I am trying to add a 3D crew to my latest steam loco, and thought I would try creating a 'generic' person, add a skeleton as per the ant tutorial, and then pose him in various positions to add to the footplate. I created a cute little figure with only 83 faces and put him at the controls, then exported to .S file. Unfortunately, the compiler ffeditc.exe did not like it and MSTS did not like the uncompiled .S file.

As soon as I try removing the skeleton, the posed figure leaps back to its original stance.

Is there some way of getting around this? Could a 'snapshot' object be made from the posed figure which could then be added to the loco?

Sounds like a bug in the MSTS export (obviously). I can't fix it right now, but there is a work-around. Here is what you do:

1) Pose the figure
2) Right-click on it and select "Export Selection->DirectX Object". And save as an X file.
3) Import the X file you saved.

There you have it... a posed figure. The only thing you might have to fix is the Diffuse level using the UpdateMaterial plug-in. (DirectX doesn't support the Diffuse material property)

Richard
PS Have any pictures that I can use in the gallery?

I will give that a try, thanks.

http://album.atomic-systems.com/showPic.php/20449/newcoat.jpg