Re: [Nel] animation problem

[Cyril 'Hulud' Corvazier]

Hi Andi,

 

> after loading into our game i notice that after adding the skeleton our monster is half under the floor

> and facing the wrong way...

 

This is a classic issue, in max, when you create your biped, it looks at the -Y axis to face the front view.

 

> same issue his tail went crazy and im sure he enjoyed it but was pretty unbecomming even for a horny little monster

 

Can you check this points before we go further:

 

    The skin shape vertices are exported in world space (it's a special case). At run time, vertices are moved back in bone local space using the inverted "figure mode" bone world matrix and then transformed in word space using the "current" bone world matrix. It means that :

    - whatever you may change on your skeleton (position, posture, orientation, size) you have to reexport the skin model.

    - you have to be sure that your skin model match the skeleton in figure mode.

    - the skin shape and the skeleton have to be exported in figure mode.

 

I hope your monster will get back on form :-)

 

Hld.

----- Original Message -----

From: Andi 'Debug' Allen

To: Developer's list for the NeL platform

Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2004 4:51 AM

Subject: [Nel] animation problem

Hi again,

 

im working on animating a monster

 

ive created a biped scaled rotated and moved it until its the right size and shape inside the model

this was all done in figure mode i attached it to the monster with a physique modifier and all the

rig movements work fine.

 

i exported the shape and the skeleton ( from its root ) and the ( skeleton weight from its root )

whilst still in figure mode

 

i loaded this into object viewer and all seemed fine the shape and skeletons center point are at

XYZ 0,0,0 at this point

 

after loading into our game i notice that after adding the skeleton our monster is half under the floor

and facing the wrong way...

 

even though its facing forwards in 3ds max.

 

so i went back into figure mode moved the skeleton up to z 1.32 this aligned the monsters feet with

z = 0

 

and i rotated him 90 degrees so he was facing right i re exported the shape and the skeleton while

in figure mode

 

after loading him back into the game i see hes standing comfortably on the ground and facing forwards

 

time to add an animation

 

i selset his tail segments ( not in figure mode now ) and set a biped animation key in the KEY INFO

roll out in the motion section

 

i moved his tail and set a new key at frame 9 and continued until i was happy with a basic 40 frame animation

his tail swishes back and forth happily in 3ds max and looks fine

 

so time to export the animation - extensive testing with the GNU model and animations proves our

animation system is fine

 

i select the bip01 biped root and choose export model animation save the animation and load up object viewer to test it

( not view scene from the export rollout )

 

i load the shape skeleton the weight he sits happily but i notice hes not above z=0 now in object viewer hes below it

curious i continue i add the anim and then insert it on his skeleton ( jump ) the model jumps to the very middle of the

scene axis ( yellow lines ) with equal amounts under above and to teh sides...

 

i set the anim length and click play and got a distorted animation his tail was doing some very unscenly things!!!

and frankly i was scared to even watch..

 

stopping the animation i spend a few hours pullign my hair out and decide to remake him ground up from just the object

going through the entire 3 hours process again i find out that if i dont move him up z and rotate him the animation works fine

as soon as i moved the skeleton UP in 3ds max and rotate him the animation gets very odd!

 

now i think ok thats fine and step back a ways to before i made the animation and he was just an unanimated model

i knew i had made the animation AFTER id set his skeleton rotation and position but tried again

to be sure setting his placement and roatation in figure mode exporting and so on then when he was all ready and no

animation existed i created the anim from scratch

 

same issue his tail went crazy and im sure he enjoyed it but was pretty unbecomming even for a horny little monster

 

so i think some more and in the end after remaking him and trying again im stuck... the strange thing i note most of all

is the move when you set the anim to the playlist the shape warps from his position to an utterly central one.

 

and possibly im exporting the animation wrong..

 

or even using the wrong method to animate

 

please help :)

 

im going crazy

 

 

    Andi 'Debug' Allen

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