Blender animated model export problem

Support Animation and Rigging
#1

Hey Folks -

I’m having a problem with an animated model that I have exported from Blender using the FBX exporter.

What I’ve done is import a horse model into Blender, then imported an armature from a different horse model which Ive used to animate the original model. After tweaking the weights and all that, the result works beautifully within Blender.

The problem that Im having is that after I export the model to FBX format, then import the model into Unity 3D, the animation scrunches up and distorts the mesh, as you can see in the attached screenshot.

fbx-export-problem.PNG589×772 308 KB

I assume this is a problem related to the way I’ve done something in Blender which doesnt play nicely with the FBX exporter, because I get the same result when I import the model using Ultimate Unwrap 3D, which has an FBX viewer. I’ve had good experience with animation in the FBX exporter previously, but I havent done such “major surgery” to a model’s animation before.

I’ve tried the following:

  • used XNA “strict” FBX export settings
  • deleted all unused Actions
  • specifically highlighted only the armature and the mesh
  • made the mesh a child object under the armature

Has anyone out there some experience with the sort of problem, can anyone recommend work-arounds if any?

Thanks

BW42

#2

I know this is a long shot, but did you apply all transformations to the mesh and armature before output? If not, give that a try, it looks like a scaling issue to me.

#3

Hey Atom,

Thanks for your response. I had a look at all my scales were already set. I have a feeling the weights are messed up. Any ideas what could cause such a thing? I’ve tried the following without success in the weight paint tools interface:

  • select all bones and click “normalize all”
  • for each bone in one leg choose “normalize”
  • select all bones and click “clean”
  • select all bones and click “fix deforms”

Any tips on this matter would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

BW42