Face Flexes For The TF2 Workshop - Resources + 3dsmax Tutorial

A guide containing everything you need to properly creating a flexed item for the tf2 workshop. Originally meant for 3dsmax but users of other modelling programs will find the resource pack quite useful.

Resource Pack Breakdown

Normally you'd have to go through extracting every flex to use as reference, fortunately, someone already did it for you (spoiler, it's me!). This will save you quite a lot of time and boring, tedious work!

Main Resource Pack[www.dropbox.com](*)
Subfolder names and what they contain:
flexnames - List of names for flexes and respective frame number
ref_fbx - Flexed class models in .fbx format. Maya and Blender users get these.
ref_max - Flexed class models in .max format. 3dsmax users get these.

Source Pack[www.dropbox.com]
Contains the smds for ever single flex, for all classes



(*)Note the following:
The engineer is based on the community-made goggles-less model. The differences are minimal however.
The medic has problems with the vertices around the neck and eyes.
The soldier has his eyes closed on frame 0
This is not something I can fix, as far as I know. Some of the flexes can't be extracted properly.

If any of this is a problem to you, use the Source Pack and utilize the individual flexes as reference.

3dsmax Tutorial

NOTE: This is currently a first draft, feel free to point out any flaws or if something isn't clear

We are going to be using 3dsmax 2012 in this guide. There may be some differences depending on your version.
For Maya and Blender, you should follow Napy Da Wise's Guide.
The above resource pack should more or less save you from doing the first section of his guide.

This guide requires a basic understanding of how to use 3dsmax and make items for tf2.

Do not be alarmed by the wall of text! The process is actually quite simple once you know how it's done. I will be trying to point out common mistakes aswell as give a few tips on how to make your workflow a little bit faster.

• Download the Main Resource Pack.
  Go in the "reference_max" subfolder and pick your class of choice.
  At the center of the screen is what we will call "reference model". If try to move the animation slider (1) you will see that the model changes facial expression.
  
  
• Make sure your item is finished and fits the reference model (on frame 0) properly before flexing it! Modifying a flexed item is likely to break something and could force you to start over. I find it is better to leave the skinning to after flexing but anything will work so long as the Skin modifier is on top of your modifier stack once you're done.
  
  
• Make a copy of your item, call it something like YOURITEM001 for now. Drag the frame selection (1) to frame 1. Modify the copy accordingly to fit the reference model. IMPORTANT: Do not add vertices! Only move existing ones or the morph target won't work. Once you're done you can hide it so it doesn't get in the way.
  
  
• Do the same for each frame (minus frame 0). Make sure the object name contains the number of the reference frame. 3dsmax should add the numbers by itself but be sure to double check.
  
  
• Now it's time to rename your morph targets to match Valve's flexes. I've included a list of names and the respective frame numbers in the resource pack, in the "flexnames" subfolder. For example, if we're making an item for the heavy, we will rename "YOURITEM032" to "upperSuprise1" (note: I didn't make a typo! Some flexes contain typos, you need to copy those aswell!)
  
  
• Hide all your morphed copies and select your "original" model. Add a "Morpher" modifier from the Modifier List menu. (2)
  
  
• Click on "Auto-Key".(3) Red borders will appear in your viewport.
  
  
• Click on "Load Multiple Targets" in the morpher modifier. You should see a list with the names of all the copies you've made. Make sure they're all there, select them all and click Load. You'll see the names of your copies have filled the -empty- spots.
  
  
• Put the frame slider back to 0 if it isn't already. Hit "Zero Active Channel Values" in the morpher modifier. Move to frame 1 by using the slider (1) or the arrow (5).
  
  
• Hit "Zero Active Channel Values" again. Find what's the name of the flex for the current frame and click on the arrows next to your morph target's name in the morpher modifier and drag up untill the 0 changes to 100.(4) Move to the next frame.
  
  
• Repeat the above step for all frames.
  
  
• Success! If you've done everything right, moving the frame selector back and forth will change your model to match the reference model.
  
  
• Something's out of place? There's three possible causes:
  1.You didn't set the morph ratio correctly. Check that the correct frame is set to 100 and all the others are set to 0.
  2.You gave the wrong name to a morph target
  3. A morph target was moved out of place accidentally. See below for instructions how to edit a morph target properly.
  
  
• If you need to make changes to a morph target, disable "Auto-Key", make the necessary changes and click "Rebuild All Morph Targets" button afterward to make the changes take effect. This only applies to morph targets, not the base model!
  
  
• If you really need to modify your base model, do so by adding modifiers on TOP of Morpher. Note that you're still not allowed to add new vertices, only move existing ones. It's possible to remove vertices but that requires you to copy paste your modifier to ALL of the morph targets, or 3dsmax will refuse to export the morph data when you try to save it as fbx. I do not recommend this but sometimes it can't be helped.
  
  
• Make sure your item is properly skinned. Once you're done, delete everything except your morphed object and the bones you're using (including any hidden objects) and save your file as .FBX. You're done!
  
  
• Always, always test your items before uploading! HLMV is the best choice but Source Filmmaker can also do the job in case the SDK doesn't work for you. I recommend that you additionally check your flexes actually work ingame by launching tf2, using the workshop to compile and pack your items (you don't necessarily have to sort all the options right now, just select models and textures) and use itemtest to preview your item ingame.

Let's Recap

• Finish modelling your item
  
• Make a copy of your item for each frame and edit it to match
  
• Rename your copies using the included list
  
• Add a morpher modifier to your original object and set the ratio for the correct morph target in the correct frame to 100
  
• Check for errors in each frame
  
• Save as .fbx
  
• Test your item ingame

Easy!

Conclusion

Putting this guide aswell as the resource pack together took several hours of work.
If any of this was useful to you consider suggesting me as a service provider by copy pasting the URL of this guide HERE

Happy workshoppin'!
-Mickyan

[Pipann]

Ah, I see.

I didn't really realize this was a tutorial meant specifically for TF2. I was thinking about SFM. :)

[Mickyan]

The TF2 workshop requires items to be uploaded as fbx (unless that changed recently), if you were to make something for personal use I suppose you'd use that, I never used wall worm myself

[Pipann]

Thank you for this. I really needed it!

The only thing I'm confused with: why do I need to save the file as FBX? Shouldn't I be compiling the file with the Wall Worm model tools?

[nukey nuke]

This was super helpful! Thank you!

[entry fragger]

Great work, thank you very much.