Need a little help...Blender Editing light armor Problems

[rohan]

I'm in the process of editing the Holy armor into more of a light breastplate version using blender following oi_io's tuturial.

I've edited and weighted it but when I go to test it out rotating the skeleton the arms "stick" to the armor as per below.

Will this happen in-game if I export it like this? and if so how can I remedy it?

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1333099100

[oi__io]

I have heard a number of people voicing their concern about how the method that I used to weight paint in my guide is wrong. Well, I did put a disclaimer that my method works for what I intended and people should seek appropriate tutorials to learn how to do it properly ;p

Honestly, that guide was written in a rush so I really need to rewrite the whole guide again so that everything is proper but I don't really have time right now.

Anyway, this seems like weight painting issue. It sticks to the arms because the arms of the models are too close to the armor mesh, so when you transfer the weight, the sides of the armor got weighted to the arms.

If you're using the weight painting method from my guide, my suggestion is to move the arms to T-pose first BEFORE transferring the weight. But if you wanted to fix this as it is right now, you'll need to do manual weight painting.

Do you know how to weight paint it manually?

What you can do is to select the mesh in object mode and then switch to weight paint mode, check the arm vertex group and remove (substract) the weight paint on the lower arm vertex group. You'll need to do that to both the left and right arm. I assume it's weighted to lower arm vertex only from the picture. You'll need to check it yourself.

If this sounds like alien talk, I suggest you look up tutorials on Youtube on how to weight paint in Blender. If you found any that is helpful to you, please share. I still haven't found a good one so I learn through trial and error mostly.

Manual weight painting is not too difficult to do but it could be very tedious. That's why I choose to transfer weight instead since that's how lazy 3D artist work. LOL

[rohan]

It's a well layed out guide to get started on the basics, good for blender newbies.

It makes alot more sense why all the character models always come in T-poses as default now.

I'm not up to weight painting manually yet, a bit more research needed.

Could I leave the arms for the body/skeleton in the t-pose after weight painting it, or would I need bring the arms down again?
I assume the saved model into usable 'kenshi mesh' format doesn't include the actually visable body when it converts.

thanks

[oi__io]

For the armor (Holy Chest Plate) that you're modding right now, it's perfectly alright to move the arms to T-pose and leave it there since the armor is sleeveless.

You can even move the arms in pose mode while still weight painting to see if there's any spot that you missed and switch back to weight paint mode to fix it.

But if you want to mod existing clothing/armor that have sleeves, you will have to use more advance technique to weight paint since there will be a lot of area where it intersect with the body and moving the arms before weight painting will not move the sleeves of the armor.

Like I said, weight painting is not too difficult to do but it could be very tedious. Getting it working perfectly with the in game character slider can be a pain tho. Everytime I thought I've nailed it, it turns out I missed something and have to go back and tweak some more.

For practice, I suggest you start with something simpler like helmet or boots. As you gain better understanding on how weight painting and the vertex group work, you can move on to modding pants and lastly to body armor.

Honestly, starting with body armor first may lead to a frustrating experience since it is the most challenging part to mod due to the way the model and armor meshes are posed by default in Kenshi.

If you didn't weight paint body armor properly, it will lead to some bizarre outcome when you play around with body part sliders in character creation. Troubleshooting that one can be a very tricky business.

[oi__io]

By the way, if you wanted to learn a crash course on how to weight paint it manually, you can save your work in Blender as .blend file and upload it online.

That way I can take screenshots of my approach on how I go about weight painting the armor manually. I'll upload the screenshots to imgur for you to see.

After I'm done, I'll upload the file too for you to closely study on what I did and how I did it.

You can use this website[bitsend.jp] to upload the files if you want.

[rohan]

yup, I thought it might be a bit of a headache, it's why I deleted the gloves as well.

But for any armor that covers the shoulders/arms I take it the arms would have to come down, or have to manual weight paint it with the arms down intersecting the rest of the body?

link is
https://1.bitsend.jp/download/cc3937c6065b401d5d92b6a3ec118c1f.html

[oi__io]

Ok, I'll try to take screenshot of my approach and post the link once it's done. I'll keep you posted.

[oi__io]

Alright, it's done.

This is the link to the screenshots with explanation of the process:
https://imgur.com/a/ZfuyQ

This is the link to the files:
https://1.bitsend.jp/download/2f3ee2894960f005140a2c9d1bd1603a.html?setLang=en

There's two files included in the link. The first one (holychesttest01.blend) is weight painted using the weight transfer method with the arms in default position then manually corrected. Not a finish product by a stretch but it's only to show how to manually weight paint on the intersecting area.

The second file (holychesttest02.blend) is weight painted using the weight transfer method but with the arms in T-pose mode. It shows that the weight transfer method can work for appropriate application. Still need to do some tweaking to get it working right with the character slider in game tho.

Once you are familiar with the vertex groups and how to manually weight paint each area, you can start manually weight painting from scratch without using the weight transfer method.

It can be quite tricky to do it that way and a lot of modders compromise on weight painting since it is almost impossible to get it perfect without a proper documentation from the dev on what area is affected by what vertex group in the sliders.

Heck, even the dev compromised on weight painting. If you've ever seen a badly clipping armor or clothing, then you'll know exactly what I mean by that. LOL

If you are interested to learn more on how to manually weight paint from scratch, my suggestion to you is to start with something simpler first. Body armor and pants can be a bit intimidating to start with. Start with a simpler mesh like a helmet or boots. As simple as as possible and try to get it working right in game. Then step up the difficulty.

If you start with something complex, you can get overwhelmed and get frustrated and might not enjoy it at all. At least that's how I feel about it. My first session with Blender is to turn a boot into a helmet and it was fun to figure everything out on my own. I finally got it working after several tries. :D

[rohan]

Been through alot of trial and error with this and importing another armor, I'll just keep banging my head against it till I get it right!

I think I got it there thanks, I'll go through your explanation a few times to see what's happening.

You should post that weight explanation up on the guides section, someone else might need it too :)

[oi__io]

Upon reading it again i'm not even sure I understand what I wrote. It made perfect sense when I was writing it but less so now. Writing a proper guide or tutorial is harder than it looks. LOL

I hope you'll be able to get something out of it. I'll let you know if I ever come across a proper weight painting tutorial for Blender in Youtube. I watch a bunch of random ones before but none of them are quality materials if I recall.

If you just want to learn the basics I'm sure you can find Andrew Price's Blender Guru basic tutorial. For anything else, it's a bit hit and miss for me.

Good luck with your mod! :D

[rohan]

Seems to be working well, no tearing in the armor when moving etc

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1335138133
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1335138284
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1335138445

Now to do the male one >.<