Scythe now supports the creation of ragdolls from skinned skeletal models. Any bone from a model can be selected and attached to a model or primitive by designating an actor. In this tutorial we will show you how to create a complete full-body ragdoll.

First load the zombie model in the /examples/meshes/ directory. Because this model has a skeleton, it will load with the bones displayed. (NOTE: The bones will not load in the free edition of Scythe).

 

Select the model in the viewport and click Generate Ragdoll. A simple ragdoll will be generated automatically. It will not be accurate, but it gives us a good starting point, and now we can start tweeking the shapes.

 

I started off here by deleting the excess bones - fingers and toes are not needed in a ragdoll. I then changed certain primitives using the "Selected primitive type" dropdown box. I turned the head into a sphere, and the body and feet into boxes.

 

Take care with the root bone. The root is always in the hips somewhere and is the bone that will make the ragdoll move and fall. It is often hard to find, so use "Select Root Bone" to find it easily. In this case the root bone is on the floor, between the feet, so I made its primitive into a box and moved it up into the hips area, as this is where the center of mass is located on a human (or zombie).

 

Next is to re-size the primitives so that they match closely to the size of the character. Notice also that I deleted the hinge joint that was at the end of the right wrist. If you delete an actor that is joined to another, then the joint will join the remaining actor to world space (in laymans terms, the zombie would end up hanging from his wrist).

 

Now to tweek the joints. The first thing is that shoulders and hips should be ball joints, not hinges, so we do as before with the primitives and use "Selected Joint Type".

The direction that a joint is rotated to is important, even for ball joints. A ball joint in Scythe has an arrow pointing out of it to show its direction. The twist axis is along this arrow, and the swing axis swings from this position. So for shoulders, you want the arrow of the ball joint to point along the arm bone, and for hips you want the arrow to point along the thigh bone. It is also important to check that the hinge joints are rotated properly.

 

If you run the simulation at this stage, the ragdoll crumples into a strange lump, as it has no joint limits and the limbs can move unnaturally.

 

Looking at the knee joint from the side, we select it and turn limits on. Hinge joints have a thin stick that points out of the side. Think of this as the stick that hits the limits. If you look closely at the picture you will see that it can now rotate quite far in the anti-clockwise direction, but not the other way. So the lower leg can now rotate backwards, but not forwards, like a human knee joint.

Play around with the joint limits for each joint until you get a realistic result. The final ragdoll for the zombie looks like this: