[Help] Potential werewolf lipsync animation

[TealEri]

First of all, I posted a topic with the same subject on the Nexus forums, but so far no one has offered help in this regard, so I'm seeking out someone who is more experienced in working with Skyrim's animation files on this site.

I've been trying to find a way to implement phoneme mapping to the werewolf race.. I started out by grabbing the phoneme animation files for the hagraven race, converting them to .kf followed by vast editing in NifSkope to make them affect only the jaw bone of the werewolf. So when I converted them back to .hkx using the werewolf skeleton.hkx and testing them in the Creation Kit, the model looked all crumbled up as if the converter had saved rotation/translation data for the whole skeleton, and that's not what I wanted. I would've wanted the hkx converter to only save data for the jaw bone.

 

If someone would manage to export these .kf files as I intended, I would be grateful.

Second, how would I be supposed to implement the animations to "react" to a talking werewolf NPC in the CK?

 

No one ever talks about this, and I am a sucker for small but "realistic" details like this. Especially since there is an instance where Sinding talks in his werewolf form during the Ill Met By Moonlight quest.

infolder_by_cinnamewroll-dcwqfu3.zip

[vex714]

That'd be something, I got this one spell mod that turns any NPC into a werewolf, voice and all. https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/57670/

 

lip-syncing would be kinda cool.

[MadMansGun]

i don't know how to do lipsync stuff but be careful when working with the werewolf skeleton, it's nif does not match the hkx.

there are nodes listed in the stock skeleton.hkx that do not even exist in the stock skeleton.nif, i had to make some fake nodes to get my SexLab animations to export right, without them my werewolf animations would get spaghettified.

[TealEri]

@vex714 Cool idea! I'd personally use AFT to grant vanilla-based followers my "gift" of lycanthropy.

 

@MadMansGun Sent you a PM

[MadMansGun]

2 hours ago, TealEri said:

.

well so far phoneme_dst gives me a "improper format" error if i try to import it, and phoneme_r seems to twist the jaw all the way to the left...in the most horrifying way possible.

 

most of the others just look like the same animation with the jaw sliding back and forward a bit with small differences...so i assume they are mostly fine (i don't know what they should look like), but my test export gave me a different NiTextKeyExtraData compared to yours:

you have "value= start" for time 0.000

i got "value= start -name phoneme_bigaah -at y" for time 0.000

 

phoneme_bigaah.kf

i don't know if that effects anything.

[TealEri]

I made some fixes to some of the files you mentioned, try these. Would it be possible for you to export them to hkx using a "fake" skeleton like you mentioned in your previous post?

infolder.zip

[MadMansGun]

5 hours ago, TealEri said:

I made some fixes to some of the files you mentioned, try these. Would it be possible for you to export them to hkx using a "fake" skeleton like you mentioned in your previous post?

infolder.zip

that may take a bit of time but ill see what i can do.

[TealEri]

35 minutes ago, MadMansGun said:

that may take a bit of time but ill see what i can do.

Sure thing, mate.

[MadMansGun]

54 minutes ago, TealEri said:

.

export.7z

[TealEri]

2 hours ago, MadMansGun said:

export.7z

Thanks! Turned out nicely now. But like I said, I've yet to figure out how to implement them to play on talking werewolf actors, I guess I'll try to do some further research. That said, does anyone happen to know what a creature's *project.hkx does and is there any way to examine them?

 

Edit: I found this program for Oldrim that lets you examine behaviour files, so I checked out the hagravenbehaviour.hkx, looked like plenty of data was stored in hkbBehaviourGraphStringData, including strings such as "PhonemeBlend", "LipAcc", "LipBigAah".. Now the question is if there's anyway to add those strings to the werewolf behaviour, and how it would work out ?

 

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/15906

[MadMansGun]

i don't know, you are now outside my area of knowledge, you are now in Fore's territory.

[TealEri]

I've been trying to edit the vanilla behavior file in XML format where I copypasted some assets from the hagraven behavior, rearranged some numbers, saved and converted back to hkx using Josh's Skyrim Behavior File Patcher, but still nothing happens ingame. I included the raw xml here in case anyone (experienced in behavior editing) is willing to adjust it for me.

Included the unedited hagraven XML as well, just for measure.

 

 

[TealEri]

I hope I'll find someone who is experienced in handling behaviour files, I know now that phoneme mapping is caused by a certain race's behavior file rather than the CK. This subject is far beyond my modding skills, and my first bet was to contact fore on Nexus and see if he could help me...

(sorry for the double-post)

[TealEri]

Bump again.

 

I think I'll ditch the idea of behavior editing (I must've annoyed fore with my ignorance back there). So I've been tryna do another workaround, where I saved the werewolf head as a separate nif file, and at some point I made a tri file in Blender. Right now I'm just having trouble importing the new head and tri as a head(part) in the Creation Kit, and when I try to preview it on the werewolf race, I get a CTD..  I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, is it because the werewolf race technically doesn't have a humanoid skeleton? Like does the head mesh have too many "useless" nodes that the default skeleton doesn't have?

 

Here are my files in case anyone feel like looking into it

werewolfhead.zip

 

Edit: Btw, that nif is based on SSE

[MadMansGun]

sadly you've gone from one area i know nothing about to another i know nothing about, (and the werewolf head has more nodes than the human does)

[TealEri]

34 minutes ago, MadMansGun said:

sadly you've gone from one area i know nothing about to another i know nothing about, (and the werewolf head has more nodes than the human does)

I think I have an idea... Do you have that custom skeleton.hkx that has all the necessary nodes that the nif has? Maybe you could send it to me via PM.

[MadMansGun]

32 minutes ago, TealEri said:

Do you have that custom skeleton.hkx that has all the necessary nodes that the nif has? Maybe you could send it to me via PM.

you got that reversed, it's the nif that is the problem for exporting, it was the nif that needed extra nodes.

[TealEri]

Good news everyone! I made another workaround, figured it would be easier to work with .tri files to implement facial animation.

Here's the mod, https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/22728

[MadMansGun]

yea.....but i use SLE....with MNC....and HCOS ?