Actually the headline says it all -
Iam doing variations of my character models and have questions of how to update my workflow for md5 / md5anim.

The models in question do not just have different localmaps but differ in muscle structure (different persons in the same suit) and i
need to figure out the best (most painless) way to create such a set of models for d3.

tia, low

If it is just the vertex WEIGHTS that vary you may get away with using the same anims. But if your verts are weighted to different joints on the different models, or your base skeleton is structured differently you are heading for some pain.

As long as you keep exact same number of bones (plus same names), you can re-use same anims.
Changing just the mesh musculature (fat/slim) will work fine...

Hmmm, the lowpoly will not differ but in volume - same number of vertices/polygons since it is little more slim/ little more fat.
I´ll give the rest to the normalmap in that case.

lowdragon wrote:

I´ll give the rest to the normalmap in that case.

You can use a totally different mesh in the same bones structure if that what you want to know.
like a man with a hat, a man with a hack , or a woman with a shirt, etc... all sharing the same bones, and anims.

The same vertices to joints thing is something i will need to take care for.

Iam not too profound in the md5 structure and with workflow i meant back and forth from zBrush to gmax (or xsi in the matter).

basically the issues i would run into :

Here is one of the model i would like to build inGame md5`s for.
Would be lot of pain (for me) to change the TPose (in zBrush) to something less "stretchy" (because of the guns_submodels).
This one is much better for skinning (iam a noob animator:) even if the AF_pose for D3 would be
this "classic" TPose. If i would just use and "rig" it like it is, the idle_animation would have, at least, stretched shoulders.

Yep, stupid me to not pose the initial lowpoly quad mesh (its a new topology drawn over a very highres basemesh) but i just had a non-defined puppet in mind.

To be able to reimport the posed model into the "stack" of the zBrush model (which holds the UV map) i need to keep the model quadpolys, same size and position.

Now the bottom line with my question was - i dont want/cant do things twice since this would take more time, nerves and may even not possible at all.

[edit] - typo

I still don't understand the problem...

If what you want to achieve is to share the same anims for your 2 custom models, it's possible, as long as you skin* the exact same bones structure on each one.

You could skin* a tree on the fatty bones structure, and see the zombified tree walk to you ingame without any problem.

You can import the model with the animations you want to use (and so bones structure) in your 3d app, rotate bones to make the imported model pose like your custom model (never ever rescale bones), and then skin* your custom model to the bones structure (all bones, cause you MUST have the same bones than the imported model to be able to use its md5anims)

* Skin here is the 3d application one (rig), not the Doom3 one (material change).

understood - we talk at cross purposes.

The bones in the md5 are driving the verices which bounds are depending on the weighting defined in the md5anim.
Look there, good ol`md5anim still moving clouds of dots. :mrgreen:

Actually the headline says it all -
Iam doing variations of my character models and have questions of how to update my workflow for md5 / md5anim.

The models in question do not just have different localmaps but differ in muscle structure (different persons in the same suit) and i
need to figure out the best (most painless) way to create such a set of models for d3.

tia, low

If it is just the vertex WEIGHTS that vary you may get away with using the same anims. But if your verts are weighted to different joints on the different models, or your base skeleton is structured differently you are heading for some pain.

As long as you keep exact same number of bones (plus same names), you can re-use same anims.
Changing just the mesh musculature (fat/slim) will work fine...

Hmmm, the lowpoly will not differ but in volume - same number of vertices/polygons since it is little more slim/ little more fat.
I´ll give the rest to the normalmap in that case.

lowdragon wrote:

I´ll give the rest to the normalmap in that case.

You can use a totally different mesh in the same bones structure if that what you want to know.
like a man with a hat, a man with a hack , or a woman with a shirt, etc... all sharing the same bones, and anims.

The same vertices to joints thing is something i will need to take care for.

Iam not too profound in the md5 structure and with workflow i meant back and forth from zBrush to gmax (or xsi in the matter).

basically the issues i would run into :

Here is one of the model i would like to build inGame md5`s for.
Would be lot of pain (for me) to change the TPose (in zBrush) to something less "stretchy" (because of the guns_submodels).
This one is much better for skinning (iam a noob animator:) even if the AF_pose for D3 would be
this "classic" TPose. If i would just use and "rig" it like it is, the idle_animation would have, at least, stretched shoulders.

Yep, stupid me to not pose the initial lowpoly quad mesh (its a new topology drawn over a very highres basemesh) but i just had a non-defined puppet in mind.

To be able to reimport the posed model into the "stack" of the zBrush model (which holds the UV map) i need to keep the model quadpolys, same size and position.

Now the bottom line with my question was - i dont want/cant do things twice since this would take more time, nerves and may even not possible at all.

[edit] - typo

I still don't understand the problem...

If what you want to achieve is to share the same anims for your 2 custom models, it's possible, as long as you skin* the exact same bones structure on each one.

You could skin* a tree on the fatty bones structure, and see the zombified tree walk to you ingame without any problem.

You can import the model with the animations you want to use (and so bones structure) in your 3d app, rotate bones to make the imported model pose like your custom model (never ever rescale bones), and then skin* your custom model to the bones structure (all bones, cause you MUST have the same bones than the imported model to be able to use its md5anims)

* Skin here is the 3d application one (rig), not the Doom3 one (material change).

understood - we talk at cross purposes.

The bones in the md5 are driving the verices which bounds are depending on the weighting defined in the md5anim.
Look there, good ol`md5anim still moving clouds of dots. :mrgreen:

Actually the headline says it all -
Iam doing variations of my character models and have questions of how to update my workflow for md5 / md5anim.

The models in question do not just have different localmaps but differ in muscle structure (different persons in the same suit) and i
need to figure out the best (most painless) way to create such a set of models for d3.

tia, low

If it is just the vertex WEIGHTS that vary you may get away with using the same anims. But if your verts are weighted to different joints on the different models, or your base skeleton is structured differently you are heading for some pain.

As long as you keep exact same number of bones (plus same names), you can re-use same anims.
Changing just the mesh musculature (fat/slim) will work fine...

Hmmm, the lowpoly will not differ but in volume - same number of vertices/polygons since it is little more slim/ little more fat.
I´ll give the rest to the normalmap in that case.

lowdragon wrote:

I´ll give the rest to the normalmap in that case.

You can use a totally different mesh in the same bones structure if that what you want to know.
like a man with a hat, a man with a hack , or a woman with a shirt, etc... all sharing the same bones, and anims.

The same vertices to joints thing is something i will need to take care for.

Iam not too profound in the md5 structure and with workflow i meant back and forth from zBrush to gmax (or xsi in the matter).

basically the issues i would run into :

Here is one of the model i would like to build inGame md5`s for.
Would be lot of pain (for me) to change the TPose (in zBrush) to something less "stretchy" (because of the guns_submodels).
This one is much better for skinning (iam a noob animator:) even if the AF_pose for D3 would be
this "classic" TPose. If i would just use and "rig" it like it is, the idle_animation would have, at least, stretched shoulders.

Yep, stupid me to not pose the initial lowpoly quad mesh (its a new topology drawn over a very highres basemesh) but i just had a non-defined puppet in mind.

To be able to reimport the posed model into the "stack" of the zBrush model (which holds the UV map) i need to keep the model quadpolys, same size and position.

Now the bottom line with my question was - i dont want/cant do things twice since this would take more time, nerves and may even not possible at all.

[edit] - typo

I still don't understand the problem...

If what you want to achieve is to share the same anims for your 2 custom models, it's possible, as long as you skin* the exact same bones structure on each one.

You could skin* a tree on the fatty bones structure, and see the zombified tree walk to you ingame without any problem.

You can import the model with the animations you want to use (and so bones structure) in your 3d app, rotate bones to make the imported model pose like your custom model (never ever rescale bones), and then skin* your custom model to the bones structure (all bones, cause you MUST have the same bones than the imported model to be able to use its md5anims)

* Skin here is the 3d application one (rig), not the Doom3 one (material change).

understood - we talk at cross purposes.

The bones in the md5 are driving the verices which bounds are depending on the weighting defined in the md5anim.
Look there, good ol`md5anim still moving clouds of dots. :mrgreen: