Animation Tutorial For Skyrim NEAT! (SE WIP)

[Bubbajones_ya]

So it's been a while. My computer's SSD failed, and my house has had a bit of issues so I've been out of the modding scene and my computer for quite a while. However, I got a new SSD and am reinstalling everything, trying to get things set up again and all my programs etc in order. 

 

I'm not going to say it's super soon I'll be working on this tutorial again since I have a bit of stuff to reconfigure and re-do, but when I get back to the point where I'm animating again, I'm going to flesh this out some more! I hope it's been helpful while it's been up. 

 

I have yet to try it yet Vortec, but I saw you posted a link to a new nif plugin for blender that should allow importing vanilla skyrim animations into blender? If so, that would be very helpful and I'll try and add that to the tutorial when I get back at it!

[Bananaman08]

Probably a stupid question but it's hard to find out anything related to animation in Skyrim as a newb to Blender, but if I wanted to make an animation involving another actor do I simply just import a other female/male.blend? And as for creatures is there premade blend files for animating or do I gotta rig my own ones?

[SureFerret]

Do you have any tips for the animation parts ? Because i don't know if you can like : add both character and animate them together or if you have to do them one by one i which cas it must be hell to align them. It was more what i was looking for. Nice tutorial anyway.

 

Edit : Or if you can add nif file into blender or if there isn't anyway. In this case, do you have to animate diffrently according to the type of body ? (i use CBBE).

[OpheliaComplex]

If you are using blender 2.8+ and want to be able to export animations with Antons toolpack for blender 2.7

They have changed a bit how you refer to actively selected bones in the render view in scripts, because of this the script no longer lets you export animations in blender 2.8+

 

To fix it, you have to change two lines in the script used inside blender.

 

line  71 should be changed from "SelectedObject = bpy.context.scene.objects.active" to:

"SelectedObject = bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active"

 

And again on line 368, change it to:

"SelectedObject = bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active"

 

After this you can export animations just fine with blender 2.8+ (and its miles better than <2.8 imo)

[daknin]

Hopefully this won't be abandoned because it's practically impossible to get a version of 3ds max that works for animating in Skyrim anymore. So unfortunately, all the other animation tutorials are obsolete for new modders. This is the only one new modders can refer to anymore so, thank you for your hard work!

[Erroticx]

I will definitely agree with @daknin as I'm really interested in cranking out some animations with Blender.

 

Great tutorial. The next update, you should show us how to rig the skeleton within the blender file, that's the only real trouble I'm having. ?

[Bluegunk]

My big problem is BubbasJones' tutorial broke off at the point I need help on: using the FNIS structure to add your custom animation into the game.

I've read Fore's guide until I am blue in the face but I cannot grasp what he's telling me.   

[timstertimster2]

Been a while - I am not sure why animation tutorials are so incredibly hard to come by, but here is my cliff notes, it works in late 2022.

If anyone has knowledge on a more efficient way, I'd like to know. 

 

CREATE BLENDER ANIMATION

1. open the "UNP.blend" file

2. set animation length in playback window

3. animate in dope sheet

4. run the script, watch the blue "play" button become grey to know it's finished

 

FIND THE OUTPUT FILE:

5. in "tool" folder lands the "empty_new.kf" file from that blender script

6. run "convert.bat" and type "KFmaker.exe empty.kf zBoneKeys.txt" in the command prompt

7. find the generated "empty_new.hkx"

 

CONVERT HKX TO SE 64bit

8. copy "empty_new.hkx" to {{steam SE-install}}/tools/havokbehaviorpostprocess

9. run the "converttoskyrimSE.bat" (double click, it will batch process all .hkx files in the folder, windows doesn't always update time stamp)

10. copy and rename to a game/mod animations folder as needed

[timstertimster2]

Side rant: it's really a bummer when mod authors who made great mods/tutorials hide their description pages.  luckily thewaybackmachine had a snapshot of it.

[Jyratx]

On 9/1/2022 at 5:52 PM, timstertimster2 said:

Side rant: it's really a bummer when mod authors who made great mods/tutorials hide their description pages.  luckily thewaybackmachine had a snapshot of it.

But it never had a snapshot of the files tab before the page was hidden, so they can never be downloaded unless the author unhides it. Total bullshit. Especially for someone like me, who's completely new to animating, and looking for all the guides/tutorials I can get. And even this tutorial is sorely lacking in various details, such as how to select bones to be moved, how to add a second actor, how to add creatures, so on... all the little details that my stupid, autistic ape-brain needs to even begin to comprehend what I'm doing.