Animation for character models

[vedrit]

Actually, I knew very little of it. THank you.

Oh, and I didnt mention this before, but the models also have a crouching shoot-from-shoulder animation

[Destructavator]

Here's one of the most recent up-to-date yet still messed-up ones, I also have another that would help but is a little too large to attach directly to this post, hang on a sec...

Edit: Here it is (the other is attached directly to the post, farther down):

http://www.destructavator.com/92dl/ufo_soldier_male_Wbones_1d.zip

These two files do have issues - for one, a few vertexes* are in the wrong groups, so some of the "joints" are a little off, messing up animations (I haven't had time to correct each one).  Also, I can't get the skeleton armature to stay with the model in the existing animations, so in one of these files you'll notice that I attached the armature to the last ending frame for adding on additional poses at that ending point and onwards.

I hope these examples help you figure out how to (properly) animate these models as well as the rest - good luck!

BTW, once you get the bones properly set up, I'd suggest (to the devs as well) also having additional "idle" animations, picked at random by the game (subtle movements), as right now when soldiers stand in once place waiting for orders they all move slightly up and down in sync, looking like they are dancing to music when many are in once place on the battlescape.  Just a suggestion, although before implementing this I would first check with Mattn, BTAxis, etc.

*(This is probably the wrong plural form of "vertex" but my browser's spell check isn't giving me the right clues, sorry for the bad English.)

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[vedrit]

I was thinking about what I would do for idle.
Way ahead of ya on that, lol
Thanks for the models. I'll load em up and see what I can do

And Dest, I think you can put the armature outside the model for easier animation. I personally dont like viewing in wirefram, lol

EDIT: As I begin animating the motion for the soldier to go prone, I notice that his hip and back joints are not connected. Move one, and it wont move the other, and I have no idea how to fix this

[Destructavator]

And Dest, I think you can put the armature outside the model for easier animation. I personally dont like viewing in wirefram, lol

I had no idea that it would work unless it was inside - the way I learned it was from various tutorials that used armature on the inside with wireframe.  I guess it shows how much I (don't) know about 3d modeling programs.

EDIT: As I begin animating the motion for the soldier to go prone, I notice that his hip and back joints are not connected. Move one, and it wont move the other, and I have no idea how to fix this

Yeah, that's another area where I messed up, as well as putting a vertex here and there in the wrong group.

I'd imagine that the two armature sections could be joined together just like any two objects, although I don't recall exactly what the command to merge/join/connect them is.  In fact, I think there's more than one command, although which one works for armature I really don't know, so you'll have to use Google for some research, post a question on a blender forum, or delete the armature and create your own (but keep the vertex groups to save time) unless someone else here knows (sorry!).

[vedrit]

Well, I managed to make somesort of workaround using another armature and parenting.
You want it? The only thing thats changed, that I notice, is that if u move the waist, it will move it all, instead of just everything below the waist

Well, after remaking the bones, and figuring it all out, Im finally getting somewhere.

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[Destructavator]

Nice.  One suggestion: If you want to add potential for the characters manipulating objects better, you might want to add bones to each hand for fingers, so the "mittens" can open and close around things, depending on exactly what animations you add.

Looks like you've gotten much farther than I have, glad you got it to work, although I admit I'm not in a position to judge much as I'm not the boss but one of the little guys here...

BTW, when the models have armatures set up and everything, you may want to (if you have time down the road) look into the ideas proposed for an intro animation ROQ video, as a number of ideas started but fizzled out, and I remember Winter had started a script some time ago, so you may want to check with him when you get to that point.

As far as the cinematic cut-scenes go, I still have the tools and such to make ROQ videos out of other video formats (AVI, MPEG, Whatever, including formats made by Blender rendered animations) so I can help with that when the time comes, if you're up to that in the future.

[vedrit]

Sounds like something I can do.
We could even make movie-quality models for the animation. Some more verticies here, smoothing there, and BAM! lol

Well, I think I have everything worked out on the model, and figured out its particulars. I'll begin modeling prone later, after some sleep

[Psawhn]

There's an 'x-ray' visual mode for armatures that lets you see them through the mesh even when it's not in wireframe. In that screenshot you posted, it's in the bottom-left corner in the Armature tab, under Editing Options.

You can parent one bone to another in edit mode. Under the Armature Bones tab, there will be a dropbox labeled child of [--]. The [--] is a dropbox and you can pick the bone you want to parent to.

[vedrit]

Lol
way ahead of ya. I've worked with Blender before, so I know about "x-ray" and editing mode, and I've already figure out the bones. Like I say, I'll begin animating soon.


EDIT: Alright, this is kinda annoying....Someone did something to a group of verticies to make them "collapse". This is bad for going into a prone position as it exposes the bone and looks VERY bad. I dont know what might happen if I delete them, and I dont think it would go well

[vedrit]

anyone have the models with origional bones, or a suggestion?

[BTAxis]

All of our source models are in the data_source repository. If it isn't in there, we don't have it.

[vedrit]

I may have overlooked it, but I didnt see it

[Salvo]

Prone position. I think there's a reason why it never got into x-com. Prone guy should hog two tiles, right? Wouldn't an x-com operative taking two tiles of space create an issue or two?

[geever]

It got into X-Com 3 already though....

-geever

[vedrit]

I think that a soldier walking past another soldier who is prone should simply cost for AP, and no standing/sitting/prone. A walk-only location.

Regardless, its going to be very hard to model any more animations. Who ever was last working on the male model made a problem on some vertecies. The only solution I can think of is re-making either the leg(s) or the whole body