Hello! I'm using 3DS Max 2010 (for the eventual export to Ogre3d game engine). I'm currently modeling my tank in 3ds Max and I ran into a problem with the animation aspect. Should I have the turret and the tank 2 separate objects or should I spin the turret around using bones? What is the best way to go about this? Please let me know if anything needs clarification. Thanks

That's really a question you should be asking your developers, I would think. Unless you're the developer as well?

Yes I'm the developer and the artist :p. As I understand it, Ogre3d allows 4 bone assignments and will take a single object exported to the .mesh format.

So I guess my question should be. Should I rotate the tanks turret around a bone assignment?

Hello,

Use a hierarchy of bones - each vertex can have 4 bones assigned to it, but you only need one bone per vertex.

Hopefully this image from one of my current projects will help - I stripped away all the non-turret-essential bones from the model.



You can also achieve this series of transformations manually without a bone hierarchy but this approach might be easiest for you / Ogre3d.

[ P.S. You can easily use the transformed position of the dummy_joint on the barrel for muzzle flashes, projectile origins, etc. ]

WOW! Thank you :D This has really helped me!