Fixing a clipping issue in animation

**PegasusHoplite28** · March 29, 2008, 08:45 PM

Hello all,

I have been trying to make a few minor model changes to the Decisive Battles Spartans that was uploaded to TWCenter several years ago. But then I noticed a really bad clipping in some of the animations, something that my changes shouldn't have caused, so they were probably there in the original. And I was hoping that someone would be nice enough to take a look at my cas and try to solve the issue for me.

The animations themselves seem to be anything when the unit is in combat and idle or walking (I didn't notice the clipping issue when they were swinging their weapons of anything). The clipping occurs on the left side of their helmet towards the bottom at the neck. It's like one vertex doesn't move with the rest of the helmet during the animation, which causes a bunch of texture distortion.

I was wondering if someone could help me fix the problem, or at least point me in the right direction. Which animations do I have to upload into 3DS Max to edit? How do I save it so that the changes stay? Etc.

Thanks for taking the time to help in advance.

**Halie Satanus** · March 29, 2008, 08:52 PM

Can you take a screen shot so we can the problem?, If it is a mis-weighted vertical you don't have to edit the animations, just weight it to the head.

**PegasusHoplite28** · March 29, 2008, 09:17 PM

Hey Halie, thank you very much for the very quick response.

Sorry it took me so long to respond back to you. I had a really hard time taking a screenshot which would illustrate the issue.

Thanks again for helping.

**Halie Satanus** · March 30, 2008, 07:00 AM

Yup, two if the vertices in the head are weighted to the torso, easy enough to fix, you should be able to work out how from here.

**PegasusHoplite28** · March 30, 2008, 01:53 PM

Glad to know that it is easy enough.

I try not to mean offense, but I've been fiddling around with 3DS Max and your tutorial all morning (even before you responded), and I can't seem to follow your tutorial. First off, I'm still having difficulties getting all the vertices to show up in the first place using your method (actually when adding bones, they aren't displayed in alphabetical order for me to pick the right ones...), nor am I sure what exactly weighs them to the right bone.

If all I am trying to do is re-weigh two vertices to the head bone, any suggestions on how to do that?

Sorry Halie if my ignorance is starting to annoy. I'll keep on fiddling until you get a chance to clear things up for me.

P.S. Halie wrote: "11;Scroll down to Abs. Effect, double click here, type 0, double click again, type 1"

I'm assuming that this is what weighs vertices to the head. Does this only apply to the head bone, or is it universal to all weighing? Too bad I can't managed to get all the right vertices to show up and select them...

**Halie Satanus** · March 30, 2008, 03:37 PM

I'll look at the tutorial again, see if I can make it clearer..

If all I am trying to do is re-weigh two vertices to the head bone, any suggestions on how to do that?

Originally Posted by tutorial

Tip; If your editing an existing model and need to simply move a few vertex around copy the skin modifier and then dump it in the trash, when you edited the model paste the skin modifier back in. Easily done by right clicking over the skin modifier/copy, then right clicking over Editable poly/paste.

Same process as above applies, before you dump the skin modifier select 'edit envelopes' and check which vertices in the head section don't light up red (one either side base of helmet in this case) once you've copied the skin modifier and dumped it in the trash (little open bin icon above edit envelopes) select the head bone in the index, then select those vertices in the perspective window and re-weight them. Then copy the skin modifier back (as above)..

P.S. Halie wrote: "11;Scroll down to Abs. Effect, double click here, type 0, double click again, type 1"

I'm assuming that this is what weighs vertices to the head. Does this only apply to the head bone, or is it universal to all weighing? Too bad I can't managed to get all the right vertices to show up and select them...

Yes it is, and yes it's the same for all vertices, you select them by dragging your mouse over them in the perspective window, hold down shift to select multiple vertices.

Sorry Halie if my ignorance is starting to annoy. I'll keep on fiddling until you get a chance to clear things up for me.

No worries, I learned from people here being patient with me..