Hi,

I have a gun prop that I've made into a smart prop, but I also have a gun figure that I want to load into the hand of the character.

I used Miki. She loads with her hands down by her side, and it was hard to move the gun into position. After I did it, I parented the body of the gun figure to her hand, and when I next time loaded her and the gun, it went straight into her hand. Great.

But then I want to position it more carefully, so I loaded Miki, set her to zero with the joint editior, which made her arms strech our horizontally. I also twisted her forearm to make her palm face forward (less gimbal lock when moving the gun). It was now much easier to move the gun into position, and I parented it to her hand.

However, when I next time loaded Miki and the gun, the gun went straight for the position of the zeroed hand in the horizontal position, instead of into her hand down by the side.

What am I doing wrong?

Do I have to use "lock actor"?

Do I have to create a pose file for the gun figure?

Thanks!

Helmer

As I have found through sheer sweat and tears, it is always better to pose the figure in ZERO position and fit the gun.  Unless you are using a preset pose for the gun to hand, you should do this.  You set Miki in zero position by clicking pointing at MIKI's Body Part, then go to menus and choose Window | Joint Editor, then click on the zeroing button on the pop up.  Then pose the gun in Miki's hand, lock hand parts, and parent the gun to Miki's hand.  Test out a pose on miki's body, and you should get her hand in a fixed posed, with the gun in it.

Thanks, infinity10!

I figured out that I should zero her before I fit the gun, but my problem is how to save the gun so that it goes into her current (not zeroed) position next time I load it.

Are you saying that I should lock the hand before I save the gun into my figures folder? Or should I lock the gun? What's the difference between locking and parenting in this context?

I tried locking the hand before saving, but the gun still loads into the position where it was when I saved it, instead on where the hand is now.

Thanks!

Helmer

smart prop poses o.k., but gun figure doesn't pose o.k. after parenting or comforming?

Lock Hand Parts should keep Miki's hand in the gun-holding position, even if her body and arms and leg poses change.

Parenting the gun to Miki's hand should keep it following her hand wherever it goes.

Well, I got my main favourite character holding his gun most of the time, so I'm pretty sure that ought to work.

Important note:  I cannot get the gun to follow the hand closely in an animation sequence.  So far, my animation has a floating gun which follows the hand, but isn't held by the hand.

:biggrin:

Hi guys,

Infinity10, now I understand the lock hand thing. It preserves the hand pose. I just reapply the hand pose all the time. Thanks for explaining that.

I think the problem has to do with prop vs figure. I think I understand how to pose and save my prop guns OK. The "read me" for the gun figure says to parent the "body" part to the hand. That works within the scene, in that the gun moves with the arm. But if I try to load the saved gun, it appears at the position where it was when I saved it, and now where the hand is now.

I suppose  I can zero the figure and reparent it, but I would like to get the same behaviour as with smart props.

Helmer

Once you create the prop, you can save it as an actor. Then, when you bring it into a scene, click on the weapon and choose "Conform To" from the Figure pull-down menu.

I looked all over for a Ski cap for M3 and couldn't find one so I made it in Rhino, then after texturing, made it conform to my Michael morph of al Zarqawi's head. First attempt! Honestly it scared me how easily it came together... (lol)

Hi,

I still haven't figured out how I can make the figure "find" her hand the way smart props do, but here is a something that I think will at least load the gun into the default position. I haven't tried this out yet, though.

1. Save a pose for Miki's default position.
2. Zero figure and twist forearm.
3. Load the saved gun figure that loads at the zeroed position of Miki.
4. Parent the gun to her hand.
5. Apply the default pose saved in Step 1 to Miki. This should take her and the gun to the default position.
   6.  Save a fiure for weapon.

I then believe that in the future the gun would load into her hand so that I can parent it.

Helmer

Hi,

Problem solved! All I had to do was to edit the cr2 file and replace parent rhand:1 with smartparent rhand:1.

It seems it's only when you save a prop that you're asked if you want to save as a smartprop.

Helmer

I must make a note of this !  Thanks !