Medieval Male Customisable Character - Arteria3d BasePack RELEASED

You will never ever achieve good animation quality without mocap. And once you have some experience how to do it, it is no problem.You just need to learn and make efficient worklfow, use right tools, etc..

 

I think the issue I was having with textures had to do with Unity 3.5 I reinstalled 3.4 and the textures mapped correctly.

 

Here is a script I've been working on which will put the different parts into groups and let you turn off different parts by name or by what outfit they are in. If anyone has some improvements please share them. You can place this script on the ArteriaBaseCharacter GameObject. I have a few examples using the F1-F5 keys. The random one is supposed to randomly piece together an NPC but sometimes certain items are not rendering, so he'll be missing a chest or something. I am still working on some of the bugs.

Code (csharp):

1.  
2.  
3. using UnityEngine;
4. using System.Collections.Generic;
5.  
6. public class Armor : MonoBehaviour {
7.    
8.     private List<GameObject> earRings, torso, boots, arms, helmet, hair, legs, shoulder, wrist, gloves, trs, bicep;
9.     private List<GameObject> merc, elven, innkeeper, leather, miner, farmer, templar, guild, noble, republic, silveral, plate, thief;
10.     private GameObject baseHands, baseArms;
11.       // Use this for initialization
12.       void Start () {
13.  
14.         loadClothing();
15.         random();
16.       }
17.      
18.       // Update is called once per frame
19.       void Update () {
20.         if (Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.F1))
21.         {
22.             random();
23.         }
24.  
25.         if (Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.F2))
26.         {
27.             WearOutfit(silveral);
28.             WearBaseHands();
29.             WearBaseArms();
30.         }
31.  
32.         if (Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.F3))
33.         {
34.             //WearOutfit(leather);
35.             WearOutfit(thief);
36.             WearItem(legs, "LeatherArmourLegs");
37.             WearItem(boots, "LeatherArmourBoots");
38.             WearItem(trs, "LeatherArmourBootsTRS");
39.             WearItem(bicep, "LeatherArmourBicepArmour");
40.             WearItem(arms, "LeatherArmourArms");
41.             WearItem(gloves, "LeatherArmourGloves");
42.  
43.         }
44.  
45.         if (Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.F4))
46.         {          
47.             WearOutfit(miner);
48.         }
49.  
50.         if (Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.F5))
51.         {
52.             WearOutfit(guild);
53.             WearBaseHands();
54.         }
55.  
56.        
57.       }
58.  
59.  
60.     public void disableItem(List<GameObject> items)
61.     {
62.         foreach (GameObject g in items)
63.         {
64.             SkinnedMeshRenderer renderer = g.GetComponent<SkinnedMeshRenderer>();
65.             renderer.enabled = false;
66.         }
67.     }
68.  
69.     public void WearItem(List<GameObject> items, string name)
70.     {
71.         Debug.Log("-->" + name);
72.         foreach (GameObject g in items)
73.         {
74.             if (g.name == name)
75.             {                
76.                 SkinnedMeshRenderer renderer = g.GetComponent<SkinnedMeshRenderer>();
77.                 renderer.enabled = true;
78.             }
79.         }
80.     }
81.  
82.     private void disableAll()
83.     {
84.         disableItem(boots);
85.         disableItem(earRings);
86.         disableItem(hair);
87.         disableItem(helmet);
88.         disableItem(legs);
89.         disableItem(boots);
90.         disableItem(shoulder);
91.         disableItem(torso);
92.         disableItem(wrist);
93.         disableItem(arms);
94.         disableItem(gloves);
95.         disableItem(trs);
96.         disableItem(bicep);
97.     }
98.  
99.     private void random()
100.     {
101.         disableAll();
102.         int random = 0;
103.  
104.         random = Random.Range(0, gloves.Count - 1);
105.         WearItem(gloves, gloves[random].name);
106.        
107.         random = Random.Range(0, arms.Count - 1);
108.         WearItem(arms, arms[random].name);      
109.  
110.         random = Random.Range(0, earRings.Count - 1);
111.         WearItem(earRings, earRings[random].name);
112.  
113.         random = Random.Range(0, torso.Count - 1);
114.         WearItem(torso, torso[random].name);
115.        
116.         random = Random.Range(0, boots.Count - 1);
117.         WearItem(boots, boots[random].name);      
118.  
119.         random = Random.Range(0, hair.Count - 1);
120.         WearItem(hair, hair[random].name);
121.        
122.         random = Random.Range(0, legs.Count - 1);
123.         WearItem(legs, legs[random].name);      
124.  
125.         random = Random.Range(0, shoulder.Count - 1);
126.         WearItem(shoulder, shoulder[random].name);      
127.  
128.         random = Random.Range(0, helmet.Count - 1);
129.         WearItem(helmet, helmet[random].name);      
130.  
131.         random = Random.Range(0, wrist.Count - 1);
132.         WearItem(wrist, wrist[random].name);      
133.  
134.         random = Random.Range(0, trs.Count - 1);
135.         WearItem(trs, trs[random].name);      
136.  
137.         random = Random.Range(0, bicep.Count - 1);
138.         WearItem(bicep, bicep[random].name);
139.     }
140.  
141.     void WearBaseHands()
142.     {
143.         SkinnedMeshRenderer renderer = null;
144.         renderer = baseHands.GetComponent<SkinnedMeshRenderer>();
145.         renderer.enabled = true;
146.     }
147.     void WearBaseArms()
148.     {
149.         SkinnedMeshRenderer renderer = null;
150.         renderer = baseArms.GetComponent<SkinnedMeshRenderer>();
151.         renderer.enabled = true;
152.     }
153.  
154.     void WearOutfit(List<GameObject> items)
155.     {
156.         SkinnedMeshRenderer renderer;
157.         disableAll();
158.         foreach (GameObject g in items)
159.         {
160.             renderer = g.GetComponent<SkinnedMeshRenderer>();
161.             renderer.enabled = true;
162.         }
163.     }
164.  
165.     private void loadClothing()
166.     {
167.         gloves = new List<GameObject>();
168.         earRings = new List<GameObject>();
169.         torso = new List<GameObject>();
170.         boots = new List<GameObject>();
171.         hair = new List<GameObject>();
172.         legs = new List<GameObject>();
173.         shoulder = new List<GameObject>();
174.         helmet = new List<GameObject>();
175.         wrist = new List<GameObject>();
176.         arms = new List<GameObject>();
177.         trs = new List<GameObject>();
178.         bicep = new List<GameObject>();
179.  
180.         baseArms = new GameObject();
181.  
182.         guild = new List<GameObject>();
183.         noble = new List<GameObject>();
184.         elven = new List<GameObject>();
185.         merc = new List<GameObject>();
186.         innkeeper = new List<GameObject>();
187.         leather = new List<GameObject>();
188.         miner = new  List<GameObject>();
189.         farmer = new List<GameObject>();
190.         baseHands = new GameObject();
191.         templar = new List<GameObject>();
192.         republic = new List<GameObject>();
193.         silveral  = new List<GameObject>();
194.         plate = new List<GameObject>();
195.         thief = new List<GameObject>();
196.  
197.         foreach (Transform child in transform)
198.         {
199.             if (child.gameObject.name.ToLower().Contains("basehands"))
200.             {
201.                 baseHands = child.gameObject;
202.             }
203.  
204.             if (child.gameObject.name.ToLower().Contains("plate"))
205.             {
206.                 plate.Add(child.gameObject);
207.             }
208.  
209.             if (child.gameObject.name.ToLower().Contains("thief"))
210.             {
211.                 thief.Add(child.gameObject);
212.             }
213.  
214.          
215.  
216.             if (child.gameObject.name.ToLower().Contains("silveral"))
217.             {
218.                 silveral.Add(child.gameObject);
219.             }
220.             if (child.gameObject.name.ToLower().Contains("noble"))
221.             {
222.                 noble.Add(child.gameObject);
223.             }
224.  
225.             if (child.gameObject.name.ToLower().Contains("republic"))
226.             {
227.                 republic.Add(child.gameObject);
228.             }
229.  
230.  
231.             if (child.gameObject.name.ToLower().Contains("farmer"))
232.             {
233.                 farmer.Add(child.gameObject);
234.             }
235.  
236.             if (child.gameObject.name.ToLower().Contains("guild"))
237.             {
238.                 guild.Add(child.gameObject);
239.             }
240.  
241.             if (child.gameObject.name.ToLower().Contains("templar"))
242.             {
243.                 templar.Add(child.gameObject);
244.             }
245.  
246.             if (child.gameObject.name.ToLower().Contains("elven"))
247.             {
248.                 elven.Add(child.gameObject);
249.             }
250.  
251.             if (child.gameObject.name.ToLower().Contains("miner"))
252.             {
253.                 miner.Add(child.gameObject);
254.             }
255.  
256.             if (child.gameObject.name.ToLower().Contains("leather"))
257.             {
258.                 leather.Add(child.gameObject);
259.             }
260.  
261.             if (child.gameObject.name.ToLower().Contains("merc"))
262.             {
263.                 merc.Add(child.gameObject);
264.             }
265.  
266.             if (child.gameObject.name.ToLower().Contains("trs"))
267.             {
268.                 trs.Add(child.gameObject);
269.             }
270.  
271.             if (child.gameObject.name.ToLower().Contains("bicep"))
272.             {
273.                 bicep.Add(child.gameObject);
274.             }
275.  
276.             if (child.gameObject.name.ToLower().Contains("gloves"))
277.             {
278.                 gloves.Add(child.gameObject);
279.             }
280.  
281.             if (child.gameObject.name.ToLower().Contains("arms"))
282.             {
283.                 arms.Add(child.gameObject);
284.             }
285.  
286.             if (child.gameObject.name.ToLower().Contains("earring"))
287.             {
288.                 earRings.Add(child.gameObject);
289.             }
290.  
291.             if (child.gameObject.name.ToLower().Contains("torso"))
292.             {
293.                 torso.Add(child.gameObject);
294.             }
295.  
296.             if (child.gameObject.name.ToLower().Contains("boot") ||
297.                 child.gameObject.name.ToLower().Contains("shoe"))
298.             {
299.                 boots.Add(child.gameObject);
300.             }
301.  
302.             if (child.gameObject.name.ToLower().Contains("hair"))
303.             {
304.                 hair.Add(child.gameObject);
305.             }
306.  
307.             if (child.gameObject.name.ToLower().Contains("legs"))
308.             {
309.                 legs.Add(child.gameObject);
310.             }
311.             if (child.gameObject.name.ToLower().Contains("wrist"))
312.             {
313.                 wrist.Add(child.gameObject);
314.             }
315.             if (child.gameObject.name.ToLower().Contains("shoulder"))
316.             {
317.                 shoulder.Add(child.gameObject);
318.             }
319.             if (child.gameObject.name.ToLower().Contains("helmet") ||
320.                 child.gameObject.name.ToLower().Contains("hood") )
321.             {
322.                 helmet.Add(child.gameObject);
323.             }
324.         }
325.     }
326. }
327.  

 

Thanks for that Chris - can in include this in the pack?

BEst

Steve

 

Yes feel free to include it but it's not complete yet. I only did some of the outfits and there are some bugs that I need to fix. I just thought I could show what I have so far in case it helps someone. Or if someone has a better way to accomplish this they could share theirs.

 

Thanks for the script. That is very helpful.

 

Thankyou for all the great input here.

 

I'm really confused about how to add items to the character's hands. I put a pickaxe as a child of the BaseHands but it does not move as the hands move in the animation. Anyone have luck with this?

 

Dont add it to a child of the hands add it to the correct hand under the biped(or as others would call it the correct bone )

 

Ahh thank you that works beautifully

 

No problem happy to help

 

Update

Ive added all the heads. and faces from the modern day character pack. Pack also has better hands now, more polys, and nicer texture.
Also 4 additonal hairstyles.
The problem i have now, is that the pack is getting so big, its going to be more productive to start splitting the costumes up into their respect body parts for you to merge in engine.

Out of interest, how many of you know how to do this, and if you dont.. can a customer with the respective knowledge share a script etc? of how this can be achieved

Best

Steve

 

That's great Steve ...thanks for the update. Just to clarify, are the uploaded files posted on the FTP? If so, do I need to reimport the FBX, base textures and shader maps or just some of these files and not all?

 

Hey steve,

is it possible for you to weight everything and then export them seperately and export the skeleton seperately aswell? Im not sure how unity will like this but you can parent objects to bones and they will animate with the bones

 

+1

 

But they won't conform to the bones if you do it that way, so the animations won't work. And to really make it work right, I found that I needed to import a complete model with bones and pieces, I couldn't just attach it to a partial model or skeleton (don't ask me why, some optimization process realigns things, or at least they did for me.).

Then the process isn't too hard - create a new SkinnedMeshRenderer, instantiate a copy of the mesh, reassign all the bones and materials, and delete the old SkinnedMeshRenderer that was there before.

Here's an example where I've done that: Character Editor. I can post partial code, but not the full code, if someone is interested. The mesh switching code came mostly from a different thread (though of course with changes), which I don't have handy, but I can try to dig up a link if someone doesn't come up with something better.

 

And with all respect steve, there are a few more things that need to be fixed before you should add new costumes/armor.

- Run animation needs a complete makeover(it hunches over and just doesnt look natural.)
- There is no real idle animation and the ones that can be used as one have floating feet or just dont look natural really(Mainly the NPCIdle animation that doesnt look natural as well as combat idle.)
- There is no swim idle or swim backwards anim(we can do these ourselves if we have the correct format file to create new animations.)
- Needs a falling animation again same as above we can create them with the proper setup.
- Needs landing animation same as above 2.
- Skin textures need some facial detail currently it looks like a solid color and you can see the seams on top of the head. I tried to use chicken lords skin shader and it made the face look horrible the only real shader that worked was straight diffuse and that again just looked like a solid color.

Everything else is awesome, you should make some capes and belts though, currently the plate armor and stuff look odd without a cape lol (also add some magic robe style armor) you should add this stuff later on but this is just my 2 cents on how to make this pack something you will keep profiting off of by adding new armour etc down the road. Thanks again steve

 

Also steve there is a very good example that unity made - http://unity3d.com/support/resources/example-projects/charactercustomization.html

 

Animations will work. You can assign the bones via code. That's the whole idea behind this.

Agreed again. The animations need couple of hours of work.

 

Of course, but not if you just put it on there. You have to create a new skinnedmeshrenderer and reassign the bones. I did mention that in the paragraph you quoted.

 

Sorry than, mate. I'm distracted as always ^^.

 

I have the lifetime membership but can't seem to find this on the site. Is this a separate package?

 

It's on a separate download site. Email Steve for the link.

Regarding Steve, has anyone heard from him in a while? I've sent him a couple of emails recently and have gotten no response.

 

Hi Raj,

As you know i always respond to emails very quickly - Ive had some time off for a few weeks, after a very hearvy year of content production. Im back in the studio as of today - following up with you shortly - I just saw your PM
One pack i will be releasing tomorrow is a pack that i actually started at the same time as the modern male, which is a SOLDIER BASE - This next few weeks im foccusing on the medieval base update

Best

Steve

 

Yep ... Thanks for getting in touch.

 

This looks so great. I wish I could make character models look that good. It would go so well with my Fantasy AI Package. Great work!

 

Hi steve

Sounds cool,what type of soildiers are we talking about. Modern day or older typs .

dave

 

Hi arteria,

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/12...-Character-Arteria3d-BasePack-RELEASED/page10

Is the eye movement available? Will these eye movement be available for other base pack too ?


Thanks in advance

 

Hi Steve,

I am also really desperate for the fixed up pack... I've tried to fix the issues myself but I am not as skilled as you, so I am really pleased to see you're already on the case.

For my part, I would really like to see the meshes split out as you suggested, I am sure between the community we can put together a script to stitch them at runtime for unity and share it. That way it's possible to load/package only the bits that are needed and to add new clothes in easily.

The key updates I'd like to see are:
- Fixed mesh issues, weighting etc. where some of the clothes don't work together etc. Right now I'm having major issues with this.
- Fix the run animation so he doesn't lean forwards so much it looks a little wrong, there's a few better ones available as truebones in my opinion
- Mouth and eye animations (at least a static talking animation)
- A few different conversation gestures
- Bow animations (and casting/spells although I already ripped these from the mage myself)
- Some of the normal maps look a bit odd... I think maybe they're inside out? Have you tried using CrazyBump?

Thanks for all this amazing work I will certainly continue to recommend your stuff to others

 

Any news?

 

Is there anyway to instantiate the individual armor pieces instead of enabling/disabling? When I try instantiating it into the game it's invisible.

 

I've created a prefab of the version with only the components I want enabled. I then instantiate that prefab rather than instantiating the original base character. Seems to work great for me.

 

The unity Character Customization demo is a good start for that. It saves the skeleton and all components in separate asset bundles ( which could easily become prefabs if needed )

 

No, it is not. It is driven by one skeleton, but each part is still separate skinned mesh (performance disaster), it is not stitching parts to one skinned mesh.

 

Check the character customization, as I said - the only thing it doesn't do is combining the materials into a single one.
The initial character may consist of separate skinned meshes which are exported to different files but it gets stitched to a single mesh with multiple materials.

 

No, you have as much skinned meshes as much parts you have. I ve been trying that. To achieve mesh join, you have to modify code (as we did).

 

I just got this today and I want to echo some of the other requests:

- The run animation is weird; I'd prefer one where he's less hunched over. The run animation is the most common animation most people see in a game; you're staring at it almost the whole time you're playing, so it should get some attention.
- Can you close the hands in the combat animations? He's supposed to be swinging a sword but if his hand is open it looks quite strange.

In addition:
- It would be great if the Unity version had the correct shaders and the normal and specular maps assigned to the prefabs instead of having to download them separately and fix them all manually.
- The pieces that use the Transparent Diffuse shader don't work correctly, unless there's some extra step. The Templar Legs, for example, seem to have the normals reversed and are rendered inside out.
- RepublicTorso mesh has a big hole in the back.

Other than that, awesome work! Great value, especially with the sale today.

 

Also, have any of you guys had luck with combining the meshes into a SkinnedMesh at runtime and would be willing to share an example? How do you deal with separate shaders on the pieces, or do you just use diffuse for everything? Also, how big is the performance hit for not going a runtime mesh stitch and just keeping the pieces separate? I don't really notice a framerate change when adding the character to my scene; is the stitching mainly to reduce the number of draw calls? If I wanted separate shaders on separate pieces, I'd need a draw call per material anyway though, right?

 

Ok, I'm starting to change my mind on "Awesome work" a little bit; there are just so many small problems scattered around that half of the pieces can't be used as is.

- Thief Torso has a hole in the front, the chest caves in.
- Stormlands pieces with the transparent shader also don't work right, like Templar.
- The combat_idle and run animations have some really bad stretching in the belt area. It makes things like the LeatherTorso belt look really bad from behind, and makes the blank gap between torso and legs if you mix and match much more noticable.
- The pieces look good when they're all the same type, but it's really hard to find any that mix and match together without really bad clipping. For example, lots of torsos extend down past the waste and clip through legs, and legs clip through boots, some legs only go down to the knees so you can't use them with shoes or boots lower than the knee; torsos clip through shoulder and bicep pieces, etc.

Also, Unity doesn't support separate specular maps as a texture, it expects the specular to be the alpha channel of the diffuse texture. That means Unity users would need to use Photoshop or something to manually merge the spec texture with the diffuse texture, which makes redoing all the materials to use the separate normal maps even more annoying.

 

Transparent diffuse works on those items that need transparency -it would be great if you could email me some pics of your problems.
Im not aware of the thief chest cave in problem, again, would be great if you could show me that too, via email.

The intiial problem with this pack is the huge size of the initial pack, so its very very hard to isolate every single problem, and every meshes problem, so i did expect fixes for the next version. The female version of this pack which has been underway for some time, does things slightly different in its approach.
Its great you telling me of any problems you have as it makes for a better version of the pack over time

BEst

Steve

 

Hi arteria,

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/12...-Character-Arteria3d-BasePack-RELEASED/page10

Is the eye movement available in next update? Will these eye movement be available for other base pack too ?


Thanks in advance

 

Hi Rockysam

I have made the new head with opening mouth and eye movement, so yes. With the new update all exports will be separate, due to the now enormour size of the project, as its difficult to export as one file(probably one of the reasons some of these bugs got overlooked).
The update will be released later this month.
I will also be letting customers download the female version of the pack as it progresses - I will keep you informed on this

Steve

 

Great!!!!

 

The pack is 4 months old now, and you haven't released a single bugfix, update or whatsoever.

You managed to create 3 new sets of clothing and release a soldier and modern packages but didn't have the time to finish you old work. As usual - almost exclusively another artist has to go around basically every piece of art you produce and make the finishing touches instead of you.

I've emailed you about messed and sucky animations even before you started the modular packages. I sent you links to repositories with mocap data, which only required importing and minor adjustments. Sadly my emails were promptly answered and noted while you wanted money from me and when you wanted something from me.

You have the potential to make excellent models, but you couldn't care less for personal improvement. And that is what bugs me - you're not dedicated to providing better quality stuff, or perfecting your skill - the only logical reason you would lack any improvement or at least some visible tryouts is that - you only care about money. Anyway - I'm getting too psychological and off topic here.

Anyway back on topic. Here are some glitches on the pack that I've seen so far.
-There is no jump nor fall animation
-Some of the animations move the character from his anchor ( this is unacceptable for games )
-Animation clipping, some clipping is okay, but the animations aren't adjusted to look good on at least most of the models, there are a couple of cases where stuff clips
-The run/walk animations look weird
-The rig is off
-The rig needs eye bone for controlling the eyes
-The rig needs a torso bone for controlling the torso ( breathing and such )
-The rig needs grip bones to control the grip
-The medieval character lacks casting animations and bow animations ( copy-pasting from the wizard and ranger was too hard I suppose )
-Lack of swimming animations
-No turn on spot animation
-The separation of the characters is ridiculous - the point in creating a modular character is to create different combinations of clothing - the clothes are just cut in the middle, there is no possible way to get the whole armor from one set and just the pants from another. There is no logical separation. With the current split different arms legs and torsos could be combined into different Armor - there is no point in those existing in their current state.
-Transparency glitches - beards, armors, hair
-Normal mapping issues
-Texture glitches - wrong UVs, weird looking stuff

 

Thanks for your comments jeddy, will take all this onboard

Best

Steve

 

I share some others' frustrations, even Demostenes, though he's a little over the top sometimes. This pack is so close to being an amazing asset for indie devs, but the bugs ruin what is otherwise a great pack. I think that's why people get so angry; it's not that the art is bad, it's that it's good and so close to being great but gets ruined by a few bugs. If you fixed the bugs in this pack I think you could easily sell it for more money, but if you don't fix it, I think you will be hurting your future sales, especially of the base characters, because people will know the bugs never get fixed.

When I get home I'll post some screenshots of the issues I was seeing. From what I recall, the thief torso caves in in his upper right chest area (upper left when you are looking at him) because it seems a vertex is off and is "inside" the chest.

I think the transparent textures break when you have part of the model where it's transparent overlaid on the model itself; like the way how you have the pants and the "skirt" armor over the pants, but they're all the same model with the same texture. The parts of the skirt where it's transparent show up as holes instead of showing the legs. I think it might be fixable by breaking out the skirt and the pants into two separate pieces, and have the transparent texture on the skirt and regular diffuse/bump on the pants.

 

I share the frustrations also...

The problem I had with this pack is that with all costumes in the one export, it was hit and miss exporting without the exporter crashing my 3d app Also editing became so impossible, that each bugfix took a length of time to do, then sometimes, I got further crashing and had to start again.

This is the main reason there has been a length of time with an update fix. After working on it for months, I needed a break, before tackling the update. Practicality now means, the pack can no longer be one export, so each costume will be split, which will then make it far more easier to iron out errors between costumes.

Also the ranger animations use an entirely different rig so cannot be merged, whilst the wizard animations used different proportions on the rigging, so where not included in the initial launch of the pack.

I value everyone's input, good and bad, and with the easier to edit and manage way Of split costume fbx, i will now be able to handle this kit in an easier to handle editable pack in order to iron out problems. I think I will do away with the transparency sections on clothing, as these areas are separate meshes too, they become harder to vertice weight against their surrounding pieces, whilst keeping the texture flow between the main mesh and transparent part.

I'm going to apply the head from the modern day male which is a better mesh and better textured, plus has much better hair. Those packs were also released much quicker as they were far more economical on mesh usage with more texture swaps than anything else, allowing for a more manageable export.

Remember the med base was probably the first pack of it's kind, and i believe now it was too ambitious in its execution for a first release. Much has been learned and I value all customers assistance.
Steve

 

Transparent/Diffuse in Unity won't work if you put two surfaces that both use transparent shader. It will mess thing up.

Also transparent shader won't have shadow, so it will look weird because the char's shadow won't have legs.

 

That makes sense; I think it would be better if any transparent stuff was separated out as a "TRS" piece like on some of the others. Things like eyebrows or fur rims on boots look fine because the transparent piece is overlapping a diffuse piece. In things where the skirt and legs are a combined mesh both using transparent materials, it doesn't work.

 

Hey Steve. It is possible to add animations to characters. Consider to start to work with 3D MAX Character Studio. Of course it may take some time to learn this soft, several months maybe. But it will gives you many advantages, instead of using .FBX files which hard to manage.

There are many tutorials how to use 3D MAX in the web and program itself has pretty good help.