jave a separate bone for the weapon or use the hand bone(if you got one) with an offset and update your weapon according to that…
Pretty much what Mr. Coder said:
Our case, bone for one handed sword, bone for bow (for example). The animations handle placing the bones in the proper place for specific actions, sword swing moves the bone for the sword, while putting away the sword puts the bone on the player's hip. Then it's just a matter of swapping out the SkinNode that is being controlled by the bone. So, our character is made up of multiple skin nodes (head, torso, arms, legs, sword, bow, etc). Models are swapped in and out as clothing/equipment changes, but the skeleton remains the same.
The next question, then, what is the best way to get from my skin and bones model in Blender to a skin and bones model in jME ( just an overview, what model format to export to, what part of the API to represents skin and bone type models ) and can anyone recommend some general resources (by which I mean covering the general techniques but not necessarily JME specific) on this topic? I know Google is my friend, but my experience is that if there are people who know what they are talking about they may have resources they have used or at least be able to tell the difference between good and bad, something I am too ignorant to be able to do as yet…
Useful threads on here:
hevee suggests a keyframed equivalent
skeletal animation discussion
another attaching things to models question
wiki on model loading (at the time of writing doesn’t mention MD5 which appears to be the standard we’re working towards now? Or is it collada? Model formats are confusing!)
The more I read, the less I know…
Collada would be the preferred approach though I think right now the easiest way to get from collada to jme is with maya 7.0 (blender and newer maya's don't have an exporter yet, or didn't last I looked). The API for collada makes it pretty easy to get ahold of bone information/attach things to the skeleton, the down side is of course right now there isn't really an easy way to get from blender to collada with bones intact (though it's in the works).
mojomonk said:
So, our character is made up of multiple skin nodes (head, torso, arms, legs, sword, bow, etc). Models are swapped in and out as clothing/equipment changes, but the skeleton remains the same.
so you have multiple meshes that aren't connected? if so does that show a gap or line or some other sort of artifact?
i'm guessing that all items meet in the same way? that all gloves have the same vertices that meet the arm?
Would also be interested in character customisation.
So, you have a head, and a torso connected by a bone. Do you need to weld the vertices together to prevent seeing inside the players neck when animation is running, or is there another simpler way to do it.
Seams are a problem for the artist to deal with. It is important that the artist understands where pieces connect and how to either a) match the connecting vertices and weights, or b) use things to hide seams (overlapping sleeves, etc)