[PlantMan]

Help!,
I have a single mesh character and i have added a skin modifier (i've tried bones and just boxes.) The rotate fine on their own but when part of a hierarchy they distort the mesh. Eg, rotate arm: arm stretches twice it's length.
What I am I doing wrong?

[Frost]

Distort the mesh? Are your envelopes and vertex weights assigned properly?

[synj]

if you could include some screenshots of this it would be 100000 times easier for people to let you know what you're doing wrong.

[PlantMan]

ok-
www.netcolony.com/arts/z87/mess.jpg

In the first shot there is the box object and it's envelope for the forearm area(i don't know about weights....maybe this is the prob...)

In the second shot this shows how the box object rotates the arm ok.

BUT in the third bottom shot the box has been placed below the above bicep box in a hierarchy chain. (it is now a child(?))
And it is stretching the mesh.

wotcha reckon?

[Ben Barker]

[edit]

Hmm. No, I don't know what your problem is. Have you done any Non-Uniform scales on the bones?

[ July 15, 2001: Message edited by: Ben Barker ]

[ambient-whisper]

i would clean up that mesh first. it must be hard to work with such a dense mesh. if its patches then lower your subdivision count..
i usually find it easier to work with on lower rez models.

which version of max you using?

[ July 15, 2001: Message edited by: ambient-whisper ]

[shahar2k]

you might have some modifiers in the stack affecting either the model or the bones, looks like a nonuniform scale related problem to me... like you scaled the whole skeleton after linking.... try reducing everything to an editable mesh, and then relinking the skeleton

[synj]

possible that those green verts around the elbow are too strong. might wanna tone them down. shruggle!

[PlantMan]

Ben Barker - For the box objects i used nonuniform scale inorder to make them fit the mesh. But this was before I had made them onto bones. If i has already selected them in the skin modifier it would of course distort the mess....

Ambient whisper - v3

Shahar2k -
I swear i didn't touch scale after the skin was there. There is nothing else in the stack. But I'll play around with the mesh some more. Hmm maybe this is a lead...

What i don't understand is that i am only moving or roating these objects but for some reason they distort like crazy. It must be something to do with hierarchys or IK or something...