Transform Hierarchy of Objects to Figure

Neil Clennan

I'm creating a prop that is made up of multiple objects arranged in a hierarchy. I would like to transform that so the collection of objects becomes a figure, with all of the sub-objects becoming bones of the object that was at the top of the hierarchy. A simple example would be a box with a control knob. It's not much more than a box (cuboid) with an embedded cylinder. I want the cylinder, wich can be set to spin like a dial, to be a bone of the box. Can anyone tell me how to do this?

Richard Haseltine

You could export as OBJ, using the option to asign object names as groups, then import that into the Figure Set up pane by right-click in the groups section, drag and drop that into Relationships and drag and drop to make the knob a child of the box, probably setting its rotation order (by right-click) to yzx, then click Create and use the Joint editor as needed to adjust the bone placement and (in the Tool Settings pane) check the seelction groups are assigned correctly, then finally switch to the Node Weight Map brush tool, right-click>Weight Editing>Fill By Selection Sets. That's from memory, but it should get you the desired result.

Neil Clennan

Thanks. I'm working with that. So far I haven't succeeded in getting it to import with separate parts, but I'm experimenting with the export settings to see if I can find the right combination.