Okay. I have a unit model obj file and I want to replace Raynor's suit in his portrait so it's all the same animation, his head, lighting and all that just with the new suit. Can someone provide a detailed tutorial on how to do this with everthing in tact with the new suit? Can I even rig the suit to the old bones?
Another thing, if import the portrait remove his hair and export it back nothing shows up in the editor. What am I doing wrong here?
You likely won't find a tutorial to do that, and it's unlikely anyone is going to write one for something so specific. As such, if you're so unfamiliar with modeling a tutorial, regardless of how detailed, would do little good beyond the basic workflow, which is essentially the same as any other modeling work. It doesn't really matter what format it is, as once loaded into Max it's going to be interpreted as a x.max unless exported out as a different filetype.
As for how to do it, you just import the models you want and replace the parts of the original mesh with the either new or modified one you want in it, and export it back out, using the M3 tools (the only ones I know of are NinToxicated's, and perhaps some modified or extended versions of his).
You CAN rig the new model with the bones used in the original, however depending on how much it changed that may or may not be a feasible solution.
Chances are you're not doing anything wrong, although without more information as to what it is you ARE doing it's not possible to say with any accuracy, it's just that what you're doing isn't supported or that aspect of the tools isn't fully developed. The tools simply aren't that effective. Blizzard's filetypes are extremely complicated to deal with, and as there are no official tools or documentation are released to the community to deal with them it comes down to whatever it is the community is capable of developing in their spare time.
How do you replace parts though? If I have a new helmet from an OBJ file and move it in here how do I attach the new one and delete the original so the bones and everything are with the new? I tried the attach button but it dissapears in the editor if I do that.
To delete the old one, you should be able to just pick the polygons and delete them. Then bring the new one in and scale it to fit how you want.
It may require more work than that, I'm not sure how the original model is set up or anything. You might want to weld the vertices or edges together, depending on how it looks when animated (if the helmet is pulled back and there's a gap there, it'll be fairly obvious. Moreso than if the helmet deforms a little bit). Then once it's in place, you'll have to rig the model to the bones (or whatever is used. It's been a while since I looked at a SCII unit and can't remember) using a skin modifier (there is also the physique modifier, but I don't like that one. It's sometimes easier but the animations look like shit, I put an explanation below in case you're not familiar).
As to why it disappeared when you attached them together I don't know. I don't think I've ever seen that happen.
If you can post a screenshot of the original mesh and the new helmet you want next to it that might help me so I know what you're trying to deal with.
As for the skin/physique modifiers, they're both used for rigging as you probably know already. The skin modifier uses weights based on how near the mesh is to the bone, and usually gives better results, but it takes a while to get good with it. Physique modifiers use a kind of binary thing where a vertex is either attached to the bone or it isn't, but it gives worse results. I used to have a screenshot showing the differences, but I can't find it. Basically with physique, the attachment just flat out ends, so the mesh is deformed at awkward angles and you get issues with them colliding together (like a leg might be raised, and it stops at the hip so along that edge it gets to like a hard 90 degree angle). You can, of course, spend a lot of time with it and make it look good, but it's not a very good method to use (I think it's mostly there for the same reason things like Emesh are there, which is primarily for backwards compatibility. Not many people use it anymore, that I'm aware of).
Still haven't had a chance to try some of this out yet but I appreciate all the help, even if this doesn't work (because nothing ever works for me) I've learned a ton from your help guys!
Depending on the tri count (usually people, or least I do, will say poly count, but in games it's always triangles because they have less overhead for rendering. Technically they are polygons, but if you have a mesh made up of quads then each of those quads will be two triangles, and sometimes people get confused that someone is saying poly when they're actually talking about tris. You also get into things like textures as well, but that's fairly complex [I don't even now how to do math to figure it out, eventually you just get used to make estimates on what you can and can't do], also draw calls which are probably more important than poly count in this game, assuming you have a normal model) you may want to retopologize it (which is to say, reduce the poly count. There are tools to do it, and Max has a few that will work but I won't get into it here unless you want me to so as to avoid adding to what is already excess clutter in my posts).
Like if the neck area where you would attach the helmet has fifty vertices, and your helmet has a hundred, you'll want to either reduce the number on the helmet so that you can match them up to weld together, or (not advisable for this purpose) increase the number on the neck (in the edge selection thing there's a tool called Place Vertex or Add Vertex or something like that). You also might have some trouble with UVW's and the textures. Which I can go into that as well if you want, and probably find some tutorials for you to walk you through the process a bit better, but I don't think you should HAVE to actually touch those from what you're doing unless you want to. You might need to deal with it a bit if you weld the helmet on, as you might disrupt the UV map a bit, but it's unlikely to cause a greatly noticeable issue.
That link is to 3DBuzz's video tutorials, which I typically refer most people who are new to Max towards. There may be more than that available to watch, as that link should take you to the free ones (it's 35 dollars a month to become a sponsor I think. It might be worth it down the line to become one for a couple months, if you really want to watch a series only available to sponsers. There are also thousands of tutorials on YouTube, text tutorials, and plenty of forums that can help you with general modelling questions. If you ever do anything not specifically geared for SCII, you'd obviously get better help on those forums than here).
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Okay. I have a unit model obj file and I want to replace Raynor's suit in his portrait so it's all the same animation, his head, lighting and all that just with the new suit. Can someone provide a detailed tutorial on how to do this with everthing in tact with the new suit? Can I even rig the suit to the old bones?
Another thing, if import the portrait remove his hair and export it back nothing shows up in the editor. What am I doing wrong here?
You likely won't find a tutorial to do that, and it's unlikely anyone is going to write one for something so specific. As such, if you're so unfamiliar with modeling a tutorial, regardless of how detailed, would do little good beyond the basic workflow, which is essentially the same as any other modeling work. It doesn't really matter what format it is, as once loaded into Max it's going to be interpreted as a x.max unless exported out as a different filetype.
As for how to do it, you just import the models you want and replace the parts of the original mesh with the either new or modified one you want in it, and export it back out, using the M3 tools (the only ones I know of are NinToxicated's, and perhaps some modified or extended versions of his).
You CAN rig the new model with the bones used in the original, however depending on how much it changed that may or may not be a feasible solution.
Chances are you're not doing anything wrong, although without more information as to what it is you ARE doing it's not possible to say with any accuracy, it's just that what you're doing isn't supported or that aspect of the tools isn't fully developed. The tools simply aren't that effective. Blizzard's filetypes are extremely complicated to deal with, and as there are no official tools or documentation are released to the community to deal with them it comes down to whatever it is the community is capable of developing in their spare time.
@Varine: Go
How do you replace parts though? If I have a new helmet from an OBJ file and move it in here how do I attach the new one and delete the original so the bones and everything are with the new? I tried the attach button but it dissapears in the editor if I do that.
To delete the old one, you should be able to just pick the polygons and delete them. Then bring the new one in and scale it to fit how you want.
It may require more work than that, I'm not sure how the original model is set up or anything. You might want to weld the vertices or edges together, depending on how it looks when animated (if the helmet is pulled back and there's a gap there, it'll be fairly obvious. Moreso than if the helmet deforms a little bit). Then once it's in place, you'll have to rig the model to the bones (or whatever is used. It's been a while since I looked at a SCII unit and can't remember) using a skin modifier (there is also the physique modifier, but I don't like that one. It's sometimes easier but the animations look like shit, I put an explanation below in case you're not familiar).
As to why it disappeared when you attached them together I don't know. I don't think I've ever seen that happen.
If you can post a screenshot of the original mesh and the new helmet you want next to it that might help me so I know what you're trying to deal with.
As for the skin/physique modifiers, they're both used for rigging as you probably know already. The skin modifier uses weights based on how near the mesh is to the bone, and usually gives better results, but it takes a while to get good with it. Physique modifiers use a kind of binary thing where a vertex is either attached to the bone or it isn't, but it gives worse results. I used to have a screenshot showing the differences, but I can't find it. Basically with physique, the attachment just flat out ends, so the mesh is deformed at awkward angles and you get issues with them colliding together (like a leg might be raised, and it stops at the hip so along that edge it gets to like a hard 90 degree angle). You can, of course, spend a lot of time with it and make it look good, but it's not a very good method to use (I think it's mostly there for the same reason things like Emesh are there, which is primarily for backwards compatibility. Not many people use it anymore, that I'm aware of).
@Varine: Go
Still haven't had a chance to try some of this out yet but I appreciate all the help, even if this doesn't work (because nothing ever works for me) I've learned a ton from your help guys!
Depending on the tri count (usually people, or least I do, will say poly count, but in games it's always triangles because they have less overhead for rendering. Technically they are polygons, but if you have a mesh made up of quads then each of those quads will be two triangles, and sometimes people get confused that someone is saying poly when they're actually talking about tris. You also get into things like textures as well, but that's fairly complex [I don't even now how to do math to figure it out, eventually you just get used to make estimates on what you can and can't do], also draw calls which are probably more important than poly count in this game, assuming you have a normal model) you may want to retopologize it (which is to say, reduce the poly count. There are tools to do it, and Max has a few that will work but I won't get into it here unless you want me to so as to avoid adding to what is already excess clutter in my posts).
Like if the neck area where you would attach the helmet has fifty vertices, and your helmet has a hundred, you'll want to either reduce the number on the helmet so that you can match them up to weld together, or (not advisable for this purpose) increase the number on the neck (in the edge selection thing there's a tool called Place Vertex or Add Vertex or something like that). You also might have some trouble with UVW's and the textures. Which I can go into that as well if you want, and probably find some tutorials for you to walk you through the process a bit better, but I don't think you should HAVE to actually touch those from what you're doing unless you want to. You might need to deal with it a bit if you weld the helmet on, as you might disrupt the UV map a bit, but it's unlikely to cause a greatly noticeable issue.
http://www.3dbuzz.com/vbforum/sv_videonav.php?fid=a820bf56254d2e045e12b2535643cb57&p=1&ks=1
That link is to 3DBuzz's video tutorials, which I typically refer most people who are new to Max towards. There may be more than that available to watch, as that link should take you to the free ones (it's 35 dollars a month to become a sponsor I think. It might be worth it down the line to become one for a couple months, if you really want to watch a series only available to sponsers. There are also thousands of tutorials on YouTube, text tutorials, and plenty of forums that can help you with general modelling questions. If you ever do anything not specifically geared for SCII, you'd obviously get better help on those forums than here).