Some helpful hints in modelling and animating

Here are some hints you may find useful when importing a model, such as a weapon.

Weapon modelling:

• Try not to excess the animation frames, i.e. 20 frames for one animation sequence. Keep to 1-5 frames per animation sequence.
  
• For faster animation sequences (such as shooting), the rate amount should be doubled the amount of frames and fast. For example, I normally import a shoot anim of 2 frames, but i put on FPS = 20.
  
• When animating, keep at least 2 or 3 spaces between each animation sequence. For example, 3-5 is shooting, 8-10 is reloadbegin etc. When in animating, it is very helpful to start at the animation before the first frame, such as 7 for reloadbegin.
  
• If you want hands, use Tack's Deus Ex Mesh Exporter or another tool such as WOTGreal and export the DX weapon meshes. For example, if you export a pistol, you can take off/remove the hand from it as it is a seperate group in Milkshape.
  
• It is always helpful to have a real-scale view of the gun. For example, export a pistol mesh, say you are importing a deagle (Desert Eagle). Make sure your deagle aligns with the pistol to see how it looks.
  
• Make sure if you want muzzle flashes, that they are BlackMaskTex, are the second group (note: when using meshmaps, they start at 0, so technically, it is the third group but it shows up as #2 in the .uc file)
  
• Make sure your weapon is not over 2500 polys, as this would cause extreme lag. I would recommend a limit, normally I use 500 but you can use 800 if you want. The max poly limit is 3000 for DX.
  
• Make your guns centered for their situation; for example, pickup view should be flat on the grid in milkshape; 3rd person should be in the intereection of the XYZ axis, etc.
  
• When animating, use more max frames than you want. I normally use 60.
  
• Instead of righting down the anims or memorizing it, stick to one anim plan, that way, you can import a gun, then import another gun, copy its animation sequences etc.
  
• If you want a DX style weapon, use JC's hands by copying them.
  
• The rate of fire depends on how quick you put your shoot anim FPS-wise. For example, if you put it like 5 (which would be good for a sniper rifle), it wouldn't fire automatically even if you made the shottime 0.1 and bautomatic=true.

Character modelling

• Character ,odelling is hard, so make sure your character is on a grid for starters so they are on the floor.
  
• You have to do loads of animations, so be prepared.
  
• Characters have this little 1 polygon shape called a weapontriange, where the weapon rests (most have it on their hands). You can set this in UnrealFX.

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