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[3ds Max] [Skyrim] Video: Animation Tutorial


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​You shouldn't need to control any of the actual bones. The controllers are all you need. For example if you click on the foot controller (pink) on the right hand side click the modify icon. Looks like a blue rainbow post-1065237-0-95283900-1485885865_thumb.png

You will see things like this:

post-1065237-0-57580800-1485885908_thumb.png​ Look on the right hand side. You'll be able to change different values to get things just the way you want them.

Also works for the green ball above the hand:

post-1065237-0-93334900-1485886006_thumb.png​ You'll be able to move the fingers this way by tweaking the values on the right. Also under the preset drop down menu you can do things like open, close, point and more.

And for the elbow you can use the green ball above the shoulder or any of the green arm controllers going down the arm:

post-1065237-0-40650600-1485886173_thumb.png Just click on one and you can adjust the elbow with the right side.​
 

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Ooookay Another question. I am making an equip animation. But i got trouble regarding the constraints. I picked the "weaponsword" constraint to start with and oriented it likewise. But then when the player unsheathes the weapon i came to a stand-still. I thought it was as easy as to set the constraints again while in "Auto Key" mode. but that just sat it's constraint for the entire animation. 

Any ideas?

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So I searched real quick and couldn't find anyone else asking, since the 2012 edition is no longer available from the Autodesk website, does anyone know if the process works with any of the more recent editions? Or a way to get the 2012 edition legally?

 

Edit: I'm installing 2014 right now (earliest edition I can still find without resorting to illegal means) and I'm going to see if any of the versions of the Havok tools I've got will work with that.

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Update: None of the versions of the havok content tools I have (even the 2014 editions somehow) seem to have the option of installing a plugin for the 2014 3ds max. 2010-2013 though no problem, which are of course all no longer available.

 

If anyone has any pointer on where I need to go to get started here that'd be awesome.

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So I searched real quick and couldn't find anyone else asking, since the 2012 edition is no longer available from the Autodesk website, does anyone know if the process works with any of the more recent editions? Or a way to get the 2012 edition legally?

 

Edit: I'm installing 2014 right now (earliest edition I can still find without resorting to illegal means) and I'm going to see if any of the versions of the Havok tools I've got will work with that.

 

Update: None of the versions of the havok content tools I have (even the 2014 editions somehow) seem to have the option of installing a plugin for the 2014 3ds max. 2010-2013 though no problem, which are of course all no longer available.

 

If anyone has any pointer on where I need to go to get started here that'd be awesome.

There is no way to get the older versions of 3ds max or any of the havok content tools legally. So your best bet would be to learn/use blender instead.

 

You could try this, but you'll have to use the vanilla skeleton as I don't think the author ever got around to doing it with the XP32 skeleton.

 

It's rather simple to use. Just open one of the blender saves, make your pose/animation, run the script (it'll be on the right hand side when you open the .blend file) and then run the .bat file that comes with the download to get a hkx file. There are also instructions that come with the download. (probably explain it better.)

 

You can use Blender 2.62 and above.

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So there's absolutely no way to make animations with later versions of 3ds max? Wow that's frustrating.

 

Technically, you can make the actual animation in later versions of 3ds Max. However, you need the earlier HCT versions(and corresponding 3ds Max) to export Skyrim hkx format.

 

With the above in mind, there are some workarounds:

 

1. Make your animations in, say Max 2016. Then send your files to someone else with HCT for export. This can be tedious as you tweak animations.

 

2. Animate in Max 2016 and save baked animation as fbx. Open fbx in Blender and export. This can work in theory with fbx being the common format. This is a high learning curve as you'd have to learn both 3ds Max & Blender.

 

3. This one is a long shot: Fallout4 has HKXPack, which works with later Max versions. Could try this for Skyrim but not high hopes due to the differences in skeletons. Author says Skyrim support is possible. Perhaps if there are enough people to drive the demand up.

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Ooookay Another question. I am making an equip animation. But i got trouble regarding the constraints. I picked the "weaponsword" constraint to start with and oriented it likewise. But then when the player unsheathes the weapon i came to a stand-still. I thought it was as easy as to set the constraints again while in "Auto Key" mode. but that just sat it's constraint for the entire animation. 

 

Any ideas?

 

Hard to understand what you're trying to do. Post pics of your problem. When you talk about constraints; constraints are actual rigging/animation functions of 3ds Max. You can't key frame constraints.

 

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So there's absolutely no way to make animations with later versions of 3ds max? Wow that's frustrating.

 

Technically, you can make the actual animation in later versions of 3ds Max. However, you need the earlier HCT versions(and corresponding 3ds Max) to export Skyrim hkx format.

 

With the above in mind, there are some workarounds:

 

1. Make your animations in, say Max 2016. Then send your files to someone else with HCT for export. This can be tedious as you tweak animations.

 

2. Animate in Max 2016 and save baked animation as fbx. Open fbx in Blender and export. This can work in theory with fbx being the common format. This is a high learning curve as you'd have to learn both 3ds Max & Blender.

 

3. This one is a long shot: Fallout4 has HKXPack, which works with later Max versions. Could try this for Skyrim but not high hopes due to the differences in skeletons. Author says Skyrim support is possible. Perhaps if there are enough people to drive the demand up.

 

 

I'll check out HKXPack but if the second option just uses blender to import fbx and export the hkx I could probably do that pretty easily. Max isn't a new program for me, it's just been a while. Is there anything special I'll need to get set up in blender that you know of?

 

This guide is really great by the way, thanks for all of this.

 

Edit: HKXPack has explicitly cancelled the planned support for Skyrim

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I've created a few furniture animation/poses with the help of this tutorial.

 

I've got one or two annoying problems, nothing game-braking, just annoying: NPCs don't scale to fit the furniture and using the furniture with the player charcter, locks the camera. Anybody have similiar problems or maybe a workaround?

 

 

My current state of work can be found here:

http://www.loverslab.com/topic/72978-furniture-modding-questions-again/?p=1809032

 

post-1082376-0-06422400-1486515928_thumb.jpg

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So there's absolutely no way to make animations with later versions of 3ds max? Wow that's frustrating.

 

Technically, you can make the actual animation in later versions of 3ds Max. However, you need the earlier HCT versions(and corresponding 3ds Max) to export Skyrim hkx format.

 

With the above in mind, there are some workarounds:

 

1. Make your animations in, say Max 2016. Then send your files to someone else with HCT for export. This can be tedious as you tweak animations.

 

2. Animate in Max 2016 and save baked animation as fbx. Open fbx in Blender and export. This can work in theory with fbx being the common format. This is a high learning curve as you'd have to learn both 3ds Max & Blender.

 

3. This one is a long shot: Fallout4 has HKXPack, which works with later Max versions. Could try this for Skyrim but not high hopes due to the differences in skeletons. Author says Skyrim support is possible. Perhaps if there are enough people to drive the demand up.

 

 

I'll check out HKXPack but if the second option just uses blender to import fbx and export the hkx I could probably do that pretty easily. Max isn't a new program for me, it's just been a while. Is there anything special I'll need to get set up in blender that you know of?

 

This guide is really great by the way, thanks for all of this.

 

Edit: HKXPack has explicitly cancelled the planned support for Skyrim

 

 

You and I are relatively on the same boat. Except I had been modding and animating on 3ds Max for years but recently the "last" compatible 3ds Max (2012) with HavocTools (also no longer available due to Microsoft buying it out) expired and no longer is available on Autodesk.

 

But of course there are modders still using it, obviously and even as far back as the 2010 version. But they keep their methods of keeping those 3ds Max versions valid (even after expiration) secret.

 

Annoying asf.

 

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snippity

 

You and I are relatively on the same boat. Except I had been modding and animating on 3ds Max for years but recently the "last" compatible 3ds Max (2012) with HavocTools (also no longer available due to Microsoft buying it out) expired and no longer is available on Autodesk.

 

But of course there are modders still using it, obviously and even as far back as the 2010 version. But they keep their methods of keeping those 3ds Max versions valid (even after expiration) secret.

 

Annoying asf.

 

 

 

See the problem isn't necessarily that I can't get my hands on it (through methods we are not allowed to discuss on the forums) it's more that I really don't want to pursue those channels to get my hands on it for both legal and moral reasons.

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So I've got a new question for those in the know:

 

I've been doing quite a bit of research into alternate methods and believe I may have found a work around. I haven't had a chance to test it yet, but I'm giving it a shot tomorrow if no one can explain why it wouldn't work.

 

I've found an updated version of the .nif plugin for 3ds Max which supports Max 2014, and also includes .kf functionality. Using the hkxcmd tool it is apparently possible to convert .kf to .hkx for Skyrim. But from some more research it seems that the only time people are using .kf import/export is to modify vanilla animations. Would it be possible to go from 3ds Max to .kf to .hkx? Or is there some information in the .kf file that won't be there?

 

Bonus Blender question because my search only yielded some very out of date tools: Is there a direct blender to .hkx tool or do I need to find some intermediary step and use hkxcmd?

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So I've got a new question for those in the know:

 

I've been doing quite a bit of research into alternate methods and believe I may have found a work around. I haven't had a chance to test it yet, but I'm giving it a shot tomorrow if no one can explain why it wouldn't work.

 

I've found an updated version of the .nif plugin for 3ds Max which supports Max 2014, and also includes .kf functionality. Using the hkxcmd tool it is apparently possible to convert .kf to .hkx for Skyrim. But from some more research it seems that the only time people are using .kf import/export is to modify vanilla animations. Would it be possible to go from 3ds Max to .kf to .hkx? Or is there some information in the .kf file that won't be there?

 

Bonus Blender question because my search only yielded some very out of date tools: Is there a direct blender to .hkx tool or do I need to find some intermediary step and use hkxcmd?

 

PM'd you.

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  • 2 months later...

Great tutorial, really helped get started, but i have a question, most of the SexLab scenes are just loops. But what if i want to have an ending scene where the actors cum and then transition into say a breathing loop? Is there a technique for it or do i just simply make the ending animation and then the loop and then copy paste the keyframes of the loop to make it last for several seconds?

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Great tutorial, really helped get started, but i have a question, most of the SexLab scenes are just loops. But what if i want to have an ending scene where the actors cum and then transition into say a breathing loop? Is there a technique for it or do i just simply make the ending animation and then the loop and then copy paste the keyframes of the loop to make it last for several seconds?

Use FNIS to set the animation to 'acyclic'. This will make the animation play only once.

MIght also need to do something with SL auto advance setting.

 

 

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  • 6 months later...

This is to pornphile or somebody else with experience in creating lots of custom animations :

After using a few custom animations, and a few converted motion capture animations, i noticed a HUGE problem, which i haven't noticed before : any custom animation that i create or port from motion capture ones, IF they move too much away from the center, never move the collision box inside the game for the character! And worse, the character "teleports back" to the initial position and never staying at the final position... I also got quite surprised that almost all vanilla animations don't even have any full body translation/rotation keys, and that in most cases, the collision box is moved using animation data in animationdatasinglefile.txt, which can be done also using FNIS MD & RD function.

I can't believe that skyrim animations only work like this and are SO limited! Does it mean that any motion capture or custom made animation that has translation or rotation of the complete body will always have to not have any collision ingame ? And worse, at the end they teleport back to initial position ? I feel like this is extremelly limiting, there's got to be a workaround this, but i find it strange that no one ever mentions this problem, even when using google or searching in the foruns, maybe i am doing something wrong?

Sure i can use the MD & RD function of FNIS, but unfortunately it messes up animations that have translation and rotation keys, since using this on FNIS it ADDS extra movement to the model animation too, NOT just the collision box, and the character ends up popping back to the initial position after playing the animation.

Don't tell me we can't use translation and rotation keys on the root bone/whole character if we want to have a accurante collision box? Also this teleporting back to initial position before animation is very strange too, this is not normal. Anyway i guess then that motion capture animations having a lot of translation and rotation keys, will have to play on the character as a "ghost" without any collision since there's no way to move the collision along with the model without using MD & RD, which unfortunately only works with animations that always stays at the same place like the vanilla ones (and i noticed that the few ones in vanilla that move a bit around, they are of course, without any collision, for example the rodeo kill move on dragons and also the astrid lounge animation).

In case you have time to have a quick look at my custom animation i can send the file, but first i would like to know what you have to say about this, perhaps it's a simple mistake i am doing.

 

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 11/2/2017 at 8:18 PM, cesm1980 said:
Spoiler

This is to pornphile or somebody else with experience in creating lots of custom animations :

After using a few custom animations, and a few converted motion capture animations, i noticed a HUGE problem, which i haven't noticed before : any custom animation that i create or port from motion capture ones, IF they move too much away from the center, never move the collision box inside the game for the character! And worse, the character "teleports back" to the initial position and never staying at the final position... I also got quite surprised that almost all vanilla animations don't even have any full body translation/rotation keys, and that in most cases, the collision box is moved using animation data in animationdatasinglefile.txt, which can be done also using FNIS MD & RD function.

I can't believe that skyrim animations only work like this and are SO limited! Does it mean that any motion capture or custom made animation that has translation or rotation of the complete body will always have to not have any collision ingame ? And worse, at the end they teleport back to initial position ? I feel like this is extremelly limiting, there's got to be a workaround this, but i find it strange that no one ever mentions this problem, even when using google or searching in the foruns, maybe i am doing something wrong?

Sure i can use the MD & RD function of FNIS, but unfortunately it messes up animations that have translation and rotation keys, since using this on FNIS it ADDS extra movement to the model animation too, NOT just the collision box, and the character ends up popping back to the initial position after playing the animation.

Don't tell me we can't use translation and rotation keys on the root bone/whole character if we want to have a accurante collision box? Also this teleporting back to initial position before animation is very strange too, this is not normal. Anyway i guess then that motion capture animations having a lot of translation and rotation keys, will have to play on the character as a "ghost" without any collision since there's no way to move the collision along with the model without using MD & RD, which unfortunately only works with animations that always stays at the same place like the vanilla ones (and i noticed that the few ones in vanilla that move a bit around, they are of course, without any collision, for example the rodeo kill move on dragons and also the astrid lounge animation).

In case you have time to have a quick look at my custom animation i can send the file, but first i would like to know what you have to say about this, perhaps it's a simple mistake i am doing.

Not involved too much with Skyrim anymore but this sounds like a  root motion (UE4 but same principles) issue. Character mesh moving out of the collision sounds like the engine's default behavior. I think FNIS tries to fix this with MD & RD as an answer for root motion. I've never done anything with MD/RD. I think this what you mean with MD(motion driven?) and RD(is RD root driven?). Since root motion isn't native to Skyrim(I don't think), FNIS will probably have quirks to it. The best person to help iron out MD/RD would be fore.

 

Edited by pornphile
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Yeah apparently MD/RD is used with animations WITHOUT considerable keyframed root motion, if you check vanilla's animations, even the walking and running ones, you will notice the character doesn't have any translation movement, it "runs" in place without moving inside 3d studio max, but NOT in-game, thanks to the motion data defining in animationdatasinglefile.txt .

Also, i already talked with Fore himself a bit but unfortunately he didn't had time to help me more throughtully (which is understandable since this is a complex problem, so i understand), altough i managed to kinda "solve" the problem on my own, so i will tell for those having the same problem i had :

After HOURS of douzens of experimentations (actually during a span of 2-3 weeks) i found out that the ONLY way to get precise collision for custom animations is using them as FURNITURE animations on fnis AND activating them in a custom furniture using a keyword (on a defined animation on the Creation Kit), trigerring them by script or SAE (sendanimvevent) WILL ignore collision as usual. This was a big shock to me since absolutly nothing else was working before and i was losing hope that skyrim was even able to generate collision data for keyframed animation at all, so it was a huge relief, but i still find strange that animations that aren't defined as furniture never move the collision box from the initial position, UNLESS they are defined with that feature on FNIS with MD & RD but unfortunately this is mostly for animations not using keyframed translation or rotation on the root bone, otherwise the model isn't synced with the collision box (this is because the MD/RD function moves BOTH model and collision at the same time, so you see the problem it is with a animation having root keyframed movement).

The only downsides of using furniture animations is the limited amount of furniture animations in fnis, fortunately with the latest XXL version the limit is 4000 furniture animations (equaling 1333 sets of 3 animations for each furniture) so this solution works for me. Altough furniture animations REQUIRE a set of 3 animations to be used in FNIS and most of these animations i want to have collision are individual ones, so the solution is defining the custom animation as one of the 3 furniture animations, and assign non-existant hkx files to the other 2 ones, so that when using the furniture ONLY this one gets played. Sure i "waste" two animation slots per furniture, and i can only have 1333 custom animations with precise collision instead of 4000 but 1333 might be more than enought for me :D

The other downside is... if the animation isn't looped (ie, the model doesn't return to the precise original position at the end of the animation) the model is STILL "jumping" back to the initial position in the keyframed animation, which looks horrible but oh well... (unless we create new frames on the animation on 3dsmax to animate the character getting back to the initial position) i still prefer this than having these specific animations playing without collision moving from the initial position, those that are run at the same place and that are looped i can use as normal non-furniture animations.

So in case this is useful to anyone, enjoy! I hope this isn't offtopic but since the thread is about creating new animations, i figured this would be quite usefull to people to know. Because i can't believe i am the only one caring about animations not having any collision at all, perhaps many people either don't mind that or given up trying to have collision on them, or perhaps... there isn't much interest in skyrim animation anymore :) But either way i hope this helps someone else too.

 

Edited by cesm1980
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2 hours ago, cesm1980 said:

Yeah apparently MD/RD is used with animations WITHOUT considerable keyframed root motion, if you check vanilla's animations, even the walking and running ones, you will notice the character doesn't have any translation movement, it "runs" in place without moving inside 3d studio max, but NOT in-game, thanks to the motion data defining in animationdatasinglefile.txt .

Also, i already talked with Fore himself a bit but unfortunately he didn't had time to help me more throughtully (which is understandable since this is a complex problem, so i understand), altough i managed to kinda "solve" the problem on my own, so i will tell for those having the same problem i had :

After HOURS of douzens of experimentations (actually during a span of 2-3 weeks) i found out that the ONLY way to get precise collision for custom animations is using them as FURNITURE animations on fnis AND activating them in a custom furniture using a keyword (on a defined animation on the Creation Kit), trigerring them by script or SAE (sendanimvevent) WILL ignore collision as usual. This was a big shock to me since absolutly nothing else was working before and i was losing hope that skyrim was even able to generate collision data for keyframed animation at all, so it was a huge relief, but i still find strange that animations that aren't defined as furniture never move the collision box from the initial position, UNLESS they are defined with that feature on FNIS with MD & RD but unfortunately this is mostly for animations not using keyframed translation or rotation on the root bone, otherwise the model isn't synced with the collision box (this is because the MD/RD function moves BOTH model and collision at the same time, so you see the problem it is with a animation having root keyframed movement).

The only downsides of using furniture animations is the limited amount of furniture animations in fnis, fortunately with the latest XXL version the limit is 4000 furniture animations (equaling 1333 sets of 3 animations for each furniture) so this solution works for me. Altough furniture animations REQUIRE a set of 3 animations to be used in FNIS and most of these animations i want to have collision are individual ones, so the solution is defining the custom animation as one of the 3 furniture animations, and assign non-existant hkx files to the other 2 ones, so that when using the furniture ONLY this one gets played. Sure i "waste" two animation slots per furniture, and i can only have 1333 custom animations with precise collision instead of 4000 but 1333 might be more than enought for me :D

The other downside is... if the animation isn't looped (ie, the model doesn't return to the precise original position at the end of the animation) the model is STILL "jumping" back to the initial position in the keyframed animation, which looks horrible but oh well... (unless we create new frames on the animation on 3dsmax to animate the character getting back to the initial position) i still prefer this than having these specific animations playing without collision moving from the initial position, those that are run at the same place and that are looped i can use as normal non-furniture animations.

So in case this is useful to anyone, enjoy! I hope this isn't offtopic but since the thread is about creating new animations, i figured this would be quite usefull to people to know. Because i can't believe i am the only one caring about animations not having any collision at all, perhaps many people either don't mind that or given up trying to have collision on them, or perhaps... there isn't much interest in skyrim animation anymore :) But either way i hope this helps someone else too.

 

Skyrim animation is pretty limited. Main issue for me is lack of facial animations. I can see a workable solution in my mind but it would involve such an awkward workaround just as you described, it just wouldn't be worth the effort. Another peeve of mine is sliding feet when moving; a problem root motion would solve.

 

Root motion system is a lot harder to implement. For modders to add functionality that wasn't intended is always an uphill battle. Notable examples of games that do this well are Arkham City and Witcher 3. Although a case can be made for non-root motion games that require precise twitch reflex such as FPS games.

Edited by pornphile
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On 25.11.2017 at 11:36 AM, pornphile said:

 

 

What a coincidence. Just came by looking for help for a completely different issue. And well, I see people talk about me. :grin:

 

One of my many probles with doing that FNIS stuff is that I am not an animator. Oblivion and Blender were ok, but 3ds max is well over my head. A plain horror for the few times have worked with it. Not to really animate, but only do some minor twitches to existing animations. So I can't tell anything about the basics of Skyrim MD/RD (Motion/Rotation Data).

 

All I always do is only replicating animations that already exist in Skyrim. In this case a small group of motion driven animations like turn, or the telvanni power lift. Hoping for new areas of use. But honestly it wasn't very fruitful. Even the animations I had in mind (flying animations) didn't turn out the way I hoped. Collision is still off the moment the player leaves ground.

 

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