Animations

[Circa]

Aren't they used for the "Sidestep/turn" control option? If I'm thinking of the correct thing.

[eezstreet]

Nope.

[minilogoguy18]

It's not just the humanoids that have these animations already but things like the AT-ST have these animations too, just not used.

[eezstreet]

It's not just the humanoids that have these animations already but things like the AT-ST have these animations too, just not used.

They're probably used in SP. I know JK2's ATST does have turning animations which work.

[katanamaru]

The feet turning are not used with player models in sp. I'm not sure what enabling would do to the new animations, but I think everything from the waist would be ok. Just like how it is with the legup positions.

 

I've been bad and haven't even booted up my laptop in months. First training for the tournament and then Dark Souls 2 have kept me away. 

I may have to give myself a goal of at least one animation a week. Most of these are easy so if I get in the groove I should crank them out.

 

Here's another question: should I correct the hand tag positions? For whatever reason the default stances have messed up hand tags. Some authors took this into account when they tagged their saber models. I adjusted for this in my custom stances, but that seems like a lazy fix. 

If you want to easily see what I mean give yourself two of the default single sabers. Then look at the right saber. Take notice of where it is gripped and then switch to the single style. The character grips it stupidly at the bottom. Also noticeable in the default run position when compared to a single stance.

[Tempust85]

I've noticed that the fingers are gripping too tight on the sabers, so you may want to check that out also.

[minilogoguy18]

Yeah, why the r_hang_tag_bone is floating way above the right hand is beyond stupid, I feel like fixing it now though would mess up so many custom sabers though.

[Circa]

@@katanamaru thanks man, it would be great to see some progress! You could also potentially be making some animations to work with the holster code as well, but we can figure that out when we come to it.

 

Also, if @@eezstreet wants to chime in here with what he wants done as far as the JK2 side for animations goes, that would be good.

[katanamaru]

I've noticed that the fingers are gripping too tight on the sabers, so you may want to check that out also.

That's fixed in all my stances within reason. Some hilts are thicker/thinner than others. 

 

Yeah, why the r_hang_tag_bone is floating way above the right hand is beyond stupid, I feel like fixing it now though would mess up so many custom sabers though.

Yeah, damned if I do, damned if I don't. I think I will fix it though. Since it's a small adjustment and it seems people also make their sabers look good in the dual style.

 

@@katanamaru thanks man, it would be great to see some progress! You could also potentially be making some animations to work with the holster code as well, but we can figure that out when we come to it.

 

Also, if @@eezstreet wants to chime in here with what he wants done as far as the JK2 side for animations goes, that would be good.

Let me know about what is necessary for holsters. I'll work on some of the things that are still on my to do list.

Any chance we'll be getting dual pistols? Long time ago Eez asked me about those.

[eezstreet]

I could do something, but I'd rather if we had good models first.

[GamingPrince83]

I would like it if a Jedi were in ready stance while walking backwards like in Jedi Outcast, also i'd like the saber lock animations to be a bit slower,

also like in Jedi Outcast.

[Bek]

Blah. Stuff keeps coming up. I'm going to do some things tonight. Hopefully get the saber on and two other things. Maybe then work on stand1.

You should make the stand1 animation the stand5 animation it looks so much more natural.

[katanamaru]

We've had debates over this. I'm going to try and come up with a good hybrid.

Stand 1 is unnaturally erect.

Stand 5 is ready for action.

We want something in between.

[minilogoguy18]

I'd also like to add some more to this thread, would it be possible to have gender specific animations? Females and Males do not walk, run or have the same posture, it would be neat to at least have a feminine walk or run to be used on female characters.

[Tempust85]

I wonder if it will be as easy as just rigging female chars to a different GLA that is a copy of the base one but with some femine anims.

 

 

For all animators: Any changed/added animations must be 3.0/3.5 dotXSI files and made in either Modtool or 3ds Max. The GLA is being compiled using the anim source files and I'll be adding all fingers & the toes back, while also adding new face bones (keeping old ones as well for compatibility). Using any other software including Dragon, Blender & GLAmerge will make your work incompatible.

 

 

@@minilogoguy18

 

You'll need to make sure your ModTool rig includes the toes & all 5 fingers with all 3 segments from JO. You won't need to worry about the facial bones though, just keep the JKA ones in yours.

[minilogoguy18]

The rig itself is a shadowrig, it has all fingers and toes, it's just that the base skeleton is what's constrained to it but the JO skeleton can be constrained to it to have the ability to animate the rig and export the animation to whichever game you want.

 

I'll constrain the JO skeleton or if you want a hybrid between the 2 and re-upload the file, they'll be stored under different Models in Softimage so that there will be no naming conflict and you can just export whichever of the 3 skeletons you want.

[eezstreet]

It's doable. Just add on whatever you see fit to the animations and I'll give it a go.

[Archangel35757]

I wonder if it will be as easy as just rigging female chars to a different GLA that is a copy of the base one but with some femine anims.

 

 

For all animators: Any changed/added animations must be 3.0/3.5 dotXSI files and made in either Modtool or 3ds Max. The GLA is being compiled using the anim source files and I'll be adding all fingers & the toes back, while also adding new face bones (keeping old ones as well for compatibility). Using any other software including Dragon, Blender & GLAmerge will make your work incompatible.

 

 

@@minilogoguy18

 

You'll need to make sure your ModTool rig includes the toes & all 5 fingers with all 3 segments from JO. You won't need to worry about the facial bones though, just keep the JKA ones in yours.

So basically you are using the JO skeleton? Is it from the Max8 skeleton I uploaded? Also, are you going to use the facial bones I setup for the Jan Ors head rig? Or are you just going to do your own thing? My plan was to setup a female and male humanoid facial rig-- since there may need to be differences in some of the bone layout.

[minilogoguy18]

The only thing complex facial bones are really useful for IMO is cutscenes which use their own GLA and don't really need to be mixed with the player used animation bank.

[Archangel35757]

The only thing complex facial bones are really useful for IMO is cutscenes which use their own GLA and don't really need to be mixed with the player used animation bank.

I asked because he said he was making new facial bones and keeping the old ones....

[Tempust85]

It's the JO imported nulls, but I'll be adding my own facial bones (while keeping the old ones for compatibility). Right now, the new GLA has:

 

- all of JKA's animations

- the JO animations I converted months ago

- all 5 fingers with 3 segments

- 1 toe bone each foot

- removed tail bones as they are useless

- both rhang & lhang bones

 

I just need to sort out the facial bones, then animate them. Once I have a user-friendly rig, I'll upload it so others who animate in 3ds Max can start.

 

 

 

EDIT:

 

Regarding the new facial bones - in order to use a cutscene GLA, the bones must match. I will be animating the new facial bones, but only the stock animations (smile, talk, etc). Anything else (shocked, poke tongue, rage face, etc) can be used in a cutscene GLA if they aren't required more than once throughout the game as cutscene GLAs are level-specific.

[Archangel35757]

Adding new facial bones seems to be a duplication of effort to what I'm working on, no? Are you only adding existing SoF2 facial bones (that were omitted from JO/JA)?

 

Tail bones do serve a purpose-- to keep the buttocks from collapsing during certain animations... they are fix-up bones. They just decided not to use them. Look at a male or female model in ModView and you will see numerous frames where the buttocks collapse. I'll scan in a 3D World article for the technique I will be using for tail bones in my rig.

 

 

Raven seems to have intended to use this technique-- but their bone placement seems more intended for tunic/coat tails-- rather than the buttocks, because their tail bone transforms are not co-located with the femurYZ bones as shown in the above screenshot. Looking at the JA root.xsi the following mesh object is weighted to the tail bones: hips_belt

 

I'm not really sure what they were intending...

 

It's the JO imported nulls, but I'll be adding my own facial bones...

 

EDIT: Regarding the new facial bones - in order to use a cutscene GLA, the bones must match. I will be animating the new facial bones, but only the stock animations (smile, talk, etc). Anything else (shocked, poke tongue, rage face, etc) can be used in a cutscene GLA if they aren't required more than once throughout the game as cutscene GLAs are level-specific.

 

Maybe I'm taking what you're saying completely wrong-- but it sounds like you're trying to dictate to me where my facial bones should go... when I picked up this facial rig challenge, no? In my opinion you should only use the JO/JA bones and leave new facial bones (other than SoF2 bones) to the facial rig.

 

I guess I will cease plugin development and get back to my rig. It would be nice if we could all coordinate on this rather than work independently from one another. :/

[katanamaru]

For all animators: Any changed/added animations must be 3.0/3.5 dotXSI files and made in either Modtool or 3ds Max. The GLA is being compiled using the anim source files and I'll be adding all fingers & the toes back, while also adding new face bones (keeping old ones as well for compatibility). Using any other software including Dragon, Blender & GLAmerge will make your work incompatible.

 

 

So all the animations I've made in the past are no longer valid?! 

 

If that's the case I'll hold off on anymore animations since I can't run xsi on my 2005 laptop.

[Tempust85]

Not unless you can get them into dotxsi 3.0/3.5 format somehow.

 

 

@@Archangel35757

 

I completely forgot about your facial rig, my bad.  I won't be adding any new bones, just bringing back omitted ones that are still present in the animation source.  From what I understood, we would have your new facial bones in the main _humanoid GLA but put the expresssion animations in a separate GLA?

[Archangel35757]

Not unless you can get them into dotxsi 3.0/3.5 format somehow.

 

 

@@Archangel35757

 

I completely forgot about your facial rig, my bad. I won't be adding any new bones, just bringing back omitted ones that are still present in the animation source. From what I understood, we would have your new facial bones in the main _humanoid GLA but put the expresssion animations in a separate GLA?

No worries... yes, my facial rig bones will be in the main humanoid skeleton. As much as possible I will re-use SoF2 bones-- if they're in the right place... so as to try and minimize the bone count. We would then export the selected facial bones, face_always, cranium to its own GLA that will contain the visemes and facial expressions.

 

Like I said earlier it seemed Raven was planning to use the current tail bones to refine deformations in the tunic? But I think they should be moved to femur like in the article-- to keep buttocks from collapsing. Also, now would be the time to consider fixing the off-centeredness of the SoF2 face bones... center them about face_always/cranium-- unless we don't want to break compatibility with SoF2???

 

When I finalize the placement of the new facial bones-- I will send them to you so you can incorporate them into your CAT rig ( Including its maxscript GUI Interface).