Posing weapons freely & invisible models

If you’ve read the full posing guides, specifically part 1 and 3, you’ll know that I’ve already spoken on posing weapons a bit. With this guide I hope to go a bit more in depth about posing weapons freely.

What are we trying to achieve?

We want to move the character our character is holding in a way that goes beyond rotating it in their palm. Although it’s not super obvious, it’s entirely possible. In the above images I’ve moved the scabbard into my character’s right hand and the sword into the “ground”. Major changes like these are an option however, you can also make minor adjustments to ensure the weapon fits your character’s hand just a bit better.

Enabling the position slider

The easiest way to make this happen is by enabling the position slider. In the posing tab, look to the right hand corner. You’ll see three boxes you can check “R”, “P” and “S”. Check the one with “P” next to it and you’ll notice that a new section of sliders unlocks itself.

Common obstacles

When using this method there’s a few things to take into account.

If you move the bone that the weapon is attached to, this will also move the weapon. You want to make this the last step you take when posing.

When saving a pose you will not be able to retain the position of the weapon. It will revert back to its original state. This means that creating elaborate poses with the weapon all over the place will not be possible for sharing.

Personally I try to get things as close as possible before I start with the position slider. That way it’ll still look good if someone using it decides to not go any further with the weapon position. I also make sure to include a link to this page on all release pages to allow people to easily find out how to access this menu.

Aside from this, you will also find that loading might mess up a little if you’re not careful. Your character might turn out looking like Frankenstein’s monster, which is being generous.

Finally, if you uncheck the checkbox keep in mind that everything will snap back in to its original place too.

What bones are relevant

To edit your weapon’s position you first need to know which bone to select. This isn’t anything complicated and if you’re ever unsure you can just hover the bones to check.

The bones shown in the image above are the ones you will be editing when you want to move a weapon. The bone you pick depends on the weapon’s location. Is your character holding the weapon? Pick the appropriate hand bone. Is the weapon sheathed to the side? Use the side bones (in the clothed model). Is the weapon resting on your character’s back? Use the back bones.

Making an invisible character

The second option would be to create an invisible character. This method is primarily useful for when you want to include more than one weapon in the scene.

We’ll start off by turning a character invisible. The Anamnesis Wiki already gives an explanation on how to go about this, so we won’t waste too much time on it.

There’s two steps to creating an invisible model.

1. Set your race to masculine Hyur, Midlander.
   This will prevent your neck from randomly showing up even though the rest of the body is invisible.
2. Set the head and body slot to the invisible items.
   This will turn your head and body invisible.

Alternatively if you don’t want to be doing this, you can just download this invisible character file. With this file, or by saving the character you just put together, you can easily load it in whenever you need it.

Loading a weapon onto the model

Loading a weapon onto an invisible model is no different than doing it on a normal model. The only thing to keep in mind is the different states you want to have the weapon in.

You want the weapon to be sheathed? Make sure to display the weapon when sheathed on your “character”. You can do so in the character window in game.

You want the weapon to be unsheathed? Go into your actions & traits menu and hit “stance” under the main commands tab.

Perhaps it goes without saying at this point, but its easiest to load this invisible model and weapon onto your own character so that you can easily access these options. This while loading the character model onto a Carbuncle.

Hiding the sheathe

That’s a wrap!

That’s the end of this guide. If you have any questions you can join us in our Discord and as me or others directly. Alternatively, don’t forget to check out the official Anamnesis Wiki.