newbones - an experimental skeleton

[zuriastrad]

i've been tinkering with the nexuiz player models and i've noticed that the skeletons' default poses are hunched over holding the gun. this makes sense for the animator because that's where most of the animations will start from, but it does make it difficult to recycle the skeleton to re-use in new character models. the model would have to be twisted and manouvered to match the skeleton. it occurs to me that if there was a skeleton that started from a symetrical, neutral pose then it would be a lot easier to use with new models. it would create more work for the animator, but would incredibly easy to recycle, which would be a useful asset for an open source project.

with this in mind i've started experimenting. i imported the insurrectionist's zym, deleted the armature (skeleton) and spent a while transorming the mesh into a symetrical model stood in a fairly neutral pose with the arms slightly out from the side of the body. then i built a new skeleton from scratch, taking care to keep it symetrical. i did some basic weight painting, but nothing too detailed since i'm only using the insurrectionist model temporarily. i've made this work as a zym model which you can download below. it's not much use as a character model since it doesn't have any animations yet, but it does demonstrate the starting pose quite nicely.

click here to download newbones-0001.pk3
click here to download the blend file

[Blµb]

is the nex so huge or is he so small....?

[zuriastrad]

i'm guessing i made him a little on the small side. might have to fix that.

[Mirio]

yeah the model is a bit to small and if you try with chase_active 1 you can see that the weapons are on the shoulder lol

[zuriastrad]

ah, i must have posted the wrong pk3. i had an earlier one where the weapon was shoulder mounted. i'll have to fix that too.

[zuriastrad]

ok. i've replaced the pk3 with one that actually holds the weapon with the hand.

i've left the height as it is though. this is because when i made my pinkbox model i spent a bit of time trying to get the box the same size as the hitbox and the height of the model (with scaling set to 1 in the zym making stage) was 1.8 units tall. so when i made this newbones model i scaled the model to that size too. if i made it any larger than it is now you'd be able to shoot at the upper part of his head and not actually hit anything.

so if there are models bigger than this guy in the game make sure you don't go for the headshots.

[KillaGrunt]

What type of file do you export the blend file as? And yes I have already tried to find out.

[zuriastrad]

killagrunt-
i've made this thread to answer some of your questions.

[KillaGrunt]

BTW he looks 2d

[[-z-]]

Really good work zuriastrad. I don't know know enough about blender to do anything with this myself but you found a problem, explained it well and developed a solution as well as a starting point for many new models. You are very knowledgeable in this and I hope you continue posting about your work. I'd love to see an A to Z tutorial on creating a character model and getting it in the game.