Wings 3D + CharacterFX Page 1

Wings3D-CharacterFX Workflow (Aug 2004)

Step 1: Exporting/Importing the Mesh
Open your Wings 3D character. Select all faces and Right-click > Tesselate > Triangulate the mesh. Clean it up. The format that CFX has least issues with is 3DS. So export to 3DS from Wings 3D.

Open CFX. File > Import ... your 3DS file. Should all go well, CFX will import the data from the 3DS. It may take a while to process it (esp for high-poly meshes) and you may see a loading bar. Patience is good!

Step 2: CharacterFX Orientation
Let's brush thru some CFX basics.
There are two levels or modes in CFX: Object and Animation. Object level is where you position your mesh, set up a skeleton and assign vertices. Note that, even after you have bound your model, your skeleton doesn't drive your mesh in the Object level (only in Animation).
Animation level is where you can manipulate the bones to move the character. You can set/edit keyframes or use the nifty IK tool.
You can add New Viewports from the Windows menu. Arranging them will let you choose how to position the viewports. You can navigate the viewport with the middle-mouse button: press to pan and mouse-scroll to zoom. The Configure menu in each Viewport toolbar lets you choose the camera angle, drawing style and grid visibility.
Right-clicking a tool button brings up its Options box. This comes in handy many times. Oh! And to delete an object, press Ctrl+Del.

Step 3: Bone-building
Go to Object level, Click the Create Joints button and create your character's spinal column by clicking from the hips area to the neck/head. The spots where you place your joints are really important. I'd suggest reading some docs on rigging.

To create extremities like arms and legs, click on the Select tool and select the joint from where you want the extremity to originate; then click the Create Joints button and start clicking to add and connect the joints. Your bones may not always be added at where you click; don't worry! Just move them later with the Translate tool. I recommend not rotating your bones.

Time for some grunt work: naming your bones and assigning them colors. To do this, Right-click the Edit Object Properties button, select the joints and alter the fields in the Option box. This may seem like an unnecessary step but in the long run, it pays off. At this point, it may be a good idea to turn off mesh selection. Do this by going to the Select tab and unchecking Mesh.

Now you are ready to duplicate and mirror the arms and legs. Select the first bone in the chain, do Edit > Duplicate Objects. Select the duplicated set, identifiable by a suffix of Copy, and execute Edit > Mirror Objects. It will ask for an axis to flip the object over. Select the appropriate axis. You may notice it doesn't flip about the midline of the character but about itself. You will need to translate the new set of bones to its correct position (negative of the original bone's flipped axis value) by *cringe* eyeballing it. Then go ahead and rename the duplicated joints.
Caution! There's a slight penalty for duplicating your bones this way. Your IK gets messed up. This can be fixed by doing an Auto Orient Joint on all the bones. If you don't like the idea of flipping bones, you can skip this technique and simply recreate the bones for the other side.

Skinning! Up Next!