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{Guide] Blender & Nifskope


Guest ThatOne

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Guest ThatOne

Greetings everyone,

 

I've noticed the lack of simple guides to blender for Oblivion. Though there are many "guides" and even "noob to pro" guides out there, none are quite short enough.

 

My intention here is to allow EVERYONE to understand the most basic functions of blender, so that they will be able to make simple edits (removing parts of joined meshes, creating poses etc).

 

If at the end of the guide (or somewhere in the middle) you feel I've left out some part, you get stuck and don't know what to do or have any other questions, please post a comment and I'll try to address the issue as soon as I can.

 

 

For starters, the requirements:

 

Blender 2.49b - http://www.mediafire.com/?fz8i49rzltov0ea

Link courtesy of Ark of Truth on the "Which version of Blender" thread. Should work, but if not you can always grab the copy provided with Corronera's BBB tutorial on the Nexus (that's the one I'm using). It comes with all the requirements to run it.

 

 

Next, moving in Blender:

 

right clicking selects, and left clicking moves the cursor “The little targeting system type thing”. Rolling the scroll wheel typically zooms in or out. Holding down the scroll button and moving the mouse rotates around the cursor. Pressing “C” on your keyboard centers the screen on the cursor. CTRL+Z will undo whatever you just did. This only works when your mouse pointer is in the screen the meshes are in. If your mouse is over any other screen, this does not work.

-Thanks to Corronera's tutorial.

 

 

Setting up for animating:

 

To import, click File on the top bar. Go to import -> NetImmerse\Gamebryo(Nif\KF) file.

 

Import the body of whatever it is you want to animate. Select it, then import it's skeleton. Default blender settings should be able to import the body properly.

For the skeleton, also select "Import skeleton only + Parent to selected".

 

If you installed everything correctly, moving any bone will now move the body with it. This is useful to actually see what you are doing.

 

 

Now the fun part comes. And, trust me, this is fun. It's not hard, but it takes a while to get used to and your animations might be a little clunky at first so you might want to make simple poses for practice.

 

Animating:

 

This is MUCH simpler than many people make it out to be. Select the skeleton and, in the bar right below the render, switch to "pose mode".

 

Now, pose to your heart's content. When you have the pose done, select everything (click A), then press I -> LocRot.

This is what actually saves the pose.

 

You can move on to the next frame, if you want, but don't forget to select the entire skeleton and LocRot it each frame or it won't be saved.

There's one frame, plus thirty for each second of animation you want. So, to create a one second animation you need 31 frames. Two seconds is 61 frames etc.

 

If you think it's too much of a bother, blender can fill out the gaps between some frames. Some people say Blender can do 10 frame jumps, but I don't like that because it's not always the way we want it, and correcting an animation is longer than making the jumps smaller.

 

When you are done, look at the bar beneath your render. You'll see boxes with "Start 1" "End 250". Change the "End 250" to whatever number your animation ends in.

You'll also notice there's a box beneath that bar, on the right hand of the screen, with a ?/Start ?/End.

Change that to match the above.

 

You are nearly done. You can save an obj copy to make tweaking easier later if you want.

Now, remove the body (but NOT the skeleton) to make for faster exporting (you'll have to return to object mode to do this). Select the skeleton (hit A and make sure it's pink).

Go to file->Export->Nif\KF. Name it whatever you want.

You'll notice that blender defaults the settings to "Export geometry only". While that's great for clothing, it's useless to us. Change it to "export animation only". Select Oblivion if it wasn't selected already and hit export.

 

 

Ready to get your animations in the game? You can overwrite any pose file but... You'll notice it doesn't work. Open your .kf file in NifSkope (grab it if you haven't already got it installed, it's extremely useful!).

On the top bar, go to View -> Block Details.

 

Under "Block List" there should be just one line. Double click it - you'll see you can rename it. I found poses work with "SpecialIdle_CastSelf", but haven't experimented much with this. Corronera says you have to place a name that fits the animation type so just throw that in there.

Now, click anywhere so that the name change will take effect, then re-select it. Don't double click.

 

Under Block Details, you'll see "Cycle_Clamp". That means the animation runs once, then stops.

Change it to "Cycle_Loop" for animations that should work in... Well, a loop (such as animated poses, for example).

 

Save your file. Your animation will now properly show up in game! Congratulations!

 

 

Movement animations:

If you want to make an animation replacer, say a walking or running animation, there is just one more thing to do after your animation is ready.

 

In the motion editor, scroll down until you find "Bip01" with nothing after it. That's the "bone" that controls an actors position in the game, as well as the direction he is going in.

 

Moving it forward, for example, means the character will move forward with the animation.

 

Remember you have to save it's location with I->LocRot like every other bone, for each frame.

 

 

Post-editing:

Whether you've made an animation and aren't happy with it, or you want to edit someone else's animation, this is how you get it into blender so that you could work on it just as before:

 

First, import the body.

Then, when importing the skeleton you have to use the "Keyframe File:" and select your animation.

 

The keyframe field is right below "Combine NiNode + shapes into a single mesh".

 

 

If that's all you wanted - then you are done. However, if you don't like overwriting files, then the last section might help...

 

The easiest way to go about things is to rename the IDs of every quest(1), script(4), spell(2) and item(1) of an existing pose mod. Not sure variables are required, but if you want to spend the time it never hurts (plus it's good practice to leave as few possible conflicts as there could be). This shouldn't be difficult so I'll leave it up to you.

 

When done, go to the top bar and then Edit (should right after Characters) -> Idle Animations.

From here you can edit all the animations in the game, but the lines you want to focus on are from the CTAddPose.

You'll have to swap out the paths - same as setting the path of anything else in the CS; Click on the animation name, in the box that pops up find your animation and double click it.

Remember only place animations for the "Minor" (the last lines, after you expanded everything) lines! Any other line will not work and might play out at times you don't want it to!

 

Tying an object to your animation:

I won't explain how to create an idle object. That part relates to model-making (If you already have the object, strip it of it's collision data and move it into the correct place in blender or NifSkope and it *should* work).

Now, in the CS on the left hand list there should be something like "Misc". Expand that, then go to "Idle Objects". Select it, then right click on the right hand list -> New.

Fill in the details (ID, file path, which animation you want it to tie to).

 

 

 

 

 

Now that we are done animating, some other useful things:

 

- Removing parts of a joined mesh in Blender -

 

If you are meshing up outfits or trying to reduce tilesets to their base components, you've encountered this before - the entire outfit is made of one mesh.

Well, Blender can help sometimes. Not always - there are times that there will be seams after removing certain pieces of the outfit. But sometimes you just want the boots and it's a clean cut.

 

Import the object into Blender. Default settings should work. Remember that the more objects you have in place the longer it will take to import it.

Now, select the object you wish to cut. On the bar right below the render, go click the Object Mode -> Edit Mode.

You'll notice the object just turned to yellow dots and triangles. Each dot is a vertex, each triangle is a face. Yellow dots are selected, white ones are not.

 

Select all the dots that make up the object you want to remove. This can be long and tedious, so a little trick you can do is select only the points that connect with the section you don't want to remove (be careful because you might select a part of what you want to keep).

Press del -> verts.

 

Now, a seam should be created. Select any of the verts left of the object you want to remove, then hold down ctrl and +. Press del -> verts again.

The other way is to split the mesh to two pieces but I've heard this could create a problem with weight painting. If this is wrong, correct me and I'll add the method here.

 

Go back to object mode. Select everything and export it (remember you want to export Geometry only!).

 

 

- Making Mesh-ups in nifskope -

 

Some know how to do it, some don't, but the point of this section is to allow everyone to make whatever outfits they want. See a beautiful bracelet you want with those shiny gloves, but they both occupy the hand slot? Not a problem anymore.

 

We will need two or more nif files. The first should preferably contain an entire body model so that you won't have to copy the bones over, the other(s) should have the parts of the outfit you want to combine.

 

Remove everything you don't like by right-clicking it in the render (or in the Block List) and selecting Block -> Remove Branch.

Pressing remove only will place bloat in your file. Head to the next section to learn how to clean that.

 

Alright, now go to the nif file you want to take pieces from. Right-click a piece and select Block -> Copy Branch.

Go back to the first nif and right click the scene root, Block -> Paste Branch.

 

Do this until your outfit is complete. Press ctrl+s, type in a new name for the outfit or leave it the same to overwrite. You are done.

 

 

- Cleaning a nif file -

 

Nobody likes it an outfit - that's already pretty detailed - takes more processing power than it should. I've seen some crazy things like nif files that were over 5 mb before cleaning, and only 250 kb afterwards.

 

That's not to say every file is like that. In fact, most are not, but this is for those that are.

 

Open your nif file in NifShope. Check for any other lines than Scene Root. If there are, right-click Scene Root and click Block -> Crop to Branch.

 

Hold!

Have any of the objects disappeared? If yes, you'll need to open a new copy of the nif (while the one you are modifying is still open) and copy any of the missing objects into Scene Root.

 

Now, right-click anywhere in the render that's free. Sanitize -> Adjust Links. Sanitize -> Reorder Blocks. Optimize -> Remove Bogus Nodes.

 

That should be enough, though there could certainly be more that one can do. I'm simply not aware of it.

 

 

I hope this guide is useful to at least some people, and if there are any questions please post them and I'll try to answer them to the best of my ability.

 

And, if this helped you, remember to thank SleepyPanda on the Nexus - because if he wouldn't have taught me, I wouldn't have played Oblivion... much less write this guide.

 

Happy animating, meshing-up outfits and generally ruling Blender,

-ThatOne

 

P.S. A "Guide to the CS" will follow this one, if there will be demand for it. The guide will cover everything from world design, quests, written and voiced dialog, items, lighting, effects and actors.

 

P.S.S. It's 4:18 AM here and I've probably made at least a few mistakes. I also wrote parts of it at different times so the phrasing might be different.

Please inform me of any inconsistencies or wrong information and I'll correct it.

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Greetings everyone' date='

 

I've noticed the lack of simple guides to blender for Oblivion. Though there are many "guides" and even "noob to pro" guides out there, none are quite short enough.[/quote']

 

good idea posting a guide, I do offer a bit of criticism though. It would be a much better guide if you also included a bit more information regarding somethings.

 

I did not read far down but you skip over some extremely important things such as import and export settings and so on. poses are easy yes but it is also important for you to inform those who would use this guide on how to properly import the skeleton and then how to properly export the completed pose.

 

you should also go a step further and teach them how to put the finishing touches on that new pose in nifscope and how to add it to the game through the cs

 

the above is just one example of somethings that are lacking in your guide. It is a great start and once completed it could be top notch but as your guide stands now it is mostly useless to new mod authors and those are the ones who desperately need this information

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Guest ThatOne

Hey GSB, I'm happy to see you are still around!

 

I actually have included the necessary steps in NifSkope to get the animation to show up in the game. It's in the last bit under the "Animating" spoiler.

 

As for importing, it's under "Setting up for animating". It's right at the start. Unless you meant how to get to the import screen?

Yeah, I can add that.

 

As for getting the animations in the game through the CS - the spoiler right under "Animating" is just about that. I'm not sure if it's detailed enough or not, but I got no feedback so I can't know if anyone even tried this out.

 

Don't get me wrong, this thing hasn't been up for too long and 7 thanks is great, but I'm not posting this to get thanks.

I'm posting this because I hope it's helpful. So far, you are the only one to comment, and I believe it's obvious you know more about blender than I do.

 

-Edit- Changed the "Setting up for animating". It now also includes how to get to the import screen.

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About the animation:

 

I have two working skeletons

1. With Bip01NonAccum

2. without it

What should I use to create the animation with physics in the game world (movement along the axes x, y, z), and what a bone to animate and in what direction?

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Hey GSB' date=' I'm happy to see you are still around!

 

I actually have included the necessary steps in NifSkope to get the animation to show up in the game. It's in the last bit under the "Animating" spoiler.

 

-Edit- Changed the "Setting up for animating". It now also includes how to get to the import screen.

[/quote']

 

I'm mostly trying to lurk but I keep on seeing things that I should reply to. Sorry I missed the additional instructions, not reading everything was clearly my undoing and yeah I was more worried about people screwing up the import. you would be surprised by how many seasoned mod authors do not know to delete the skeleton that imports with body and armors or do not know how to properly export the completed edits.

 

Anyway Keep up the good work, if your efforts result in creating even one new mod author it is time well spent

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Guest ThatOne

Well, it's good to know you are still around. And, yes, exporting and importing can be a pain.

 

TDA, the skeleton you use for your characters or creatures in the game is the one you should use (the one you have in meshes\characters\_male\ for actors).

 

What do you mean by physics? Are you attempting to create havoked meshes? Or movement animations?

I believe my friend told me that the Bip01 bone (with nothing after it) was the one controlling an actor's position in the game world. I'll add it to the tutorial in a moment.

 

-Edit- Added information about movement animations. I haven't made any myself so I can't be sure if it is accurate, but I've consulted my friend and Corronera's tutorial and this seems to be it.

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I mean movement animations for actors, like jump-forward animation.

 

Checked.

 

-In short, this bone is also necessary to move, otherwise a collision of actor does not move in the game world.

-Also for this type of animation need to use skeleton with Bip01 NonAccum.

 

???But for some reason importing skeleton(with base movement animaion) is located on the x axis, not y. - Miracles.

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Guest ThatOne

If you are attempting to import one of Bethesda's animations, there's a bug that causes them to import incorrectly.

So they will not move in the correct direction.

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  • 1 month later...

Im a newbee to nifscope (and any other tool) so this is maybe dumb questins, but i will like to learn.

"Open your nif file in NifShope. Check for any other lines than Scene Root. If there are, right-click Scene Root and click Block -> Crop to Branch.

 

Hold!

Have any of the objects disappeared? If yes, you'll need to open a new copy of the nif (while the one you are modifying is still open) and .

 

Now, right-click anywhere in the render that's free. Sanitize -> Adjust Links. Sanitize -> Reorder Blocks. Optimize -> Remove Bogus Nodes."

 

Ive tried to sanitize this upperbody weighing 2023kb.

Scene root ,crop to branch "Have any of the objects disappeared?"

Yes the hole upperbody invicible!?

"copy any of the missing objects into Scene Root"

Copyed the upperbody (my bad)paste to scene root (thinking this cant be right)

"Adjust Links" does that meens "reorder links"?

Followed so good i couldt ending up with an upperbody weighing 2413kb

Thanx

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Iggypop1,

 

When you copy stuff from one instance of nifskope to another make sure you use "copy branch" and "paste branch".

 

If you think you did it wrong just zip up the file and attach it to your post and I will look it over for you.

 

It was this upperbody i tried to clean. Maybe it is clean but heavy, with straps, piercings, tatoo,(it works ingame)femaleupperbody.rar i was just trying and followed the tutorial above.

 

When i rightclick the sceneroot:

"Hold!

Have any of the objects disappeared? If yes, you'll need to open a new copy of the nif (while the one you are modifying is still open) and copy any of the missing objects into Scene Root".

 

Yes everything disapears(cant see my upperbody in window)How can i see if anything has disappeared if i cant see nothing?

I have copy pasted this upperbody too scene root ,also here when rightclicking sceneroot the body disapeare but pops up again with the new paste.Its just the cleaning procedure im uncertain about.

Thanx

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Ok, I looked at your upperbody. Here is what you need to do:

 

1. Choose Spells: then Optimize: then Combine Properties.

2. Choose Spells: then Optimize: then Remove Bogus Nodes.

3. Choose Spells: then Sanitize: then Reorder Link Arrays.

4. Choose Spells: then Sanitize: then Reorder Blocks.

 

Those 4 options are generally all you need to optimize your mesh. You can try the Optimize: Stripify all TriShapes if you like but it can sometimes reverse normals which screws things up. Always to the above 4 first and save your file, before trying that.

 

Sometimes the size will go down a bit but not always. Don't worry about the file size as it doesn't really have any bearing on the mesh being optimized.

 

Cheers :)

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  • 1 month later...
Guest ThatOne

As I am unable to edit my first post, I'll continue here. If any moderator wants to integrate this into the main post, please feel free to do so.

 

Making an animated static out of a rigged mesh - NiGeometryMorph:

Note: It's a bad idea to attempt this with a complex animation. You have been warned!

Note #2: It's also a terrible idea to use this with an overly-complicated rig (such as the lovers tentacle girl).

 

 

What we'll be doing is making a static mesh, then add shapekeys to it. To start, click on your fully animated rigged mesh and make sure you are on frame one.

Go to objects -> scripts -> Apply Deformation.

You'll notice a static copy of your rigged mesh has been created. We'll need one for each DIFFERENT keyframe. So, if keyframes 1 and 21 are the same, we only need one.

 

When you have all the different copies (it's a good idea to move them around so that they don't block your view) select the first static mesh and move to buttons view. You'll notice the mesh is still rigged, so you'll have to remove ALL the vertex groups.

I'm not entirely sure if you have to remove them all from each mesh, or only the base (the first), but better safe than sorry I always say.

 

Now, for the shapekeys:

Select the base, then select the next static mesh. Move to edit mode.

Hit Mesh -> Scripts -> Deform to rvk. It'll ask you if you want to add a shapekey. Hit yes.

It'll then ask you if you want to replace verts. Hit no.

Next it'll ask you if you want to place the new shapekey at a different frame. Select yes and input the correct frame.

 

 

At this point it might just repeat the above questions. Move your mouse away and it should stop.

You'll notice there were two keys created (apart from base). We only need one, so delete the other.

 

Now, you'll notice there's a slider for each shapekey. You'll need to move it to 1 at the frame you inputted, and 0 on either of the other frames. For example:

We have shapekeys at frames 1, 11 and 21. Shapekey 11 will be set to 1 at frame 11 and 0 at frames 1 and 21.

You CAN use a shapekey multiple times, just remember to drag it to zero on either side of the frame you wish to set it to one.

 

Repeat for every other shapekey you wish created.

 

Exporting:

Normally if you wish to use it as a "static mesh" for a pose or an LPK animation, OR export geometry + animation, AND only animation for use with playgroup or playidle.

 

 

If there are any questions, please feel free to ask.

Similarly, if you would like me to add pictures, I can do so.

 

Tying this with LPK:

Apart from the ability to add sex toys, animated chains and whatever else, this could also be a way to add group sex to LPK.

However, it will require a fair bit of scripting and I'm not sure if anyone is interested enough... Or if it's even possible.

 

For group sex, it needs a check for the number of the creature on script start, disable the creatures, set correct animation number and re-enable on finish. It might require a bit more to make sure items don't disappear, but that's minor).

 

Of course, it will work without that, but then the extra creatures will appear "from no-where" and disappear after the animation ends, and I'm sure that'll turn off most people.

 

Just thought I'd throw it out here, in case anyone is interested and thinks he can make the scripts.

I know I can't.

 

 

-TO

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  • 1 month later...
Guest ThatOne

Just now realized I forgot to mention a part of the post-export process.... Not that anyone ever reads this (otherwise this issue would have been reported and I would have corrected it earlier)... :(

 

Anyway, this should be done immediately after you complete everything under the "Animating" spoiler in the first post.

Every animation exported in Blender will need to be raised 67.414 on the Z-axis. This appears to be the height of a standard actor. Also, exported animations seem to be rotated 90 degrees to the right for some reason.

 

Correcting both of those is easy; open your kf with nifskope, click the first entry (if you renamed it already, "SpecialIdle_CastSelf").

In "Block Details", find the "Controlled Blocks". Expand this.

You'll notice that each bone is listed there, along with it's number. You are looking for "Bip01 NonAccum". When you find it, expand it. You'll notice it opens a list of entries, one of which is the interpolator. Click the blue arrow next to it, which will automatically select the bone entry for Bip01 NonAccum. Expand it, and click the NiTransformData.

Back to Block Data, you will need to change two things:

-In "Translation" you will need to reduce every entry's Z-axis by 67.414.

-In "Quaternion Keys", you'll need to increase every entry's A (if going by Axis) value by 90, or R value (if going by euler). Nifskope automatically selects Axis A to edit when you double-click, so just increase it by 90 and you are set.

 

Almost done. Go back to the first entry in Block List. Down to the controlled blocks, now you are looking for " Bip01". It has a space before it, and it's the shortest entry on the list (possibly along with Quiver).

When you found it, you need to DECREASE each of it's Quaternion Keys' A (Axis) or R (Euler) value by 90.

 

Your animation should now work correctly.

 

Note: If you re-import the animation into blender it will be 6.7414 higher on the Z-axis for obvious reasons. It will be fine on re-export (unless you change it, in which case you'll have to change it again).

 

-TO

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Well I guess that's why *some* animation make me sink into the ground about half. Eh.. I don't think all the animations need to be adjusted after export as I've ever modified many standard animation with no problem but definitely I've seen such animations. Thank you very much.

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Guest ThatOne

Modifying an animation that worked fine will *not* require you to modify it again. Only exporting the first time.

Also, if you raise the actor's Z-axis value by 6.7414 in blender before exporting, you will not need to modify it in nifskope.

 

Generally, XYZ values in Blender are ten times the values in Oblivion (you may have noticed that, on exporting, you have the option to correct the value scale by 10. It's on by default).

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  • 5 weeks later...
Guest ThatOne

I'm bored and drunk, so it's time to update this seemingly pointless thread that apparently nobody reads for no logical reason whatsoever.

 

Creating a LPK animation:

Lovers animations are idles. Nothing new there, so go ahead and import the bodies and skeletons you wish to work with, then animate them. When you have an animation you are satisfied with, export it normally.

 

If you have added any furniture, you will want to remove it's collision box (and any markers it may have). If you moved it, go to objects -> scripts -> apply deformation. It's not absolutely necessary (the object will still function even if you don't), but it's cleaner that way.

 

Perform the post-export process as described in the first post and post #16 (set it to SpecialIdle, raise the Z-axis by 67.414, rotate to avoid the 90 degree bug). Creatures do not need to have their Z-axis raised, nor do they have to be rotated (you still need to set their animation to SpecialIdle).

 

Remember that each LPK animation has four stages. You can make four copies of your animation for test purposes, or go back and make three more different animations right now. Your choice.

 

 

Now, registering the animation:

-For actors, it's pretty straightforward; find an unused animation number, or if you have none decide which animation you wish to overwrite. You'll need some ini, so copy a standard one and make changes after testing it in-game.

 

Pretty sure there is a way to know the settings the ini should have, but I never bothered to find out (testing in-game seems more practical).

 

-For creatures, it's slightly different. With Lovers Creature v2, you can mostly get away with a single ini edit, as long as you haven't filled every animation slot for that creature. If you have, you can either overwrite one of your current animations or add new slots to the esp (Which I won't explain here).

You can find a complete list of available animation numbers on the Lovers Creature thread, as well as how to register yours.

 

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Guest ThatOne

While this could probably work, it is entirely unnecessary.

 

You are making it harder to animate for no actual gain ("roughly" and "about"?). I suggest checking post #16 in this very thread (which you quite obviously did not do), as it explains how all that can be done AFTER exporting with minimal effort and perfect precession.

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Guest ThatOne

O.K., seriously?

 

First things first, I use the full version of Growlf's skeleton to animate. That, I believe, is a "fully rigged armature". Yes, I sort it by hand. No, I don't use bake constraints. I don't find it useful for the animations that I make. If someone asked me for help with that, I would have answered them in a PM.

This guide does not cover constraints. It's for beginners. Please point out one place you've seen me mention constraints.

 

Secondly, the value "6.7414" is only correct for blender. If you would have actually bothered checking my posts you'd notice I said it's 67.414 in Oblivion - the values are multiplied by ten (and blender does that automatically for you).

 

Thirdly, I never said the value is to be set to 67.414. I said one has to add that value to the Z-axis, which is an entirely different thing; if your character is sitting, then you lowered the Z-axis value by a certain amount. If you add 67.414 to it (or 6.7414 if you are editing it in Blender), you will notice it reaches ground level in Oblivion.

 

About setting the height your way: trust me, I've animated long enough to know all those tricks. I don't find them appropriate for beginners - which, again, this guide is aimed at. If you feel that everyone who just starts out with animating has to do it your way then please feel free to start your own guide, in your own thread, and not hijack mine while saying I'm wrong.

 

Thank you for your time.

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