Need help with creating Animations

[RinKimiko]

Hi everyone!

I never liked how the combat animations in Skyrim look. The weapons have no momentum, their stance is wrong, the timing is boring etc. So I decided I want to make new combat animations for Skyrim.

I went to school for Animation and 3D modelling, but I have no idea how to make them work within the engine of skyrim.

I know skyrim's engine uses HkX for animations, but how can I export animations from programs like Blender or 3ds Max for Skyrim?

 

I know I can research all of that on the internet, but I've already spent hours on it, and since there are some really good animators here, maybe you could share some of your knowledge to me

 

English is not my first language, so please forgive any mistakes I make

 

Thanks, and have a nice day!

 

Edit: To clarify, I don't need help with the animation process itself, just with importing/exporting the correct file types.

The Havok Tools are no longer publicly available anymore, since Havok is owned by Microsoft now. Can I get them anywhere else?

 

[AnubiSs2167]

http://0s-mod.tumblr.com/0S/G/Animate/Basics/

[RinKimiko]

http://0s-mod.tumblr.com/0S/G/Animate/Basics/

 

Thanks, unfortunately a lot of the requirements like the Havok tools are no longer available, and even after some searching I found nothing. Also, since 2016, Autodesk apparently blocks all versions of 3dsmax older than 2013...

 

[RinKimiko]

Ok, I think I know now how to export an animation from Blender as a .hkx

Can anyone tell me how I could import an existing .hkx into blender?

 

Edit: Nevermind, did not work as intended.

[RinKimiko]

Hi Rinkimiko,

I am currently making animations for Skyrim using Blender, so I can give you some direction as to what you will need.  I am certainly no expert since I have only been learning for the past 5 months or so. 

I will warn you right off the bat that doing most anything for Skyrim can be quite arduous, tedious, and frustrating.  There is a huge learning curve and quite a few tools that you will need to learn and use.  I don't say this to discourage you, just to make you aware of the reality of the process.

 

For animating I use Anton's Animation Tools Pack:

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/62065/?

There are quite a few different tools in this pack for working in Blender.  There are instructions on how to use them; but they are very general and will take some work on your part to figure them out.  I started with the N3 Tools (Animation with IK) and used the example_male, since all my animations are male oriented, and have since been tweaking the rig and mesh for my own use.  There is a script included that exports the bone keys in a .txt file.  That is then converted to .kf and then .hkx using HKXCMD, which is included in the pack.  It is a command line tool, so not real user friendly.

 

You will need Nifskope to work with the nif files (if you make any mesh changes) and NifTools for the Blender scripts (for import/export of meshs/skeleton).  This isn't absolutely necessary if you are just making animations and work with Anton's tools as they are. 

 

 

Nifskope:

http://niftools.sourceforge.net/wiki/NifSkope

 

Nif-Tools for Blender 2.49b:

http://niftools.sourceforge.net/wiki/Blender

There is alot of good information here, especially under Tutorials; but it does require some searching to find it.  I use this for mesh work, mainly because I am used to it and I like the import/export options better.   

 

Nif-Tools for Blender 2.60+:

http://niftools.sourceforge.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=6323&sid=ae10e9f0e1980e4bd5ea3f82f1788181

The download is in his Sig at the bottom of the post.  It is an alpha/development version; but I use it and it works well. 

 

I will warn you that the bones of the hands and arms in the male rig are out of place because of how he set up the IK.  I imported the male body and hands and used those bones as a guide to adjust the originals, then re-built the IK.  That may not be necessary in your case, but the hands will be offset in game than where they are in Blender, which may affect how weapons line up.  i haven't dealt with weapons, so I really can't say how to work with them.  I have no idea about the female either, since I have never used it.

I also want to point out that some of the bone translations are coded wrong in his script.  Read through the posts at this link for an explanation:

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/34671/?

In most modeling software like Blender, the Z axis is up.  In game engines the Z axis is forward.  So his script makes those adjustments.  I know that the rotations are all good, but he made a mistake with some of the translations, and since you will be primarily translating the weapon bones, that might be a problem.

 

Fore, the developer of FNIS, has a Modders Documentation guide in the downloads section.  In this PDF, there is some very good information about behavior files as well as working with Alternate Animations, which is what you are wanting to do.

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/11811/?

 

As far as directly importing .hkx files into Blender... not possible.  There is the option in the Nif importer to import .kf files.  You can convert the .hkx to .kf with HKXCMD and then import it into blender with a mesh/skeletion.  I have tried importing into both versions of Blender; but failed everytime.  If you do get a .kf into Blender, the keys are baked on all channels, so it makes it very difficult, if not impossible, to work with them, and key reduction can cause a host of problems (in my limited experience).

There is a version of HKXCMD with an interface that was mentioned in a thread here on LoversLab:

http://www.loverslab.com/topic/41855-could-someone-explain-how-to-use-hkxcmdexe/

Scroll down to Zaz's post for the link and instructions.

 

As much as you probably hate to hear this, there isn't really any way to do a step by step tutorial.  It would be extremely long and the chance of mistakes and omissions is quite likely. Plus, as I'm sure you know, you need to build your own workflow so that you do the same steps, the same way, every time. The best advice I can give is to be patient, very patient, and learn what each tool is doing and how to use it.  If you make a mistake (which you will, alot of them), you will have the knowledge to hunt it down and correct it.  At least you know how to work with meshes and build animations and a working knowledge of Blender.  I had to learn all of it simultaneously.

 

Best of luck to you if you decide to pursue this.  It is very rewarding and invigorating to actually see one of your animations work in game.

 

Thank you for all your advice! I tried working with Anton's Tools before, however I just didn't understand how to use them properly. I will keep trying though

My biggest problem for now is that the havok tools are no longer available...

 

 

[disbelieved45]

Thank you

[Azaghal123]

Check this vídeo:     

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/videos/11200

 

Its a complete tutorial that show how to make an animation with Blender. 

 

 

[nemocdt]

(tag)