Oh Noes! Why is my arm ruining itself?

[Dakatsu]

Long time no see!:D

So, I'm rigging my 3d model, and I am having an issue with the arm when it bends. It has a weird \"dent\" in the part opposite the elbow when it bends. While this does happen to every other joint, it is not nearly as extreme as this. Extruding many times does not help me

Anyone with ideas?



(I can edit the model if necessary)

[Spidey]

Damn…my arm does that too.

[Heretic]

Is it a Solid mesh or is it pieces? It could be there isn't enough polygons if the model is a solid.

[Isaac]

Assuming this is 3dsmax, your vertex weights need to be edited. In max, under your skin modifier, you can edit how much influence each bone has over the mesh. This can be done by moving the \"envelopes\" or modifying properties for each \"vertex\" point.
You can also select each verticy, or group, and decide exactly how much it, or they, will be influenced by each bone.
*In your case it looks like the bicep/tricep bone has too much influence over the forearm mesh.*



\"Paint weights\" also come to mind. I used those sometimes, when I did 3d.
If you want your muscle to bulk up when you curl the bicep you can use 'wire parameters', found in the animation menu.
Have fun; - hope that helps.

[Thenior]

If it's maya, use a similar method to what isaac said.

[Dakatsu]

Well, I've been busy, but a few notes:
-I am using 3ds max
-I tried to adjust the weights, and nothing comes out satisfactory. Giving more control to the forearm does come out with the best version though, but it still looks hideous.

-Adding more polygons, strangely, makes it look more ugly.

[[]V[]essenjah]

I've been learning how to rig as well this year. Interesting stuff. I use weight painting but I use Blender 3D and it also has a way to copy bone weights from one mesh to another so if you create a base body, you can easily create some half-decent weights for custom clothing meshes just by doing a copy paste method from your base body to the clothing and then painting the rest to your liking.


Doesn't max have a decent weight painting system by now?

I would also like to see screenshots of the skeleton under the model in a stick figure form (in blender everything is named differently and there are different ways to view the bones). I'm wondering if the elbow joint is too high or if you need to remodel the elbow area so that it will bend easier and looks more like an elbow joint. In other words, so that the vertices make more logical sense when rigging them.

Are you weight painting or rigging by numbers? The latter is a pain to do.

[Isaac]

-I tried to adjust the weights, and nothing comes out satisfactory. Giving more control to the forearm does come out with the best version though, but it still looks hideous.

Keep at it. It's tricky, but try adjusting the size of the pills and moving them away from the elbow, using the main node in the center of the pill/envelope and the outer rings.

[Dakatsu]

I'll do more attempts at modifying the envelopes later, but in the mean time here is the skeleton itself:

[Isaac]

Fins don't matter. In fact they can screw up the way your envelopes are laid out when the skin modifier is applied.

[Dakatsu]

Fins don't matter.

I know, they just look cool...

In fact they can screw up the way your envelopes are laid out when the skin modifier is applied.

Ohh... did I mention they looked cool?

Anyway, I managed to get a very nice arm by, you guessed it, "adjusting the weights". I basically painted the upper arm with a bit of lower arm, so it shifts a bit, dampening that crevice.


(by the way, I normally weigh by numbers to assign absolutes, ex 0 or 1, and paint anything inbetween 0 or 1)

[Isaac]

How are things going?

[Dakatsu]

Sorry for the really late reply, and sorry in advance for the lack of pictures

The arm is fixed to satisfaction. I modified the skeleton to make the thumb three parts instead of two (no idea why I had it just two in the first place) and I am now trying to get some basic animations to put into the Unreal Development Kit. As my game relies heavily on where your weapon is physically pointing (think Red Orchestra, Ballistic Weapons mod for UT, etc) instead of random spread, and also will rely on the whole player body animations for weapon animations as well, I kind of need everything at once in order to test and code.

Hopefully the next pics will be WIP in-game