Mechanical Components

Here is another Creature Base series. Now that you have either the iBlock or the Mechanical Creatures built. What do you want more to get a fancier look of your model? How about mechanical iProps with special effects!
In this tutorial, we'll show you how to prepare a mechanical component, rig and animate it, add particle effect, and finally, use Dramacsript to control iProp behaviors.

In this lesson you will learn how to create a iProp which can be added to a character as an accessory, or make it as reusable iProp itself

Design and Model Mechanical Component

1. Depending on the model, you can think about the prop's design.

2. Now model all the parts in 3ds max. If you have difficulties modeling in 3ds max, please refer to 3dtotal website.

3. Here is an example of a mechanical component - grapple.  

   
   

4. Let's examine the structure of this prop and imagine the movement of how we should structure the bones.

A	The upper part is the parent of the whole component where you can connect to the model of the Creature Base.
B	The middle section of the component acts as a connector of the upper part and lower part of the model. Thus, when the lower part moves, this section moves as well.
C	These five elements acts as the grabbing of the whole component.

Bone and Rigging

You have now modeled all the parts, we are now ready to build the bones for the Mechanical Component.

1. Make sure all the parts are where they should be and they are in the right position.

2. We can now get ready to structure the bone system and position with the consideration of the bone movement.

3. Go to "Animate" > "Bone Tools".

4. Click "Create Bones" and draw in the viewport of where you want the bone to be placed.

5. Build the first bone, the parent of all bones.

6. Now build three bones as follows.

7. Create a Point Helper on top of the two bones and link both bones individually to the helper.

8. Now link both the helper and the lower bone to the parent bone.

Orientation Constraint

1. Now, pick the helper and go to Constraints > Orientation Constraint and pick the lower bone.

2. Keep the Helper selected and go to the Motion panel. Lower the weight of the Orientation Constraint.

3. By adjusting the weight value, you may define the degree by which it influences the constrained object. The higher the value, the more it will influence the constrained object.

Orientation Constraint Weight: 80	Orientation Constraint Weight: 20

You may now apply the same bone structure to the other four grapple extensions.

Structure of the Bones

If you need a overview of the bone structure, click the Schematic View button to open the Schematic View window, as shown below.

Note: "Point" are the Point Helpers that the middle bones attaching to.

Attach and Skin Model

Now all the parts and bone system are ready. Since we'll going to animate the model with bones, it's a good idea to attach them into a single mesh before skinning.

1. Select the upper part of the model, and convert it to Editable Poly.

2. With the parent selected, press the Attach button and click all the other children to attach to the parent.

3. After you have attached all the parts together you can now apply Skin modifier to the model.

4. Since we have discussed skinning technique in our previous whitepaper, you may visit Non-Human Character about skinning your prop.

5. UVW Mapping modifier can also be applied if you want to enhance your prop with texture.

   If you need help on applying Textures, please visit 3dtotal on "Basic Materials & Lighting" tutorial.

Animate with Motion

To enhance the prop a little bit more, you can create animations to control the prop of movement.

1. We will now create two sequence of animations for the grapple.
   

2. First create a motion with the opening of the grapple.

3. Second create a motion with the closing of the grapple.

If you have trouble with animating in 3ds max, please visit 3D Total Animation Tutorials.

Export as iProp

To connect 3ds max with iClone you need the 3ds max plug-in from Reallusion to export the file for iClone to use.

1. Go to File > Export.

2. In the Select File to Export window, give it a name and select iClone4 File Type.

3. The Reallusion iClone Panel pops up for you to set options for the data in iClone.

• Select File Type "Prop" .

• Give a file name.

• Browse to a location to store your file.

• Enable All in the Export Option for you to export both the Geometry and Animation.

• Define the Animation Clips in the list for the open and close animations.

4. Click OK to export.

You may download the Prop with Animation (.max file) and iClone Prop file.

Import into iClone

1. Import the prop into iClone.

2. Right-click to see the addition Perform Commands that you have created in 3ds max.

Attach Particle Effect

To spice up the prop a little. I'll add an effect to the grapple.

1. Go to Set > Particle.

2. Select one of the particle effects from the Template Library you want to apply.

3. You may enable the visibility of the particle emitter for you to accurately position the emitter.

4. Position the particle to the center of the opening and closing of the grapple.

5. Select the particle emitter and Pick Parent to the grapple.

Once you are satisfied, you may turn off the visibility of the particle emitter.

6. Now let's see the effect after attaching to the grapple.

Modify DramaScript for Particle Controls

We are now ready to modify the DramaScript of the grapple with hotkeys.

1. Before we start with DramaScript, you must first turn off the Emit function in iClone.

2. Have the grapple in selection and right-click to export the DramaScript.

Setting Perform Hotkeys

If it is your first time to use AML system in iClone. Please visit iCloneWiki for more information.

You may either use AML Script Editor or you may use any XML editor to modify DramaScript.

1. Now we will load the exported script into AML Script Editor.

In our original script you may notice that there are only two perform commands where we animated in 3ds Max.

2. Set HotKey for each of the Perform Commands: Close and Open.

Select one of the Perform Commands in the list and choose a HotKey from the drop-down list.

Adding Particle Clips

Now we need to add two more Perform Commands to control particle visibility.

1. Choose Perform Command from the Command list.

2. Click the Add button and double-click the Command Name to rename to "Effect_On".

3. Select a hotkey from the drop-down list.

4. Add a Particle Clip to the ClipSeq list and rename to "Effect01_On".

5. Now we need to define a Target Node that we use in iClone. The Target Node is the name of the Emitter we used in iClone. The name should be written as "$.Effect01". Where $ is the object itself and Effect01 is the child.

6. Enable Emitter to activate its visibility.

7. Now add another Perform Command for the Turn Off particle command.

8. Follow the same procedure from steps 2 to 6. Only that the Emitter is disabled and select another hotkey from the list. Save the DramaScript.

Download: Original DramaScript or Modified DramaScript.

Import the Modified DramaScript

1. In iClone, with the prop selected right-click to import the modified DramaScript.

2. Go to Director Mode and press the record button.

3. Use the hotkeys (1-4) to play around the animation and effect.

4. After you are satisfied with the prop and DramaScript, you may save the prop with embedded script to prop's Custom Library.

Download: Final Grapple.

Attach the iProp and Save your Character

For further enhancement you can attach the iProp to a character and save your character later on.

1. Add a character into the scene.

2. Position the iProp to the character where you want to attach.

3. Click the Attach button in the side panel and pick the parent.

4. Now you have the character attached to all of your iProps you can save it in the Actor > Avatar > Custom Content Manager.

5. You may either use the right menu in the Editor Mode to control the grapples, or you may access to the Director Mode to use the hotkeys to control.

Please refer to Effects AML Template Tutorial to gain more knowledge about AML. AML Script Editor does not work for iClone4's new AML Commands. For more information please visit iCloneWiki.