Can't apply new Rest Pose to Armature and keep old Pose data

Support Animation and Rigging
1

X-Blender 2.49b_rev8 (needed for proper export scripts, can’t work around this)

What I’m working with:

  • modded skeleton from TES:4 Oblivion that is in the proper T-Pose (made by someone else)
  • a female base mesh I’ve been working with, cut up into parts for clothing, that is in an A-Pose

What I’m trying to do:

  • Import skeleton, change it to A-Pose, then rig the base mesh to it, and then change the pose back to T-Pose and save that on the mesh so when I export it it will be in the T-Pose and will be properly animated once in-game

What I did:

  • Open base mesh file that is in A-Pose.
  • Import skeleton file sans animations. It is in T-Pose. Go into pose mode and save that T-Pose information to the Pose library as “T-Pose”.
  • Rotate the bones so they are in alignment to the A-Pose that more or less matches the base mesh. Add that pose to the Pose Library as “A-Pose”.
  • Set the A-Pose data to Pose > Apply Pose As Rest Pose
  • Select T-Pose to see if it will go back to the T-Pose. Nothing moves.
  • Select A-Pose.
  • See that A-Pose is now messed up and the arms are inside the body

What I Need:

  • Really just need the armature to stay in A-Pose just so I can rig the mesh then change it back to the T-Pose rotations from the initial import (they are specific so i just can’t ‘wing it’ back to where they were) but somehow every time I set the A-Pose as the new rest position so I can rig it the A-Pose overwrites the T-Pose in the Pose Library and the T-Pose has the limbs inside the body.

Note:

  • I also tried to just do it with animation keyframes but as soon as I set the rest pose as the A-Pose position everything gets distorted when going back to the T-Pose keyframes, like it’s using that new rest pose to translate all the rotation data off of (even if I do locrot or even locrotscale for the keyframes).

01-AfterImports-TPoseSetup
01-AfterImports-TPoseSetup1920×1042 266 KB

02-APoseSetToMatchMeshPosition
02-APoseSetToMatchMeshPosition1920×1040 266 KB

03-AfterApplyingAPoseAsRestPose
03-AfterApplyingAPoseAsRestPose1919×1042 264 KB

04-SelectingPreviousTPoseInLibraryHasMessedUpPose
04-SelectingPreviousTPoseInLibraryHasMessedUpPose1920×1039 264 KB

2

This is expected behavior- if you change the rest pose, all the saved poses will change, because poses are relative to the rest pose

3

Do you know how I can get the original T-Pose data back after applying the rest then?

I just really need those exact locations. I had to do a lot of fiddling with the armature to get it to match the mesh I was working with so I can get a clean rig and there’s no way I can get it to match the exact T-Pose from the Import doing it by hand which I need for it to work in the game.

4

First, why -

Scripts can be updated to work with current versions of blender, it can be some work though.

I think I would try something like this:

  • open base mesh file in A-pose
  • import skeleton in T-pose
  • duplicate armature
  • pose first armature in A-pose, attach mesh to this rig
  • change the armature modifier from using the first rig to using the 2nd duplicated rig that is still in T-pose

If it works, then cleanup the file.

Randy