Trouble Rigging An Armor Mesh... : IV

» Sat Oct 17, 2009 10:50 pm

What I'm trying to do is make a Skeleton wear some armor. I'm using a (slightly) re-textured version of the Ayleid Skeletons found in JGreybear's http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=25050 set. The current Skeleton mesh looks like http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/1540/cyanvoidskellie.jpg.
The only problem is that when the Skeleton crumbles, this happens:
http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/7642/skeletonsmear.jpg.<--- That seems to be a result of the armor being attached to the arms. Is there a way to modify the mesh so that the arms don't come off when it "dies"?

» Sat Oct 17, 2009 3:34 pm

It would be far, far easier to remove the arm bones from your vertex groups for the armor. The pauldrons won't move with the arms, but the armor will stay with the chest on death. In Blender I can give you directions to do this:

Open the mesh and select all of your added armor (only your added armor). Now in Edit Mode in the Links and Materials box you will find the Vertex Groups. Vertex Groups match the name of the bone they are associated with. Select each Vertex Group that corresponds to one of the arm bones that seperate from the body on death, and push Remove.

If you really need the arms to stay with the mesh you will have to mess with the skeleton (mesh's) skeleton (collision objects). Specifically you will need to create new constraints between the collision objects for the chest and those for the upper arms.

» Sat Oct 17, 2009 10:44 am

The other alternative is to make the armor on the arms separate from the armor on the body. While it might not be too practical in your case, it is an alternative.

Setting up a new skeleton folder with a special version of the creature that doesn't fall apart is another option, and is probably easier if you know your way around bones and animations. While this might lack the fun of killing skeletons, it will provide a version which is more armor friendly. Just make sure you upload it as a non-overwriting resource if you can get it working. you will make many modders happy.

» Sat Oct 17, 2009 10:24 pm

It would be far, far easier to remove the arm bones from your vertex groups for the armor. The pauldrons won't move with the arms, but the armor will stay with the chest on death. In Blender I can give you directions to do this:

Open the mesh and select all of your added armor (only your added armor). Now in Edit Mode in the Links and Materials box you will find the Vertex Groups. Vertex Groups match the name of the bone they are associated with. Select each Vertex Group that corresponds to one of the arm bones that seperate from the body on death, and push Remove.

If you really need the arms to stay with the mesh you will have to mess with the skeleton (mesh's) skeleton (collision objects). Specifically you will need to create new constraints between the collision objects for the chest and those for the upper arms.

I'll download Blender and try this. Since my time is quite limited, it may take me a while.

The other alternative is to make the armor on the arms separate from the armor on the body. While it might not be too practical in your case, it is an alternative.

That's a good idea. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to do that. :shrug: Any tips?

Setting up a new skeleton folder with a special version of the creature that doesn't fall apart is another option, and is probably easier if you know your way around bones and animations. While this might lack the fun of killing skeletons, it will provide a version which is more armor friendly. Just make sure you upload it as a non-overwriting resource if you can get it working. you will make many modders happy.

This is what I would really like to do, but I have no idea how to do this either. Is there a tutorial out there anywhere?