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"Workaround" Manual for Dim3 Inspire in Wiki

Discussion in 'Formats & External Tools' started by terransage, Aug 16, 2006.

  1. terransage

    terransage

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    It took me a while, but I finished rewriting some "workaround" instructions for using Dim3 Inspire (for rigging and animating Blender models and exporting them as .fbx files). I added it to the Wiki section on animation support for Unity:

    http://www.unifycommunity.com/wiki/index.php?title=Blender

    There's a more informal (but reorganized) version at the bottom of this thread:

    http://forum.unity3d.com//viewtopic.php?t=2342&highlight=

    I actually haven't used dim3 Inspire for a while, since I'm in the process of learning Cinema 4D. Man, I've never had to learn so many different things at one time in my life! At least I'm having fun along with all the frustration....
     
  2. Marble

    Marble

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    Yes, all this learning is much more work than I am expected to do at Uni. I really hope it pays off!

    Thanks for the tuts.
     
  3. terransage

    terransage

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    So far I've had the most luck working with Unity (the fewest problems) of all the software I've had to learn. And if there is a problem, your questions are answered right away by the Unity staff or in the forums. Most of the time it's my own mistakes that cause the problems. Sometimes I'm a bit embarrassed asking questions about things that should be easy to learn but that just escape me. :oops:
     
  4. terransage

    terransage

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    I just revised the "Add Bones..." section, after trying Inspire again and discovering some more things about it. I apologize to anyone who may have tried Inspire using my instructions and come up puzzled or frustrated. Now that I've discovered these things, I find Inspire much easier to use. At first it was pretty daunting. I'm also trying to rig with Cinema 4D, but I'm having technical difficulties with it--so it's back to Inspire I go, for the time being.
     
  5. Marble

    Marble

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    Animation in Cinema 4D is pretty darn hard. Heck, I find *skinning* in C4D to be difficult. One model had a vertex or two that just would not take weight no matter what.
     
  6. terransage

    terransage

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    Yikes, Marble, I haven't gotten anywhere with Cinema 4D yet, because "painting" with my mouse using the Claude Bonet tool (after "fixing" the bones) doesn't seem to work at all. I'm still waiting for an answer from their tech support. I went back to dim3 Inspire and rigged and animated a (simple) Blender model in a few minutes and imported it into Unity with no problem. The animations and blending work seamlessly in Unity. I hope I haven't jumped the gun buying Cinema 4D!
     
  7. Marble

    Marble

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    Don't get me wrong. I love C4D for modeling, and Bodypaint is peerless for texturing, but it took me a while to figure out how to get the skinning right. Many people take the hit and buy Cactus Dan's Character Bundle because it makes bones (joints), skin, and rigging so much easier. I hear C4D 10 may feature a rewrite of the whole MOCCA system.

    I couldn't get Claude Bonet to work for me until I made sure that my bones were the children of my polygon mesh. It's a pain that there are no Claude Bonet tags visible in the object list. A free plugin called Tag Manager that should be in the extras you got with C4D (and maybe online) will let you manipulate Claude Bonet tags, though.
     
  8. terransage

    terransage

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    I've made all the bones children of the polygon mesh (sounds like a bad poem), but I still can't select the vertices. I figured that pressing the shift key and dragging the mouse would produce a selection circle that would "paint" the vertices (similar to Blender), but nothing happens. It seems more like a technical problem, but I'll find out tomorrow when I talk to tech support. Otherwise, Cinema 4D looks pretty impressive. I've seen how well things are modeled and textured there, but I'll be texturing the old-fashioned way for now (I have to save up for BodyPaint).
     
  9. terransage

    terransage

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    Today I talked to tech support, and it turns out it really was a technical problem, a bug in the tutorial file. They sent me a corrected file, and the weight-painting works beautifully. Now I can create the next "Myst!"
     
  10. Marble

    Marble

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    Myst: Weighted Vertex Edition