I'll be touching on those points mostly in Part 2, but sure I can give you some tips now.
Basically it's the exact same method as if you were following the related
Milkshape tutorial on MTS2... only with different tools. You gather the meshes that you want to take parts from and export their smd files, then import the meshes (and their skeletons) into Blender3D and delete the unneeded parts of the meshes, along with the excess skeletons as you'll only be needing the main skeleton of the base mesh. (the mesh you intend on replacing after making a new mesh file in SimPE after PSJE extraction). If you happened to have accidentally deleted that exact skeleton, you can always re-import it into the Blender3D mesh file using the respective .smd file it was exported with, and simply deselect the "Mesh" button when it asks you which parts you want to import. (the button should be light green to signify it's been unselected)
Once you have those mesh parts properly "chopped" and the extra skeletons removed, you're going to want to make sure you're in
Object Mode for this next part. After you've done that, select (
right-click) any mesh part, then select (
Shift + right-click) the skeleton in that order. The selected mesh part should be a dark fuchsia/pink and the skeleton itself should also be highlighted in a lighter shade. Press
Ctrl + P to bring up the "Make Parent to..." menu and select
Armature. Another menu should pop up entitled "Create Vertex Groups?". Select the middle option,
Name Groups. The specific mesh part selected should now be properly assigned to the skeleton. Repeat this for all other mesh parts in the Blender project view.
Afterwards, when all mesh parts have been properly parented, you're going to want to select all of the mesh parts. (either by pressing the "A" key until everything is selected, or pressing the "B" key and left-click dragging the "selector" cursor over the meshes). Make sure that one of the mesh parts is highlighted as the main mesh (light pink)... otherwise, if your skeleton is still selected as the main highlighted item, you'll get the "join selected armatures" option instead. When all the required parts are selected, press
Ctrl + J to bring up yet another menu, which asks if you want to join all selected meshes. Select "yes", and all mesh parts will be joined together into one mesh group.
Now that your meshes are joined together, you can pretty much follow the Unimesh/Milkshape Tutorial Pt3 when it comes to moving the vertices to where you need them to be. For a better calculation on getting vertices aligned, you can always press the "N" key to bring up a little box in the upper left-hand corner of the 3D View screen. Whatever vertex is selected, the corresponding coordinates will show up in that box. :angel:
One more thing needed would be the UV mapping screen and how to use it. Here's how you do it:
::smilieiforgetwhi:: See the dark line right in between the main 3D view window and the bottom panel? (right in between the words "View" and "Panel") Hover your mouse over it until you get the "resize" cursor. Once that appears, right-click and select the "split screen" option. A gray vertical line should appear, so make sure it's positioned in the 3D view window. Once you get it to a reasonable place, left click, and you should have a "double screen" appear. (usually suggested is the middle of the screen, but depending on which side you'll be working on the most, it's really up to you which side gets more space and what not).
::smilieiforgetwhi:: Choose the "grid-lined" icon in the bottom left-hand corner of either of the top two windows (entitled 3D View) and click on it for more window options. Find the
UV/Image Editor and click on that. One of your screens should now have a darker gray grid box... that will be where your mesh's UV map will appear when selected in
UV Face Select mode (under the same menu as
Object Mode and
Edit Mode)
The UV Map function in Blender3D is pretty similar to the one in Milkshape when it comes to moving related UV vertices. It also has similar selecting and vertex movement functions as on the main 3D view of Blender3D. (right-click: select single, Shift + right click: select multiple, etc.) So if you've gotten acquainted with a little of both, it shouldn't be too hard to get once you fiddle around with it a couple of times.
Back to the mesh editing itself: There are a couple of noted problems that I have run across when editing or combining certain meshes, especially when it comes to merging vertices together, etc.:
::smilieiforgetwhi::
Normals: Every mesh I've done so far has a slight issue with the normal mapping on the actual mesh itself, mainly noticeable near the sims' necks. (when you look at a newly imported Blender Mesh in either Bodyshop or the actual game, there's a slight issue of the bottom half of the sims' neck being lighter than the top half, which is connected to the head. Something that continues to stump me even now...) For some odd reason, if your meshes aren't "connected" to each other through merged vertices, Blender does a sort of "auto reset" on the original normals, causing some strange seams to show up in places. I still have yet to figure out a possible solution for this problem, and if you look closely at some of my meshes, it's pretty apparent that those seams are gleaming... :?
::smilieiforgetwhi::
Vertex merging: When you have two or more vertices selected, you can choose to merge them together by pressing
Alt + M and selecting whether to merge them at the first selected, last selected, center-most point, or collapse all selected vertices. This can be an easy way to get rid of those pesky normal issues if you make a seamless mesh this way... however, in doing this you sacrifice any chance of a sane morph in the process. (meaning any fat or pregnancy morph you make or merge vertices on will have a
guaranteed chance of exploding in-game.)
There are some possible ways around the issues... I just have to search for them, or anyone who may come up with any viable solution involving ways around those pesky problems are welcome to share them. :smile bi:
It may be a little hard to get without some visuals, but I'll be sure to get on to Part 2 of this tutorial when I get the chance. Hope this helps you, jmtmom. :angel:
