Vehicle Animtions

[LightNinja]

Hi, well i want to know how to make animations for vehicles with 3dsmax, and i would like to know the basics cuz i have no idea :/, at least i know how to create an skelleton, but no more than that.

Thx =p

[CortoCG]

I guess tFighterPilot is the guy you should look for .

[LightNinja]

Lol i was going to ask you by msn about an hour ago but i decided that i should wait to see someone answering here , but anyway ill ask tfighter by msn :

[Psyk0Sith]

You just have to animate the bones in max and compile the .XSI (but you add the XSI instead of a GLA and check make own skeleton).

 

If you add IK to the rig i believe you have to put an "empty" keyframe to other bones that are not keyframed manually...at least that's what works for me.

[LightNinja]

ok, IK is the button that makes the frames go red?, and how i make differents animations, i have to them all together first?

[Psyk0Sith]

IK is a way of linking the skeleton to behave like a puppet: you move one bone and the rest of the chain will follow without any manipulations.

 

For the anims, i think you can create them separate and make one big GLA with a .car file using the various sequences exported separately.

[LightNinja]

man how i do more than 30 frames?

[LightNinja]

of course im progressing :

[Psyk0Sith]

Nice!, see that wasnt so hard

 

You mean more than 30 frames with max? just change the length of the anim (check near the animate button and you should find it)

 

On another note, i guess i wont have to finish my Kaadu model after all....

[LightNinja]

lol man, finish yours, this is wierd, the face sux and im not very happy about the body, i just used it to practice =p

[LightNinja]

Look at the jpg, my 3dsmax is in spanish (thats why i cant follow tutorials ), where i should press to have less or more frames?

http://server6.uploadit.org/files/danadn-frames.jpg

[LightNinja]

ok i found how

[CortoCG]

Here are some workflow tips for you amigo .

 

1.- Create a folder in your scenes/project main folder with the name of the model you're currently working on. Put there all the .max files you're gonna use for it naming them as the sequence they contain, ie: root.max, both_walk1.max, both_death1.max, etc.

 

2.- If you're going to make more than one animation sequence, which I think you are going to need to, do each and everyone of them on different files. This will allow you to work indepently one sequence from the other, using a different frame number and different frame rate. You don't wanna go adding more and more frames or changing the framerate, that will screw things up.

 

3.- The root.max file must have only 1 frame and be the basepose with the correctly weighted and textured model. The rest of the files should contain a mesh that at least use all the bones in the skin process in order to get compiled into a .gla file. Tha way you can make your animations normally and you will only have to work on the mesh and textures or weighting improvement on the root.max file.

 

4.- Remember to set the first frame of each new file to the root.max basepose, since all the animation depart from there if you will. So basically, when starting a new sequence, open the root.max file, set the number of frames and framerate you're gonna use, go to the first frame, select all bones and keyframe all of them. From there just do your animation normally.

 

5.- Export them to .xsi files calling them exactly as the .max/sequence file. Then make yourself the correct .car file grabbing all the .xsi files to compile. I did something like this for a completely new creature for the Dark Forces MOD and it works just fine:

$aseanimgrabinit

$scale 3

$aseanimgrab models/players/your_creature/both_walk1.xsi -loop 1

$aseanimgrab models/players/your_creature/both_death1.xsi -loop -1

$aseanimgrab models/players/your_creature/both_pain1.xsi -loop -1

$aseanimgrab models/players/your_creature/both_pain2.xsi -loop -1

$aseanimgrab models/players/your_creature/both_stand6.xsi -loop 1

$aseanimgrabfinalize

$aseanimconvertmdx_noask models/players/your_creature/root -smooth -losedupverts -makeskin -makeskel models/players/your_creature/your_creature -origin 0 0 10

 

You can set the scale and origin to whatever suits you of course. Also you have to add the new .xsi files to the list. The loop frames seem not to be important, since you have to set them properly on the animations.cfg file.

 

7.- Having every sequence in different files all in the same project folder will make your life easier when debugging or improving the animations. I suggest you keep them forever or at least until complains about how the animations were done stop.

[LightNinja]

how i copy a frame?, for example if i want to put the frame number 1 at the frame 20

EDTI:

Thx you very MAX() Corto, i just did another atpt which it has the walk animation and the death atm =D , and this one dont fly , also it's giant in-game.

And, how did you make the head move in the atpt?

[CortoCG]

It's a secret recipe, courtesy Corto's magic . Nah, that means I don't have a clue. Things just come up right, either I'm a high genius or a complete Homer Simpson.

For the frame question, use the animation curves editor, not the trayectories. Go to the desired frame, copy the keys and then paste them on another frame, or keyframe the animated bones on the desired frame and manually copy the transform values. Since I'm not a big 3dsmax fan anymore, take this as guidelines.

If you were to start using XSI, there I could be or much more help .