The mesh just slows down to a turtle's pace in game.