LW Models screwed up in MB

[Rabid pitbull]

Does it do this inside of LW? Looks like a weight map problem, but if you are sure all points are weighted then I would not have any help. Maybe post over at kaydara about this, it seems strange.:shrug:

[mpc823_99]

No, it doesn't do this inside of Lightwave. Since the model is frozen by the FBX exporter, I don't think it has to do with the Sub-D setting either. Perhaps I'll post over on the Kaydara site - that's a good idea.

[roguenroll]

sorry I cant say for sure, havent used MB for long enough to debug it. but from past posts I remember things like weight problems, skele facing the wrong way, problems with endomorphs, things like that. Might want to breeze through the board posts to see if anything mentioned can can fix the problem.

The closest problem Ive had is the hip bones sticking in MB, im not a complete rigging expert, but I think the main process there was to zero out all the bones, except, the hips, and I think the two that connect those to the legs.

probably didnt help, but....???


see ya
Rogue:)

[gameboy]

If the model doesn't turn green when you try to characterize it, it is probably because you haven't set up your bone structure in a way MB can automatically recognize it. Most likely you've either named your bones or parented them differently from what MB expects, so it can't automatically characterize your character. You can still characterize it, but you must do it manually.

The out of place vertices could possibly be the result of unassigned vertices to weight maps. I have been able to successfully export from Lightwave into MB 4.02 without problems. (I'm using LW 7.5c). However, now that MB 5.0 has come out, they've changed the naming convention of the bones in the character rig MB expects for automatic characterization, so I have a little rework to do.

www.3dBuzz.com has some excellent video tutorials (and an online course) on how using MB.

Hope this helps.

[mpc823_99]

Thanks for the replies, but I still can't figure it out. I've checked and re-checked the model, simplified it down to use just the required bones of MotionBuilder, but still no luck.

Not freezing the model on export gave me a model that, while just the cage, at least didn't have the points stationary.

I'll post on Kaydara site as well....

[3DDave]

You need to "Freeze" the model in modeler, then go back and check your weightmaps. What happens is after freezing there are new points that don't have any weights assigned to them. This happens when it is frozen either by the FBX plugin or modeler! I use a frozen model as a proxy to send to MB this way I can keep the model light in the body and add more detail to the head (seperate object). You can always swap out the model after you merged back the MB file into the LW scene.

[mpc823_99]

Perhaps I've figured it out. Looks like the weight maps need to have overlapping points in order to work correctly. In Lightwave Layout, choosing the Bones Weight view mode allows one to see how the weighting will be affected in sub-D mode. Also shows what areas are not affected due to (I'm guessing) non-overlapping weights on the points. This seems to fix the issue.

Thanks 3DDave. Now that I've got some means of getting the model in correctly, I'll have to test getting it back out to Lightwave.

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