4 - professional Weapon Hand Positions - Author: Laubi

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!!! Important notice !!!
1. To follow these Tutorial you must have these files and the 1st Person view of your wepon. Put all these files into a folder (e.g. mywep)
You must also have created your weapon for use in Renegade see the Weapon tutorial

----------------PART I - prepare your weapon

2. Open you 1st Person Wepon in RenX, you must have two parts, the gun, and the clip. Choose a name (max 4 chars) I have coosen m16r,
and name your gun f_gm_xxxx (xxxx = your name) and the clip f_cm_xxxx

Now group thr clip and the gun, goto Hirachy -> Affect Pivot Only -> Center to object

Deaktivate now the Affect Pivot Only and move the gun into the center of GMAX

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Now save the file and export it as f_gm_xxxx.w3d (Hierachial Model) into the folder where all the other files are.

3. Now export your file as f_ga_xxxx_idle.w3d, select Pure Animation, Frame 0 to 0, use Existing Skeleton (select here your exported f_gm_xxxx.w3d file)

Do the same again, but name the file f_ga_xxxx_fire.w3d
( Before that you can make an animation, e.g. if there is a rotating gun, like the chaingun, but normaly there is no aniamtion needed at this time, the fire anim will be made later. The aniamtion here is only needed, if there is something moving at the gun while firering)

4. Ungroup now the wepon. Now it is time for the relaodaniamtion. For that you should know, how long it takes for your gun, to reload (this will be set up in Commandoeditor). Now calculate the needed frames.
Needed frames = ( 30 * reloadtime ) If you have the needed frames divide them by 2. Move to this frameposition and a click Animate . Move now the clip down, so that it is unloaded.

Now move to the needed frame and move the clip back, so that the clip is back at the old pose. Now click again at Animate.

Now export your file as f_ga_xxxx_relod.w3d, select Pure Animation, Frame 0 to (the end frame), use Existing Skeleton (select here your exported f_gm_xxxx.w3d file)
Your reloadaniamtion is now done. 
Select the gun and the clip and make a groop of them.
Save your work.
Of course it is possible to make any other aniamtions for the reload, but this is an easy and effective way.

Now make a new file, and just create an 0,001 x 0,001 x 0,001 Box ->name it f_cm_xxxx and select hide at the W3D Options

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now export the file as f_cm_xxxx.w3d as Hirachial Model

----------------PART II - do the handposition and the animations

5. Open now the gun_hands.gmax file, and save it under a new name ( e.g. m16r_hand.gmax ) now goto file->merge and merge your 1st Person weapon into, save your work.
Rotate your grouped gun now, so that the gun is on the right position between the both hands. (use only the rotation tool, to prevent missposition)

The blue boxes are the bones, that are affecting the handposition. Press `H` to diplay all Objects in the scene, activate [x] Display Subtree, you see now the linking of the bones.
I recommend to use this dialog later to to select the bone you want to aniamte.

YOU MUST ANIAMTE THE BONES INSTEAD OF ANY PART OF THE HAND OR WEPON OR IT WILL NOT WORK.

The bones are what they named, f_l_forearm = left forearm, f_l_hand = left hand the fingers have a simple system:

With the (n = 0 - 4) f_l_finger n - bone you can move the finger at the hand, with the f_l_finger n1 - bone you can bend the finger.

6. We will now do the standard hand position, I recommend that you spend a bit of work for this, because this basepose will later be used too for the reloadaniamtion etc.
Of course you can make for every state (enter/exit, fire, reload, idle) a seperate handposition, if that is needed.

Now click the animate button, and move to frame 1.
It`s important that you move to frame 1 and has enabled the Animate or you`ll later get in trouble with exporting!!!!
Then select the bone you want to change, and move the fingers, hand and forearm into the position you want. I recommend that you only rotate the fingerbones, or the may look too long or deformed.

If you want to test the handposition export your Model as Hierachial Model, and deaktivate [ -] Export using existing skeleton

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7. When you are ready with the handposition you must select the bone: `gunbone` and move it exactly to the pivot:

Now go to the hirachy tab, select pivot -> Affect Pivot only, and rotate the pivot of the bone (Use Top-view) so that the green arrow stands in an 90° angel to the worlds green arrow (y - Achse) and the red arrow stands in a 90° angel to the green and red arrow.

Now the most work is done deaktivate the animate button, save the file.
Now hide your wepon, and export it as f_ha_xxxx_idle.w3d select Pure Animation, Frame 1 to 1, use Existing Skeleton f_skeleton.w3d

8. Now it is time for the fireanimation. Save your file with a new filename e.g. mywepon_fireanim.gmax
I can`t say directly what to do from now on, because it depends on your wepon, and you can`t "see" a animation on pictures.
A good idea is to animate the forearm bones a bit. But only animate the handbones, not the weapon!
Then save, hide the wepon and export the file with the same settings as before, but at the frames use 1 to (lastframe you used) name the file f_ha_xxxx_fire.w3d

9. Then open the gmax file with your standard handposition and save it again with a new name e.g mywepon_exit.gmax
Make now an aniamtion for the exit of your wepon, e.g. rotate the forearm bones, so that it looks like the wepon gets behind you. Export the files with the already known settings as f_ha_xxxx_exit.w3d
Repeat these with an enter animation and export as f_ha_xxxx_enter.w3d

10. Now comes the final step, the relaod animation. For that load your standard handposition file again, save it e.g. as mywepon_relaod.gmax
Ungroup your wepon, so that the clip when you aniamte the handposition moves too. Goto frame 1 and press animate and change the base position if that is neede, so that the hand holds the clip and the move to the frame when the clip is `unloaded` and correct the handposition. Then move to the frame, when the clip is attaced to the wepon and correct the handposition again.
Export it with the same settings as before and name it f_ha_xxxx_relod.w3d

----------------PART III - insert your files and enjoy your work

11. Copy now all .w3d you have exported into your Mod folder, setup your wepon in Commando editor and select as 1st Personview the file f_gm_xxxx.w3d

12. Export your Modpacket and ENJOY!

 

F.A.Q.

• Question: My wepon is a bit to high/low or has not the postion it should have
  Answer: Rotate or move the gunbone bone
• Question: The handposition and animations works fine, but the clip don`t move while reload.
  Answer: Check if you have exported the f_ga_xxxx_relod.w3d right (check start/endframe, and the naming)