The general WIP thread for animators.

[doxian]

I want tips for who will start creating animations. I have the tools but I do not know where to start.

[bearlyAlive]

8 hours ago, Alonely said:

That's what I thought, but doesn't doing so require a pole target? Don't any extra "Empties" get removed from the game once in-game, since they're not part of the recognized set of bones on the rig?

You can bake the animation. That clears all the constraints and sets the rotation values for all individual bones. The IK bones are can be ignored once that's done.

To bake go into pose mode, select the skeleton to bake, then pose->animation->bake action.

Deselect "only selected" and check "visual keying" and "clear constraints", frame step 1.

Make sure to save a copy of your animation before you bake, so you can edit it if something doesn't look right in game. Trying to fix a baked animation is difficult.

[Alonely]

10 hours ago, bearlyAlive said:

You can bake the animation. That clears all the constraints and sets the rotation values for all individual bones. The IK bones are can be ignored once that's done.

To bake go into pose mode, select the skeleton to bake, then pose->animation->bake action.

Deselect "only selected" and check "visual keying" and "clear constraints", frame step 1.

Make sure to save a copy of your animation before you bake, so you can edit it if something doesn't look right in game. Trying to fix a baked animation is difficult.

Wow, awesome! I had no idea! I had heard of the idea before, but wasn't sure how it was used in practice. Thank you so much, I'll definitely be trying this out!

[bearlyAlive]

Question: I have a 4 stage blowjob animation, the 4th stage is set as climax, and the animation loop count is set to 1.

For some reason the animation loops over and over again instead of finishing the encounter after running just once.

Is there something in the WW settings or in the animation xml I have to change?

 

Here's a snippet for the animation in question.

 

Spoiler

<T> <!-- [0001 STAGE Climax  Floor] -->
      <T n="animation_raw_display_name">Half lying floor blowjob Stage Climax</T> <!-- [REMOVE IF USING "animation_display_name" FIELD] -->
      <T n="animation_author">BearlyAlive</T>

      <T n="animation_locations">FLOOR</T>

      <T n="animation_category">CLIMAX</T>
      <T n="animation_loops">1</T>

      <T n="animation_stage_name">Half lying floor blowjob Stage Climax</T> <!-- [REMOVE IF UNUSED] -->

      <T n="animation_allowed_for_random">0</T>

	  
      <T n="animation_actors_list">

        <T> <!-- [START OF ACTOR ENTRY] -->
          <T n="actor_id">0</T>
          <T n="animation_clip_name">bearlyalive:PosePack_201901041202019688_set_8</T>

          <T n="animation_type">CLIMAX</T>

          <T n="animation_genders">BOTH</T>
          <T n="animation_pref_gender">FEMALE</T> <!-- [REMOVE IF UNUSED] -->

          <T n="animation_naked_type">NONE</T>
          <T n="animation_force_nude_hands">0</T>
          <T n="animation_force_nude_feet">0</T>
          <T n="animation_allow_strapon">0</T>

          <T n="actor_interactions">
            <T>
              <T n="receiving_actor_id">1</T>
              <T n="receiving_actor_category">CLIMAX</T>
              <T n="receiving_actor_cum_layers">DISABLED</T>
              <T n="receiving_actor_cum_inside">0</T>
            </T>
          </T>
        </T> <!-- [END OF ACTOR ENTRY] -->

        <T> <!-- [START OF ACTOR ENTRY] -->
          <T n="actor_id">1</T>
          <T n="animation_clip_name">bearlyalive:PosePack_201901041202019688_set_7</T>

          <T n="animation_type">CLIMAX</T>

          <T n="animation_genders">LARGEDOGMALE</T>

          <T n="animation_naked_type">BOTTOM</T>
          <T n="animation_force_nude_hands">0</T>
          <T n="animation_force_nude_feet">0</T>
          <T n="animation_allow_strapon">0</T>

          <T n="actor_interactions">
            <T>
              <T n="receiving_actor_id">0</T>
              <T n="receiving_actor_category">CLIMAX</T>
              <T n="receiving_actor_cum_layers">FACE</T>
              <T n="receiving_actor_cum_inside">0</T>
            </T>
          </T>
        </T> 
		
    </T><!-- [END OF ACTOR ENTRY] -->
    </T>

 

 

[void68]

I got a general question: With what to start? I understood a bit of animation so far, IK vs FK etc. My big problem is I don't know what model to take. I took the RIGGED_ANIMATION_FEMALE_e3 from CN modder files. Or the generic S4 mesh / armature.  All bones are shrunk to the tiniest size, automatic IK does not work. I see lots of target slots in there, but they aren't being targeted at. The armature is FK only - I am able to add IK bones even with switches to the arms or legs, but I fear that I mash up things that S4 doesn't recognize my model / animations.

 

How do you start, what model do you use and what is best to begin with? Did you upgrade your model with own IK? How many?

 

I also used the PoseHelper mesh, but it got limitations when it comes to locking an IK bone to the ground. I don't understand the mechanics and how the coordinate system works. When I want the models hands and knees "tied" to the ground and only the body should move... the hands and knees move whatever I do. Blender can be quite frustrating. Neither Rigify works with the models (from what I understand).

 

Should I build a skeleton of my own, modify the existing to my own taste or is there a good armature out there which is beginner friendly *with* some IK? Or should I quit my struggle for animation?

 

Working with Blender 2.78c.

[KickyNSFW]

Does anyone have advice for adding inverse kinematics to the rig?

The bones are disconnected and connecting them causes heavy distortion in game (I assume due to affecting the bone rolls when connecting).

I've tried doing IK with a proxy armature with parented empties and having the original rig using damped track constraints to track the empties. This works okay but I end up getting dependency cycle issues. Plus it doesn't seem as accurate since I find that the hands and feet "slip" a little bit (likely due to the dependency cycles).

Is there a better way to do this? I've seen some animations from people with hands and feet firmly locked so I assume that having a proper IK rig isn't impossible.

 

Edit: And almost immediately after posting this I found some rigs that were kindly shared here:

I wish this information was easier to find.

[Afro68]

On 2/24/2019 at 6:42 AM, R-Lo said:

I'm using 2.78b I think,  

I work on  this but Sim 4 studio requires 2.70 to be installed

So you have two different versions installed? One to create and the other to put into S4S when done?

[R-Lo]

42 minutes ago, Prince Planet said:

So you have two different versions installed? One to create and the other to put into S4S when done?

That's right ? for some reason the older version is very laggy for me, not sure why

[SepticSpoon]

Spoiler

19 hours ago, void68 said:

I got a general question: With what to start? I understood a bit of animation so far, IK vs FK etc. My big problem is I don't know what model to take. I took the RIGGED_ANIMATION_FEMALE_e3 from CN modder files. Or the generic S4 mesh / armature.  All bones are shrunk to the tiniest size, automatic IK does not work. I see lots of target slots in there, but they aren't being targeted at. The armature is FK only - I am able to add IK bones even with switches to the arms or legs, but I fear that I mash up things that S4 doesn't recognize my model / animations.

 

How do you start, what model do you use and what is best to begin with? Did you upgrade your model with own IK? How many?

 

I also used the PoseHelper mesh, but it got limitations when it comes to locking an IK bone to the ground. I don't understand the mechanics and how the coordinate system works. When I want the models hands and knees "tied" to the ground and only the body should move... the hands and knees move whatever I do. Blender can be quite frustrating. Neither Rigify works with the models (from what I understand).

 

Should I build a skeleton of my own, modify the existing to my own taste or is there a good armature out there which is beginner friendly *with* some IK? Or should I quit my struggle for animation?

 

Working with Blender 2.78c.

 

 

I personally use the dagger rig. (check out the post just below yours for the rigs.) I hope that topic get updated soon to include the more updated rig links. as that current topic is very outdated in terms of the rigs to use in my opinion. You are serverly handicapping yourself if you try to animate with FK.

[void68]

2 hours ago, Prince Planet said:

So you have two different versions installed? One to create and the other to put into S4S when done?

 

Blender 2.78c works fine (from my limited view) with Sims4 so far. That's what the simsstudio site recommends.

1 hour ago, SepticSpoon said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

I personally use the dagger rig. (check out the post just below yours for the rigs.) I hope that topic get updated soon to include the more updated rig links. as that current topic is very outdated in terms of the rigs to use in my opinion. You are serverly handicapping yourself if you try to animate with FK.

Thanks, I edited the PoseHelper rig, un-/ re-parenting the arm handles helped a lot. I give the dagger rig a try.

[Alonely]

On 2/24/2019 at 5:14 PM, bearlyAlive said:

Glad I'm not the only one, I've struggled for hours yesterday trying to fix it.

Same; also, the dog in my animation is rotated 180 degrees for some reason, which isn't an issue I'm having with human Sims.

[bearlyAlive]

4 hours ago, Alonely said:

Same; also, the dog in my animation is rotated 180 degrees for some reason, which isn't an issue I'm having with human Sims.

Did you bake the animation? I had this problem too, when I added IK to the pet skeletons, baking fixed that for me.

[KickyNSFW]

Anyone have difficulty getting animations to loop seamlessly?

 

What I would typically do is just repeat the loop a few times, bake the main loop, and then cut off the last keyframe (so if an animation is from 0 - 30, I'll make it 0 - 29).

 

This works normally for me but in TS4 it gets a little funky when the animation loops. I made sure all the clip properties were correct.

[HKo_83]

7 hours ago, KickyNSFW said:

Anyone have difficulty getting animations to loop seamlessly?

 

I normally just place the first frame as the last, so when animation loops they are same pose... worked for me...

[151bitch]

Has anyone played around with scaling in their animations? Does scaling even work?

[bearlyAlive]

25 minutes ago, 151bitch said:

Has anyone played around with scaling in their animations? Does scaling even work?

I tried scaling the chest of the dog in my first animation to simulate breathing but it didn't showed in the game. I don't know if it's the same for a Sim.

I also learned that animating the tail doesn't work.

[151bitch]

3 hours ago, bearlyAlive said:

I tried scaling the chest of the dog in my first animation to simulate breathing but it didn't showed in the game. I don't know if it's the same for a Sim.

I also learned that animating the tail doesn't work.

That's good to know. I have a technical question for you, though. When baking an animation using the Dagger/Simite rig, how do you get it to bake to the original rig "rig female" instead of the "rig_control female" rig?

EDIT: Found the answer here.

[bearlyAlive]

31 minutes ago, 151bitch said:

That's good to know. I have a technical question for you, though. When baking an animation using the Dagger/Simite rig, how do you get it to bake to the original rig "rig female" instead of the "rig_control female" rig?

Select the female rig in the outline, click on the little eye to make it visible, then in the 3D view select all bones of the female rig and then bake it.

I just tried it and deleted the control after baking, works great.

[151bitch]

12 hours ago, bearlyAlive said:

Select the female rig in the outline, click on the little eye to make it visible, then in the 3D view select all bones of the female rig and then bake it.

I just tried it and deleted the control after baking, works great.

Thank you!

Okay. I've made the animation, followed every instruction from the tumblr guide--and my animation won't show up in WickedWhims in game. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. Can someone help me out?

 

[bearlyAlive]

6 hours ago, 151bitch said:

Thank you!

Okay. I've made the animation, followed every instruction from the tumblr guide--and my animation won't show up in WickedWhims in game. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. Can someone help me out?

151_WW.package 42.03 kB · 0 downloads

There are syntax errors in the xml file, run it through an xml validator to check where they are.

[151bitch]

1 hour ago, bearlyAlive said:

There are syntax errors in the xml file, run it through an xml validator to check where they are.

I did notice that and fixed the syntax errors, but it still doesn't load

151_WW.package

[bearlyAlive]

9 minutes ago, 151bitch said:

I did notice that and fixed the syntax errors, but it still doesn't load

151_WW.package 41.88 kB · 0 downloads

There is still an error in the xml.

Spoiler

Errors in the XML document: 
	69:	5	The element type "T" must be terminated by the matching end-tag "</T>".



.
.
.
64	        </T> <!-- [END OF ACTOR ENTRY] -->
65	
66	      </T>
67	
68	    <!-- Next Animation Goes Here -->
69	  </
L>
70	</I>

 

 

[151bitch]

10 hours ago, bearlyAlive said:

There is still an error in the xml.

  Hide contents

Errors in the XML document: 
	69:	5	The element type "T" must be terminated by the matching end-tag "</T>".



.
.
.
64	        </T> <!-- [END OF ACTOR ENTRY] -->
65	
66	      </T>
67	
68	    <!-- Next Animation Goes Here -->
69	  </
L>
70	</I>

 

 

Thanks so much for your help! Got it working.

[Alonely]

Hi all! So I'm trying to find the conflict between two different XML files, one for my Pets animations and one for my Pets animations Patreon version. When I remove the normal (non-Patreon) Pets animation package (the first attached XML file) from the mods folder, the animations from the Patreon animation package version (the second attached XML file) show up again, but if I have both packages in the Mods folder, the Patreon animations don't show up in-game anymore.

 

I've been told this might be an error or overlap in their "snippet tuning keys", but as far as I'm aware, those are very much distinct. I've checked the Modding Toolbox for both, and I'm pretty sure I put the hex and decimal numbers in the correct spots, which isn't an issue I've had before with my other animations anyway.

 

So please, can anyone see any conflict between these two XML files that would make the inclusion of the first one's package "overwrite" the second one?

S4_7DF2169C_00000000_1C1C3DCD94DFCBFF.xml S4_7DF2169C_00000000_48ACF7E6F62F4AFE.xml

[HKo_83]

Long time no news! still working on the animations thou... I managed to clear my WIP folder and gathered all usable blends so I finally have some sense what I've been doing and what I'm not doing right. But as I've been using ( for so long! ) the original XML template I seem to be missing all the new stuff that has become enabled. And can't find a new one anywhere... Any one has a dl link or empty template laying somwhere?

Or are the new "cumshot" etc stuff just addable lines into old xml?

 

Some upcoming animations:

Spoiler