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

[llabsky]

and whats with the controls... i cant move some things half of the time... and after doing something i can move things but only in certain direction... so i have a lochness monster that seems to be pushed backwards instead of "jumping" upwards...

 

 

Keep in mind you can only alter the green controllers by rotating (E), not by moving (W). The pink/red controllers can be altered by moving or rotating.

[pornphile]

f+m the only reason i am bothering with this complicated thing is cause there are no m+m animations... and there are people that want them... but since animatiors here seem to be all straight oriented then i can understand why nobody is running to make m+m animations... i woulnt like making f+f animations either... 

Feel free to use whatever meshes you want. The rigs themselves are gender agnostic. For something simpler, I recommend just animating on the skeleton itself.

[starfall17]

i think i got it... im now getting ready to export my "first" "cwappy" animation... a jumping naked guy

fingers crossed

[starfall17]

welp... that was a bust... my character wont animate at all while idle... he just stands there... frozen... when i move him, he moves and the movement animations works... but the idle one... he just stands there like a statue... and im pretty sure i followed most of the export to the letter...

[starfall17]

i think you shoult try and improve the quality of the video image... my eyes are still sore from trying to make out the settings you had when exporting... i guess improper setup is what caused my "animation" to be 37 mb... anywho... i kinda did make out through trial and error what settings were you using, although i could not exactly read the filters in the configuration... and i did set it up as it seemed to be in the video... and now my animation file is less than 500 kb... not sure if it still contains an animation tho... will let you know shortly...

 

Edit: GOOD GOD i created poltergeists in jorrvaskr...

 

It seems that my animation is just too fucked up for the game... my character seems to turn upside down and the disappear... since i guess the animation goes out of my field of view... however looking at other npc-s in jorrvaskr, they did a 90 degree whole body turn so the head seemed to be on the side... and well... that was the only part of the body i could make out... the rest of the body seemed to be moving somewhat to my animation but it really did look as if i was looking at a poltergeist... it was horrible... i dont think i can go into a dark room anymore...

 

anyways... ill attach my animation xml file... maybe you could help me a bit in figuring out what the hell is the matter with my animation...

 

idle.xml  

 

btw... i dont have permission to upload hkx file, but im pretty sure thats not where the problem lies...

[starfall17]

hmm... noticed some people have problem running the cmd and hktcnv.exe in windows 10... for me... i just click "windows logo + R" and type cmd, it opens up under c:/users/user so i just use commands cd desktop and cd temp_anims to point it to the folder i have on desktop containing hktcnv.exe and for some reason when you use hktcnv.exe as a command it does not recognize it... however using just hktcnv seems to work... without the exe extention... down know why

anyways... i just use hktcnv idle.xml idle.hkx 
and the idle.hkx pops up in the folder as it should... no probs... maybe they made some changes for cmd to be more "user friendly"

[pornphile]

i think you shoult try and improve the quality of the video image... my eyes are still sore from trying to make out the settings you had when exporting... i guess improper setup is what caused my "animation" to be 37 mb... anywho... i kinda did make out through trial and error what settings were you using, although i could not exactly read the filters in the configuration... and i did set it up as it seemed to be in the video... and now my animation file is less than 500 kb... not sure if it still contains an animation tho... will let you know shortly...

Vimeo downgraded the vid from 1080 to 720. If you're using one of my rigs, there's no need to fiddle with the settings - they're already set up. You only need to ensure that it points to 'XPMS RIG 1.6c Full Bone.txt'. For 'Create Animationes' and 'Loop Animations', that the correct frame range is set. Finally to use the 2010 or 2012 export method.

What Max/HCT version are you using?

[starfall17]

2012 max  2011.3.0 havoc

 

the problem is that when i export, you had several things on your list... i had none... i had to move them from the left side to the right side for the export to even use them... 

 

Edit: i think i found my problem... i did install max before and opened your file before i actually learned from the vid how the havoc tools should look like when installed... so i installed them mid project... so your settings were not taken into consideration in my half way saved project... ill try everything from the start... ill update once im done... 

[Dayelyte]

Chuckle.

 

Animating is tough enough by itself.  Doing it AND making it play nice within Skyrim adds an additional layer of complexity to the mix. 

Toss in unfamiliarity with Max and the Havok Exporter and it becomes quite the adventure.  More than one actor has turned themselves

inside out when I got the actors bone listing out of order :|

 

 

Initially when using HCT,  you'll need to load what filters you want to use.  Set the variables up within each filter as you want them. You have the option of then saving that particular loadout as a configuration set in HCT.  Makes it easy to call a particular filter set back up without having to manually redo them each time you want to use it. 

 

 

 

 

[starfall17]

Chuckle.

 

Animating is tough enough by itself.  Doing it AND making it play nice within Skyrim adds an additional layer of complexity to the mix. 

Toss in unfamiliarity with Max and the Havok Exporter and it becomes quite the adventure.  More than one actor has turned themselves

inside out when I got the actors bone listing out of order :|

 

tell me about it... i got poltergeists...

[Dayelyte]

 

Chuckle.

 

Animating is tough enough by itself.  Doing it AND making it play nice within Skyrim adds an additional layer of complexity to the mix. 

Toss in unfamiliarity with Max and the Havok Exporter and it becomes quite the adventure.  More than one actor has turned themselves

inside out when I got the actors bone listing out of order :|

 

tell me about it... i got poltergeists...

 

 

A very important option if you're using bone lists from a file is to ensure you have the following checked within the Create

Skeletons filter:

 

" From File " MUST be checked as well as " Use File Order "

 

If you don't Havok will export using Max's hierarchy instead of the bone files hierarchy.  You'll end up with a stunt double

from a Steven King movie because the animation data will get incorrectly matched to the in game skeleton and the engine

will try to move the pelvis where the arm should be, or the head where the foot is, etc. etc.

 

Make sure you also have " from file " checked under the " Create Animations " filter as well. 

[pornphile]

Are you talking about this bone list?

Does it not auto populate when you point it to the .txt file?

 

The other list I can't even alter.

[Dayelyte]

The only time the second list gets altered is if you click the " Populate Bone Names List " beneath it.  You'll only ever see this if you're animating with different skeletons though.  The bones there should reflect the bones in the skeleton you're using. 

 

Once you tell HCT what skeleton you're going to be using, you're correct in that it will auto-populate within the " Create Skeletons " filter.  Just make absolutely sure you have those two options checked.  Especially the file order one.   If you don't, amusing things happen in game

 

 

[pornphile]

 

A very important option if you're using bone lists from a file is to ensure you have the following checked within the Create

Skeletons filter:

 

" From File " MUST be checked as well as " Use File Order "

 

If you don't Havok will export using Max's hierarchy instead of the bone files hierarchy.  You'll end up with a stunt double

from a Steven King movie because the animation data will get incorrectly matched to the in game skeleton and the engine

will try to move the pelvis where the arm should be, or the head where the foot is, etc. etc.

 

Make sure you also have " from file " checked under the " Create Animations " filter as well. 

 

Those are the rig's default settings.

It also exports fine using:

 

 

[Dayelyte]

Interesting.  I never had a lot of luck with other skeletons ( Critters mostly:  Giant, canine and WW ) if I didn't force them to use the file order.  I had a HELL of a time getting the Werewolves to play nice.  

[starfall17]

success

jorvaskr now has weird faries jumping in weird motion

but they dont look like poltergeists... 

so it worked for me now

 

 

Once you tell HCT what skeleton you're going to be using, you're correct in that it will auto-populate within the " Create Skeletons " filter.  Just make absolutely sure you have those two options checked.  Especially the file order one.   If you don't, amusing things happen in game

 

Amusing eh? i think i cant sleep for a week after seeing what my previous animation did... 

[pornphile]

Interesting.  I never had a lot of luck with other skeletons ( Critters mostly:  Giant, canine and WW ) if I didn't force them to use the file order.  I had a HELL of a time getting the Werewolves to play nice.  

Yes, I'm using file order also. The Havok filters are set to use the recommended settings and saved within the Max scene.

[starfall17]

now then... how do i get a second male into the fold

[Dayelyte]

Easy enough.  You just have to rename the bones on one of the actors before you import a second skeleton that has the same naming convention.

Otherwise they'll conflict.

 

Import Skeleton X

Import Actor Mesh that will use Skeleton X

Tip:  It would be wise to put them on separate layers to make for easy selection

Select all bones in Skeleton X and go to Tools -> Rename Objects

Uncheck Base Name,  Check Suffix

Give it a meaningful suffix here  -male, -female, -male_1, -male_2, etc

Click Rename

 

Voila,  all the bones now have the suffix you chose appended to their name. 

 

It is now safe to import a second skeleton and mesh to work with. 

Do the same for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc actors in the scene.  *

Remember to put them into their own layers as well.

 

*The reason you do them all is when you go to export your animations.  If you

leave one actors skeleton as the default naming convention without the suffix,

when you remove the suffix in the next step, you'll now have two bones with the

same name in the scene.  It may not be necessary since you're selecting specific

bones for export, but my OCD kicks in and I do them all anyway

 

What is noteworthy here is when you're ready to export your animations out.

You -MUST- remove the suffix you appended to the bone names or nothing

will work once in game.  The process is simple enough:

 

Select all bones in the actor that is ready to export

Go Tools -> Rename

Uncheck everything.  Check Remove Last and tell it how many digits to remove.

Example if you went with -male_1   that is a total of seven digits to remove.  -female_1  would be nine digits, etc.

Click Rename

 

All of the bones for this actor should now revert back to their original naming convention and it

is now safe to export via HCT.  When done exporting the animation, add the suffix back to the bones

and wash, rinse and repeat for all actors in your scene. 

[starfall17]

wow... thanks... thats a very nice guide... i think i could actually do it... 

wow... maybe i can even make animations that are some good

 

so far i created another idle animation... a quick one... the result... everybody in jorvaskr that didnt have anything better to do, started jerking off... however without an erection and clothes on... but at least it works although i have never seen anyone being sooo still when jerking... guess thats where the little things come in

god im sooo happy for all this info ive gotten thanks to you... thank you all and again thousand times over... :d  

[pornphile]

2012 max  2011.3.0 havoc

 

Edit: i think i found my problem... i did install max before and opened your file before i actually learned from the vid how the havoc tools should look like when installed... so i installed them mid project... so your settings were not taken into consideration in my half way saved project... ill try everything from the start... ill update once im done... 

Just so I understand what the problem was and for future users:

 

You had saved the Max scene file without having HCT installed. You installed HCT afterwards, then tried to export from the save Max scene. This resulted in the missing filters when trying to export?

[starfall17]

yes... the only filter i had was the default... 

 

in other news... is there an easier way to make the last frame and the first frame exactly the same so the animation loop would be smooth? right now im just tryin to move every piece back one by one to their position where they were at the start of the animation...

 

ugh... another thing... once im done exporting the animations of 2 characters... how do i tell the game that those 2 animations belong with each other

 

Okay never mind that... how do i actually load 2 characters from that bone rig file and place meshes on them both???

i tried to just make a clone from the same one but when exporting... nothing worked as it should have...

[pornphile]

yes... the only filter i had was the default... 

 

in other news... is there an easier way to make the last frame and the first frame exactly the same so the animation loop would be smooth? right now im just tryin to move every piece back one by one to their position where they were at the start of the animation...

 

ugh... another thing... once im done exporting the animations of 2 characters... how do i tell the game that those 2 animations belong with each other

 

Okay never mind that... how do i actually load 2 characters from that bone rig file and place meshes on them both???

i tried to just make a clone from the same one but when exporting... nothing worked as it should have...

Set keyframes for all controllers at frame zero then right click and move the silder to the last frame.

Using Time Slider

 

Once you've exported an animation, you've moved beyond the scope of actually animating. In OP under Afterwards, See 'Making animations for SexLab.'

 

You couldn't get Dayelyte's instructions to work? See '2 Actors Animation' under Afterwards. Look at the F+M rig to see how it can be organized.

[Dayelyte]

As pornphile stated, the easiest method to ensure a smooth loop is to simply copy the first keyframe for all bones in your actors skeleton

to the last keyframe on your timeline. 

 

How I normally do it is select all bones in the actor, then click the keyframe at time 0, ( it will turn white ) then hold shift and drag it to wherever

you need it.  You can multi-select the keyframes and copy entire groups this way.  Make sure you give your actor enough space on the timeline

to transition back to the starting position. Otherwise it will jump / jerk and it will be apparent in the resulting animation.  Once you start playing

with it, you'll see what I mean. 

 

When you import two actors, you will import the first skeleton then the mesh you want driven by it.  Once you've renamed the skeleton that

mesh is pretty much linked to those bones so don't try to clone / copy it.  Just reimport a second skeleton and mesh.  Eventually, if you plan

on doing a few animations, you'll realize it's easier to do this setup work once.  Import your actors, get them all in their layers, build your rigs

if you're not using an existing one and get everything prepped to start animating, but stop just short of it. 

 

At this point save your Max scene file out so you can use it as a template for future animations.  This way you'll have your two actors ready

to go without all the prep work everytime you want to animate a scene out.  Just remember when you open it, to instantly save it under a new

file name so you don't overwrite your template scene. 

 

Tip:  Make a few copies of your template scene just in case

 

 

If I recall correctly, when you first install Havok Content Tools, none of the filters are enabled by default.  I remember having to set them up and

saving them as my default configuration the first time around. 

 

As for getting two animations to work with each other:

 

If you're animating for the player character ( Eg: the human skeleton ) your animation will work for any other actor in the game that utilizes that

same skeleton.  In addition, if both actors are using the same skeleton, then you will be able to swap actor positions mid-scene via SexLab.

( say top vs bottom, dominant vs passive, etc )

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[starfall17]

sigh... im just gonna take a little break... cuddle with my other half... refresh my mind... and begin learning that animation on the latest info again... would be sooo much easier if i had a movement tracker so i could just move and the skeleton moves after me... woulnt that make animating soo much easier