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Problem with Wing Flex (FSX, 3dsmax)

N

nlgfx

Messages
35
Country
germany
Hey there...

I got stuck into a problem with my A380...

I've got one wing fully animated with all flaps/slats and so on. Everything with normal local rotate/move keys. Works perfekt... but now I wanna apply wingflex. Now that I look at the SDK I see that I need to create a bone system with skin. I did that... created a small bones rig for the wing, applied skin to all parts. The wing flexes correctly but all the animations and everything is getting messed up!

What shall I do to get it working? I tried to do it also the hard way like in the SDK's DC3:

Create smaller bones for the animated parts and attach them to the main flex bones. However, that works better but messes everything up again - in another way... Not smooth transitions and everything looks crippeled.

Is there a way to apply flex without loosing the complex wing animations and everything?

This is how the model and the wing look like:

a380_external_103.jpg

a380_external_82.jpg

a380_external_83.jpg
 
I read the question and admired the screenshots, but am unable to proffer any suggestions since I haven't even explored any IK animation options yet.

However, I did get the impression that IK animation is something that should be done FIRST, then the rest of the parts build around the bone structure. The axis for the animated parts need to "inherit" properties from the axis of the "bones" to which they are associated. In my experience, it's difficult - if not impossible - to change an axis's pivot point properties once created and animated.

IOW, I'm not sure that it's something that can (easily) be added to a completed model... :twocents:
 
Last edited:
Thx there...

well, I have done a couple of character animations with 3dsmax at work - and the normal workflow is to model a character or whatever you wanna animate, create a bones rig, then apply skin or physique modifier and edit the envelopes... to that the bones will deform the mesh correctly. Then animate it.

A character model can be quite complex to set up - with all the envelopes - esspecially at all the fingers and stuff... but this is only a wing! That should be easy...

but somehow isn't :( The main problem is that all the parts got animations of their own. Usually, a skinned mesh hasn't any "own" animations. The only animation is the one which comes from the bone that deforms it.

So that's why I created bones for the secondary animations like flaps/slats and so on... like in the DC3 sample... but as I've said before - that didn't work either :(
My last option would be to push up the poly count in the wings to adapt the mesh and edge topology of the parts so they would fit together better. Thats lots of darn hard work but if it's an option that might work then I will do it. No wingflex is not an option for an aircraft of that size! :( actually I need the wingflex to give the wings their typical shape... otherwise it will look quite crappy and unrealistic :(
 
btw: this is how the wireframe/mesh topology of the wing looks like... should be okay - but somehow isn't :( I tried to keep it as simple/lowpoly as possible - with not loosing all the details. That SHOULD be okay to get flexed correctly. I tried to align the edges of the flaps/wings for example to avoid problems when flexing... but for some odd reason, it didn't help much :confused:

a380_external_109.jpg
 
solved the problem by creating a main wing flex bone rig, a secondary animation bones rig for the slats/flaps, spoilers and ailerons which is attached to the main flex rig and seperated with dummys... so the secondary bones can have more and rotate animation on their own without affecting the main flex rig. The main flex rig however affects the secondary rig of course... so the flaps and stuff bend with the wing.

Its very damn complex but WORKS!! yeha! :D

a380_external_133.jpg

a380_external_134.jpg


that will make very smooth and round flexed wings and flaps :)

a380_external_135%7E0.jpg

a380_external_137.jpg
 
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