Bidirectional animation converter between Skyrim and Fallout 4

[NCK30]

50 minutes ago, Holylokki said:

SAM doesn't work when you need to edit the position of arms and legs during motion. This is because SAM applies a single coordinate offset to all animation frames. However, correct limb movement in animation requires separate adjustments for each keyframe. And in baked HKX animation, this means every frame. So editing in 3dsmax/blender is essential.
However, there are certain issues when using 3dsmax. The data structure of HKX animations exported from a converter or blender doesn't match the expectations of the Havok 3ds Max Plugin. 3dsmax crashes with an error when attempting to load the animation.

 

This sounds correct. If it's the motions themselves that are the problem then You need the source Max/Blender file.

Or if You are really patient You could use hkxposer. But that is shit compared to 3DSMax or Blender.


Actors also need to be the same height or there will allignment issues. Do You have a "Setscale" console command in Fallout?



Editing a premade hkx animation has always been the bane of Skyrim. It is actually much easier to make your own.

 

Originally I planned on editing Skyrim idle poses. But You could simply not import them properly. So I made my own instead and learned something.


I still regret that I could not do something about the bed idle when they go to sleep. Something was off with the placement of things.

I could have made that idle 10 times hotter.
 

Edited June 18 by NCK30

[poblivion]

@dagobaking   I noticed that this tool does something similar. I also noticed that there is a mention of you "Major credit for this work goes to DagobaKing and PredatorCZ."

Is there also the problem with misalignment?      

https://github.com/BadDogSkyrim/PyNifly/releases/tag/V25.5

[Holylokki]

59 minutes ago, NCK30 said:

Actors also need to be the same height or there will allignment issues. Do You have a "Setscale" console command in Fallout?

The setscale function exists. SCRS successfully solves the problem of correctly scaling actors based on animation settings.

 

1 hour ago, NCK30 said:

Editing a premade hkx animation has always been the bane of Skyrim. It is actually much easier to make your own.

I don't know how this is implemented in Blender. In 3dsMax, using the 3dsMax Havok Import Script, CAT-Rig as a skeleton controller, and CAT animation layers significantly simplifies editing baked animation. In fact, you can work with keyframes on a CAT animation adjustment layer just like when creating a new animation.
For example, if you need to synchronize the position of one actor's hand on another actor's hip, you can simply create an adjustment animation layer, enable IK on it, adjust the hand position, and link its movement to the hip position using a link constraint. And that's it.
But animations converted from Skyrim don't import into 3dsMax. The same goes for RohZima animations made in Blender. In fact, I can export an animation from 3dsMax in such a way that it won't import into 3dsMax. It's just a matter of changing one setting in Havok, lol. The animation will still play in-game without errors. Unfortunately, this is a limitation of the Havok 3ds Max Plugin.

[dagobaking]

On 6/18/2026 at 10:29 AM, poblivion said:

@dagobaking   I noticed that this tool does something similar. I also noticed that there is a mention of you "Major credit for this work goes to DagobaKing and PredatorCZ."

Is there also the problem with misalignment?      

https://github.com/BadDogSkyrim/PyNifly/releases/tag/V25.5

 

I haven't had a chance to test this yet. But, sounds pretty cool.

 

I suspect that it's a very direct transfer of the motions onto the skeleton. In other words, it won't be aligned if motion is applied to a different skeleton.

 

If it does somehow fix alignment between skeletons I would really like to see it and learn how.

[Allnarta]

On 6/18/2026 at 8:29 PM, poblivion said:

@dagobaking   I noticed that this tool does something similar. I also noticed that there is a mention of you "Major credit for this work goes to DagobaKing and PredatorCZ."

Is there also the problem with misalignment?      

https://github.com/BadDogSkyrim/PyNifly/releases/tag/V25.5

 

Nifly is plugin to work with Skyrim/Fallout 4 files (nif, hkx), it does not port animations between Skyrim/F4. It's basically niftools for newer games that is in active development.

[poblivion]

1 hour ago, Allnarta said:

 

Nifly is plugin to work with Skyrim/Fallout 4 files (nif, hkx), it does not port animations between Skyrim/F4. It's basically niftools for newer games that is in active development.

Thanks for the info, I thought it could convert animations directly from Skyrim format to Fallout 4, similar to what can be done with nif files.

[Allnarta]

25 minutes ago, poblivion said:

Thanks for the info, I thought it could convert animations directly from Skyrim format to Fallout 4, similar to what can be done with nif files.

 

I think you technically can export animation imported from one game, to another, but most likely it will be a mess.

[judge007]

Hi

 

I found a way to make a dramatic improvement in Hand/arm position in most of the animations I converted.

 

If any would like to try, Here is one pack, with @Billyy's permission he granted earlier.

This still has issues but is usable, but not for general gameplay.

 

The change I made was to not use the reference to AAF.xsd, but to point it to a copy of common.xsd from UAP, renamed to Billyy.xsd

The change in hand/arm position is startling.

My skills in Blender are still sub-amateurish at best so if this helps anyone else, good.

Billyy_Human_FO4.7z

[NCK30]

1 hour ago, judge007 said:

Hi

 

I found a way to make a dramatic improvement in Hand/arm position in most of the animations I converted.

 

If any would like to try, Here is one pack, with @Billyy's permission he granted earlier.

This still has issues but is usable, but not for general gameplay.

 

The change I made was to not use the reference to AAF.xsd, but to point it to a copy of common.xsd from UAP, renamed to Billyy.xsd

The change in hand/arm position is startling.

My skills in Blender are still sub-amateurish at best so if this helps anyone else, good.

Billyy_Human_FO4.7z 13.43 MB · 1 download

 

Got any previews? - A pic or 2.

[judge007]

13 minutes ago, NCK30 said:

 

Got any previews? - A pic or 2.

Sorry it never crossed my mind.

[judge007]

On 7/9/2026 at 9:52 AM, NCK30 said:

 

Got any previews? - A pic or 2.

Now I have some, lol

Not all animations in the pack are as good, some are better.

Before making the change to XML schema, they were nowhere near as close.

 

 







 

Edited July 11 by judge007
bad spoiler tags . . .

[judge007]

On 7/9/2026 at 9:52 AM, NCK30 said:

 

Got any previews? - A pic or 2.

BTW are your animations permitted for conversion, they are very nice.

[NCK30]

3 hours ago, judge007 said:

BTW are your animations permitted for conversion, they are very nice.

 

Sure. Just credit me. And they should be public or private (Your choice). Just no money making.

If I ever get into Fallout it would be nice to see these packs.

[NCK30]

3 hours ago, judge007 said:

Now I have some, lol

Not all animations in the pack are as good, some are better.

Before making the change to XML schema, they were nowhere near as close.

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 







 
 

 

 

 

Not bad. I hope that at some point You will make them look like the original.

[Holylokki]

On 3/11/2026 at 11:51 AM, dagobaking said:

B) There is a Blender script included with this tool that adds an animation to the Blender rig I made (on AAF Discord). From there, you can adjust the animation as needed and re-compile the hkx.

So, since the converted animations wouldn't load in 3dsmax, I decided to try creating a working environment for them in Blender. And the results were quite mixed.
I'll give one animation by Billyy, "B Beh2 S1," as an example:

 

Spoiler

 

It looks fine in the game. It might not even need editing. The actors' feet are on the floor, and the actress's pevis bone is actively moving.
But when I load this animation into Blender, I get a completely different result:

 

Spoiler

 

The actors are floating in the air, which isn't a problem in itself. The problem is that the actors' pevis bones are practically motionless. I tried loading different animations, and they all ended up with the same thing—an incorrect pevis animation.
What does this mean? It's easier to create a new animation from scratch than to try to edit this one. Because the pevis movement is crucial when creating an animation. And if it needs to be animated again, then all the other animation will have to be done again.

 

I may be wrong, but at the moment I don't see a way to edit converted animations.

 

P.S. Interestingly, the converted animation, passed through Blender, can be loaded into 3dsmax, although in this state it also makes no sense.

Edited July 15 by Holylokki

[RoadG]

On 7/11/2026 at 7:27 AM, judge007 said:

Now I have some, lol

Not all animations in the pack are as good, some are better.

Before making the change to XML schema, they were nowhere near as close.

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 







 
 

 

 

I'd like to see them posted. They look good

[judge007]

1 hour ago, RoadG said:

I'd like to see them posted. They look good

They were actually posted earlier in this thread.

They cannot be considered to be ready for play.

My skills with Blender and animations cannot be thought of as anything but rudimentary.

[Holylokki]

On 7/15/2026 at 2:05 AM, Holylokki said:

P.S. Interestingly, the converted animation, passed through Blender, can be loaded into 3dsmax, although in this state it also makes no sense.

Additional information.
I found out that processing hkx animation files with F4AK_HKXPack makes it impossible to load them into 3dsmax using the Havok Max plugin, even if no changes were made to the xml file. This explains why animations created by the converter cannot be edited in 3dsmax.