Animation Editing

[Chomps]

FliPeR and OFP Internals do it again--check natosoldier.com for info.    ;D

The possibility of adding animations will open so many doors for mission and addon design.

It would be ideal if new animations could be distributed in .pbo addon files, although I do not know the specifics; I suspect that may not be possible.

Imagine if BAS's Littlebird had soldiers sitting on the planks, holding their weapons correctly.  Imagine an animation for rappeling (one that actually moves the character a certain height into the air and lowers him so there are no more unfortunate deaths).  Imagine an animation pack that added realistic hand signals from various positions.

Okay, now that I am done sounding like a cheesy infomercial, discuss!

[teaCup]

Finally!
Great job guys.

Ever since I started fiddling around with OFP,
I wanted to make animation addons. So I looked into
those .rtms.
They store animation sequences, as keyframes. The game's
"animation engine"(?!) plays these sequences and
interpolates between them. But I still haven't figured out
what each and every byte in a .rtm means. Like, for instance,
those 12 bytes after "RTM_0101".

Anyway, now that the format is known, custom animations are
possible, and me thinks that we could even get new creatures
(e.g. cows, dogs, children) into OFP. It should be great news
for all those S.F. guys out there.

A question for FlipeR/Ofpinternals:
Do you plan to make public, a description of the file format?
If not, would you, could you,.. please?
I would love to write a Maya to .rtm translator thing.
For the past ~3 years, I've been working as a 3D animator, so
am itching to make some animation for the game.

Cheers.

[teaCup]

..just imagine: soldiers slaloming in "Winter Kolgojev"..  ;D

[1B1KSniper]

It could come in handy for the at-at's and at-pt's in my Star Wars and Warhammer 40k mods, that's for sure...

[Schoeler]

Hey fellas, just saw this topic.  I started a similar one in the addon ideas section where we are discussing which animations the community feels will enhance gameplay most.  Feel free to add you suggestions.  I like the skiing idea.  Anyway, if we can get a bunch of ideas like this out there, than maybe animators can start considering which of these ideas they are most interested in pursuing.  Already there are ideas for new animations I wouldn't have begun to think about, so you can bet that some of these ideas won't have occurred to potential animators either.  Put in your two cents worth.  I think this was really the final frontier of enhancing gameplay other than changing the game engine itself, and now its been conquered.  The game is going to be revolutionized over the next six months or so.  Probably just in time for BIS to come out with a whole new version like Independence Lost or something similar.

[Chomps]

Well, on ofp-zone.de someone submitted an addon with a custom .rtm with a sample mission.  Basically, it is a jeep where the person in the cargo seat has his leg up on the edge, holding his rifle in one hand, moving his head back and forth occaisionally.

This is certainly becoming a reality.

[Schoeler]

That is simply fantastic, finally new animations.  I hope we can get rid of the walking with rifle slung on back animation soon.  It looks really lame for soldiers to be jogging everywhere, or walking through hostile territory on patrol with their rifles on their back.