3DSMax - 15/17

Physique - Rigid Verticies

Before we start to adjust the envelopes and vertex assignments, some meshes will require the verticies to be set to rigid (as opposed to deformable), otherwise they will deform curiously when the character is animated.

Head and hair meshes:

1. Select the mesh.
2. Navigate to the Physique modifier controls, expand and select Vertex.
3. Drag-select the entire mesh. You will see all the verticies selected, possibly in a variety of colours. These colours specify how each vertex is assigned to the skeleton.
4. Click Assign to Link, then make sure that only the Green + is the only button enabled, drop down the Blending between Links menu, and select No Blending. Finally, click on the head bone (you will be able to see it in yellow through the geometry).
5. The vertecies should all turn to green. If not, then it is likely that they are overlapped with the neck or even clavicle links. To solve this, with the verticies selected, click Remove from Link and then click these links. You may need to repeat step 4.
6. Finally, lock the verticies so changes to envelopes do not affect the assignments. To do this, have all verticies selected and click Lock Assignments.

Eye Meshes:

If you have created eye-bones as described here you will need to assign all eye vertecies to these bones as rigid. This will ensure that they rotate correctly and independently. Follow the above steps above, but assign the verticies to the appropriate eye-bone rather than the head.

Test out the eye rotation by selecting an eye-bone and rotating. The eye-mesh should follow. The following shows another avatar I have been working on rather than Sydney:

We are now ready to start modifying the envelopes for the rest of the mesh!