animations

[penguinman]

hello,

i would like to learn to make animations,

but i dont know if that is part of addon editing,

what program do i need to make animations?

ofpec dosent have an anim editing section?

thanks

[Kyle Sarnik]

Ask sanctuary or someone else that visits his thread at the BI Forums, its called OFP Animation Sharing Center.

[General Barron]

Yes, to create new animations, you need to create an addon. There is no way to include animations within your mission.pbo, just like there is no way to include new weapons or units in a mission.pbo.

There are two parts involved in creating an animation:

1) Making the .rtm (animation) file, and
2) Configuring the animation to work in OFP

For step #1, you will need ofpAnim, which can be found on ofpec here. Make sure to read my comments posted there for a quickie tutorial and links. Other commercial programs can also be used apparently, such as Maya, but I have never used those.

Unfortunately, step #2 is very different (and often very harder) than step #1. There aren't really any good, complete tutorials on how this is done, mostly because, well, nobody really knows much about it.

I'm currently working on a tutorial that includes everything I've figured out on my own. It's still a total work-in-progress, but if you want I could send it to you. That is, once you have progressed pass step #1 above.  

[penguinman]

sure! great,

i got ofp anim, and read your tut, but im still havin bits of trouble.

i would like to help you finish that tutorial, i think it would help me learn more then just reading it, i can type fast, and can translate into a few languages, german,  french and spanish. I know its not much to help you but i would like to, uve done alot for me. with all those scripts u made.

i think the tut should also, include the step #1 too. thats what im strugling with most right now, i dont get the part with making frames,

what i would really like is a step by step tut on how to make a complete anim.

like snypers tut for wrp edit.


i could help so tell me if u want me.

[penguinman]

hmm, i think i got an animation working, but how do you keep it from going underground.

[General Barron]

That's because when you start a brand-spankin' new animation, the guy starts halfway in the ground.

Select the abdomen from the components view. Then click on "edit frame", then click where it says "rotate". That should change to "move"; then slide the y bar to the right, and the whole guy should float upwards. The yellow grid is where the ground should be, so just plop his feet so they touch that.

In general I've found it easiest to start with a BIS animation, and modify that. That way most of the work is already done for you, and you don't have to mess with stuff like this.

[penguinman]

ok cool

but coud i see ur config tut, i made my anim but i dont know how to write the .cfg

[General Barron]

It's in the mail.

[remcen]

if anyone looks for a tut (not perfect, but a start):
http://ofp.gamezone.cz/_hosted/animcenter/
available in english, french and german.

[penguinman]

no matter what i write for the config, all it dose is make the guy jump around allot, could sombody plz look at it and see what kind of config to make,


i did exactly what the anim center tut said,  but it dosent work

plz help

thanks

[Planck]

Not an expert on animations but:

Code: [Select]

class CfgMovesMC
{
class Default {};
class StandBase: Default {};
class My_First_Anim: StandBase
{
actions = StandTalkActions;
file="\ My_First_Anim \ My_First_Anim.rtm";
speed = 1.0;
looped=true;
soundEnabled=false;
interpolationSpeed=1;
connectFrom[]={Stand, 1, StandVar2, 1, StandVar3, 1};
connectTo[]={Stand, 1, StandVar2, 1, StandVar3, 1};
interpolateTo[]={StandDying,0.1,StandDyingVer2,0.1};
};
};

Change that bit in you config, all I did was remove:

class States
{

and the final '}'


Planck

[General Barron]

Nah. Change this line:

file="\ My_First_Anim \ My_First_Anim.rtm";

You don't have any spaces in your folder's name, or your .rtm file name, do you? Of course not, but for some reason you have spaces written in here. Also, you don't need quotes here. It should look like this:

Code: [Select]

file=\FolderName\AnimName.rtm;So for you, it should be:

Code: [Select]

file=\My_First_Anim\My_First_Anim.rtm;Also, your speed should be negative. Maybe it will work if it is positive, but all of BIS's anims have negative speeds:

Code: [Select]

speed = -1.0;
BTW, did you get the tut I sent you? I mailed it to the email address listed in your profile.

[penguinman]

yep i got the tut, thank u very much,

but have u actualy looked at the anim i made to see,

i copied the ofpe anim center tut so thats why its named My_first_anim

i think the cfg needs to be diffrent depending on what type of anim it is, right?

what would the cfg for mine say.

the ofpe anim center tut is for a static anim, but mines moving.

[General Barron]

LOL! No, I actually didn't look at your animation before; I just corrected the obvious errors in your config. I just viewed the anim now, and it is pretty funny. I don't have much time to try and configure it for you, but I'd follow the advise in my tutorial:

Inherit from the closesest BIS animation, then change whatever properties you have to.

Your animation is a guy sorta flying forward and hitting the ground. It isn't really like any BIS animations, except possibly some of the death animations. Try inheriting from the running-dying animation, and see where that takes you. Make sure to try calling the anim in OFP with both "switchmove" and "playmove".

Animations are frustrating as hell to config, and I haven't gotten them entirely figured out myself.

[penguinman]

its suposed to be like if a grenade went off near sombody, then in stead of doing the cardboard thing it would flip.

thanks il try that

[Lean Bear]

OK, I had a look at your anim which was very nice, especially for a first attempt

You might want to adjust how the unit ends up after he's dead. At the moment, his head is halfway into his chest

I took a look at the config as well. It was only classed as a standing anim, so, as OFP selects which unit does which anim apparently randomly from a list, you might see a unit looking like he's being blown up by a grenade, then returning to the starting position.

You also, made it looped. I presumed that this is a death anim, so I changed that as well.

I also, made a second anim, using the last frame of your anim copied several times, for the Dead state:

With death anims, you always have two:

1. The Dying state: The actual process of theunit dying, clutching his heart, being blown away etc.

2. The Dead state: The anim that the unit stays in until the misisons is over, or he is hidden or somehting else happens. The unit will do no more anims.

As far as being only activated when there is a grenade explosion, I think that has to be scripted.

Please look through the config to see what I've done with it. (Although, I haven't tried it myself ), and feel free to make any changes.

You can manually play the anim by making a trigger and putting:

unit1 switchMove My_First_Anim

where unit1 is the name of the unit. This will essentially "kill" the unit though

edit

You'll have to PBO the folder and put the addon in your Addons folder.

[penguinman]

cool thanks a bunch, im sure this will help. i thot it had died so thats why it took me so long to respond

[penguinman]

Cool, it works, heres a demo mission i made with the pboed addon included, just put the addon in your addons folder and the demo mission in your user missions folder and play it.

how does this look for replacing the cardboard soldier when explosions hit him




scroll down for newer and better one

[penguinman]

ok here i made a better one,

just put the addon in your addons folder and the demo mission in your user missions folder and play it.

all you have to do is throw a grenade at each of the guys and watch the effect.

[Lean Bear]

Very nice

Unfortunately, my curiosity took over and I wanted to see if you actually managed to make it so it was only when a grenade hit. So I stole one of the units' rifles and shot the other one, but it played the same anim But I'm sure that will be worked out soon

You also need to look at how the unit's rifle and at weapon will ned up (I noticed before that you only animated the rifle proxy and none of the others). atm the rifle is stick vertically out of the ground

And again at how the unit's head ends up But I like this anim much more than the BIS "cardboard" ones

[penguinman]

ok, i will fix the rifle and the units head.

do u know how to write the script for grenades? i dont know about any get nearest explosion functions.

and if anybody does decide to make it. Also, maby make a part of it have the unit constantly setposed at ground level or else the unit ends up lying 1 or 2 meters in the air but this is rare.

[Dubieman]

I just tried it out.

Very cool. It'd be great if you could build that into the OFP engine. Like a shot to the face makes the unit sort of teeter back and flop back....
Soo many possiblities.

But this looks good for explosions. Most of these things have been said, but fix the gun and the guy's head. It looks like he's got a serious hunchback.

Very nice though.

[dmakatra]

Very cool. It'd be great if you could build that into the OFP engine. Like a shot to the face makes the unit sort of teeter back and flop back....
Soo many possiblities.

I'm doing that. Less Death, More Wounds. Remember right? ;D

And the anim. It was nice, except that the position the target landed in was weird... And he seemed to disappear when I closed in on him.

:beat: *Gets Shot* :beat:

[Lean Bear]

Yeah, this can be easily fixed though. All you need to do is make sure the unit is on the x-axis line and not below it or above it (well, obviously slightly above it as the x-axis represents the ground).

[penguinman]

heres a new version of the anim, just use the same mission, the "Hunchback" is fixed. but the gun, i can not get to move for some reason. maby the force of of the blast propeled it into the ground i dont know. a lot of things can happen with an explosion.

and could i change the name of the anim. y did the ofp anim center people tell me to name it that, its stupid.