animations alignment... (another thread)

[kadarn]

Hi!

 

i've been using sexlab framework and others plugins (romance,approach, lover's comfort) in the last week.

 

In the first days the alignment was perfect and i had great fun, then it started going really bad and i tried almost everything i've found in the other threads of this forum to fix it. Hotkeys for re-align won't work, and not even reset the animation registry or even clean the system options.

Then i've uninstalled sexlab and all the plugins, and then re-installed : nothing happens! so i uninstall skyrim, re-install and start a new game. All the animations work fine for a while, then the problem comes again. What is weird is that using a less recent save (of the new game i've started) the animations still work, but using the lasts they don't. So the bug is in the save file?

 

 

[darkevilhum]

No idea what's going on there but did you try the hotkey that resets the alignments to default or the hotkey that deletes custom alignments? '[' and '-' keys by default I think.

[Ashal]

Because I'm tired of seeing this question, and my adhd meds have kicked in while I'm simultaneously stubbornly refusing to start the work I actually need to be doing; here is a long indulgent over explanation you or anybody else probably doesn't care about of why it happens and how to prevent it as much as possible.

 

 

It saves every adjustment you make to animations, either on a per animation basis, or a per animation+race+gender combination basis, depending on your settings. It saves those adjustments to an external file, so simply rebuilding or reinstalling sexlab won't erase those adjustments, so people who spend a lot of time lining things up perfectly don't have to go through that process every single time sexlab resets. You can clear these adjustments by using the restore defaults hotkey to reset a single animation, delete the external file, or simply change to a different adjustment profile so you can start fresh. All of these things are in the SexLab MCM if you look.

 

SexLab defaults to using the race+gender combination of adjustment profiles, so any adjustments you make to a female breton and a male orc playing one animation will not be reused when playing the same animation with a female breton and male redguard; they save to separate profiles. Ultimately this means more and often repeated adjustment work, but as you play and build up more race+gender combination profiles, you'll have more consistently well aligned animations. If you don't care about having to align animations every now and then and you aren't using any altered race heights so all races are more or less close to the same height, then disable this feature and SexLab will just use the same set of adjustments for all races+genders. Things will likely align okay-ish most of the time and require frequent minimal alterations.

In any case, the reason you're probably getting bad alignment after so much play, is you are making bad adjustments. I don't mean your aligning them poorly visually, but you're probably basing those adjustments off bad initial actor alignments.

 

Skyrim is picky and doesn't always act how you expect it to. If an animation starts and a character is positioned into the animation but an error, lag spike, or collision with objects in the game pushes them off from where they SHOULD be by say for example 10 units to the left. SexLab doesn't and can't really know they were off by that much at least not without constant checking that would cause major lag for most people.

 

So when you then start mashing on the hotkey to move the actor to the right by 10 units, getting them where they should be, you just threw off future initial alignment for that animation by 10 units since SexLab assumed they were positioned right to begin and has now added 10 to that animations original correct alignment coordinates.

 

 

To avoid this, the best practice and/or rule of thumb should always be before doing any adjustments to the animation,

1. Give a couple presses to the realign actors hotkey  (defaults to the [ key) or the rotate actors hotkey (defaults to the u key) to ensure the actor is in their proper expect starting point.
2. Make sure you're on a relatively level surface and you aren't pressed up against walls or other large objects. You can press the ] hotkey to move to a new better location. This ensures the actors are in the ideal where nothing would be obstructing their positioning. 

Generally, if you have to press an adjustment hotkey more than 8 times or so  to make something align, something went wrong and your actor isn't positioned as expected to begin with. Failing that, you are using the global adjustment profile (rather than the race+gender specific one) and the two races you have animating have very different sizes, in which case extra adjustments should obviously be expected until you can start getting some race+gender adjustments for that combo built up, or you are using some uncommon or more unusual body meshes and/or character skeletons that the animations aren't meant to be played with originally. 

 

Most of all, accept the fact that animations will never align perfectly. Skyrim isn't meant for this sort of thing, you aren't playing "sex animations" you are playing a "air humping animation" and a "laying with legs up animation" two entirely separate animations; SexLab just lines them up together like two pieces in a puzzle. No mod is likely to ever be able to take into account every single variable there might be when it comes to aligning, you've got players using different bodies, skeletons, races, varying scales on those races, and the complete and utter wildcard of what might be around them in the environment affecting them.

 

Every animation an animator makes lines up perfectly for them while animating, but they might be animating using a full weight CBBE female body for animation while you're using a zero weight UNP body; the expectation that their perfectly aligned animation is going to line up for you as well is utter insanity.

 

 

TL;DR Shit happens, so make sure your actors are aligned where SexLab thinks they should be before doing adjustments by pressing the realign and/or rotate hotkey a couple times. When really fine tuning an animation or if things seem really out of place, make sure the actors in an open and level surface, use the move scene hotkey to go somewhere better if not before making adjustments. Skyrim sucks, it'll never be perfect; deal with it.

[WaxenFigure]

 

Good rant.

[Zenoa]

@Ashal Tomorrow I will try to realign my animations, done it one time near a year before but new Skyrim need new align process.

Obviously I will follow your advices, like realing and rotating actors a bit before start the process but I have one question.

You say that adjustment only reset if I reset manually with for example "Delete Saved Adjustments", so if I "Reset Animation Registry" to load new animations not lost adjustments. Is the same if a toggle off the animation? I think yes but I'm not sure because I think my adjustments disappear if I toggle off and on the animation. And I use this a lot because for the alignement process I toggle off all animation, enable one, use Matchmaker, enable another and disable the first, by this way I don't repeat any animation, and yes I know about "Animation Editor", but for example creatures animation don't appear.

[Ashal]

@Ashal Tomorrow I will try to realign my animations, done it one time near a year before but new Skyrim need new align process.

 

Obviously I will follow your advices, like realing and rotating actors a bit before start the process but I have one question.

 

You say that adjustment only reset if I reset manually with for example "Delete Saved Adjustments", so if I "Reset Animation Registry" to load new animations not lost adjustments. Is the same if a toggle off the animation? I think yes but I'm not sure because I think my adjustments disappear if I toggle off and on the animation. And I use this a lot because for the alignement process I toggle off all animation, enable one, use Matchmaker, enable another and disable the first, by this way I don't repeat any animation, and yes I know about "Animation Editor", but for example creatures animation don't appear.

 

Resetting the registry or disabling the  animation does NOT clear it's saved alignments. The only way to clear all customized saved alignments is to actually delete the file from /data/skse/plugins/sexlab or to switch to an empty adjustment profile from the MCM so it starts saving to a new currently non-existent file.

[xgcsentielxs]

Does the Profile save: "AnimationProfile_(1-5).json"  save 'positioning' for individual actors ? .. or just races ? ... Cause I have several followers, some slaves, that are quite a different size in hight ??

 

Does the game save different "AnimationProfile_(1-5).json" 's per actor ? 

Confused on how this works.

 

Do I have to copy/paste/rename the file in my SKSE plugins folder in order to swap profiles in the MCM sexlab menu ??

[gm207]

I think all animations where configured to same height with both spouses, just reset your animation via - left to the + sign and make your character the same height as your partner, it should work I think

[majorfreak]

awesome thread.

 

I have a question...i can't seem to get AnimationProfile (1-5) exported or generated for mod organizer.

Edited September 7, 2015 by majorfreak

[Sickotik Mods]

Anyone know this answer? Is there a way to externally set animations via Maya or 3DSMax?

 

I want to go through each animation on loop while correcting it almost real time.

 

Plus, I honestly don't know what Stage1-5 are technically because sometimes they'll do 8 animations and after the third I forget which number, so I have to guess which "stage" they're on, make adjustments, if nothing moves guess again, and sometimes Serana is just all sexed out so I can't keep asking her to bend over while I line it up.

 

Any clues as to a better way of setting my (race mod height changed player character) to better interact with female CBBE bodies, PLEASE let me know.

[Sickotik Mods]

Really I need a guide on the animation editor. Sometimes I press move up and they move down, sometimes forward and they go backward. By the time I figure out which animation is playing and which way they're facing, the animation is over. Even though I have it set to 45 second long animations, sometimes it'll only play for a few seconds.

 

Also, there's a "Play Animation" button at the top right of the Edit Animations tab, but it's greyed out. Does this feature work and how? It would be REALLY nice to have a button you press that after setting which player race and animation you want, would automatically put those 2 together and play said animation till you uncheck it. This way we could go through all the animations one at a time to fine tune them. Not sure if that's possible, but it would help loads.

 

Maybe even just a FREEZE (Like TCM) that freezes chars mid animation and let's you use the num pad like Jaxonz Positioner to place them. With AXIS icon over each character so you know which way is which. Just a thought. Would definitely be bad ass. Maybe I'll try to combine Jaxonz code with Ashals to try to make that possible in my game.

Or maybe I'll just figure out how to use it properly and make a guide for it. Can't seem to find one anywhere online.

[murf]

How to adjust animations and keep your sanity, (works on my machine YMMV)

 

use sexlab matchmaker.

cast spells on what you want to see fucking. simple and easy.

 

install Sexlab tools.

one of the best under-rated mods here on LL. pick the sex act from a menu. also allows to

go-to-from each stage by menu choice. simple and easy.

 

set sexlab to not advance stages automatically. use a hotkey to go to next stage. its

in the MCM menu.

 

now cast matchmaker, solo or with a partner of your choice, on yourself or any actor(s).

pick the sex animation. bingo! one stage of the scene that will last forever(or until skyrim

crashes, depending on how good you follow instructions when modding )

 

[skyrimbucky]

Can't you make a skeleton with the vagina as an object and then dicks are  an object inserted into the vagina object? I believe I have seen this done before. You could do it with tits and faces and asses too. WTF. Need aim. 

[FoxLotus]

Hello just an inquiry, hopefully this isn't the wrong channel to ask.  

 

I've sexlab + defeat.  Is there a way to adjust followers position during a SL NPC vs NPC scene while both character an follower are assaulted /or assaulting during separated scenes?

An since both character an follower + NPCs are differing races, I would assume proper adjustments would be needed in order to get a proper json setup built for my game.

I've already deleted the animation.json in the skse plugin.

 

[leproso04]

Does anyone know how to solve this? when I realign the actors. When the creature settles down for the second time, it stays still and does not advance in the animation. Female works well