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#1 Old 27th Sep 2006 at 8:02 AM Last edited by tiggerypum : 27th Sep 2006 at 11:27 PM. Reason: tried to fix pics, I think they're correct
Help with combining parts.......please
Hi there, Can anybody help me on that ?

Ok it is the first time i'm trying to combine parts in a mesh so I may have done many things wrong so I will try to be as much detailed as I can. I know I may be asking a lot for a first try by using 4 parts but couldn't help it hihihi *blush*

P.S.: The total mesh is the one that has the red part in it, I took it off just to show where the parts joined behind.

The first picture is the original maxis mesh I used to do my new mesh
- I've kept only what you see in pink (see the colored parts pictures)


-The second pic is the one I took the long skirt of (Redpart) (maxismesh)


-The third one is one of my mesh i used for the most part of the body (blue).


- The yellow part comes also from a maxis mesh but I couldn't remember witch one sorry. I will search it if necessary.


I've cut the parts, aligned everything, snaped the legs parts together, snaped the skirt parts together (I didn't used the Demon’s Extended Manual Edit). I even used the menu VERTEX – ALIGN NORMALS.



After everything looked ok i've tried regrouping it in two parts: Body and Body_reflective (would like to keep the reflective part for the clothing but i'm not sure how it works) and copy the comments respectivly.
I fixed Underweighted Bones and then saved it.
But when I tryed it in bodyshop my sim had only a head (no body at all) so I reopened a saved mesh I did just before regrouping it and reopened the tuto (Unimesh/Milkshape Tutorial: Level 3, Combining Mesh Parts).

But when the time came to use the patern for the UVmap an error said ''error unable to download patern'' or something like that........ (I know it works because i've tried it with the regrouped parts and it worked).

I'm stock there and I'm kinda lost what I should do next.

I would like the clothing parts to be reflecting(shinny) and make the skirt alpha, if not possible I prefer the alpha skirt and forget the reflecting.

Thank you for any help and please forgive my english........... Mystik

P.S.: Can you see the pictures ? I'm not sure it worked
Screenshots
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Admin of Randomness
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#2 Old 27th Sep 2006 at 11:49 PM Last edited by tiggerypum : 28th Sep 2006 at 2:13 AM.
Because someone had this happen -- make SURE you have the latest unimesh, if you upgraded or reinstalled milkshape, reinstall unimesh again.

Well, first, you are going to have problems on the upper body (if you want shiny) because you have 2 layers of clothing/body there, with the top of the dress inside the light blue body. If you look at how maxis constructed their meshes, there is almost only just _one_ layer of mesh at any given spot. I would use the entire top body from the first mesh going down towards the skirt, and reshape it to be shaped like the curvier blue mesh you are using.

You might be able to do both shiny and alpha, but I would suggest sticking to alpha (because of all the spots that would have to be from 2 different groups around the neckline/arms, so that's yet more complicated) and let's see if you can get that working.

As it's not clear where things are going wrong, I suggest taking the project and breaking it into smaller projects, so you can get your gmdc in and working.

Start NEW.
Import an ordinary body mesh, like the short dress (one with only BODY). Do it like in tutorial #3 and only import the body, no morphs. Import the mesh for the legs/shoes you want. Import your curvy mesh. Put together your dress so it looks kinda like the dress in 'parts a'. You should have only one layer of mesh - so either use the curvy for the top, or use the dress for the top and adjust it to be shaped like the curvy. Delete all the extra mesh parts, copy the comments, and combine it into one. Test it. Fix the uvmap. Test. Make a fat morph, test.

So all you are missing now is the skirt extension. Start new. Import the hula gmdc WITH morphs. Import in your working gmdc. Copy the comments from hula body to your working body, and delete the hula body. Move your new body up in place. Copy the comments from the hula fat morph body (you will be able to find it) and put them on your fat morph. Rename the fat morph if needed. Delete the hula fat morph, move yours into place. Just to test, save out the gmdc. You should get your body with a hula skirt. It'll look bad, but if it works, that's good.

Now go back and import in the long skirt mesh -- or import in your modified pieces from this first project, and grab the long skirt pieces. Adjust as needed to match your mesh. Fix their comments and names to match the hula skirt pieces. Delete the hula skirt pieces.

---
You can either use the align normals along the way as you are putting things together (as in my tutorial) or do it at the end, once you have your mesh all working. All that align normals does is smooth over the lighting at the seams - making the two pieces you combined look like 1.

"Undertake something that is difficult; it will do you good. Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow." - Ronald E. Osborn

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#3 Old 28th Sep 2006 at 1:37 AM
Thank you so much for your advise Tiggerypum...... hummm.......*blush* unfortunatly I have a hard time understanding a lot of what you are saying(I'm french,Canada) .......like the ''read in'' term etc. I'm so sorry usually I can read tutorials easely but this time it's like you are speaking japan for me *blush*. I can guess it but i've learned never guessing with meshes hihihi.

I know it takes much of your time but can I ask you to use more basic terms ? If it is possible..........I have an idea that could be taking less of your time, I will post another reply saying what I think you are saying and you will just have to correct it. Thanks in advanse for your time and patience
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#4 Old 28th Sep 2006 at 2:02 AM Last edited by tiggerypum : 28th Sep 2006 at 2:16 AM.
oops, sorry.. I meant 'import' (usually I'm clearer with that).
So I'm suggesting that you basically cut your project back into smaller tasks that you can test and complete before going on to the next, that way it will be easier to figure out exactly when something goes not right.

I'll go edit the instructions above so they are more precise. Give me a few mins :D

Okay, I updated. See if this makes more sense. It relys on you following tutorial #3's steps for the most part.

"Undertake something that is difficult; it will do you good. Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow." - Ronald E. Osborn

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#5 Old 28th Sep 2006 at 2:33 AM
wow you are faster than me hihihi thanks a lot tig *hugs*
Test Subject
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#6 Old 28th Sep 2006 at 2:36 AM
About Milkshape and Unimesh: I have MS 1.7.9 and Unimesh 4.06 and the only changes I made since I got both(at the same time) is to register MS.
- Is that ok ?
Test Subject
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#7 Old 28th Sep 2006 at 2:47 AM
That is perfect thanks a lot Tig I will try that..........just to be sure, the hula you say is it for the alpha ? And i guess you mean the hula ''coconut top'' skirt from maxis ?

Oh and I have a question: Is there a way to enhence the breasts without having the texture stretch problem ?
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#8 Old 28th Sep 2006 at 3:08 AM Last edited by tiggerypum : 28th Sep 2006 at 3:14 AM.
the hula outfit (if you import it you'll see) has an alpha skirt on it, so yeah, that would be the base mesh to start with when you get to adding in the alpha. And yes, I mean the skirt with the lovely coconut top.

As for the stretch, no. Well, not so much anyway. The problem is that the neckline and upper arms (if allowing for them to be bare or not) and the rest of the sim body all must follow the layout of a nude sim - that way when the skin is put with your mesh, the details on the neck area and so on will show up in the correct spot. You can look at your uvmap and you _might_ be able to stretch the top's uvmap to cover a tiny bit more of the layout - but as you can see with a maxis body, most of the space is already in use. It might be that the tops for such a generously sized sim will need to be in solid colors to look good in game.

What you can do is work on the uvmap after making the changes and try to adjust it to make things look as... even... as possible. It's fussy work, but the more you can get things to look even (using that gridded graphic I provide) the better any texture will work on that top area (even a solid will have some texture, a neckline and wrinkles to work with)

"Undertake something that is difficult; it will do you good. Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow." - Ronald E. Osborn

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#9 Old 28th Sep 2006 at 3:35 AM
Thanks Tig *hug*

I'm starting over right now and will follow your instructions, if something go wrong I will post in here if you don't mind........take care..........Mystik
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#10 Old 28th Sep 2006 at 4:15 AM
Hum......... I'm not sure but if I delete the top part, don't I have to check for bone assignment or someting like that ? I'm not quite comfortable with bone assignment yet so i'm not sure
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#11 Old 29th Sep 2006 at 8:16 AM
Whereever you are joining 2 meshes together, you will need to check the bone assignments on those vertices, sometimes they vary from one mesh to another. A 1% difference in the assignments will cause those vertices to separate during some animations, so they must be exactly the same. Just follow through the shoe tutorial and do whatever I show you there with whatever part of the meshes you combine.

"Undertake something that is difficult; it will do you good. Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow." - Ronald E. Osborn

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#12 Old 30th Sep 2006 at 1:23 AM
Yes I realised it a little bit further in the tuto. sorry. *blush*. As a matter of fact during the process I encounter a difference in bone assignment where the legs are joining the skirt (its a close finish skirt) and the vertexes of the skirt had a spine assignment that the legs didn't have............is it suppose to be like that ? Even though all bones assignment were at 100%.
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#13 Old 30th Sep 2006 at 2:55 AM
Default OMG look at the uvmap of the legs !!
I know now why I had a hard time skinning this mesh ! How can I repair this ? Is it possible ?
Screenshots
Admin of Randomness
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#14 Old 30th Sep 2006 at 5:10 AM
First on the bone assignments - they can vary from mesh to mesh. Just make sure that on any spot where you carefully snapped together or otherwise aligned 2 vertices, that the bone assignments are identical. Doesn't matter if you favor the one from one mesh or the other or average them. Just make sure they are exactly the same or your vertices will still separate in game.

Anyone can try and answer here, btw, it's not reserved for me. That is an _usual_ uvmap layout. But it might be that whatever leg mesh you took your legs from had mirrored the right and left sides so that they shared the pattern to make room for something else. So, before you panic, go look at the uvmap of the mesh you took the legs from. If that mesh works fine in your game and the uvmap looks like that, then don't worry about it. The legs are just going to be identical mirror images of each other and it'll work fine.

If not, then I am not sure exactly what happened with the legs. You might need to try rejoining the legs to your mesh again.

"Undertake something that is difficult; it will do you good. Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow." - Ronald E. Osborn

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#15 Old 30th Sep 2006 at 6:07 AM Last edited by Mystik36 : 30th Sep 2006 at 6:20 AM.
Thank you so much Tig........Oh and sorry about the other post, I was not sure if anywone else would know that I've post this one.

About the bone assignment: if I understand right then I should add the spine assignment to the vertex that had only one assignment because the other vertex snaped with it had it........ if I understand right, no need to reply I'll understand

Ok about the UVmap: =I will try to check the original mesh as you say=
I think I understand about the mirror but I already did a clothing for this one and I remember having problem with the 2 lower leg, I've tried a ''filet,net''(on alpha) texture althrough the legs and on the lower legs the texture didn't apply at all, the only way I was able to apply a texture was to fill it completly and even there I had a lot of trouble adjusting it........you can see the outfit at InSIMenator in this tread. I've tryed many things on those legs but everytime it was looking very odd.

Also when I tested it in game the left leg was acting wierd sometimes but it was not that bad (if i didn't do yoga hihihi)

Sorry for the long answer but I wanted to be as detailed as possible. I'll get back to you when I've checked the original mesh.

Thanks again, what would we, newbies, do without you ;oD

===== Checked the Original =========
The UVmap is the same, missing one leg
==============================
Test Subject
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#16 Old 30th Sep 2006 at 6:33 AM
Oups about the bone assignment, it was not the spine, it was the pelvis sorry
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#17 Old 30th Sep 2006 at 10:37 AM
oops, misread - you are mystik there also.

Maybe you should use maxis legs and just adjust them to match the mesh you like so much if it's giving you problems.

"Undertake something that is difficult; it will do you good. Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow." - Ronald E. Osborn

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#18 Old 30th Sep 2006 at 2:28 PM
Yes that is what I thought too There where to many weird things about those legs; missing bones assignment, 2 vertex's and more where its should have only one, etc.

Anyway I've tested it once and it worked fine so, after remodeling the legs, I'll continue with your instructions........hope I won't have to bother you too much again

Thanks for your patience *hug*
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#19 Old 3rd Oct 2006 at 4:14 AM
well another problem grrr

I don't know why it is doing that, i'm lost here....??....
It should be all black, I made the texture longer so you can see better.


Thanks for any help
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#20 Old 3rd Oct 2006 at 5:54 AM
okay, it's either a uvmap issue (zoom in like tutorial #3 to make sure your points match exactly) or.... you didn't adjust your alpha texture to the new layout?

"Undertake something that is difficult; it will do you good. Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow." - Ronald E. Osborn

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#21 Old 3rd Oct 2006 at 6:14 AM Last edited by Mystik36 : 3rd Oct 2006 at 6:21 AM.
Ok

hum there is something weird, I just tried to take the texture off the legs and what I was taking off the legs also been took off the skirt ?? Does it ring a bell to you cause wow not to me hihihi

I will check the UVmap
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#22 Old 4th Oct 2006 at 3:29 AM
Hum, I wondering, in the UVmap there is a space beetween the feet and lower legs, should I join them as well ? Or is it normal ?
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#23 Old 4th Oct 2006 at 8:42 AM
There is often a space between the feet and lower legs, the two pieces are orientated differently (there's a seam down the side of the legs, but along the tops of the feet) so that's not the problem.

See the uvmap illustration of the girl's dress - there's a gap at the ankles and actually a small gap right where the legs and lower skirt meet.
http://www.modthesims2.com/article.php?t=155772

But maybe your uvmap near the upper legs is looking odd? If the skirt and legs overlap on your uvmap, that explains the problems you're seeing. You will need to have everything so that there's no overlap on the graphics on your map

"Undertake something that is difficult; it will do you good. Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow." - Ronald E. Osborn

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#24 Old 5th Oct 2006 at 5:11 PM
You were right, it was because of the UVmap, I fixed it. Thank you so much ! About the gap of the feet and lower legs........if I may suggest........maybe you could specify not to touch this gap in your tuto3 ? Because that is what made me wonder ''53) Repeat this all the way across''(this is in the 53th step of your tuto3)..........And about that I was asking myself if this gap was necessary because, playing with it, I found that it was looking better if I align them. But didn't test it yet because I was afraid I couldn't separate it if it was a mess(made this error once and don't want to do it again beleve me hihihi)

......... I've looked at the link you gave me but the UVmap was too small for me to have a good look at it, but I will check one in Milkshape cause I want to see something else. Thanks anyway.
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#25 Old 5th Oct 2006 at 5:22 PM
Forgot something sorry

I was wondering if there were a tuto on how to create a new vertex or face on my mesh. I explain: I would like to add only a small peace between the 2 heu.......gosh can't find the word hihihi ........ nipples is that it? A small strap of clothing relating them. Is that understandable ? If not I can try to find a picture to show what I mean.
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