Custom Pose Creation Guide

[Collygon]

Creating Custom Poses

A Guide by Collygon

 

 

Come here, gather round professional story tellers, amateur screen archers, and all who come to listen. I am going to teach you how to take your work to the next level by giving you the ability to create every scene in Skyrim you have ever imagined! 

 

In this guide I am going to teach you multiple things:

1. The basics of posing the rig from the Animation Tools N3 mod

2. How to create your own pose as a .hkx file and putting it in game with incredible ease

3. How to create your own object poses with a new utility mod: Free Object Poser

 

You will need the following tools:

1. Blender

2. Animation Tools N3

3. FNISSpells and/or Public Poser

4. Free Object Poser (Optional. For advanced users only.)

5. Blender NIF Plugin (Optional. For advanced users only.)

 

Part One: The Basics of Posing

Spoiler

I'm going to begin by saying that this is NOT a blender tutorial. I am not going to guide you through the UI or how the rig works. That being said, this guide is aimed at beginners. Honestly, you can download blender for the first time now and I believe this guide will make sense. So let's begin.

 

Open blender and then open your Animation Tools N3 folder. Inside you'll find a blend file titled: Example_Female_UNP. Open this in blender with: file->open->open blender file. You should be looking at this.

 

 

If you're new, this might be a lot to take in. I encourage you to take a deep breath, and just follow along. For now, we will focus exclusively on the view in the center, the 3D view. This is where you will do 99.99% of the work.

Press T to open the tool bar on the right. Now press T again. You don't need it.

Press N to toggle the transform tools menu. I recommend you keep this open. 

 

Now let's analyze the rig. You'll see a bunch of polygons; yellow, green, and grey. These are what you will use to make your pose. Let's select the big green one in the middle.

 

 

To select it, simply right click on the polygon. It should have a glowing outline like you see above. 

 

This green shape (called an armature) can be moved and rotated, and is an ideal starting point for your pose. You will often find your self going back to it though to make final adjustments.

 

To move the armature, press G and then move your mouse. I will demonstrate.

 

 

Looks a little weird, right? That's because moving any armature will cause the mesh to deform. Don't worry, that's okay. It's supposed to do that. However, DO NOT overdo it. Too great of a transformation will warp the mesh's vertices and result in an ugly pose. 

 

Now try to rotate the armature. With it selected, press R and move your mouse.

 

 

It looks a little better; more controlled right? But see when it goes too far? Yuck! 

 

Now let's try a more precise rotation. Just like before, select the armature then press R, but this time press X, Y, or Z before moving your mouse. 

 

You'll notice a red, green, or blue line appear when you select X, Y, or Z; respectively. By doing this, you are choosing an axis for the rotation to occur. Pretty handy!

 

But what if you want really precise control? Like, down to the number? That's easy! Look in the transform tools menu and you'll see the ability to affect the selected armature by altering the location and rotation settings directly. You can either type in a value or press the arrow to increment the values by 0.100.

 

Those are the basics of posing, but there are other armatures to learn. After all, they don't all perform the same way. I won't cover every single armature, but I'll go over the most important ones to make sure you can make the best poses you can! Next up: the forearm.

 

 

The forearm armature is a big green polygon located on the upper side of the hands. The rig has two of these, one for the left and one for the right. I'll be using the left as an example in this tutorial, but they both perform the same way. 

 

Notice how there is a similarly shaped polygon in almost the exact same place. This is the hand armature, which I'll cover soon. To make sure you've selected the forearm armature, look in the bottom left corner of the 3D view (where I have circled) and it will tell you what armature you have selected.

 

Now, with the armature selected, press G.

 

 

Notice how the entire arm moves? Even the upper arm and forearm? That is what makes this armature so important. Now try rotating it. Similar effect, right?

 

Also, NEVER MOVE THE YELLOW ARMATURE! It causes horrendous mesh deformation and it will literally NEVER look right.

 

 

Anyway, you should also notice that the hand does not rotate, and kinda just hangs there like a limp fish. That's the next armature I'll cover: the hand.

 

 

This armature performs almost the exact same way as the forearm and is equally important in pose creation. There is only one exception: you can't move it.

 

 

See? Unmovable. That's not a problem though. Just use the forearm to move the hand to where you want it, then rotate the hand to be in the correct position.

 

 

Simple.

 

Is that all you need to know for the arms then? Technically, yes. But also definitely not! If you want to move the arms up high and avoid horrid mesh destruction, you have to understand the next armature: the clavicle. 

 

 

There are two clavicle armature, as you can see. One for the left and one for the right. 

 

These can be moved and rotated and WILL cause extreme mesh deformation. 

 

 

See? It's not perfect, but if you want the arms raised high and desire a natural appearance, you will have to make some sacrifices. Trust me.

 

Next up: the head and the neck.

 

 

Both of these work the exact same way as the clavicle armature. But where you might get away with moving the clavicle, you won't get away with moving these. 

 

Just try it and see. It will look bad 100% of the time. Only rotate these. Seriously.

 

Let's move back down now and examine another very influential armature: the pelvis. 

 

There are actually two nodes for this: the pelvis and controller_pelvis_movement

 

 

 

You can pretty much achieve the same result by using either, but your poses will look better if you use them in the following way:

 

The controller should be used at the start to get the basic transformation (the same way Spine2 is used) 

 

The pelvis armature should be used for detailing

 

That being said, I encourage you to experiment, but I believe this is where you'll end up anyway.

 

I'd also like to point out that Spine2 functions literally the same way. Look here:

 

 

See that little yellow polygon? That's the spine2 equivalent of the pelvis armature. And the spine2 we covered at the beginning of this tutorial? That's actually the controller. Make sense?

 

If not, don't worry. The more you use it, the easier it will become.

 

Let's head down to the feet now.

 

If you've noticed, this rig follows a pattern. The pelvis and spine function the same way, yeah? So how do you think the feet and legs function? Yep! Just like the forearms and hands. 

 

This is the heel armature:

 

 

This is the foot armature:

 

 

The heel works just like the hand. It can rotate, but it can't move.

 

 

 

I bet you can guess how the foot armature works, so I won't show it. Try for yourself!

 

I do want to point out the toe armature however.

 

There is a controller:

 

 

And a rotation:

 

 

These function very differently, as I will show.

 

This is the rotation of the toe controller:

 

 

And this is the rotation of the toe rotation:

 

 

And again, NEVER MOVE THE YELLOW ARMATURE

 

 

That about does it. I know I didn't cover every bone, but that's for you to figure out. Once you get the hang of it and have an awesome pose, move on to part two: getting it in game.

 

 

 

Part Two: Getting Your Pose In Game

Spoiler

So you've made a pose? Congrats! That's most of the work done, believe it or not. So what next? Well, this is where Animation Tools N3 comes in.

 

 

See the view on the left? The one with a lot of text and code? That's where we'll be next. Daunting? Not at all actually! We only have two steps here.

 

First, next to "FilePath = " you are going to put the path to where your skeleton.txt is located. I'll demonstrate.

 

 

Next click on "Run Script"

 

What this will do is generate a file called zBoneKeys inside of your blender installation

 

 

Cut and paste that into where skeleton.txt is located

 

 

Run "convert"

 

 

This will open a command prompt. Click any key (I just hit spacebar) until the following question appears

 

 

type "y" (no quotes) then enter

 

Then do it again.

 

 

Now here's the important part. You are going to rename this file to work in FNISSpells or Public Poser, depending on which one you choose. So either name it like this for FNISSpells:

 

 

Or like this for public poser:

 

 

I prefer FNISSpells, so I'll name it that way. Once it is named, check to make sure you typed it correctly then hit y and enter. Don't worry if you miss-typed, you can easily rename it in windows explorer. You should now see your pose in the folder!

 

 

The final step is to go to where the pose is located and paste your new pose into there.

 

For FNISSpells it is: data\meshes\actors\character\animations\FNISSpells

 

For Public Poser is it: data\meshes\actors\character\animations\public

 

 

 

If you use the FNISSpells method, you can now use the pose in game! 

 

If you used the Public Poser method, you should run FNIS for Users first, then you can use the pose in game!

 

 

 

Part Three: Creating your own object poses (for advanced users)

Spoiler

If you learned more than a little something from parts one and two, then this guide probably isn't for you. Not yet. Still, feel free to read through. It's always good to learn more!

 

For those who are here seriously, I am assuming you can do the following:

1. Navigate through blender effortlessly

2. Understand how to model a mesh fit for Skyrim's Engine

3. Know how to export the mesh as a nif

4. How to create proper .dds textures

5. How .nifs themselves work in game and in the creation kit, as well as how to edit them

 

I WILL NOT TEACH YOU HOW TO DO ANY OF THE ABOVE!

 

Creating your own object poses with: Free Object Poser

 

 

What is Free Object Poser? 

 

Free Object Poser is a utility mod designed to work just like Public Poser, with one new alteration: all the poses are object poses.

 

Unlike Public Poser, free object poser actually has poses included! It has 81 duplicates of the pose you see in the image above. That's it.

 

To start, create your custom object then pose your character to fit it. Export the pose just as I covered earlier, and name it the following way:

 

FreeOBJPose_# (where number is whichever number you choose)

 

Then overwrite the original .hkx with your new .hkx

 

Located: data\meshes\actors\character\animations\FreeOBJPoser

 

Free Object Poser also includes a .blend file. This file has the same rig as that in Animation Tools N3, but loads in object mode and includes an object called: copy cube.

 

Copy Cube is a pre-generated object with the required settings for exporting as a .nif for the animation objects. To use it, simply join your created mesh data with copy cube's, and then delete copy cube's original mesh data (the six faces that made up its square). After that, you should be able to export your .nif in the correct format once all of the transformations have been applied.

 

When your .nif is finished, rename it the following way:

 

FOPObj_# (where number is the same number chosen earlier)

 

then overwrite the animation object that corresponds to the pose you made.

 

Located: data\meshes\animobjects\FreeOBJPoser

 

MAKE SURE BOTH THE NUMBER ON THE .NIF AND THE .HKX ARE THE SAME!

 

Rerun FNIS (though it probably isn't necessary) and load your pose in game.

 

Done!

 

 

FAQ: If you are running into errors or have questions, check this out before posting

Spoiler

Q: Why can't I manipulate the fingers?

A: This is a limitation of the animation tools N3 rig. It just isn't possible. In order to move the fingers, you'll have to make your own skeleton/rig in blender or you can download the ones I made in the spoiler below!

 

Q: I'm getting a script compile error!

A: If you're using Windows, make sure Blender has permission. Run the program as administrator then try again. If that doesn't work, try the following fixes:

     1. In the Skeleton.txt file path, put two "\" instead of just one. For example, instead of: "F:\Modding\Animation Tools N3\Skeleton.txt" Type "F:\\Modding\\Animation Tools N3\\Skeleton.txt" This is because of Python character interpreter. 

     2. Create your own empty .txt file called zBoneKeys.txt and place it in your Blender installation. Sometimes the script can fail to find where to create the .txt file.

     3. Are you using Blender 2.8? If so, Animation Tools N3 won't work. Download Blender 2.79 instead. Alter Native discovered a fix so the script works with Blender 2.8! See below:

Spoiler

If you replace line 71 and 366
71:SelectedObject = bpy.context.window.scene.objects[0]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
and line 366 and replace with this
366:SelectedObject = bpy.context.window.scene.objects[0]

 

Q: My convert.bat file does not give me the Yes or No prompts when I run it! What's going on?

A: Sometimes the .bat file is not complete when downloaded. I have no idea why, but some people have the file with half of the script missing. Here is a link to a complete convert.bat: LINK

 

Q: What about animations?

A: You can easily make animations with this rig. All of the same methods apply, you just work with a lot more keyframes! Exporting the animation works the same way, but be patient! It sometimes take a while to complete the script depending on the number of key frames.

 

Q: The weapon node doesn't align properly in game! Even with your custom rig!

A: I've tried many fixes to this and I honestly don't think there is one. When you're adjusting the weapon node, you'll just have to test in game, adjust, and repeat until you get the desired outcome. EDIT: As of the newest version of Collygon's Choice, the weapon node is is poseable with ~99% accuracy! It won't align exactly as seen in Blender, so you will still need multiple tests, but it is damn close.

 

Q: I downloaded your rig and the pose isn't correct! The fingers are bent out of place and other bones are in weird positions!

A: Download it again. I have updated the rig to fix these issues. That being said, if you encounter something funny, please let me know!

 

Ask and you shall receive:

Spoiler

I've gotten quite a bit of questions since posting this guide and I'm thrilled to be able to help you all out! We will never have enough poses, so the more of you that start making some, the better! With that, I've decided to help out even more by releasing 2 new rigs that should step up your posing game.

 

Traditional

 

Collygon's Choice

 

(Please Note: Collygon's Choice has undergone some changes since I made this guide. Though it may look slightly different, the functionality is essentially unchanged.)

 

Traditional is EXACTLY like the standard rig with one exception: you can now move the fingers!

 

Collygon's Choice is significantly altered. I've gone in and hidden a ton of nodes that I believe are unnecessary. Furthermore, I've adjusted the bone shapes to make selection easier and more intuitive. There are also some slight changes to how the bones are able to move, but I've kept them as close to the traditional rig as possible for your benefit. I'll go over some of the changes.

 

Let's start with the weapon node.

 

 

This node operates the same way. In my rig though, I've changed the shape to a cylindrical style in order to mimic a handle. This should help you with adjusting the weapon node placement a lot! Keep in mind though, the cylinder is NOT a perfect representation. Moving this bone will still take a lot of tries to get right, but this change should reduce the count by a lot.

 

Next up is the forearm.

 

 

This still operates the SAME way as the forearm used to. I've just changed the bone to this thin cylinder which I find helps with alignment.

 

 

These should be the only upper body nodes you need to use for the most part. The biggest change here are the clavicle bones. The large spheres in the shoulder should help to remind you to USE THESE! Seriously. If you want natural looking arms and non-deformed armpits, move the shoulders! Try it yourself. Raise your arms a little and notice how much your shoulders move. A lot, right? You should take this into account when making poses.

 

 

Finally, the feet. I've eliminated a TON of the random, useless bones that used to be here. I really don't understand why there were so many... Now you only have three to worry about! And they should cover all the transformations you will need.

 

And of course, the fingers are also poseable!

 

 

The rest is pretty self explanatory. If you've gotten this far, then I know you can do it! If you still have questions, feel free to leave a comment or message me.

 

Finally, a big thanks to Anton0028 for allowing me to release these custom rigs for all of you! None of this would exist if not for their hard work on Animation Tools N3.

 

Now get out there and make some damn poses!

 

 

 

[Jexsam]

This is a thing of beauty.

[The Gauntman]

Wow, this is wonderful. Thank you for sharing this with us. 

[Alter Native]

Thanks for this great tutorial, it's amazingly well done, with all the gifs and screenshots!

Actually it doesn't look as complicated as I thought it would be I might actually try that myself. Thanks.

[Tirloque]

I suggest we rename the tutorial section as « How to spend more than one day getting a single screen - Welcome to the story section  ».

 

Just kidding, this guide is wonderful. I agree with Alter Native, your gifs do make all the steps clear even for total noobs (at least for the two first spoilers). I don't think I'm gonna implement those right away though (still digesting the other guides ). But I often find myself searching for poses that I'd want and not finding them anywhere in my pose mods... so but in the future, definitely . Thanks for the guide, Colly !

 

Malicia : « I have a question, Mr Collygon ! Why does the gal of your first image has a green circle around the pee-pee, and why is it on the center of your screen, uh ? 

»

[Collygon]

My pleasure, everyone! Glad you all like it.

11 hours ago, Tirloque said:

I suggest we rename the tutorial section as « How to spend more than one day getting a single screen - Welcome to the story section  ».

 

Just kidding, this guide is wonderful. I agree with Alter Native, your gifs do make all the steps clear even for total noobs (at least for the two first spoilers). I don't think I'm gonna implement those right away though (still digesting the other guides ). But I often find myself searching for poses that I'd want and not finding them anywhere in my pose mods... so but in the future, definitely . Thanks for the guide, Colly !

 

Malicia : « I have a question, Mr Collygon ! Why does the gal of your first image has a green circle around the pee-pee, and why is it on the center of your screen, uh ? 

»

The circle around her... "pee-pee"... is just the selection toggle for blender. It can be enabled or disabled to appear around an object or item selection.

[djregs]

I'm late to this party! But this is exactly what I was looking for! Thanks Collygon!

[djregs]

Ok! Was able to digest and I have some questions. 

 

1.  In some poses, you can "throw" your equipped weapon or reverse how you hold it in a pose.   (Let me know if you need examples, I can provide!).  How do you do this in blender?  

2.  Super Newbie Question:  Do you do a good showing showing me how to make an .hkx file.  But, how do you open other .hkx files?  If I just want to tweak 1 thing about someone else's pose.  

 

Thanks in advance!  

[Collygon]

On 12/21/2018 at 11:41 AM, djregs said:

Ok! Was able to digest and I have some questions. 

 

1.  In some poses, you can "throw" your equipped weapon or reverse how you hold it in a pose.   (Let me know if you need examples, I can provide!).  How do you do this in blender?  

2.  Super Newbie Question:  Do you do a good showing showing me how to make an .hkx file.  But, how do you open other .hkx files?  If I just want to tweak 1 thing about someone else's pose.  

 

Thanks in advance!  

1. The Animation Tools N3 blend file has nodes that correspond to weapon nodes. Here is the one for the right hand:

This node can be manipulated in any way (rotated and moved) just like the other nodes. Be warned! Adjusting weapon placements in a pain in the butt and there are really no "tricks" to it. It will take multiple tests. My advice would be to only move it/rotate it a bit at a time, test it in game, then repeat until is done. 

 

2. It is impossible to open a custom made .hkx file in Blender or even 3DS max. 3DS max does allow you to open Skyrim's vanilla .hkx files, but not custom ones. Don't ask me why, I don't think anyone knows. For adjusting poses, use NIOverride pose adjustments. It really is a fantastic alternative, and I'd argue better than remaking a .hkx out of game. 

 

Hope this helps

[djregs]

Bummer about not being able to open custom made .hkx files in Blender!  But, I think I'll get over it.  Especially once I get NIOverride up and working.  And thanks for showing me where the weapon "nodes" are!  I'll see if there's a trick to making them work properly on the first go.  Thank you! @Collygon

[Irstina]

Heys, dunno if you're still following this, but, first - thanks for the guide! Haven't messed around with Blender before, but this was easy enough for me to follow! I do, however, have an issue.

 

For testing purposes I made a relatively simple pose where the model would cup both of her breasts with her hands. Took a bit of fiddling, but I did get it to fit eventually. However, after importing it to the game, the hands don't actually align the same way they do on the model in Blender.  Here is what it looks like in Blender, and then in-game it actually looks like this.

 

To be clear, I am using the default UNP body, so the issue shouldn't be there,. Maybe I did something wrong while posing, the pose is correct though, it's just misaligned.

 

Any idea what I might be doing wrong?

[Collygon]

On 3/19/2019 at 11:36 AM, Irstina said:

Heys, dunno if you're still following this, but, first - thanks for the guide! Haven't messed around with Blender before, but this was easy enough for me to follow! I do, however, have an issue.

 

For testing purposes I made a relatively simple pose where the model would cup both of her breasts with her hands. Took a bit of fiddling, but I did get it to fit eventually. However, after importing it to the game, the hands don't actually align the same way they do on the model in Blender.  Here is what it looks like in Blender, and then in-game it actually looks like this.

 

To be clear, I am using the default UNP body, so the issue shouldn't be there,. Maybe I did something wrong while posing, the pose is correct though, it's just misaligned.

 

Any idea what I might be doing wrong?

I am still following this! Always willing to help people out ^.^

 

The good news is that you are not doing anything wrong. This is issue is a known headache for all pose makers. I'm not 100% sure on the exact reason why it occurs.

 

My hypothesis is that the issue lies in the junction between blender and the skyrim engine, specifically the .hkx generation process. I believe this because the same issue happens to me when I'm using 3DS max, as well as Blender, so it's not a platform issue nor a user error. I won't get into specifics, all you need to know is how to fix it!

 

My go to advice for making poses is "Test! Test! Test!". Go in game, test your pose, edit, repeat until done. In your case, I'd actually position the hands somewhere inside the breasts in blender's view, and adjust them as you test. It's weird to work with, I know, but it's what we all gotta do. Good luck!  

[Irstina]

22 hours ago, Collygon said:

I am still following this! Always willing to help people out ^.^

 

The good news is that you are not doing anything wrong. This is issue is a known headache for all pose makers. I'm not 100% sure on the exact reason why it occurs.

 

My hypothesis is that the issue lies in the junction between blender and the skyrim engine, specifically the .hkx generation process. I believe this because the same issue happens to me when I'm using 3DS max, as well as Blender, so it's not a platform issue nor a user error. I won't get into specifics, all you need to know is how to fix it!

 

My go to advice for making poses is "Test! Test! Test!". Go in game, test your pose, edit, repeat until done. In your case, I'd actually position the hands somewhere inside the breasts in blender's view, and adjust them as you test. It's weird to work with, I know, but it's what we all gotta do. Good luck!  

Thanks! It's good to know I wasn't actually messing up. I don't necessarily need that pose in particular, was just testing stuff, but I may be trying some custom poses for some things I'll make~.

 

One more question, since I forgot the first time: I can't seem to rotate fingers individually. only the thumb. Driver_Finger0 lets me rotate the thumb just fine, but all the other Drivers don't let me move their respective fingers, the only way I can rotate them is with the armature that moves all of them at once. I know it can be done since there are plenty of poses where models point with their index finger or spread all their fingers in different directions, but I can't seem to rotate any of them. I did find one that let me move the fingers instead, but that just breaks them.

 

Not sure how often it's really relevant, but I was surprised when I couldn't move them, when everything else was mostly natural.

[Collygon]

19 hours ago, Irstina said:

Thanks! It's good to know I wasn't actually messing up. I don't necessarily need that pose in particular, was just testing stuff, but I may be trying some custom poses for some things I'll make~.

 

One more question, since I forgot the first time: I can't seem to rotate fingers individually. only the thumb. Driver_Finger0 lets me rotate the thumb just fine, but all the other Drivers don't let me move their respective fingers, the only way I can rotate them is with the armature that moves all of them at once. I know it can be done since there are plenty of poses where models point with their index finger or spread all their fingers in different directions, but I can't seem to rotate any of them. I did find one that let me move the fingers instead, but that just breaks them.

 

Not sure how often it's really relevant, but I was surprised when I couldn't move them, when everything else was mostly natural.

This is such a frequently asked question I should probably include a FAQ in this guide. 

 

Unfortunately, this is a limitation with the Animation Tools N3 rig. It just does not have the ability to manipulate the fingers individually.  So you'll have to make do without that capability for now.

 

Pose makers like myself use custom rigs/skeletons. It's a little more advanced of an operation, so I don't plan on creating a whole tutorial for making one. Sorry about that  

[Irstina]

18 hours ago, Collygon said:

This is such a frequently asked question I should probably include a FAQ in this guide. 

 

Unfortunately, this is a limitation with the Animation Tools N3 rig. It just does not have the ability to manipulate the fingers individually.  So you'll have to make do without that capability for now.

 

Pose makers like myself use custom rigs/skeletons. It's a little more advanced of an operation, so I don't plan on creating a whole tutorial for making one. Sorry about that  

Aha. No worries, needing to move fingers (aside from pointing at stuff, and there's poses for that already) is a pretty niche thing so it shouldn't be an issue. I was just surprised they were the one thing I couldn't move.

[TheDaedricDoll]

Followed this to the letter AFAIK, but hitting Run Script just gets me "Python Script Fail, look in the console for now..."

[Collygon]

9 hours ago, TheDaedricDoll said:

Followed this to the letter AFAIK, but hitting Run Script just gets me "Python Script Fail, look in the console for now..."

This is a common issue that is solved by a few things:

 

1. Try putting 2 "\" in the filepath. Ex: F:\\Modding\\Animation Tools N3\\Skeleton.txt. This is because python can sometimes interpret the single \ as a character 

 

2. Put zBoneKeys.txt in your Blender installation directory manually. Sometimes the script has trouble locating it and doing this forces the location. 

 

If those don't work, feel free to send me a message! I'm glad to help out  

[Betsujin]

Do you have interest into expanding part about creating poses with objects? For example, show how to add objects (better if multiple) to pose from modder resources. I already know how to make poses and import nif to blender and adjust it's position with pose, but can't figure out how to properly export it.

[Irstina]

Thanks for the new rigs! I had found another one on some blog that also let me move fingers, but this should be interesting to look at too.

 

I've had one issue with every rig I used that I could never figure out though. Knees tend to be kind of difficult to work with when trying to do some kinds of sitting poses. Sitting in a chair or kneeling is fine, but something more complicated such as having the legs under the character tends to make them go crazy.

 

They either sink too low when I use the pelvis controller or they just generally look wonky. I can adjust them of course but it still doesn't quite looks natural. For clarity's sake: If I try to sit any lower than this, then the knees really don't like it, and since I can only move them left and right and they always move when I move the pelvis, they sink way too low or just look weird. 

 

Is this some limitation or am I being stupid? I know there's poses like that in some poser mods (for example) but maybe they're doing some other wizardry I'm unaware of.

 

Is there some sort of way to lock knees into place or such so I can move the pelvis independently of them?

 

[Collygon]

Sorry for the late replies! I've been very busy lately.

On 12/2/2019 at 2:33 PM, Betsujin said:

Do you have interest into expanding part about creating poses with objects? For example, show how to add objects (better if multiple) to pose from modder resources. I already know how to make poses and import nif to blender and adjust it's position with pose, but can't figure out how to properly export it.

Have you downloaded my FreeOBJPoser? Inside is a .blend file with an object called CopyCube! Merge your existing mesh with copycube and then delete the faces of copycube in edit mode. After, simply export your mesh by itself and it should have the correct settings already applied! If you have trouble, feel free to send me a PM!

On 12/11/2019 at 2:28 AM, Irstina said:

Thanks for the new rigs! I had found another one on some blog that also let me move fingers, but this should be interesting to look at too.

 

I've had one issue with every rig I used that I could never figure out though. Knees tend to be kind of difficult to work with when trying to do some kinds of sitting poses. Sitting in a chair or kneeling is fine, but something more complicated such as having the legs under the character tends to make them go crazy.

 

They either sink too low when I use the pelvis controller or they just generally look wonky. I can adjust them of course but it still doesn't quite looks natural. For clarity's sake: If I try to sit any lower than this, then the knees really don't like it, and since I can only move them left and right and they always move when I move the pelvis, they sink way too low or just look weird. 

 

Is this some limitation or am I being stupid? I know there's poses like that in some poser mods (for example) but maybe they're doing some other wizardry I'm unaware of.

 

Is there some sort of way to lock knees into place or such so I can move the pelvis independently of them?

 

Knees are very tricky! I've used many different rigs in Blender and even 3DS max and they all behave in a similar way. In order to move the knees, you'll have to move the feet. Try rotating them or translating them around. My advice is to put the pelvis where you want it first, and then adjust the feet to get your knees in the right spot. It can be tricky, but once you start working with it, you'll pick it up very quickly!

[arsenic20]

This is the clearest and simplest tutorial for making poses (not animations) I've seen so far and I'm glad I stumbled across it..

 

But I'm stuck on the step where I set the filepath of skeleton.txt and click Run Script. The system console gives me this error no matter what I write:

 

Traceback (most recent call last):

 File "C:\Animation Tools N3\Example_Female_UNP.blend\Text", line 71, in <module>

AttributeError: 'bpy_prop_collection' object has no attribute 'active'

Error: Python script failed, check the message in the system console

 

Here's the file path I set on line 19:

 

FilePath = "C:\Animation Tools N3\skeleton.txt"

 

"C:\\Animation Tools N3\\skeleton.txt" doesn't work either. And it gives me the above error no matter where I put the Animation Tools N3 folder.

 

Any ideas what could be wrong?

I'm using Blender 2.81a; should I be using an earlier version?

 

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EDIT: Welp, I'm retarded. Apparently, the answer is yes. Works fine on 2.79b.

[Collygon]

On 2/11/2020 at 9:18 AM, arsenic20 said:

This is the clearest and simplest tutorial for making poses (not animations) I've seen so far and I'm glad I stumbled across it..

 

But I'm stuck on the step where I set the filepath of skeleton.txt and click Run Script. The system console gives me this error no matter what I write:

 

Traceback (most recent call last):

 File "C:\Animation Tools N3\Example_Female_UNP.blend\Text", line 71, in <module>

AttributeError: 'bpy_prop_collection' object has no attribute 'active'

Error: Python script failed, check the message in the system console

 

Here's the file path I set on line 19:

 

FilePath = "C:\Animation Tools N3\skeleton.txt"

 

"C:\\Animation Tools N3\\skeleton.txt" doesn't work either. And it gives me the above error no matter where I put the Animation Tools N3 folder.

 

Any ideas what could be wrong?

I'm using Blender 2.81a; should I be using an earlier version?

 

---

EDIT: Welp, I'm retarded. Apparently, the answer is yes. Works fine on 2.79b.

Sorry I didn't see it in time! But I'm glad you figured it out. Don't hesitate to reach out to me if you have any other questions ^.^

[arsenic20]

10 hours ago, Collygon said:

Sorry I didn't see it in time! But I'm glad you figured it out. Don't hesitate to reach out to me if you have any other questions ^.^

The rest of the tutorial works perfectly! Even though I'm a total noob I managed to make a pose and successfully tested it in-game. The convert.bat did not give me any y/n options, unlike your screenshots which was kind of weird but I didn't notice any issues caused by it.

 

I do have one (dumb) question though: How do I change the positioning of the pose's center? I followed your tutorial and this time just moved the body 5 feet to the left in Blender, but in-game it always stays in the center, where I initiated the pose.

 

Thanks for your willingness to assist. Again, I'll keep trying and update this post if I figure it out myself.

 

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EDIT: Nevermind. I was trying to make an object pose but I was positioning the human around a centered object. Once I tried it the other way around it worked fine.

 

Thanks for the script and great tutorial!

[Collygon]

On 2/12/2020 at 7:00 PM, arsenic20 said:

The rest of the tutorial works perfectly! Even though I'm a total noob I managed to make a pose and successfully tested it in-game. The convert.bat did not give me any y/n options, unlike your screenshots which was kind of weird but I didn't notice any issues caused by it.

 

I do have one (dumb) question though: How do I change the positioning of the pose's center? I followed your tutorial and this time just moved the body 5 feet to the left in Blender, but in-game it always stays in the center, where I initiated the pose.

 

Thanks for your willingness to assist. Again, I'll keep trying and update this post if I figure it out myself.

 

---

EDIT: Nevermind. I was trying to make an object pose but I was positioning the human around a centered object. Once I tried it the other way around it worked fine.

 

Thanks for the script and great tutorial!

Haha, it seems I'm never able to respond in time. I'm impressed by your tenacity though! You keep trying to figure it out on your own; that is awesome! Glad I could be of some help :)

[Alter Native]

Thanks for the tutorial, finally after years I finally had time to try it and everything worked perfectly. 

 

Quote

3. Are you using Blender 2.8? If so, Animation Tools N3 won't work. Download Blender 2.79 instead.

If you replace line 71 and 366
71:SelectedObject = bpy.context.window.scene.objects[0]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
and line 366 and replace with this
366:SelectedObject = bpy.context.window.scene.objects[0]

 

(source)

 

in the script it seems works with Blender 2.8+ 

Not sure if there is another problem I'm not aware of, but I got my crappy deformed pose into the game with the modified script.