New to animation

[Ayaban]

Hi everyone, so i tried to create my first animation, but i have some issue that i would like some advices if possible.

 

The first is timing, like how much frame for one move, i tried to calculate with a move of myself, but i think i'm not quite there yet. 

And secondly, it would be for the sound, i use TS4 sound tool to hear what would be nice, but in the animation, i find it (not for all) quite bad. And when you choose a sound in TS4 sound tool, you have multiple choice, how to choose one specificly ? 

 

And i have two question :

For an animation who have multiple type (one at a time) you put them all in the same XML with the next stage ... or you do one XML/type ?

 

For an animation on a bed for exemple, do you use a rig of a bed ? Or do you use an offset ? For me an offset would be quite hard to have a perfect animation ? 

 

Thanks for reading, and for your futur answers

[elys19]

2 hours ago, Ayaban said:

Hi everyone, so i tried to create my first animation, but i have some issue that i would like some advices if possible.

 

The first is timing, like how much frame for one move, i tried to calculate with a move of myself, but i think i'm not quite there yet. 

The number of frames depends very much on the movement you want to animate.

I found that pressing "play" in blender while mentally visualising the movement you want to animate and then pressing "stop" when it´s finished (in your mind, heh) should give you a rough idea of its duration in frames. It sounds obvious but it seems to work well enough.

 

2 hours ago, Ayaban said:

And secondly, it would be for the sound, i use TS4 sound tool to hear what would be nice, but in the animation, i find it (not for all) quite bad. And when you choose a sound in TS4 sound tool, you have multiple choice, how to choose one specificly ? 

I´d actually like to know this too... if there is a way to use a specific variant of a sound, that is.

 

2 hours ago, Ayaban said:

For an animation on a bed for exemple, do you use a rig of a bed ? Or do you use an offset ? For me an offset would be quite hard to have a perfect animation ? 

For that you import a bed in blender, design your animation around it, then of course you delete it before you export the animation (unless you´ve animated the bed as well, in which case you save the bed´s animation like you would save any other rig, and then add its clip name after <T n="object_animation_clip_name"> in the XML).

I wouldn´t use the offset functions in the XML, it seems generally unnecessary to me except for a few particular cases.

 

2 hours ago, Ayaban said:

For an animation who have multiple type (one at a time) you put them all in the same XML with the next stage ... or you do one XML/type ?

I´m not sure if I understood this question; if you mean that, f.ex.: stage 1 should be followed by stage 2 and so on, then copy the <T n="animation_stage_name"> of stage 2, and paste it after <T n="animation_next_stages"> in stage 1.

 

By the way, I´m not sure if it´s stated clearly anywhere, but (assuming you´re using the commented version of the XML) you add animations by copying the code from:

<U> <!-- [START OF ANIMATION ENTRY] -->

to

</U> <!-- [END OF ANIMATION ENTRY] -->

and paste it where it says

<!-- Next Animation Goes Here -->

and then update it for your new stage/animation.

 

You never need more than one XML, unless you want to create separate animation packages.

 

That said, I´m not very good at explaining things and I´m not an expert by any means, so hopefully someone more knowledgeable can give you more accurate answers.

[Ayaban]

Thanks Elis for the reply, it help me quite a lot.

For the frame, yeah, i will try it, it doesn't cost anything, actually, i do 30 frame for a move (1s real time) it's the time i do for a move, but every move we do doesn't take 1s x)

Quote

I´d actually like to know this too... if there is a way to use a specific variant of a sound, that is.

For me if it's audible, there should be a way to use it.

 

Quote

For that you import a bed in blender, design your animation around it, then of course you delete it before you export the animation (unless you´ve animated the bed as well, in which case you save the bed´s animation like you would save any other rig, and then add its clip name after <T n="object_animation_clip_name"> in the XML).

I wouldn´t use the offset functions in the XML, it seems generally unnecessary to me except for a few particular cases.

Sorry, but for importing the bed, the rig is on the net or in the folder of the game ? For the rig or male/female i used the one provided on the tuto whicked whims so i don't really know were to find them

 

And for the xml file, yeah sorry, i'm not english native so i can have a lot a mistake in my words, but yeah you answered me on that.

 

So thanks a lot for answering my questions

 

[elys19]

13 minutes ago, Ayaban said:

Sorry, but for importing the bed, the rig is on the net or in the folder of the game ? For the rig or male/female i used the one provided on the tuto whicked whims so i don't really know were to find them

You do that using Sims 4 Studio, it´s explained well here:

https://turbodriver.itch.io/wickedwhims/devlog/137369/exporting-objects-from-the-sims-4-5

[Ayaban]

Okay ! Thanks, just a question, if you took a bed for exemple, do some action with it, does it aply for every bed (same type) or just for the one you've chosen ?

[elys19]

48 minutes ago, Ayaban said:

Okay ! Thanks, just a question, if you took a bed for exemple, do some action with it, does it aply for every bed (same type) or just for the one you've chosen ?

It would apply to every bed of the same category (single or double).

[Ayaban]

Okay, thanks a lot.

 

I have a new issue .... I did a second animation, who have to go after the first one, i did the XML, but none of the animation appear in game, i have done the copy past u => u, have no problem with a u who doesn't have his /u same for every other letter, i did the next stage, but nothing, is there a spécial tip for that ? Something i could have forgot ? i checked everything but nothing is out of line for me

[elys19]

32 minutes ago, Ayaban said:

Okay, thanks a lot.

 

I have a new issue .... I did a second animation, who have to go after the first one, i did the XML, but none of the animation appear in game, i have done the copy past u => u, have no problem with a u who doesn't have his /u same for every other letter, i did the next stage, but nothing, is there a spécial tip for that ? Something i could have forgot ? i checked everything but nothing is out of line for me

This could be for a number of reasons.

If you post your .package file I can try to take a look, but I can´t promise anything, as I said I´m not particularly expert at this. Although maybe someone better will see it and find the issue.

[Ayaban]

So, i tried multiple things since yesterday, i looked at other xml file, it wasn't <u> but <T> i tried remplacing, nothing, i tried doing the xml again entirely, nothing. Since i'm out of idea, i post the file, if you find something, wrong, i would be happy to know it  

Hey see that blow_Teasing.package

[elys19]

Ok, I didn´t see anything in the XML (which doesn´t mean it isn´t there, maybe I´m just blind) that should prevent it from appearing in game, but I noticed that the clipnames go from set_1 to set_4, and it´s 2 stages with 2 actors each.

I´m (kind of) sure that you should save stages separately in Sims 4 Studio.

 

What I mean is:

1) import male and female .blend files for the first animation in S4Studio > save > in S4PE extract the clips from the file you just created, then import them to your .package;

2) then repeat the whole thing for the second stage/animation.

 

This way you end with (random numbers, just an example):

 

yourname:PosePack_112353552352314_set_1

yourname:PosePack_112353552352314_set_2

 

and for the other stage:

 

yourname:PosePack_227445457457457_set_1

yourname:PosePack_227445457457457_set_2

 

But this is just what I would try, so no guarantees.

[Ayaban]

Okay, i honestly thought of trying that, but didn't, so i will try it now 

[Ayaban]

Okay so, i did what you say, but still not working, so i decided to go on xmlvalidation.com and it say it's no good, and the error was at the end, the comment "End of animation" the -- was not accepted, i deleted the line, and it work nicely. Now i need to do sound, but i'm on an animation to continue the one already done, so i finish it, add sound, then i will post the package to have some feedback on it

 

So Elys, thanks a lot for all your help !

[elys19]

What... ok, I´d have never thought of that.

Well, what matters is that it´s working now, and no problem, I learnt something too.

[Ayaban]

Yeah, it's not obvious at all nobody can imagine a comment can fuck up the all thing