Hiya everyone I recently experimented with making a high poly head and I followed Xaphod's tutorial for the most part. I was thrilled when I finally reached the end but after exporting and opening it u in Nifskope and what do I see? A talking head flying at me before vanishing out of the screen! It does this over and over and behaves likewise in game (it's otherwise brilliant!) I'm stumped as it does nothing of the sort whilst in 3ds max. If there still kind curious ppl out there I can upload the .max or .nif if you'd like to help! Cheers

Try to erase all animation, except the morphs, there should be only NiGeoMorphControllers inside the nif. The movement of the head can't be caused by morphs, there must be some keyframes, which don't belong in there I suspect.

PS: Better use Blender next time!!!


TheDaywalker :rock:

I agree with the first part of TheDayWalker’s answer: no other animation keys except morphs should be present. BTW what Max version/exporter are you using? If you with I can check your files (I made several MW heads in Max).

Blender is a good modeler but it cannot be compared with professional Max. However, nif exporter functionality is practically identical in both programs: original/NifTools (Max) and only NifTools (Blender) have certain advantages and disadvantages.

Yes blender can't add the note tracks essential for morrowind heads. Funnily enough though, the one other head I made, years ago I got it working through blender + nifskope. Anyway here's the http://rapidshare.com/files/404188413/k1.max.html it was done through Max8. Thanks you guys!

Blender can manage animated heads as well, doing it all the time!!! If you're familiar with Blender too, then have a look at "shapekeys", which is the equivalent to max's morphs.


TheDaywalker :rock:

Yes, I remember having fun with shapekeys. How did you manage to add the notetracks though? (eg. Blink: Start)

Just type in or copy and paste the notetracks in the text editor and name the document "Anim". It's the same procedure as with keyframe animation, except that morph/shapekey animations need no .kf

TheDaywalker :rock:

OK, I checked your Max file: the model is complex – separate meshes for eyeballs, teeth (upper/low jaws), mouth cavity. There might be problems with correct morph animations of separate meshes in one nif. I tried that in the past and have no good solution. However, this is another story.

For morphing you are using external plugin (Copy-O-Matic or whatever). That’s fine in case you clean your work and use only endogenous Max morpher modifier for the export. So, create both morph targets (snapshot mesh), apply to all three meshes XForm modifier, collapse all for them, then work with morpher as usual. Uncheck “Collapse Transforms” and “Zero Transforms” in export options. This should work. It works for me in Max2010 (I can post exported nif but it is not polished and I did not work with teeth and mouth cavity animations). Max “remembers” all transformations, hence, it is necessary to clean them (XForm). Indeed, NifTools exporter has some problems with animated meshes (their roots), so play with exporter settings (e.g. “Collapse Transforms” and “Zero Transforms”).

I am usually using (prefer) this tutorial by Rhedd:

http://www.tamriel-rebuilt.org/?p=modding_data/tutorials§ion=2867

OMG it worked! Mwah you are a lifesaver A1. It seems the Transforms checkboxes in the exporter was the culprit. That was what I was going to say but then I loaded up morrowind to see a headless body. Taking a (few) steps back I realised I was actually INSIDE the gigantic head which had balloned up to fill the entire room! Of course thanks and kisses all the same but I think I shall have to work from your nif. I should be able to finish it off in Nifskope methinks. By the way I also discovered progressive morphs can't be exported- notice I had an extra morph target for blinking so the eyelids follow the contour of the eyeball? It looks great in max but you only get the intermediate (slightly closed) morph if you nifify it :shifty:

I am always importing a working MW head in a Max scene as a reference (delete before export) in order to adjust size and position of my new mesh (it is also a good idea to import few hair wigs).
Could you educate me: what are “progressive morphs”?
You can try to export animated head and animated eyes or teeth separately and then assemble a mesh from different nifs in NifScope. But as I have mentioned before I have problems with “composite” heads (nif contains several separate meshes with NiGeomMorpherController nodes).

I know I in fact imported the body mesh to see if it would look right! The problem was definitely not the scaling while in max. What's funny is that the size was fine with the earlier ever-expanding head <_< Someone up there has a knack for frustrating people. Oh I also forgot to mention that the notetracks weren't doing their job- ie. the morphs were just playing in a loop repeatedly. Now that I think may be due to seperate pieces. Could I have a look at the nif you exported, pretty please?

Well progressive morphs are exactly what the name implies, you insert intermediate morph target(s) between the original pose and the ending pose to affect the path the morph takes to reach it's final destination. For example, if you just had an open eyelid then a closed eyelid morph, the eyelids might in fact slice through the eyeballs to blink! Here's a http://docs.autodesk.com/3DSMAX/13/ENU/Autodesk%203ds%20Max%202011%20Help/index.html?url=./files/WSf742dab04106313366400bf6112a1cea097-7f26.htm,topicNumber=d0e73764 for ya (near the bottom)

Aha, that’s simply key’s ins and outs, animation interpolation mode. I prefer linear, see NiGeomMorpherController/NiMorphData node Morphs/Interpolation “LINEAR_KEY” in Block Details (NifScope). In case QUADRATIC_KEY interpolation is used like in heads I am limiting my Max work by simply creating morphs and time keys. Next step is NifScope work: check how “Forward” and “Backword” (as well as “Time” and “Value”) values are set for corresponding Morph/Keys in Block Details window and recreate that in your nif. I do not trust what exporter/Max are doing.

I think you have to combine all animated geometry (better all geometry) in one mesh (NiTriShape), then use morphing. Try to parent NiTextKeyExtraData to the nif root node.

I have not polished or in-game tested this nif, I have just solved exporter settings problem. It is hardly have any use, better study original heads’ nifs.

I got one qestion, is it possible to add morphs to a skinned mesh?

Nope!!!


TheDaywalker :rock:

I tried to apply morphs on skinned meshes: exporters and NetImmerse support that but MW not (CTD). Therefore morphed PC/NPC animated heads are in different than body nifs and in creatures morphed heads are not skinned and only parented to bones.

Finally figured it out! Okay here's the low-down for any future head makers:

*Head may be made of several parts
*Only one Nitrishape may be animated.
*Progressive morphs do not seem to be supported
*Collapse and Zero transforms are bad, VERY BAD
On the other hand they are what seem to be keeping the scale of the head in check. Seriously, after exporting without them you literally have to scale your meshes down 100 times or more. No such problem in Blender.

Also, HOW THE HELL DO YOU MAKE NITEXTKEYS???! Filling out the dopesheet never produces anything after export. I hit the very same wall in Blender, although at least imported heads have them show up in the text editor. Anyway I just ended up using an existing nifs for it's text keys like last time. Thanks again both of you!

Edit: Also just found out- the animated object has to be at the top of the nif list!

Actually several meshes in a head nif can be animated with morphs but they do not behave correctly in the game (they are not synchronized, do not follow note track “instructions” as expected).

Progressive morph means going from one target to another with the intermediate of a third. Progressive morphs are available in 3ds Max 8 and higher. MW was created using Max3/4. Progressive morphing performs a tension-based interpolation, similar to the TCB animation controller that is only partially supported by original nif exporters (Ease-in/out parameters of TCB keys are not supported).

As with all meshes it is necessary to clean transformations: apply XForm and collapse the stack with all meshes before using morph modifier. This should resolve you scaling problems.

Formally (NetImmerse docs) note tracks can be used with any node, but in my tests MW game engine uses only one note track that is parented to the scene root node or other node that is higher in the hierarchy than NiTriShape node with NiGeomMorpherController. Check carefully numerous MW Max tutorials.