NEED HELP: Changing Weapons on Models w/3ds Max 7

[Uncle Dave]

OK, I have 3ds Max 7 - but I just loaded it, and am far from being an expert.

Here's what I want to do:

(1) I want to make an Egyptian sword-only (no spear) & shield guard unit, based on the existing Pharaoh's Guards unit. This requires the following changes:

* Remove the existing weapons (short sword & spear).
* Add the long sword from Barbarian Chosen Swordsmen.
* Add the shield from Bronze Shield Pikemen.

(2) How do I do this? Every tutorial I've read glosses over the linkages between static and dynamic objects. Can someone either tell me how to do this (in layman's terms), or point me towards a tutorial that explains how?

Thanks!

[Bwian]

Static and dynamic objects ? Not sure what you mean here!

There was qyute a good tutorial on swapping weapons in the tutorial section, but I will run briefly over the steps here.

1) Load up the CAS file into Max using V's max script

2) You should see the model and the weapons / shields all showing up. Assuming you loaded the texture as well, they should be textured.

3) Delete the model bits you don't want.

4) Now, save the Max file of your figure with no weapons/shields

5) Import the model which has the shiled you want, delete everything except the shield and save as 'shield' etc. Do the same for the sword.

6) Open up your soldier model, and merge in the sword and shield.

7) You are going to have to re-map the textures, since each model only uses 1 texture for it's UV mapping, and your new sword and shield are not on the same one as the soldier. You must sort this out.

8) Attack the sword to the right hand ( making sure it is named primary weapon ) and the shield to the left hand. They must be attached to the relevant hand bones for them to work correctly.

9) Export your CAS file and you are done

[Myrddraal]

Welcome to the forum Uncle

Any more questions don't hesitate to ask.

[Sundjata Keita]

Welcome Uncle Dave

The static object is the sword or shield because they are stationary until a bone affects them and the dynamic object is the bone becuase it moves. If you want to attatch an object to a bone I suggest using the schematic view.

Using the Schematic view

1. Pick one of the four views to use as the schematic view
2. Right click on the name of the view in the upper left corner of the box
3. Go to views in the drop down menu that appears
4. Choose schematic > new
5. Find the name of the object you imported, it should be a blue box
6. Then find the bone that you want to connect it to, it should be a green box
7. Use the connect tool to link the two together (you can right click and choose connect to bring up the connect tool)

Save and then you can change the view back to what it was originally if you want. Then as Bwian said you may need to edit the uv maps to fit with the textures

Editing UV maps

1. Select the object you want to modify the UV map for (make sure it has the same texture as the rest of the objects)
2. Go to the modifiers panel (on right hand side of screen)
3. Scroll down the list of modifiers and choose unwrap UVW
4. Then click on the button that says edit UV map
5. Now from here you can load an existing UV map or you can create your own
6. Edit the texture accordingly

Save and you should be done. It's quite difficult I know but you'll get the hang of it once you have done it a few times. Feel free to ask more questions.

[Uncle Dave]

PROBLEM SOLVED.

Thanks.