JK series _humanoid Character Animation Rig

[minilogoguy18]

That sounds like code changes, I want to make something that will stay usable with the vanilla engine as that will make it usable across all platforms. Since shape animation doesn't seem possible I'll just add a bunch of different poses to the animation mixer so that they can be copied and layered around into whatever someone wants. That will be a totally different file than what's in this topic and only if the interest is even there, I don't have time to waste on something that might not get used.

[Archangel35757]

My facial rig will be all bone-driven. No morphing.

[minilogoguy18]

@@Archangel35757, I figured but didn't know if whatever drives the facial expressions in game were already supported by some chunk of unused code or not.

 

Well since all the people who voted so far even though it isn't an amazing amount seem to want the JO skeleton to be added to the file I've started doing so.

 

The next release will include

• Revised look of face controls
• Improved hand controls with forearm twisting using expressions
• JK2 support including additional controls for the fingers and face

If anyone wants to try out what I have at the moment just let me know since the hand controls alone make it superior to what's currently available for download. As for anyone wanting to do complex facial stuff for cut scenes that may have to wait. I would highly recommend that a custom setup be used in Face Robot with the model that will be used in the cut scene weighed to the custom rig and exported with it. Cut scene animations do not need a skeleton that matches what the game uses so you actually have unlimited freedom with that, only downside is that only the models weighed to it will work and will have to be their own file separate from what is played as in the game.

[minilogoguy18]

What do you mean? This is not a .gla file and Softimage cannot use .cfg files. It will be possible to export and create animations for both games but your question doesn't make sense.

[Archangel35757]

@@minilogoguy18 -- I'm referring to JKE. The new facial.gla will drive facial animations & lip sync in-game using .LIP and .VCD text files like used in source engine.

 

https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Faceposer

 

But we need a way to create these .VCD and .LIP files for JKE. My 3ds Max face rig GUI will have these as export buttons. But not everyone uses 3ds Max. So this ability needs to be added to one of the tools. Since ModView is graphical, I suggested expanding its abilities to have another tab in ModView that would open something like the Faceposer editor (as part of ModView). Or maybe the ICARUS tool could be expanded? @@eezstreet, @@Xycaleth, @@DT85... thoughts?

[minilogoguy18]

Oh, well I'm not interested in that sort of thing, a group of people would have to beg me to take the time to do that. The only mod I'd dedicate any time to is DF2 since it requires the least engine changes making it much more likely to succeed if it had a team willing to work on it.

[DT.]

Tbh, it's just easier to do the mouth sync animation in max, and play it via ICARUS in.game.

[Archangel35757]

Tbh, it's just easier to do the mouth sync animation in max, and play it via ICARUS in.game.

Not everybody has 3ds Max... there are already some open source tools that might be adaptable to modview code. One example is called hapFACS.

 

http://ascl.cis.fiu.edu/hapfacs-open-source-softwareapi-download.html

[minilogoguy18]

I think what I'm going to do for now at least is just update the current file without JK2 support and add that as I go.

[DT.]

Not everybody has 3ds Max... there are already some open source tools that might be adaptable to modview code. One example is called hapFACS.

 

http://ascl.cis.fiu.edu/hapfacs-open-source-softwareapi-download.html

 

There's like zero active SP mods that would make use of such a feature anyway, I doubt this or anything like it will ever be coded into modview. Rend2 has more chance of being finished.

[Archangel35757]

There's like zero active SP mods that would make use of such a feature anyway, I doubt this or anything like it will ever be coded into modview. Rend2 has more chance of being finished.

Maybe I can make it work with GMax... then it'll be available to all users.

 

@@minilogoguy18 - Sorry to digress on your thread... back to your topic now.

[minilogoguy18]

Not that big a deal, the problem with GMax is that it's so horribly out dated that it's pointless to even use anymore. The reason though I made this in Mod Tool because it's by leaps and bounds the best freeware to use for JA, you don't even need to open your wallet to mod this game.

[Archangel35757]

well... Gmax is still free from TurboSquid. Yes, it's ancient, but if it works... then it works.

[minilogoguy18]

If it doesn't have support for character studio or at least some way to constrain and build some complex IK solutions then it may not even be worth the time. After all it is based on 3DS Max 4 and severely stripped down. Mod Tool really only had the render image size limit which I believe is 1024², other than that it's the full version of Softimage|XSI 7.5.

[Archangel35757]

If it doesn't have support for character studio or at least some way to constrain and build some complex IK solutions then it may not even be worth the time. After all it is based on 3DS Max 4 and severely stripped down. Mod Tool really only had the render image side limit which I believe is 1024², other than that it's the full version of Softimage|XSI 7.5.

Character Studio doesnt have facial bones. I'm only considering to make a GMax version for the facial GUI rig.

[DT.]

Character Studio doesnt have facial bones. I'm only considering to make a GMax version for the facial GUI rig.

 

No, but you can add in your own custom bones. That's what I did when I made the MBII biped.

[minilogoguy18]

I'm personally not a big fan of preset rigs, custom built to fit your needs always works best and it's always so rewarding when you get yours to work even though you'll never get all the sleep or friends lost back from all the time you spent just trying to make one controller work properly.

[NumberWan]

For me the problem of JO animation was that some cool stuff from it is no longer available in Jedi Academy. I am speaking about the cinema tics animations of course, which include the Chiss Bartender moves with a glass of beer, his "afraid" animation and a few others. Nothing special for combat-oriented modifications, but still would be a welcomed come back to JA

[minilogoguy18]

^That's not the purpose of this project.

 

This is meant to make your own custom animations from scratch 10000000x easier than it ever has been and it woks. Have total first timers PM'ing me their animations that they already got in game.

[DT.]

Yeah, Mod Tool is the beginners choice for sure.

 

 

 

@@NumberWan

 

If JK Enhanced will ever have the ability to load multiple GLAs (not talking about cinematics, but in general), then I'll port the JO animations over to JKA's skeleton into a seperate GLA for anyone's use.

[minilogoguy18]

I have the full version using a student license and I don't even use it, Mod Tool will do everything you need for JA and a lot of other game engines.

[minilogoguy18]

Newest version is out, decided to still consider it a BETA event though the JA side is complete but I've decided to add JK2 support but wanted to get this out since JA is more popular to mod. Next release will have basic JK2 functions, then a final later release with full JK2 functionality like more complex facial rig.

[ChalklYne]

Thank you mini! Im about to go play with her now.

 

Edot: Amazing work man.

 

Now how can I get a controller or object oriented correctly to use as a reference in the two person animations i.e. kyle stab or hug and stuff? Ive always wanted to play with those. Also, maybe a wall thats in the correct position and orientation for reference on anims like wall run?

[minilogoguy18]

Not sure exactly what you mean for the 2 person animations but if you want 2 rigs then you'd just dupe the whole thing, file size will be huge. Or, if you wanna import a base anim for reference and not have any naming conflicts just make a new Model under Model>Create>New Model then drag and drop the dotXSI file onto that Model in the explorer. You can build reference objects and say animate the Master Controller to move the model BUT you would want to remove the animation from the master (the 4 arrows thingie) cause the game controls the in world motion of things like jumping up. This was similar to my AT-ST, I made turning animations with the whole model turning about 45° but I had to remove that so that the final product just looked like feet shuffling because the game rotates the character and moves them in the world, NOT the animation.

 

Import the base wall run to give yourself an idea.

 

You could also PM me your steam name and maybe I can send you examples.