I chosen my type of Mech (Bushwacker). Removed the IK, and then made a walk path, which I didn't edit yet.

(My goal is to get the Mech to walk first. Find a reasonable technique. Then I/we could share it here at Renderosity. :-))

Then I went into the Walk designer window and found a male character taken its place, when I do not have that type of a figure loaded. I seen "Figure Type"..oh wow...how could I have missed this. Then I click on it.

Message edited on: 01/20/2005 17:41

Message edited on: 01/20/2005 17:40

When you pressed "Apply", did the Walk Apply Dialog box pop up? If so, then did you make sure the path and figure were correctly selected, as well as any other options? I've never used walk designer for mechs, so I'm grasping here.

All right.

The first problem with the Bushwacker is that the figure has been scaled up 500%. This is why you're seeing only part of it in the WD's preview window. I don't know if the scale has any other effect on Walk Designer, and don't feel inclined to experiment.

The second problem is that the Bushwacker uses a nonstandard naming convention for the legs and feet. If the WD doesn't find certain properly-named body parts (hip, lThigh, rThigh, lShin, rShin, lFoot, rFoot), it won't apply the animation to the figure, let alone make it follow the path, even though it seems to be moving in the WD preview window.

I learned that second part the hard way when adapting Bill Redfern's legless robotic creation, F.L.O., to Poser. I had to give the figure legs (properly-named, of course) before it would work in Walk Designer and follow a path. I hid the legs so they wouldn't be visible, of course, but they still had to be there.

The third problem is that the animated poses included in Walk Designer are designed for figures with standard leg names. So the Bushwacker's legs wouldn't animate with those poses, regardless. Try applying one of the poses directly from the Library, and you'll see what I mean.

People should try and make figures with the proper figure part names. Some other figures are like this and it makes them almost unusable for animations.

Now, having said all that, the Bushwacker is actually fairly easy to fix, if you're prepared to hack the CR2 file with a text editor. I use EditPad Lite, myself, but you should be able to do this with any utility that has a global search-and-replace function.

Open the original Bushwacker.cr2 and replace all instances of Rthigh with rThigh. Note the capitalizations. Repeat this process with the following parts:

Lthigh --> lThigh
Rshin --> rShin
Lshin --> lShin
Rfoot --> rFoot
Lfoot --> lFoot

Save the modified CR2. Use a different filename if you don't want to overwrite the original.

Load the modified Bushwacker into Poser. Set the BODY's Scale to 100%, then drop the figure to the floor (Figure menu --> Drop to Floor, or CTRL-D).

Save the CR2 back to the Library. You're done. Note that in Pro Pack and P5 (I'm not sure about P4), saving the CR2 to the Library will strip out the embedded geometry and generate a new .obj file in the same folder.

Now, create a walk path, launch Walk Designer, and use the Figure Type button to load the CR2. Apply the walk. Then marvel at how silly a mech can look when it tries to walk like a human.

LOL... LD, is that the "sexy walk"? ;-P

Sir! We've spotted the enemy lance! it's the 31st Mincers!

Hee hee hee hee... that's just too funny.

Girlie mech! LMAO!

Hey..nice job...Was away for the night. Going to try this now.. :-) I am sure thier is a way to fix the walk.

Message edited on: 01/20/2005 23:28

LOL... LD, is that the "sexy walk"?

No, it's actually the default walk cycle (no blends) for Poser 5. Trust me, the Sexy Walk looks even worse on the Bushwacker.

Although the fix I suggested allows the Bushwacker to use standard walk poses, they still aren't custom-designed for the figure. I'm not certain whether the inward buckling of the legs is a result of issues with the figure's IK chains or differences in its overall proportions.

Second element -- after generating the cycle for the figure at "human" size, save it as a pose sequence for applying to the full size figure. Then go in and tweak that sequence by hand. Save the tweaked one, and then uplaod it so we can all play with it, lol

Went and tried this out. After the walk was applied, I seen how the walk was. I went into Keyframing and deleted Y and Z values to Zeros. For the Parts
rThigh, lThigh, rShin, lShin, rFoot, lFoot

Now the Bushwacker walks Better. Excellent work LittleDragon. Now, to put a little more thump into it. Dunno how you made the Gif file, otherwise I would show here, the final results. :-)

Message edited on: 01/21/2005 00:22

Make sure to post an animated Gif, y'hear? ^_^

I have a little video(Avi). I tried to compress the file in gif format to show here. Having problems.

Attached Link: http://www.nukesylo13.net/comsat/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=7635

Message edited on: 01/21/2005 03:31

Very good.

Nice work. I've Been completely addicted to mechassault 2 since it came out. (Bye bye Master Chief) Is there a mad dog for poser anywhere? ^_^

yup if I remember right, the Mad Dog is infact the Vulture ;) RDNA ;)

Their are 5 mechs for Poser

Vulture, MadCat, Bushwacker, Chimara, ShadowCat and you can get them at RDNA (Freebies). Been a BattleTech fanatic, since the BoardGame.

Message edited on: 01/21/2005 09:59

Yeah a Vulture will do nicely. :D

Man I always stuck my nose up at BattleTech back in the day. Being an anime fan the mechs seemed too clunky. (Even the first gen ones who's designs were borrowed from Macross and Dougram)

I used to play Mechwarrior 2 but, as soon as I got my hands on a faster paced mecha game like Armored Core, I never looked back.

Now Mechassault 2 has given me a fresh interest in the battletech universe. Variety is good (not everything has to be like Gundam or Votoms). Anyone remember the old Lucas arts Super Nintendo game Metal Warriors? That's what the gameplay in MA 2 is like. Like a 3d version of that.

Message edited on: 01/21/2005 10:31

Check out my Videos. Oh..I am known as VisciousDog else where.

:-)

http://www.nukesylo13.net/index.php?ind=downloads&op=download_file&ide=1&file=NS13MusicVideo.zip

http://www.nukesylo13.net/index.php?ind=downloads&op=download_file&ide=2&file=VogsMechwarriorVideo.zip

Message edited on: 01/21/2005 10:57

The two-player mode in Metal Warriors was fun, even if the single-player mode was awful.

Now they need a Marauder.

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