Milkshape newbie problems

Hey people, two questions about MS3d:

1. I downloaded a ready animated model (Psionic's zombie to be precise ;) and the guy is standing with his feet on the x axis, as if the x axis would be the floor. For use in Blitz3d I want to move him down (on the y axis) so that not his feet but his pelvis is in the middle/origin. But everytime I do that it somehow screws up the animation. I already tried to move the skeleton and the vertices seperately but nothing seems to work. I experience the same problem when turning the zombie around the y axis. Can anyone tell me how to do that correctly?

2. I got another model from the web and the problem is that the model is so small the the joints are so big in comparison that they cover the whole model - it looks like a big fuzzy ball :) How can I rescale the model (or the joints?) so that I get better model/joint proportions?

Thanks in advance!
Kungfista

1. That's impossible as the bone placing etc won't be moved and so the animation destroys the model. If you want to do this (for what reason this might be) you need to do it in milkshape.

if you just want to put him half under-ground, positionentity should work without problems


2. open MS3D, use the select group and activate the whole model, then go to scale and do something like scale 3,3,3
you will have to rearrange and scale the bones a little but it should work :)

1. in MS3D, select ALL polies and just the root joint. Rotate as needed.

2. In the Tools menu is a tool called Scale All. This will do just what you want it to.

1. This has to be done in your animation tool (in this case, Milkshape) and is a hassle because you have to move the root bone down for every animation frame. You're better off simulating this in code with a pivot. Place a pivot in the middle of the model and parent the model to the pivot. Now manipulate the pivot and not the model directly.

2. You can adjust joint display in Milkshape's preferences.

Thanks for you fast answers, that's exactly what I wanted to know. I particularly like Joe's idea with the pivot - why didn't I think of this simple (but effective!) idea!?

An enlightened
Kungfista

@Dreamora: Much truth in your signature :)