ANIMATORS WANTED! WEREWOLF FIX!

[Seeker87]

Hello Lover's Lab. I'm seeking an experienced animator in the Skyrim modding scene to help with a big problem we are struggling with. I've come here because I have heard that the best animators for Skyrim live at Lover's Lab. So I thought I'd post here as I am seeking help. Myself and one other have joined forces to try and fix the spazzy right leg of the Werewolf when it sprints. We have all the required files and programs we know of, and can get the animations loaded into 3DS MAX 2018, but we cannot fix the issue All we do is find more trouble. Neither of us know how to animate.
If you have the time, I'd love if you could jump over to the posts on this mod page: https://www.nexusmod...tion/mods/23996 and just have a look at what we've been doing and where we are up to (you'll see our convo on the subject, it is rather long). We are out of our depth but would really love to see this bug in the game fixed as we both play as Werewolves but keep being taken out of the game by this issue. I hope you can have a look and maybe even help fix this for us

Thank you for your time.

[SirNibbles]

First of, I'm no experienced animator. I know some basics but the background tasks are mostly an unknown place for me too.

 

I've looked at it for a bit and this issue is usually caused by stretching issues with the bones. I couldn't find any problems with the skeleton.nif using 3DS Max but it can be caused later on in the keyframed animation. My current 3DS Max doesn't support importing .hkx files, and I've never really understood how to properly import .kf files either. 

What you can try to use in Blender since you've stated you're using that program is to reset the "bone stretch".

I can't say for sure this fixes it for you but that problem you're showing in your video looks exactly like one I've encountered a couple of times whilst animating in 3DS Max.

 

But then again I'm no expert, maybe some of the other animators here can help you more with this problem.

 

Good luck with fixing it.

[Seeker87]

Thanks for the reply, I'll relay your info to the page we're discussing it on and see what they think.

[Seeker87]

UPDATE:

There's a file up on this mod page under 'Optionals' titled 'Vanilla Werewolf Sprint Fix (Experimental) that seems to have fixed the spazzy leg. However the camera shakes wildly when the animation plays in game. Neither the author nor myself know what is wrong. If anyone knows what that is about and can help, I'd greatly appreciate it.

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/23996?tab=files

[MadMansGun]

On 4/17/2019 at 7:07 AM, Seeker87 said:

MAX 2018

Max 2010 is the best one to use.

 

51 minutes ago, Seeker87 said:

However the camera shakes wildly when the animation plays in game

it sounds like the camera node got messed up or was possibly missing from the scene, another possibility is a bad node list that has linked the camera to the wrong node.

[Seeker87]

Thanks for the response MadMansGun! I wonder, could you take a look at the animation bug?

[MadMansGun]

10 hours ago, Seeker87 said:

Thanks for the response MadMansGun! I wonder, could you take a look at the animation bug?

there are actually many layers to this problem:

1. the werewolf skeleton.nif that Bethesda shipped with the game does not match the skeleton.hkx, this means they made the animations for a different skeleton to what we have now (i assume it was a edited FO3 Deathclaw skeleton or something).

2. since the skeletons don't match the originals it can cause calculation problems with some nodes (eg: the camera nodes if they have a animation) when converting the animation hkx files into kf files (and possibly vice versa).

3. i imported the animation and the camera nodes are indeed allover the place and not where they should be.

4. the original animation is definitely fucked up, they must of had a bad ik solver setup on that leg for it to be so bad (that or a calculation error caused by the change in skeletons). the leg looks a bit off in some other walking animations as well.

 

in my opinion it would be best to just make the animation/s from scratch.

 

here are some random old notes on things that may come in useful:

Spoiler

 

https://www.loverslab.com/topic/60847-dragon-animations-creature-on-creature/?do=findComment&comment=1992036

(applies to max 2010) but don't use version 3.8.0 of the Nif plugin, there is something wrong with it, use "niftools-max-plugins-371"
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/5622/?

this video was helpful to me when i first started:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSov-T-duBA

 

 

https://www.loverslab.com/topic/60847-dragon-animations-creature-on-creature/?do=findComment&comment=1999810

the pelvis is a bit tricky sometimes:

the legs (and sometimes tail) will rotate with it when the legs don't have ik solvers, i turn on the "angle snap toggle" when i'm working on the pelvis & legs so that i can move the legs back by the exact same amount i move the pelvis.

for selecting the pelvis (and not the com node) i use the "manage layers" window, find the pelvis in the list and click on it's name, then click on the small box that has a picture of a moues cursor on it, you will now have the pelvis selected.

but on some creatures (mostly dragons) the pelvis node just acts like another com node, so it's mostly useless.

 

 

https://www.loverslab.com/topic/60847-dragon-animations-creature-on-creature/?do=findComment&comment=2000037

note: the com & pelvis nodes are not the same thing, but they do occupy the same space in the skeleton.

edit: ah shit that reminds me, since your going to the "Bone Tools" menu anyways: select all nodes (and only nodes) and set "Stretch" to none, then click on* "Reset Stretch" and "Reset Scale", this will prevent some problems when the time comes to export your animations.

*but NEVER click on "Realign", that one will fuck things up big time.

 

 

https://www.loverslab.com/topic/60847-dragon-animations-creature-on-creature/?do=findComment&comment=2000104

don't forget to make some backup copies of your work (and maybe even backups of your backups), i always do and it has saved me in the past a few times.

3ds max makes a temporary backup every few minutes (i think around 15 min), they will come in handy if max ever crashes when you had unsaved work. they can be found here if you ever need them (file path depending on OS):
C:\Documents and Settings\usernamehere\My Documents\3dsMax\autoback

 

 

https://www.loverslab.com/topic/69162-centaur-in-the-works-fully-functional-update-04052017-nexus-link-pg-1/?do=findComment&comment=1732389

some tips you may or may not know:
the save/load animation can be used to copy the selected nodes animation only.
but be warned, it can only be applied to nodes of the same name...so keep than in mind if using the "Rename Objects" tool.

if you hold down Ctrl on your keyboard you can select multiple objects with your mouse by clicking on them.
that's not just for 3ds max, it works in other programs and windows itself.

you can copy keyframes by selecting them on the time bar* and then hold down Shift, as you are holding down shift drag the keyframes with you mouse, you will now be dragging a copy of the selected keyframes.

there is a useful hidden tool for the time bar*, right click on the time bar* and go to configure, and then click on "Show Selection Range"
with this you can "change time" if you have multiple (eg: all) keyframes selected, just click and drag the white arrows. (edit: they sometimes show up as white rectangles instead)
it comes in useful if you want to speed up, slow down or even reverse the animation.

 
*i don't know the real name of it

 

 

https://www.loverslab.com/topic/69162-centaur-in-the-works-fully-functional-update-04052017-nexus-link-pg-1/?do=findComment&comment=1808176

don't move the root node, it should stay at X=0 Y=0 Z=0.

select the root node and click on the "Animation" drop down menu, then select "Bone Tools".
scroll down in the Bone Tools menu and uncheck "Freeze Length" and "Auto-Align", the com node will now be unlocked and usable.