Adding an Alpha part to a Body mesh

Adding an Alpha part to a Body mesh
By Grizzelda, 22 September 2006
Adding an Alpha part to a Body mesh
METHOD I
Please note that this is an intermediate to advanced level in body meshing. These techniques
assume you have already mastered basic body meshing and know your way around simpe and
milkshape using the Wes H Plug-ins fairly well. I have compiled this method from extensive
reading of threads at TSR, MTS2 and various other websites—and a healthy dose of
experimentation! You will need the following tools to complete this tutorial:
Simpe
Milkshape
Wes H’s unimesh plugins. ~~make sure to download the latest version from the 1st post of the
unimesh thread at MTS2
Body Shop (to test the mesh)
I will not be covering texturing the mesh, but will cover UV mapping, but only as it pertains to
laying out new parts. There are some fine tutorials at all of the main websites for UV mapping if
you would like to learn more and can easily be found by searching.
The method covered in this tutorial is for brand new parts. Look for Part II of this process!
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Adding an Alpha part to a Body mesh
By Grizzelda, 22 September 2006
Step 1.
Create a mesh file from the hula girl in the usual way and name it what you wish. This mesh
already has an alpha part, so we won’t need to add one to the MATD on the texture file. (That
would increase the difficulty somewhat.) Consider this file the container—you won’t be editing the
gmdc but replacing it later.
Step 2.
Now, find and extract the gmdc that you want to add the part to.
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Adding an Alpha part to a Body mesh
By Grizzelda, 22 September 2006
Step 3.
Open Milkshape and import the gmdc using the Sims2
Unimesh Importer.
Step 4.
You now have an unedited mesh in milk shape. For our train we need to start by adding a plane.
Step 5.
Shape your plane and position it as you like. Don’t worry
about editing the body part, you are just using it as a guide
for now. I am pretty satisfied with the shape and position of
my train, so I’ll move to the next step.
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Adding an Alpha part to a Body mesh
By Grizzelda, 22 September 2006
Step 6.
Now, I will check UV Map. First, add a new material, then choose a bmp for it, I usually use any
bmp from a project folder. Some people are more particular, but this is just for a guide so I just
want something that will allow me to lay it out. Also, some people edit the UV Map as they go, this
might be preferable and will not change the rest of the process:
Step 7.
Open the texture coordinator editor and lay your part out as you like. When your finished, close
the editor and proceed.
Step 8.
Steps 8-10 is optional if you like. If you don’t do this step your
mesh will be invisible from the inside or back of the mesh. If you
do, it will be visible from both sides. Select the part you have
created. Duplicate the part from the edit menu.
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Adding an Alpha part to a Body mesh
By Grizzelda, 22 September 2006
Step 9.
With the duplicate part selected, reverse vertex order.
Step 10.
With the duplicate still selected, make sure to reduce or expand the scale very slightly, depending
on which way your plane is facing. Experiment!
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Adding an Alpha part to a Body mesh
By Grizzelda, 22 September 2006
Step 11.
Now you need to select both the plane and the duplicate part, then you need to regroup and
rename the newly combined part to body_alpha, then “smooth all” If you didn’t duplicate the part,
then simply rename and smooth all.
Step 12.
Now delete all parts EXCEPT the body_alpha part. This
really needs to be done because by smoothing the new part,
the body and morphs will look really bad! Delete all materials
added for UVMapping.
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Adding an Alpha part to a Body mesh
By Grizzelda, 22 September 2006
Step 13.
Now export the body_alpha part as body_alpha.obj Make
sure that body_alpha is the name you assign the .obj
Step 14.
Now, start a new milkshape project and import
the original GMDC that you want to add your
body_alpha to! Then import the body_alpha.obj
you just saved!
Step 15.
Do any editing you like at this point. To make things
simpler, I am deleting the morph groups so that the alpha
part fit better
.
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Adding an Alpha part to a Body mesh
By Grizzelda, 22 September 2006
Step 16.
Now we need to assign the vertices on the mesh. This can get pretty time consuming, but take
your time with it. SO that we can make smooth animations, we’re going to cheat a little and copy
the comment from the body_alpha of the hula mesh! Delete the reference to the morph in the
comment. I do this so that I can assign multiple vertices to the mesh.
Step 17.
Using the joint tab, assign the unassigned vertices from your body_alpha
part to the corresponding bones.
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Adding an Alpha part to a Body mesh
By Grizzelda, 22 September 2006
Step 18.
For the center vertices down the back, I like to assign to both sides using the bonetool: to do this
Select the vertices of the new part a few at a time, with the vertices selected, open the unimesh
bone tool from the vertex menu and assign 50/50 to the correct bones.
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Adding an Alpha part to a Body mesh
By Grizzelda, 22 September 2006
Step 19.
Select all vertices and from the vertex menu, choose “fix all under weighted bones.”
Step 20.
Okay, we’re ready to export this mesh!
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Adding an Alpha part to a Body mesh
By Grizzelda, 22 September 2006
Step 21a.
Open your mesh file in Simpe: replace the GMDC in the
usual way, making sure to copy the file name from the
plug in view, etc….
Step 21b.
Now you need to assign a texture to the mesh in the usual way! Now, we used the hula girl
because it has the alpha part already. There are methods of changing the MATD if you have
chosen another texture. They explained quite well by Sunair at MTS2, but it is very complicated
and I won’t go into them here.
Step 22.
After you have assigned your texture, go into the MATD of that texture. You will need to make 2
changes to that file. First, change the stdMatAlphaBlendMode: none to stdMatAlphaBlendMode:
blend. Second, change stdMatAlphaTestEnabled: 1 to stdMatAlphaTestEnabled: 0
This changes the alpha part from being “On” or “off” to being sheer by using grays. If you don’t do
this, it will be a cut-away mesh, not a sheer mesh.
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Adding an Alpha part to a Body mesh
By Grizzelda, 22 September 2006
Step 23.
Now just open up your body shop and make sure everything worked. Now you can export this
very messy texture and redesign it, as you like.
And we’re done!
CREDITS:
WDS Brianna, Sunair, Wes H, Dr. Pixel, Windkeeper, & PAF from MTS2 and about a jillion other
people who were generous with their knowledge!
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