I am currently in the middle of making a centaur. I have the http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/6961/centaursofar01.jpg mostly done. I have now moved on to the rigging, but have run into a few http://img682.imageshack.us/img682/5832/centaurriggingproblem01.jpg. The reason I am posting is because I have no idea why it's happening and would like some advice from more experienced modders as to how to fix it.

Poor creature, LOL!!! Model is very nice sofar, but the rig should be redone. Have a look at Bethesda's creatures, creatures already made by other modders (Pegas Horse ranch!!!) or check out various rigging tutorials. Not all bones of the armature need to be extruded from one root bone. Most times the extremities are loose bone chains, which just get connected to the other chains by parenting.

The first bone, frome which you extrude the rest of the bone chain is prior to the following by default. Meaning, if you start your chain in the hoof of the horse and end in the head, each time you move the hoof, the complete rest of the body will move too and you don't want that!!!

Your deformations result either from not ideal topology of your mesh and/ or not exact weights. A wireframe screen of the model could be helpful concerning the topology aspect. Weighting can be done by automatic script (weighting by "boneheat" is a good choice if rigging is made correct) or manually or sometimes both. To weight a mesh you have to mark the armature, go into "Pose Mode", select a single bone and then select the mesh too. Now you can go into "Weightpainting Mode" and brush the bone weights onto your mesh. There is a color scheme from green (light weights) to red (strong weights). The more weight is painted onto an area of your mesh, the more influence the bone you have marked will have over this area.

Press "N" and the painting tools will get displayed. You can "add", "sub", "mix","blur"...)


Making such a hybrid creature is a difficult thing, even for an advanced animator, I personally would have chosen something easier for the beginning, but I wish you best luck with this one and will have an eye on it from time to time!!!


TheDaywalker :rock:

Ok, thanks. I'll give that a go.
Here's some wireframe screens. http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/3305/centaurtopview01.jpg, http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/89/centaurfrontview01.jpg, http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/6605/centaursideview01.jpg.

You want the skeleton root on a spine somewhere, probably in the horse

Nice creature! I hope you get the animations sorted out!

If you have any trouble, I can animate it for you later when I've got some Skyrim stuff out of the way.
I need to make a centuar animation later anyway.

I've been playing about with weight painting, but I'm having trouble getting it symmetrical. Is there a way to mirror the weights?

In edit mode there's a "Mirror Vertex Locations and Weight" script

I've got the http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/6097/centaurrearing.jpg, and now I've got to do some fine tuning.

Because Unicorns Make Penguins...

Only now have I noticed a mistake with my model. It has no head! How can I not notice that! I'm doing that now, but I don't know how to get it to blink etc. I'm fairly sure morph animations can't be applied to a skinned model, and if they can then I don't know how. I could probably do it with bones, but that would make even more work when it gets animated. Can it be morphs be done in Blender?
Would it be possible to splice Morrowinds upper-body animations and merge them with Cait's horse animations? I doubt it, but you never know.
Also, I'm thinking of doing three versions. One with a bow, one with a spear/trident and one without a weapon. I don't think the animations for these would be too difficult (hopefully). I know each of them would require a totally new creature, since they can't be set as a biped in the CS without odd results (since they quadrupeds).
This is probably quite premature, but it never hurts to be ambitious.

On a side note, thanks to what I've learnt while doing this, I have finally managed to get my digitigrade legs to work with the human skeleton.

Sorry for the late reply, I didn't know you had posted. :wacko:
You don't skin morphed heads, no, instead attach it to the bone in the hierarchy, it'll move with the head bone then without skinning.
Morphs can be done in Blender, see TDW's models for loads of examples. Do you want links to some tutorials? Using face rigs isn't hard, getting them setup is though.

I would know how to merge the animations in max, but not Blender. Honestly, you might as well make your own, even if you do manage it, it wouldn't look good (though feel free to use some of my animations for the upper half instead if you do decide to use this route, they have less shoulder lift and general swagger, might be better :shrug: ).

It shouldn't be too hard to make 3 variations, but it'll take longer. Depends how much time you have.

Couldn't he just use a standard(or better heads) head and hair and treat the centaur like an npc? i'm not sure if you can or not but it seems like it could.

SpicyDeath, I'd already thought of that, and it wouldn't work since it's not an NPC, it's a creature, like the guars. I am going to use I standard head and hair, since they are easily available.
Dirnae, links to tutorials would be very much appreciated.

I set up a new bone with which to move the centaur. When before the two bones that made up the spine of the horse were user to move the front and rear halves, there is now a bone that will move the entire creature. From studying Cait's horses I think this is used when walking/running/swimming etc. Am I right?
I haven't had much chance to work on this, since I've got exams coming up and I need to revise. But I do still plan to finish it (hopefully before the Apocalypse...).
But before I even get to animating it, I need to rig it properly. The weights are still giving my gyp...
Also, I think I'll try and rig a head, that way I can get it to scream/roar when attacking, talk when idle etc. It would give it more personality, rather than look like it's doing a goldfish impersonation.