Probably the simplest animation there is, a wheel-spin animation.
I'm trying to create a catapult-like siege engine, and I'm having trouble with its walk animation. The model is a WoW catapult model with a walk animation that doesn't turn its wheels. Adding the wheel turning animation in 3DsMax with Auto-key + keyframe and turning the bone attached to the 4 wheels seems to work in Max, but imported into the editor, no dice. It might have something to do with bone hierarchy which I know nothing about, or simply I'm doing it incorrectly.
Thus, what is the procedure to add animation sequences to models to import into SC2?
The attached file contains the model in question, which is a modified version of the demolishervehicle.m3 from WoW.
Thanks for reading. I would appreciate any information on resolving this issue.
Looks like the bones do not have the correct controller assigned for rotation, so the bones could not retain the rotation keyframes.
to fix this:
- Select the Bone
- Goto the Motion Tab
- Select "Parameters"
- Under Assign Controller you will see the transform controllers
- Select Rotation
- in the Assign Controller section you should see a box with a check, click this box
- Choose Euler XYZ
-You should now be able to key rotations.
Firstly, I appreciate very much that you put the effort to create a visual guide as well as a a max file to answer my question. Questions posted on this board are answered with more clarity and efficiency than any other board on this forum.
However, the animation sequence remains unamended. I applied the Euler XYZ controller to rotation for the 4 bones. Again it seems to work in Max, but imported, the animations are not amended. Also, I'm using the 2010 version of Max, not art tools, so I couldn't open the attached .max file in your post. I'm going to look up tutorials on motion and controllers and see if there are additional fields I have to change.
It's also possible that I'm not keying the animations correctly. The procedure I used is as follows:
- Select bone, select Walk animation sequence, drag animation time to start
- Hit "Auto Key" button, hit "Set Keys" button
- Drag animation time to the end of animation sequence
- Rotate the bone with rotate tool
- Repeat for all wheels
The result is that the animation appears to be amended into the sequence when I hit play animation. On video tutorials there do not appear to be additional steps beyond these, but maybe procedures are different for models to be exported?
@TheLostAzn: Go
those animation steps are correct.
sounds like it might be an issue with your exporter.
I was able to export through StarTools and the M3 Plugins without a problem.
you could try:
- Checking your export settings to make sure export animations is checked.
- Test animating another model
- Reinstalling your M3 plugins
- Install an older version of the plugins
- Download 3ds max 2011, and attempting to export though that.
Just because the engine can interpolate between two rotations doesn't mean it will get the animation right. You have to make sure everything looks nice in the splines and will loop effectively when your animation segments are played. Also you have to make sure that when you create a rotation like for tires that you always end up in the same orientation you were in from the beginning so that it can loop without a noticeable hiccup.
Make sure that whatever local axis your bone has is in alignment to your rotation so you don't have to do lots of work with the splines.
This lets you look at the graphs for the curves of the bone's xyz rotation over time which is used to define the spline. The axis you are rotating on should ascend or descend until the end of the animation(easiest way) or every time the rotation comes back around(in case you are having some kind of overflow error), it will look like a zig zag with every zag going strait down when the rotation matches the original position, each zig should be identical so the rotation would not vary in weird ways every time the wheel turns.
It shouldn't be a curve it should just be line segments because the rate of rotation is fixed(3dsMax will generate splines with interpolation as smoothing into and out of which will create undesired animation of the wheel starting up slow and easing into a stop which might not be noticeable if you are only watching one loop), you don't need to animate acceleration because the engine can simulate that when it smooths in from a fixed position and you can't loop an animation like that to make it look like the wheels are spinning at a fixed rate without hiccups between loops so this is the part where the animation tools are doing too much work for you.
I'm assuming you are having animation problems and not export problems, if not this is still useful to know.
This problem is with this specific model. Testing with 3 other models all proved successful with current exporter config and version of Max. It must have something to do with the wheel bones or objects related to bones. A few hours of looking through animation tutorials led me nowhere on finding a solution to this issue.
As a side note, all WoW models with wheels seem to behave the same way: A walk animation is present, but wheels do not rotate. Having never played WoW, I suspect that the models work with a physics engine in WoW to animate the wheels with respect to objects mesh they come in contact with. Therefore the models have some specific setting that's conflicting with animation keys.
Months ago I requested the art tools beta, but I lost or never received the email with the download link. Attempts to get another one a few weeks ago didn't work out either. Unless there's now a public version of art tools available, I'm likely not going to be able to get it any time soon.
Having created and edited several dozen custom models from WoW for this project, this is the only model that I will really need art tools to do. It's also the only one of its kind I require for this project. I now humbly request if a kind modeler with art tools would add in a simple working wheel rotation animation in the .m3 file I provided above, and upload it here. It doesn't have to be fancy in the least. I would be in your debt.
There can be a catapult in this archive. (I don't remember, if its wheels rotating, though).
About your issue. There is a chance that wheels are rotating with animated UV offset, and there is a chance that exporter didn't import this part. You can try to animate it, it's a useful feature.
Though a month late, I need to thank you guys for your help. I got your PM Mr. Cactus and will explore it when I have time. Using the .m3 you sent me I managed to create a working model with the animation I need without Art tools.
Consider this solved. Thanks again gents.
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Probably the simplest animation there is, a wheel-spin animation.
I'm trying to create a catapult-like siege engine, and I'm having trouble with its walk animation. The model is a WoW catapult model with a walk animation that doesn't turn its wheels. Adding the wheel turning animation in 3DsMax with Auto-key + keyframe and turning the bone attached to the 4 wheels seems to work in Max, but imported into the editor, no dice. It might have something to do with bone hierarchy which I know nothing about, or simply I'm doing it incorrectly.
Thus, what is the procedure to add animation sequences to models to import into SC2?
The attached file contains the model in question, which is a modified version of the demolishervehicle.m3 from WoW.
Thanks for reading. I would appreciate any information on resolving this issue.
@TheLostAzn: Go
Looks like the bones do not have the correct controller assigned for rotation, so the bones could not retain the rotation keyframes.
to fix this:
- Select the Bone
- Goto the Motion Tab
- Select "Parameters"
- Under Assign Controller you will see the transform controllers
- Select Rotation
- in the Assign Controller section you should see a box with a check, click this box
- Choose Euler XYZ
-You should now be able to key rotations.
Attached is a screenshot guide and max file
Formally Kinkycactus
Firstly, I appreciate very much that you put the effort to create a visual guide as well as a a max file to answer my question. Questions posted on this board are answered with more clarity and efficiency than any other board on this forum.
However, the animation sequence remains unamended. I applied the Euler XYZ controller to rotation for the 4 bones. Again it seems to work in Max, but imported, the animations are not amended. Also, I'm using the 2010 version of Max, not art tools, so I couldn't open the attached .max file in your post. I'm going to look up tutorials on motion and controllers and see if there are additional fields I have to change.
It's also possible that I'm not keying the animations correctly. The procedure I used is as follows:
- Select bone, select Walk animation sequence, drag animation time to start
- Hit "Auto Key" button, hit "Set Keys" button
- Drag animation time to the end of animation sequence
- Rotate the bone with rotate tool
- Repeat for all wheels
The result is that the animation appears to be amended into the sequence when I hit play animation. On video tutorials there do not appear to be additional steps beyond these, but maybe procedures are different for models to be exported?
@TheLostAzn: Go those animation steps are correct.
sounds like it might be an issue with your exporter.
I was able to export through StarTools and the M3 Plugins without a problem.
you could try:
- Checking your export settings to make sure export animations is checked.
- Test animating another model
- Reinstalling your M3 plugins
- Install an older version of the plugins
- Download 3ds max 2011, and attempting to export though that.
Formally Kinkycactus
Just because the engine can interpolate between two rotations doesn't mean it will get the animation right. You have to make sure everything looks nice in the splines and will loop effectively when your animation segments are played. Also you have to make sure that when you create a rotation like for tires that you always end up in the same orientation you were in from the beginning so that it can loop without a noticeable hiccup.
Make sure that whatever local axis your bone has is in alignment to your rotation so you don't have to do lots of work with the splines.
Looks like you can manipulate the data for the splines in Track View in 3dsMax. http://docs.autodesk.com/3DSMAX/15/ENU/3ds-Max-Help/index.html?url=files/GUID-D22C4E4B-A6F3-4D7B-94C8-21B594E56498.htm,topicNumber=d30e239756
This lets you look at the graphs for the curves of the bone's xyz rotation over time which is used to define the spline. The axis you are rotating on should ascend or descend until the end of the animation(easiest way) or every time the rotation comes back around(in case you are having some kind of overflow error), it will look like a zig zag with every zag going strait down when the rotation matches the original position, each zig should be identical so the rotation would not vary in weird ways every time the wheel turns.
It shouldn't be a curve it should just be line segments because the rate of rotation is fixed(3dsMax will generate splines with interpolation as smoothing into and out of which will create undesired animation of the wheel starting up slow and easing into a stop which might not be noticeable if you are only watching one loop), you don't need to animate acceleration because the engine can simulate that when it smooths in from a fixed position and you can't loop an animation like that to make it look like the wheels are spinning at a fixed rate without hiccups between loops so this is the part where the animation tools are doing too much work for you.
I'm assuming you are having animation problems and not export problems, if not this is still useful to know.
@ZombieZasz: Go
This problem is with this specific model. Testing with 3 other models all proved successful with current exporter config and version of Max. It must have something to do with the wheel bones or objects related to bones. A few hours of looking through animation tutorials led me nowhere on finding a solution to this issue.
As a side note, all WoW models with wheels seem to behave the same way: A walk animation is present, but wheels do not rotate. Having never played WoW, I suspect that the models work with a physics engine in WoW to animate the wheels with respect to objects mesh they come in contact with. Therefore the models have some specific setting that's conflicting with animation keys.
Months ago I requested the art tools beta, but I lost or never received the email with the download link. Attempts to get another one a few weeks ago didn't work out either. Unless there's now a public version of art tools available, I'm likely not going to be able to get it any time soon.
Having created and edited several dozen custom models from WoW for this project, this is the only model that I will really need art tools to do. It's also the only one of its kind I require for this project. I now humbly request if a kind modeler with art tools would add in a simple working wheel rotation animation in the .m3 file I provided above, and upload it here. It doesn't have to be fancy in the least. I would be in your debt.
@TheLostAzn: Go
Sorry to hear that, very odd issue.
I attached a M3 with the wheels animations. didn't include the texture file seeing as you already have it, texture path should be Assets/Textures.
Also I sent you a PM.
Formally Kinkycactus
There can be a catapult in this archive. (I don't remember, if its wheels rotating, though).
About your issue. There is a chance that wheels are rotating with animated UV offset, and there is a chance that exporter didn't import this part. You can try to animate it, it's a useful feature.
Though a month late, I need to thank you guys for your help. I got your PM Mr. Cactus and will explore it when I have time. Using the .m3 you sent me I managed to create a working model with the animation I need without Art tools.
Consider this solved. Thanks again gents.