Creating animated mechanical characters

The place for artists, modellers, level designers et al to discuss their approaches for creating content for OGRE.
Post Reply
Michael_GR
Gnoblar
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Jun 21, 2006 1:01 pm

Creating animated mechanical characters

Post by Michael_GR »

I want to create mechanical looking animations - giant robots, for example. In 3DS max, I can build my model from a number of objects and animate them with IK or just rotation and translation keys. However, this kind of animation can't easily be done with a skin modifier which is the only way I currently know of to export animations to Ogre.
Is there any way I can export this kind of animation to Ogre? Is there something I can do inside Max to translate this kind of animation to pose or skin animation?
User avatar
xavier
OGRE Retired Moderator
OGRE Retired Moderator
Posts: 9481
Joined: Fri Feb 18, 2005 2:03 am
Location: Dublin, CA, US
x 22

Post by xavier »

We have giant walking gun robots in our game, done in Max using Biped and Skin modifiers and exported to Ogre and working fine. What makes you think this isn't possible?
Do you need help? What have you tried?

Image

Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.
User avatar
inneractive
Gnoblar
Posts: 19
Joined: Sun Jun 03, 2007 2:32 am
Location: Bay Area, California
Contact:

Post by inneractive »

I agree, you should have no problems using bones for animating a mechanical model. Just do not weight your verts to multiple bones.
-Joe
Rackle
Gnome
Posts: 375
Joined: Sat Jul 16, 2005 1:42 am
Location: Montreal

Post by Rackle »

I'm below a novice; I've heard some of the words but have not done anything yet. I know the words "IPO curve" and the Blender Wiki talks about them also; I know it's not Max but these applications perform many similar tasks. Of interest is the "Curve Interpolation" section, where the Blender default is to use the smooth Bezier curve motion. However it can be set to Linear. In the case of a mechanical entity this may be what you're looking for. Humans and animals have smooth, fluid animations whereas mechanical robots may have jerky motion.

Hope this helps.
User avatar
ahmedali
Gnome
Posts: 302
Joined: Fri Feb 20, 2004 8:52 pm
Location: Lahore, Pakistan

Post by ahmedali »

in 3dsmax9, I did this by the option "select by element" in Skin Modifier. Which allows you to select all the vertices in an element. Then you can select all the elements of your Mechanical limb, enable Rigid option and set weight to 1.
User avatar
jacmoe
OGRE Retired Moderator
OGRE Retired Moderator
Posts: 20570
Joined: Thu Jan 22, 2004 10:13 am
Location: Denmark
x 179
Contact:

Post by jacmoe »

I can't help thinking that maybe he's after segmented models instead?

I am really not much of an expert in this, but I assume that you would use the same skeleton and attach/skin different models on it.
Chest, arm, leg, tail, sensory outfit, oil drill, ...

And then use Entity::shareSkeletonInstanceWith(anotherEntity) in Ogre.
/* Less noise. More signal. */
Ogitor Scenebuilder - powered by Ogre, presented by Qt, fueled by Passion.
OgreAddons - the Ogre code suppository.
User avatar
inneractive
Gnoblar
Posts: 19
Joined: Sun Jun 03, 2007 2:32 am
Location: Bay Area, California
Contact:

Post by inneractive »

It sounds like you are now wondering how to create rigid movement using linear interpolation between keyframes. I am sure there is a way to do this. I have only animated in XSI and Maya, so I am not familiar with Max, but I did a quick internet search and linear interpolation is mentioned as an option in the Max curve editor. You will have to check your documentation.
-Joe
Melkor
Gnoblar
Posts: 18
Joined: Tue Jun 12, 2007 2:26 pm

Post by Melkor »

Well ODE can help with that.
User avatar
irishlostboy
Halfling
Posts: 79
Joined: Mon May 28, 2007 4:28 pm

Post by irishlostboy »

ahmedali wrote:in 3dsmax9, I did this by the option "select by element" in Skin Modifier. Which allows you to select all the vertices in an element. Then you can select all the elements of your Mechanical limb, enable Rigid option and set weight to 1.
just want to clarify; you have a mesh, right. then you have the skin midifier on that. now, you do have bones dont you? you are not meant to animate the vertices (which is what it sounds like you are doing to me). you animate the bones, which are linked to the mesh through the skin modifier.
if what i am saying makes sense, what you need is a basic rigging tutorial, not an exporting tutorial.
i hope this is of help.
our current pc game in development: http://archangel-studio.blogspot.com/
Post Reply