Rigged Mesh Avi Issues

[Vendetta Fhang]

Im using maya and im trying to rig a quardruped avi. No matter what i do when i try to import the model its not registering that it has a rig and skin weights. In maya everything moves fine but not on sl. I dont have the option of checking skin weights or anything in the import window. Does anyone have any idea of a step that i may have missed? And yes i've selected the root of the skel and the mesh before exporting Please... i really dont want to pend weeks trying to figure this out

[Cathy Foil]

First question: Have you successfully rigged and uploaded to Second Life other mesh?

If you have make sure your skeleton bone names are correct.  If you import a skeleton into a scene it will rename all the bones which will mess up the DAE file.

When I export rigged mesh I don't have to select the skeleton at all when I do Export Selected.  Try in Object Mode selecting only your mesh when exporting as a DAE file.

Try following this video made by Sae Luan on how to rig and export mesh for Second Life.  Now I know she does select all the bones not just the root mPelvis bone.  You can try selecting the mPelvis bone alone and then do "Select Hierarchy" to select all the other bones but like I said I never select the skeleton when exporting rigged mesh.

http://saeluan.com/tutorials/maya/rigging-mesh-in-maya/

I am using an older version of Maya which is 8.0 so my DAE plugin may work different than yours if you are using a newer version.

Hope that help.
Cathy

[Vendetta Fhang]

Yes i have uploaded a succesful rigged mesh but it was some time ago.

You were right about importing it into a scene. I can't believe it was so simple and i missed it. Thank you so much *hugs* Now comes the fun/tricky part of geting the joints into place and weighted

[Cathy Foil]

I am glad you got it worked out.

Yea you wouldn't think simply importing the skeleton would mess it up like that.

I guess the reason for Maya renaming the bones when you import it is so if you import more than one skeleton into a scene they won't have the same names which could cause problems perhaps.

If my memory for quadrupeds is correct you don't need to have the skeleton in the T Pose for export you just in the upload window don't select "Include Joint Positions".

But I could be wrong.

I think this might work if it needs to be in T Pose.  OK say you created a horse mesh.  Obviously it be a lot easier to create a horse mesh in its natural standing position on all fours.  What I would do to get it into the T Pose is in Maya move advance to say frame 2 or 3.  Then rotate the skeleton joints first and then move them into position where the joint fit inside the horse mesh and create a key frame and then do Smooth Bind.

I think you can export as a DAE file from there but if you can't just click frame one and the skeleton should move back into the T Pose and your horse mesh should move along with it so it is also in the T Pose.

I played with this a few years ago and I think that was how I got it to work.

Let us know how your mesh turns out and how you got it to work.
Cathy