[3ds Max] Skeleton Controller Rigs - Draugr v0.13.2 (2015-09-22)

[wishnot4]

No sweat, I understand.  And I think one thing I did wrong was, I moved some bones and didn't put their new reference poses in.  One question, I know the first part is the node postision, the second part is the quadrantion rotation, I assume the third part is scale.  My question is, nifskope shows the qr being w x y z, but it almost looks like to me that the skeleton.hkx has it x y z w.  So, which is it?  Also, if the third part is scale, where do I get the three numbers?  Nifskope only shows scale as one number.  Thanks again for all your help.

[Groovtama]

No sweat, I understand.  And I think one thing I did wrong was, I moved some bones and didn't put their new reference poses in.  One question, I know the first part is the node postision, the second part is the quadrantion rotation, I assume the third part is scale.  My question is, nifskope shows the qr being w x y z, but it almost looks like to me that the skeleton.hkx has it x y z w.  So, which is it?  Also, if the third part is scale, where do I get the three numbers?  Nifskope only shows scale as one number.  Thanks again for all your help.

Look up a node whose reference pos already in the refference pos list, or use 3ds max 14.

[wishnot4]

I'll try that.  I did figure out why it was crashing my game.  I must have used a version that I'd not edited.  The bones weren't in the file, so when I put them in, the game worked.  Still some glitches, for example when mounted, the rider is sticking off the side.  So, obviously I don't have the reference pose right.

[wishnot4]

Okay, I've taken a vanilla skeleton.hkx and a vanilla skeleton.nif and compared their reference pose using nifskope's inspect and they don't match.  Not even a little.  I still have no idea how to load my custom skeleton into 3ds max 14(Never had 12 so can't use its nifscripts).  My skeleton.hkx is working in game, but there are still some issues.  One of which is the rider sticks off the side of the centaur instead of riding on top.  I've changed the rotation quaternion's numbers around and so far, I've just made the rider stick off underneath or the other side.  Any suggestions?  I've looked for instructions on how to get my skeleton.nif into 3ds max 14, can't find any.

[wishnot4]

Anyone willing to load my skeleton.hkx and skeleton.nif into 3ds max and send it to me so I can get the information for the reference pose, I'd really appreciate it.  As is I'm having to test each number combination in game, which is very time consuming and tedious(have the exit all the way out of the game and reload the game for every combo).

[Valkacis]

Hello there!

 

First of al I would like to say thank you for the awesome rig, a very big thank you, It has really helped me with getting started to make animations for skyrim.

 

Second, Im making 2 handed weapon combat animations replacers and I have some problems with the weapon handling, the thing is that the second hand (the shield hand) is not where I want it to be once in game, it has a little offset (tiny but noticeable) this happens with female characters only though, the male character hand has no offset. Is this a problem whith the way im making my animations? What I do is import a vanilla 2hw mesh to 3ds max and attach it to the weapon node (I believe this is how the weapon is positioned in your hand in game right?), then I position the second hand where I want it in reference to the weapon mesh. Other thing I noticed is that the weapon itself has an offset too once you attach it to the weapon node, I "fixed" it by rotating the weapon  once it is in a good enough grip posiotion.

 

Thanks for any help.

[pornphile]

Hello there!

 

First of al I would like to say thank you for the awesome rig, a very big thank you, It has really helped me with getting started to make animations for skyrim.

 

Second, Im making 2 handed weapon combat animations replacers and I have some problems with the weapon handling, the thing is that the second hand (the shield hand) is not where I want it to be once in game, it has a little offset (tiny but noticeable) this happens with female characters only though, the male character hand has no offset. Is this a problem whith the way im making my animations? What I do is import a vanilla 2hw mesh to 3ds max and attach it to the weapon node (I believe this is how the weapon is positioned in your hand in game right?), then I position the second hand where I want it in reference to the weapon mesh. Other thing I noticed is that the weapon itself has an offset too once you attach it to the weapon node, I "fixed" it by rotating the weapon  once it is in a good enough grip posiotion.

 

Thanks for any help.

Haven't really worked with attack animations but maybe I can give some leads. The in game female skeleton have hands scaled at .85. My rigs use 1.0(male scales) scales to avoid export issues. It may be that you will need to rescale the hands for proper weapon alignment.

 

You should first look at some vanilla animations to see how they handle it. See if there are separate m/f attack animations that account for the offset. Or did they only use 1 animation for both sexes?

[Valkacis]

 

Hello there!

 

First of al I would like to say thank you for the awesome rig, a very big thank you, It has really helped me with getting started to make animations for skyrim.

 

Second, Im making 2 handed weapon combat animations replacers and I have some problems with the weapon handling, the thing is that the second hand (the shield hand) is not where I want it to be once in game, it has a little offset (tiny but noticeable) this happens with female characters only though, the male character hand has no offset. Is this a problem whith the way im making my animations? What I do is import a vanilla 2hw mesh to 3ds max and attach it to the weapon node (I believe this is how the weapon is positioned in your hand in game right?), then I position the second hand where I want it in reference to the weapon mesh. Other thing I noticed is that the weapon itself has an offset too once you attach it to the weapon node, I "fixed" it by rotating the weapon  once it is in a good enough grip posiotion.

 

Thanks for any help.

Haven't really worked with attack animations but maybe I can give some leads. The in game female skeleton have hands scaled at .85. My rigs use 1.0(male scales) scales to avoid export issues. It may be that you will need to rescale the hands for proper weapon alignment.

 

You should first look at some vanilla animations to see how they handle it. See if there are separate m/f attack animations that account for the offset. Or did they only use 1 animation for both sexes?

 

 

Hi and thanks for replying.

 

Male and female use the same animations for combat , and indeed, whatching at vanilla animations the handling looks with a little more offset that mine (in 3ds max and in game too, lol), maybe nobody pays much attention to it, or maybe it is a problem with my game or the skeleton itself.

 

However, Ill try to fix it, if I can't Ill disimulate it the best I can, but it will bother me because Im a nitpick bitch.

 

And again, many thanks for the awesome rig, It helped a lot.

[D_ManXX2]

I was wondering what is the workflow if you can only use 3dmax 2014 how are you suppose to export this from 3dmax if there is no content tools for it ?? 

[pornphile]

I was wondering what is the workflow if you can only use 3dmax 2014 how are you suppose to export this from 3dmax if there is no content tools for it ?? 

HCT compatible only with 2010 - 2012.

 

[mastermike8800]

I have a request. With the release of the SLAL, I thought I would try my hand at animating. Following 0sex animation tutorials I made it as far as downloading this rig and messing around in 3ds max before hitting a huge wall. I can't get ahold of this Havok content tools everyone is talking about, bummer. In all honesty I was already cheating as I couldn't even get a copy of 3ds max 2012, I'm using 2016. However, messing around with the rig I found that I really enjoy animating and I'm decent if I say so myself.

 

So my request, would it be possible for me to send an already established animator with 3ds max and HCT a small collection of .max files containing my animations for them to finish exporting. Maybe even pack them for the community?

 

Let me know if this is even possible and what you would need from me. Or if anyone has a work around I could use for the whole HCT definitely let me know.

[pornphile]

I have a request. With the release of the SLAL, I thought I would try my hand at animating. Following 0sex animation tutorials I made it as far as downloading this rig and messing around in 3ds max before hitting a huge wall. I can't get ahold of this Havok content tools everyone is talking about, bummer. In all honesty I was already cheating as I couldn't even get a copy of 3ds max 2012, I'm using 2016. However, messing around with the rig I found that I really enjoy animating and I'm decent if I say so myself.

 

So my request, would it be possible for me to send an already established animator with 3ds max and HCT a small collection of .max files containing my animations for them to finish exporting. Maybe even pack them for the community?

 

Let me know if this is even possible and what you would need from me. Or if anyone has a work around I could use for the whole HCT definitely let me know.

It's possible to send someone else your files to be exported. Max can save 3 versions back. However, HCT only supports 2010-2012 so the absolute latest Max version you can use is 2015 to be able to save as 2012 version.

 

[BenChang]

Now that I have gotten the hang of using these rigs with max 2012, I'm interested in progressing further.

 

What skeletons would you advise I build my own rigs around if I wanted to do bestial skeleton controller rigs (i.e for werewolf and dragon skeletons, since I don't see those rigs floating around the internet)?

 

There are the FNIS skeletons and vanilla ones and I'm not certain which ones I should be using.

 

What controller rig tutorials should I look up?

 

Also, how would I know what node names to include in the .txt file so that HCT will be capable of exporting the resulting animations/poses?

[pornphile]

Now that I have gotten the hang of using these rigs with max 2012, I'm interested in progressing further.

 

What skeletons would you advise I build my own rigs around if I wanted to do bestial skeleton controller rigs (i.e for werewolf and dragon skeletons, since I don't see those rigs floating around the internet)?

 

There are the FNIS skeletons and vanilla ones and I'm not certain which ones I should be using.

 

What controller rig tutorials should I look up?

 

Also, how would I know what node names to include in the .txt file so that HCT will be capable of exporting the resulting animations/poses?

 

I'd build a rig from a vanilla skeleton. I guess FNIS skeleton fixes some vanilla errors?

 

I learned from this tutorial. The principles learned can be applied to other projects. Search youtube for plenty more rigging lessons.

 

You must convert *skeleton*.hkx to *skeleton*.xml using hkxcmd. The result will be several xmls that you rename to .txt file. One of these will be a bones list that you can use.

[BenChang]

I'm curious, how do you guys work on 2 skeletons simultaneously in the same stage? For example if I want human + werewolf animations, importing the werewolf skeleotn will force a few node renames, which seems to stop the werewolf skeleton from working properly. How do the animators here get around this issue?

[Leito86]

I'm curious, how do you guys work on 2 skeletons simultaneously in the same stage? For example if I want human + werewolf animations, importing the werewolf skeleotn will force a few node renames, which seems to stop the werewolf skeleton from working properly. How do the animators here get around this issue?

 

Took this from Arrok's thread:

 

To edit 2 actors...

 

First just make a male t-pose at origin scene (import and freeze meshes too), save and close

 

Then make a female t-pose at origin scene (and import and freeze meshes)

 

Click the green 3dsmax logo /file menu button at the top left corner (the one to open, new scene, reset ect.)

near the bottom of the list you see the references option, click that, and select xref scene. 

 

click "add" at the top of the box. Select your male t-pose scene you created and it should pop up. Keep the Xref window open and look at the "add" button again and gaze downwards until you see the merge button. Press the merge button.

 

Now you can animate them both in the scene.

 

The males bones are on the bone list under the female's.  Its easy to tell b/c they are separated by the meshes.

 

When its time to export your animation you'll have to split the scene to make 2 animations. Its easy though.

 

Make sure your scene is saved with both actors, then highlight every bone on the bone list under the last female mesh (starting at the first male mesh) press ok and hit your delete key.

 

The male will disappear and you can export your female.

 

Open the scene with both actors again, and highlight the female bones and meshes this time and hit delete. Now you export your male.

 

Thats how I do it.

[smithgod]

Very useful tools,I can make my own mod with it,thank you for your share.

[BenChang]

 

I'm curious, how do you guys work on 2 skeletons simultaneously in the same stage? For example if I want human + werewolf animations, importing the werewolf skeleotn will force a few node renames, which seems to stop the werewolf skeleton from working properly. How do the animators here get around this issue?

 

Took this from Arrok's thread:

 

To edit 2 actors...

 

First just make a male t-pose at origin scene (import and freeze meshes too), save and close

 

Then make a female t-pose at origin scene (and import and freeze meshes)

 

Click the green 3dsmax logo /file menu button at the top left corner (the one to open, new scene, reset ect.)

near the bottom of the list you see the references option, click that, and select xref scene. 

 

click "add" at the top of the box. Select your male t-pose scene you created and it should pop up. Keep the Xref window open and look at the "add" button again and gaze downwards until you see the merge button. Press the merge button.

 

Now you can animate them both in the scene.

 

The males bones are on the bone list under the female's.  Its easy to tell b/c they are separated by the meshes.

 

When its time to export your animation you'll have to split the scene to make 2 animations. Its easy though.

 

Make sure your scene is saved with both actors, then highlight every bone on the bone list under the last female mesh (starting at the first male mesh) press ok and hit your delete key.

 

The male will disappear and you can export your female.

 

Open the scene with both actors again, and highlight the female bones and meshes this time and hit delete. Now you export your male.

 

Thats how I do it.

 

I will try it when I get the opportunity, do you know if this rig and FNIS can be used to make weapon attack animation replacers? If they can, what difference do they have from normal idles?

[Guest]

nice. looks quite useful

[Galickarn]

Please understand how desperate I am when I say I never ask for help, especially on forums. I have a lot of pride and generally figure things out. So its hard for me to say i'm done, throwing in the towel, put a solid 24 hours worth of effort just trying to work the conversion process. The animation was literally just a sneak turn...then it was a sneak lean, then it was a sliding static mesh because I had gone through so many tutorials and yada yada yada.

 

Rant over, im ready to find out how much help I can get and will try my best to explain my situation. Please dont say read the forums, I have tried my best to find solutions to the various issues.

 

I am almost 100% certain I could make an animation from vanilla and back in to skyrim, but that is not my aim, I am trying to make an animation to fix the sneak turns in this animation mod i downloaded, figured it would be a fun hobby and I would ask the creator of the mod if they wished to have it or something. I did not realize the nightmare of trying to find all the tools needed, from havok not being provided anymore(found it anyway) to tutorials dating back to 2012 using 2 or 3 different versions of max.

 

My goal is to make a sneak turn animation for the XPMSE rig, I have downloaded the modder resources of both XPMS and XPMSE, as well as this controllable rig on the thread and watched at least a dozen tutorials now, each I follow to the letter despite better judgment. All have the same exact result, i get in game, turn left sneaking with a weapon out, and T pose, nothing but T pose. The only time I had even a half success was a 5 or 6 attempts ago when my characters legs had the correct pose and the rest of me was horribly mangled. This was using hxkcmd to try and convert a kf to hkx using one of the XPMS rigs, which I know doesnt work, but at this point I have tried pretty much anything.

 

To give you a run down on my latest attempt, I took this controller rig v0.13.2, posed my character manually knowing kf could not be imported, went to frame 35 and hit set keyframe, turned the character so it was just another drifting motion. saved the animation, loaded it, set note tracks for start -name sneak_turnleft180 -at y at 0, end at 35. set the frame to frame:ticks, loaded up the havok tools(HavokContentTools_2013-1-0_20130717_64Bit_PcXs) was all I found. Preset was on animations, set the skeleton rig to the one in the resource(XPMS RIG 1.6c Full Bone). set the animations range to 0 - 35, loop to 36, set it to save a binary packfile(hkx) and put that hkx in to my animations folder, get in game, T pose. This has been a process I have gone through countless times now, using 1.6 rigs, 3.0 rigs, anything i could find. I probably forgot to mention a couple steps, but rest assured that I followed everything to the letter as far as I can tell.

 

I tried 2013 max, 2014 max, 2016 max, and now I am using 2010 max. Getting those to install properly was a nightmare in of itself.

 

Don't get the wrong idea, im not particularly angry, I have a passion for problem solving and creation, this is more like crack to me than frustration, but I am at my wits end. I can send my working file if needed, I can answer any questions about what I have and what ive used. I just want to see something other than a damn T pose at this point, I was way too happy when I saw a horribly mangled khajiit that one time it didnt T pose. I even tried to use the 3.0 HDT rig using this controller to see if that would somehow do anything, it does not, T pose with a few missing things as warnings, quiver shield and something else.

 

as far as I know from my 200 loaded mods(of which are running smoothly and im quite proud of that) I am using the XPMSE rig, even modified the ohmes khajiit race to use it. Does not matter which race though, they all bug out. so I know the animations im replacing are at least being shown and im not just throwing animations at something that doesnt appear.

 

One of the reasons I dont ask for help much is because I talk too much. I apologize, If anyone can walk me through figuring this out, I will be so very happy. It would be a really huge time wasting defeat if i just copy the sneak idle as my turns ~_~

 

I tried to attach the max file to this post, it will not let me.

[pornphile]

 

 

Please understand how desperate I am when I say I never ask for help, especially on forums. I have a lot of pride and generally figure things out. So its hard for me to say i'm done, throwing in the towel, put a solid 24 hours worth of effort just trying to work the conversion process. The animation was literally just a sneak turn...then it was a sneak lean, then it was a sliding static mesh because I had gone through so many tutorials and yada yada yada.

 

Rant over, im ready to find out how much help I can get and will try my best to explain my situation. Please dont say read the forums, I have tried my best to find solutions to the various issues.

 

I am almost 100% certain I could make an animation from vanilla and back in to skyrim, but that is not my aim, I am trying to make an animation to fix the sneak turns in this animation mod i downloaded, figured it would be a fun hobby and I would ask the creator of the mod if they wished to have it or something. I did not realize the nightmare of trying to find all the tools needed, from havok not being provided anymore(found it anyway) to tutorials dating back to 2012 using 2 or 3 different versions of max.

 

My goal is to make a sneak turn animation for the XPMSE rig, I have downloaded the modder resources of both XPMS and XPMSE, as well as this controllable rig on the thread and watched at least a dozen tutorials now, each I follow to the letter despite better judgment. All have the same exact result, i get in game, turn left sneaking with a weapon out, and T pose, nothing but T pose. The only time I had even a half success was a 5 or 6 attempts ago when my characters legs had the correct pose and the rest of me was horribly mangled. This was using hxkcmd to try and convert a kf to hkx using one of the XPMS rigs, which I know doesnt work, but at this point I have tried pretty much anything.

 

To give you a run down on my latest attempt, I took this controller rig v0.13.2, posed my character manually knowing kf could not be imported, went to frame 35 and hit set keyframe, turned the character so it was just another drifting motion. saved the animation, loaded it, set note tracks for start -name sneak_turnleft180 -at y at 0, end at 35. set the frame to frame:ticks, loaded up the havok tools(HavokContentTools_2013-1-0_20130717_64Bit_PcXs) was all I found. Preset was on animations, set the skeleton rig to the one in the resource(XPMS RIG 1.6c Full Bone). set the animations range to 0 - 35, loop to 36, set it to save a binary packfile(hkx) and put that hkx in to my animations folder, get in game, T pose. This has been a process I have gone through countless times now, using 1.6 rigs, 3.0 rigs, anything i could find. I probably forgot to mention a couple steps, but rest assured that I followed everything to the letter as far as I can tell.

 

I tried 2013 max, 2014 max, 2016 max, and now I am using 2010 max. Getting those to install properly was a nightmare in of itself.

 

Don't get the wrong idea, im not particularly angry, I have a passion for problem solving and creation, this is more like crack to me than frustration, but I am at my wits end. I can send my working file if needed, I can answer any questions about what I have and what ive used. I just want to see something other than a damn T pose at this point, I was way too happy when I saw a horribly mangled khajiit that one time it didnt T pose. I even tried to use the 3.0 HDT rig using this controller to see if that would somehow do anything, it does not, T pose with a few missing things as warnings, quiver shield and something else.

 

as far as I know from my 200 loaded mods(of which are running smoothly and im quite proud of that) I am using the XPMSE rig, even modified the ohmes khajiit race to use it. Does not matter which race though, they all bug out. so I know the animations im replacing are at least being shown and im not just throwing animations at something that doesnt appear.

 

One of the reasons I dont ask for help much is because I talk too much. I apologize, If anyone can walk me through figuring this out, I will be so very happy. It would be a really huge time wasting defeat if i just copy the sneak idle as my turns ~_~

 

I tried to attach the max file to this post, it will not let me.

 

 

 

'I followed everything to the letter as far as I can tell.'

You must use the specific HCT for your version of Max. Max 2010 needs Havok Content Tools 2010.2. Look here.

The only versions of Max that have a working HCT are 2010-2012.

The only controller rig with version 0.13.2 is a draugr rig. I'm assuming you want to make human animations.

Have you tried CEO's guide? It may be more suited to your verbose style of expression.

[Galickarn]

You may have in fact solved my problem by merely stating I had the wrong HCT. The link you provided goes to a link for baidu pan cloud storage which nowadays requires a chinese phone number, I will see if I have any fortunate friends with that but im not holding my breath. I am gonna have to find some other way to acquire those tools, i swear to god if it works after this im gonna facepalm so hard. I might of succeeded every single attempt without knowing it, only to have incorrect HCT screw up my work.

 

If you know how to get at that file without baidu pan logins, let me know. I appreciate the response btw. The world could always use more skyrim animators.

 

I will look at that guide, wouldnt hurt, though I am sure the actual process is about as hammered in to my skull as it can be now.

[pornphile]

Baidu link is the only one I know. Can't even vouch for the veracity of the file.

[Forsworn00]

I can vouch for the baidu link. I also went through like 3 versions of 3DS and HCT. Havok Content Tools 2011-3 and 3DS Max 2012 are the magic combination.

[Galickarn]

All well and good, I am more or less convinced that it would solve my issue, but unless anyone here is willing to share their havok content tools with me, I am pretty much done with the entire venture. PM me if someone has a means of helping me acquire the tools.

 

Until then, I have a new venture to deal with. I converted the ohmes raht khajiit race to use the XPMSE skeleton. This only seemed to have an adverse size issue with the kittlings and kitten versions of the race. Player.setscale dealt with that. Now as I have vamped out, I suddenly have 2 tails. The plot thickens and I get back to work.