Player character "Look" animations
by Christopher Beckford · in Artist Corner · 04/05/2004 (6:28 pm) · 3 replies
---THE INTRODUCTION---
Hey everyone I really need some help here. Our character modeller and animator has made some custom characters, but doesn't have a clue about how to work the "Look" animation sequences. So naturally, "Give it to the programmer. He has the engine code, he must know how it works!". So here I am. But then our modeller is rather useless. He didn't even know about config files until I told him earlier today.
---THE BACKSTORY---
Anyway. I decided the best way to find out what he was doing wrong was to make my own player model from scratch. So of I went into max and threw together a basic Mech, then gave it a biped, mountpoints etc. I got the animation sequences working ingame fine (why is it by the way that all tutorials on the subject seem to end saying "I'll try to do more later about animations"?). Then ofcourse came the look animations, where it works, but at the same time, it really doesn't! The basic problem is that I've not seen a single tutorial or resource on doing this, so my Look sequences are based off deductions from the few forum threads I could find.
---THE PROBLEM---
My player model will use the Look sequence but will not use the whole range of motion. I've got a couple of images here to show what I mean (no laughing at my mech, he's a Badass ;-) )
This is my mech in game. In the first frame its actually looking straight up, but the animation shows it facing forward. The middle frame is what I get when the player is facing forwards, and the final frame is when the player is looking down.
Now another pic of the current version of the animation in 3DS Max.
This shows frames 0-3 of my "Look" animation. Now from these two at it looks pretty obvious, "It's blending from the first frame to the last and ignoring the ones in the middle". But before anyone say's that, I don't think it is. I've tried lots of different arrangements. Just now after seeing it here, I retested, having the mech face Up in frame 0 and face down in frame 3. The result from that is that the mech will still only face forwards at it's highest point, but it's range of motion increases, so it looks down even more (basically it looks between it's legs (EDIT: See below)). I've been working on this for the past couple of days and our deadline is fast approaching, It's driving me CRAAAAZY!
Help me Obi wan Kenobi (or anybody else who may have a solution, or even a vague description on look sequences). You're my only hope...
**Hopes that all the preperation he did for this thread actually pays off**
EDIT: Decided this pic needed to be seen for clarity. This is the mech "Looking between it's legs"...
Hey everyone I really need some help here. Our character modeller and animator has made some custom characters, but doesn't have a clue about how to work the "Look" animation sequences. So naturally, "Give it to the programmer. He has the engine code, he must know how it works!". So here I am. But then our modeller is rather useless. He didn't even know about config files until I told him earlier today.
---THE BACKSTORY---
Anyway. I decided the best way to find out what he was doing wrong was to make my own player model from scratch. So of I went into max and threw together a basic Mech, then gave it a biped, mountpoints etc. I got the animation sequences working ingame fine (why is it by the way that all tutorials on the subject seem to end saying "I'll try to do more later about animations"?). Then ofcourse came the look animations, where it works, but at the same time, it really doesn't! The basic problem is that I've not seen a single tutorial or resource on doing this, so my Look sequences are based off deductions from the few forum threads I could find.
---THE PROBLEM---
My player model will use the Look sequence but will not use the whole range of motion. I've got a couple of images here to show what I mean (no laughing at my mech, he's a Badass ;-) )
This is my mech in game. In the first frame its actually looking straight up, but the animation shows it facing forward. The middle frame is what I get when the player is facing forwards, and the final frame is when the player is looking down.
Now another pic of the current version of the animation in 3DS Max.
This shows frames 0-3 of my "Look" animation. Now from these two at it looks pretty obvious, "It's blending from the first frame to the last and ignoring the ones in the middle". But before anyone say's that, I don't think it is. I've tried lots of different arrangements. Just now after seeing it here, I retested, having the mech face Up in frame 0 and face down in frame 3. The result from that is that the mech will still only face forwards at it's highest point, but it's range of motion increases, so it looks down even more (basically it looks between it's legs (EDIT: See below)). I've been working on this for the past couple of days and our deadline is fast approaching, It's driving me CRAAAAZY!
Help me Obi wan Kenobi (or anybody else who may have a solution, or even a vague description on look sequences). You're my only hope...
**Hopes that all the preperation he did for this thread actually pays off**
EDIT: Decided this pic needed to be seen for clarity. This is the mech "Looking between it's legs"...
#2
I got the wrong meaning from this simple little sentance.
The word Sequence did it. I was thinking sequence as in Keyframe at frame 1 looking up and one later looking down, and that formed an animation sequence. But then I realised it meant the ACTUAL sequence object had to be set to start at frame 1. All is well now and I can get back to insulting my modeller. Thanks for your help.
04/05/2004 (8:27 pm)
Many times, but thank you for sending me back there! I've solved it.I got the wrong meaning from this simple little sentance.
Quote:You can set the blend reference postion by putting a reference key in the correct spot in your animation, or, by leaving your character in the root position at frame 0 (the default reference position) and then animating the extreme positions after that in a sequnce that starts after frame 1.
The word Sequence did it. I was thinking sequence as in Keyframe at frame 1 looking up and one later looking down, and that formed an animation sequence. But then I realised it meant the ACTUAL sequence object had to be set to start at frame 1. All is well now and I can get back to insulting my modeller. Thanks for your help.
#3
3 frames total; 0=root, usually looking forward, 1=looking extreme up, 2=looking extreme down. The animation sequence is set for frames 1-2 only.
04/06/2004 (7:26 am)
To others reading this forum who still don't understand...3 frames total; 0=root, usually looking forward, 1=looking extreme up, 2=looking extreme down. The animation sequence is set for frames 1-2 only.
Torque 3D Owner Bruce Wallace
www.garagegames.com/docs/torque.sdk/tools/max2dts/section3.html#blend