Hello,

I'll be using RawKee to export a fully animated character for use in
the Flux Player. In preparation, I attempted exporting an animation
of a previously made character (all done in Maya 7.0), but was unable
to do so. A colleague who is more familiar with RawKee informed me
that there are multiple model/rig constraints that must be observed,
which my older model violated.

For instance:
- The model must have only one material, and the UVs must all be laid
out within a single map in the 1-to-1 space. (Is this fully accurate?)

While reviewing the "Character Rigging and Animation" tutorial
available from the RawKee homepage
(http://onaslant. ndsu.edu/ x3d_content/ rawkee/), I noted many specifics
that must be met in order for a model to export properly. I had a
brief question in regards to this tutorial.

1) Under "Important Items to Remember", item #1 states:
"Your root joint must be a child of a transform node. From now on I
will refer to this transform node as the "avatar node". This avatar
node should have no additional children except for the children that
are placed within it by the X3D Character Editor."

I simply want to clarify that this avatar node is created in Maya (or
other 3D package) and the skeletal system is parented to this node all
*before* utilizing the X3D Character Editor. If I have misunderstood,
I'd appreciate elucidation.

However, I have a couple of questions that were not answered in that
tutorial.

1) Is there a minimum/maximum/ optimum number of bones allowed?
2) Are blend shapes supported for facial rigs, or is a bone-driven
system a better option?
3) How is file referencing handled with the exporter? The method I use
for creating an animation rig involves several levels of file
referencing in order to keep the main rig file to a manageable size.
Is this method supported by RawKee?

Many thanks,
--
Telene Johnston
3D Character Artist
http://vulpinedesig n.com/
telene@vulpinedesig n.com
415.515.0204