Changing Animations 2 questions.

[Ra-az]

Hi I hope someone can help me.

I'm trying to change animations for the first time. I created a model based on the fs_crossbow skeleton. For animation purposes I created a new skeleton called fs_tacinf.

Q1) For some reason I cannot change more than one bone. When I rotate for instance the hand and I rotate the elbow after that the model "springs" back in the original position.

Q2) I would also like to change the shoot and aim animations but they're in a different folder and they seem to be hardcoded to the fs_crossbow skeleton.
Can I duplicate them in some way?



thx

[Bwian]

A few important things to check when you are making animations:

1) Make sure that you have the 'auto key' set, or else you have to set each key individually

2) Make sure you are changing the pose in EVERY frame that makes up the animation. IF you re-site the bone position in frame 5, say, the thing will jump back into the old position in frame 6 unless you change that one too.

You can change ALL of the animations, but for the crossbow aim and shoot animations, they are in the BI/data/animations folder, so make sure you are changing the right thing!!!

[Ra-az]

You can change ALL of the animations, but for the crossbow aim and shoot animations, they are in the BI/data/animations folder, so make sure you are changing the right thing!!!

I'm aware of this (it was in my post). But these animations also aren't linked to the fs_tacinf skeleton I created. So if I make another unit based on this skeleton I can't change them individually.

That's what I need to solve.

[Ra-az]

I'm sorry , not being very clear.........

When I say "not linked" I mean that in anim_list.txt it looks like this:

bi/data/animations/LID_Xbow_fire.CAS

The rest of the animations where exported to the new skeletons folder and therefore look like this:
data/animations/fs_tacinf/LID_04 Run Loop.cas

I would like to create multiple X_bow_fire animations, is this possible?

Bwyan I'm sorry I snapped at you!! Specially since you already helped me lots.

Sorry mate!

[Bwian]

Sadly...no. It's impossible.

You can have only 1 fire animation for any given unit.

IF you look at the data in descr_skeleton, it gives some useful insights into how the animation setup works. There are cetain 'movements' which units have that relate to actual animations. For ALL the missile troops, there are the following 'moves' that each have an animation:

attack miss hold
attack miss ready
attack miss release

There are different animations for a slinger, an archer and a javelinman.

Each skeleton will link each of those moves to a specific animation. So, when the arhcer aims his bow, he will use attack miss hold. Firing will use attack miss release. When you change an animation, you are simply telling the game engine to use a different specific animation when it calls the move 'attack miss release etc. But there can be only one animation for each movement in any given skeleton.

Additionally, you cannot add extra 'moves' to any given type of skeleton. Let me know if you want the spreadsheet ( MS Excel ) it might help you to understand how the animations all fit together. I know I learnt a few things from making it!!!

[Ra-az]

Thanks for helping me out again Bwian.
I would really appreciate the spreadsheet.

Sadly...no. It's impossible.

You can have only 1 fire animation for any given unit.

This is what you wrote, but that's not what I'm trying to do.

Let me explain once more:

I derived a skeleton from fs_crossbow (BI skeleton) using the "animation editor" tool, I want to modify the fire and aim animations for my new skeleton.
After that I will propably also want to derive one or two more skeletons from fs_crossbow with their own respective fire/aim animations.

Possible?

I fear not, because these animations (fire et aim) don't get duplicated when you create the new skeleton.


Am I driving you nuts already?

[Ciaran]

Which animation editor are you refering to? The one made by Vercingetorix? That one´s bugged, by his own account and you should rather use xdix.

But what are you trying to achieve? Make, for example, a gunfire animation? That would share some movement phases (say aim and release, while loading might be different) with the crossbow. And it is possible, the Citadel mod did it, as well as Napoleonic and even Warhammer (and they didn´t even have the crossbow anim to start with).

[Ra-az]

Hi Ciaran, thx for feedback.

Which animation editor are you refering to? The one made by Vercingetorix? That one´s bugged, by his own account and you should rather use xdix.

I'm using the own you mentioned I guess:
Name: Animation editor
Copyright: The Trivium 2004 www.thetrivium.org
Author: Vercingetorix
Date: 11/18/04
Version: 0.20b
Description: program to edit the pack.dat file (edit animations)

So..... I wasn't aware of this. Are we sure about this?
Meanwhile, I think I saw a tutorial somewhere to do it manually with xidx. I'll do that.

But what are you trying to achieve? Make, for example, a gunfire animation? That would share some movement phases (say aim and release, while loading might be different) with the crossbow. And it is possible, the Citadel mod did it, as well as Napoleonic and even Warhammer (and they didn´t even have the crossbow anim to start with).

THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO DO:
Here's my case:

I'm making a SF mod, I created a sort of "space marine" model he shoots a spaceage firearm. I based it on the BI "bucellari" model which uses the fs_crossbow skeleton.

Now I want to edit the aiming and shooting animations a littlebit, so he'll hold his gun a little better.

I created a new skeleton based on fs_crossbow , I called it fs_tacinf. But the animations for shooting and aiming aren't specified to belong to the skeleton. They are in the anim_list.txt, but not specified to a specific skeleton.

I'm looking for a solution, any solution will do!
I don't mind basing my model on a different missile wielding skeleton, but I'd rather use the bucellari because that's already almost perfect. Converting an archer for my purposes would be a lot of work (animations) and it would give me a problem with the arc of fire etc.

Please advice, I'd be gratefull for any feedback.

So having read my previous posts in this thread( I cannot make it any clearer). How do I do that, anyone?

[Bwian]

Oh...thats what you are trying to do...thats relatively easy!

Once you start using XIDX, extract all the animations. Make a new folder for your 'tacinf' animations, then you just change the path ( chpath command in XIDX ) to point each animation you have changed to the one in your new folder. This will ONLY affect the skeleton you change, and will tell it to use the new animations without overwriting the original animations. All the old skeletons will continue to look in the original fodler for their anims.

[Ra-az]

I knew we'd get there in the end

Anybody else reading this with the same problem, I used this tuto to create the skeleton.

I made some progress, I have a working skeleton. I still have some issues though. But I'll mess around a bit on my own now, to get comforable with it.

Thanks again Bwian (also thx Ciaran).