Attached Link: http://www.3Ddude.com

I am working on a project, several scenes require 'extras' in the background sword fighting. Opened Poser4 and tried using my copy of the Medieval Combat MotionPack 1. Needless to say I discovered several problems. The Motion Pack is not an out of the box ready for animation product. Each pair of bhv files has it's own nuisances and was never intended as a poser specific product. Where should the bodies of figure A and figure B be aligned spatially? What are the proper alignments for swords and shields to be used in animations? That way the props do not bisect the figures, and that the form and motion looks strong and correct. For example what length sword should be used? What size shield? I've been using the Medieval Sword included in the Zygote Knight Figure package and the Shield found in the Zygote Costume CD. The small round shield works well for a character using the BHV files for figure A, but works poorly in many cases for figure B. I have even gone so far as to contact Zygote and The House of Moves for their support and perhaps information of the position of real world props that were used in the motion capture process. Needless to say they have no relevant information available for the product. Please if anyone has faced the perils of this set of behavioral files and succeeded please let me know.

I believe the figures put themselves intot he right place spacially. I only use the files for single frame senerios but they usually seem to work. Sorry I can't help.

Thanks. Though for my purposes I need dynamic animated interaction.

I have totally redone each animation because it is impossible to get it work in poser flawlessly. Check out my tutorial to make some quick fixes on the body part-twisting problem. Also the weapons range from a two handed sword to a more modern short sword. I think there even is a mace needed on one of the animations. As for alignment it's perfect as is, but once you start to change stuff you can lose it. If you need help e-mail me and I will try to help. http://195.212.91.5/main.shtml (The Tutoral, direct link from the poserforum.net)

Thank you ColtCentaur. I've been using the key frame graph pretty heavily myself. Mainly I've been hoping that someone would have come up with the magic answers since the pack has been around over a year. Which pair out of the ten do you think is for a mace and short sword? I'm at work right now but I have some of my notes with me. I've done tests with the sword held perpendicular to the hand and also a version with the sword held in a natural grip. Each pair of BHV files seems different, like 5 seems to be more theatrical style fighting, 7 has Figure A doing a clumsy charge at figure B, and 8 has figure A skewering figure B. Many of the 10 pair also seem to have different distances for the character placement for 1 and 2 stick figure A at zTram -.306 and you get almost passing results. Overall I'd like to fix the bhv files in poser get the proper prop alignments, export the bhv files to Life Forms, edit several files together making a loop, and then re-import to poser. Thanks again!

I don't remember off hand and I can't check right now. However once you get your animations finshed feel free to post them so you need the orginal zygote file to open them, but your corrections will be present. I can't really how this is done off hand, sorry. -Colt

I don't remember off hand and I can't check right now. However once you get your animations finshed feel free to post them so you need the orginal zygote file to open them, but your corrections will be present. I can't really how this is done off hand, sorry. -Colt

I have no clue how to do that with bhv files, obj files are one thing, motion files are quite another ;)

All motion files are not ready to use. A lot of things have to be done to make them usable. I bought them last year and return them to Zygote.

Attached Link: http://innuendo.ev.ca

I have the Motion Pak 2 and have experienced a twisted left wrist problem. If anyone had fix these, then perhaps they should encode the files with the OBJaction Mover, or a similar software package, so we can all download them. Since the encode files will require the original files to decode, then there should be copyright problems. Konan

I have the fix for motion pack 1, however it's under copywrite for the project I am working on so I can't help ya out. Im in hopes Director can produce like results and there is nothing in the copywrite that say's I can't help him :) -Colt

Right now I am in the process of reverse rotoscoping, getting experienced swordsmen to reproduce the moves and capturing weapon position on digital film. I have also found several decent sites on the subject as well. Colt, please let me know any details that you have reguarding which pairs of poses are for which weapons. Overall I'm preparing the BHV files for sword and shield. Thanks again