Vertices not rigging properly for export.

[kungfubellydancer]

I made some clothing and copied the bone weights, but when I go to export, it gives me a warning (shown in image below in command window). I tried deleting all the vertexes and copying the bone weights again, but the same few vertices had problems rigging. Then I tried manually assigning the bones using this tutorial but it still does the same thing. Is there something that can be done about this?

 

http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj27/kungfubellydancer/4242.png

[Quetzlsacatanango]

In the vertex groups dropbox, pick one that starts with BP_ and is most appropriate. For those you would want the left leg to be BP_LEFTLEG, right leg BP_RIGHTLEG, etc.

Then click the assign button directly below and try exporting again. You might have the same thing happen on different parts of your mesh, just do the same thing again until there are no more errors.

[LHammonds]

Wow, that's a lot easier than the method I have used. I got these kinds of errors when weight-painting and not being able to easily "see" a hidden vertex to paint it. When it highlighted the problem verticies, I used something like G, X, 5 to grab the vertex and move it 5 units along the X axis. It was then easy to paint. Then I did the same in reverse to put them back in their place....G, X, -5.

 

Keep in mind that the bone weight copy script is not something you run and then expect the mesh to be "ready-to-go." You need to test out the weights and see where problem areas might arise. One method I use is to select the skeleton, go into Pose Mode and grab a bone and press R, R which does a free rotate. I move the mouse around and see how the mesh deforms as I move the bone. I then press ESC to cancel the rotation command (don't really want to permanently change anything on the skeleton!). I do this for each of the major bones and joints such as the head, spine, arms and legs.

 

LHammonds

[Quetzlsacatanango]

You're a trooper :thumbsup:

Everything I know of blender I taught myself, which usually means I know the easiest way to get the bare minimum result.

Choosing the applicable BP_ group won't weight the vertices, just assign a body part to it. You will still have to weight it by whatever method works best for you.

[kungfubellydancer]

I never figured out how to use the pose mode feature; I just export it and fire up New Vegas and see how it works on the body. As for the highlighted vertices, I just hit ctrl+I to highlight all the other ones, hide them, then I'm left with only the problem vertices. It seems easier than moving them this way or that.

 

So I assigned the BP_<insert part here> bones to the vertices, which worked for exporting but didn't necessarily seem all that great in the game. I've just been going back in and playing around with the bone assignments to see what happens.

 

How does one go into pose mode?

[Quetzlsacatanango]

Select the armature, then ctrl-tab. You can select each bone and move them around, just as if they were vertices and see how your outfit clips.

[dazzerfong]

If the mesh appears all strewn (ie. lines poking everywhere), try deleting your old skeleton, then re-importing the vanilla skeleton (should be called 'skeleton.nif' in Meshes/Characters/_male. If it's not there, extract from the Meshes BSA.). Once re-imported, select all your bones then re-parent to that skeleton.

[baduk]

Hi!

 

I would assume that bone weight copy gives reasonable results on the outfit you have pictured. It is possible that you didnt click on no x crossing button to keep thigh.R bone influence from affecting the left pant leg or some such issue.

You can always delete existing vertex groups and redo the bone weight copy script if necessary.

 

Sometimes boneweightcopy is gonna fail to assign the body part vertex groups needed for fo3 and nv to some parts of your mesh and i dont know why, but yeah u fixed that already.

 

In weight paint mode, edit panel, paint tab there is a x mirror button and you can click that to make it mirror changes on x axiss , so what change you make to bip01 thigh.R is also made to thigh.L automatically.

 

Ok so as dazzerfong suggested it is good to import skeleton.nif for your armature so you get the bone hierarchy and everything affecting changes you make to the armature in pose mode.

Its also good to get some animations and import it along with the skeleton. such as sneakmtfastforward.kf.

 

So delete the existing armature, and select all your objects and then go to import. import the skeleton.nif, select the button import skeleton only + parent selected and also click on import animation. Then look down and there is a little x and ... button next to a box that says import kf. clikc on the ... button and select one of the animations. Its good to use one of the fastforward ones cause it has a bit more exaggerated poses. then you click on the ok and when its imported you will see that your outfit and body or whatever you have is now in a pose. It will also be turned to the left, but thats just how it is. dunno why. It also moves forward along y axis while turned to the left and its funny looking.

 

anyway split the window like when you want to bring up the uv image editor, but select the action editor. select the armature and it will show you all the little yellow dots and you can drag the green bar across to change the frame of the animation.

 

When you have the pose you want then select the object for rigging, and enter weight paint mode and you can fix the weights. with x mirroring on you can see what effect the change makes on both legs while they are in a stride or whatever. hit the f key to use the face mask and select the faces you want to paint on. it makes it so you dont accidentaly paint on the wrong part. try to make smooth gradients of bone influence between vertices, cause if there is too big differences, it may make alarge distortion when you are in a different pose. I only use the mix brush and clicking on one vertex with different weights to find about what amount i think it shoudl be at, switching to the other bone influence and checking against that one. then making a gradient to neighboring vertices. The main goal is to prevent clipping and the secondary one is to prevent texture stretching and mesh distortion.

 

Then when you are done with the one animation, you gotta import some other ones so you can check it once more. select the armature and go in the action editor and click the x button to delete the link to the animation datablock. then go into pose mode and hit w and select clear user transform. When u do that then the armature goes back into the bind position and then you can delete it without messing up your meshes.

 

After deleting it you can import another skeleton.nif with a new animation on it. but dont forget to delete the headanims cause it will be left behind. its just a little axes looking thing positioned at bip01 head or at xyz000 if you deleted the armature first. If you haev blend files with animations in them you can click on file append link and then select the blend file and choose an action from it to import the animation to your current blend. but also when you import more animations into the blend you can switch between the action datablocks in action editor with the dropdown list box. OIne weird thing tho is when you open an animation that you ahve imported before but unlinked from the skeleton, blender rotates the skeleton forward on the y axis so it looks "correct".

 

But anywa when u weightpaint remember that you always have the option of moving vertices instead of putting too extreme bone influence on a part cause you dont want to create problems with a different pose.