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Sims 2 Stuff
Animating a Custom Object
I recently made an object in Blender, that I want to animate for sims 2, the mesh consists of many objects (Mesh sections) You can add bones and animate them in blender, but have a problems
1) you need to combine all the objects into one and cant with bones
2) the bones will not export to milkshape or show up in simpe
Because its an object and not a sim, you need Milkshape or someone willing to help you that has it
Here I am going to walk you through what I am doing with mine
My custom object will be a Delivery Bed for a Hospital Mod (video of the already meshed object with bones and and animated in Blender) have a copy without animations for any Project.
A) UV Mapping Multiple Meshes
1) Start by opening the object you want to animate in Blender 2.76b (32)
(make sure you have the Tools installed first)
2) I already UV mapped each mesh piece in blender and resized (S), rotated (R) and moved (G)the pieces on the Map into color coordinated zones
3) Follow steps 1-8
4) Repeat steps 5-8 for each color section only if it isn't already mapped, save the original in a back up and start a new save point and save after each mesh piece is fully mapped. (I used gimp (free) to create the 1024 x 1024 map background image and exported as PNG)
B) Separating and Exporting the Object Meshes
1) Take a look at your object meshes, If you have not named them you should give each a unique name for what it is (right click to the left of the triangles and rename) I have 13 Meshes/Objects.
2) Loading the original file in Blender with the UV's mapped.
3) Delete all objects but the one you save,
4) Remove it from hierarchy,
5) Delete the skeleton
6) Select the single remaining triangle
7) Put mouse in 3D viewer, press (A) to unselect
8) Select File, Export as, MS3D and save as the object name you kept.
9) Repeat until each obect has been exported by itself with only the camera, lamp and a single triangle (object)
I created a subfolder and labeled it "parts" inside we see all the milkshape files
C) Creating Bones in Milkshape
first we need to know what bones we need and their hierarchy. Since I already made them in blender I can use them as a reference. My Armature has 14 bones, 4 branches connected to the seat, 1 of those branches has 2 branches, 2 have 2 bones following, and 1 has only 1 following.
Adding Bones to a New Object Mesh in Milkshape
loading base mesh piece and adding Joints:
1) File, select New
2) File again, select Open file, open lowest base part of the mesh for my mesh I selected the wheels mesh.
3) In the Model tab select Joint to create a Joint, then use the left click on the Mouse to add joints (bones)
4) Use select to select the joint you want to add the next bone to and Joint again to add it with your mouse.
Use the grey model viewer windows to move the joints where you want them to be to get the best movement, using the select, move and rotate buttons
Creating Vertex Groups and Merging Multiple Meshes:
1) Rename Mesh Groups to match what they are in Groups Tab.
2)Rename Bones for what they are as well in the Joints Tab.
3) Select the first joint in the Joints tab that will be what the base mesh attaches to.
4) In the model tab, select Joint button and the First joint to attach.
5) Go to Groups Tab select mesh.
6) Go to Joints tab and select Assign.
7) Deselect all.
8) Go to file and Merge the next piece and repeat. Renaming and Assigning each mesh piece with its corresponding joint.
(This part is difficult. When merging often meshes have to be resized, moved or rotated to go where they belong even if they were placed right in blender. )
9) Once all meshes and bones are grouped and assigned save. you can imprort the MS3D file in blender and adjust it better later.
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