Animating

SilentMurderer

Hey! I'm trying to animate instead of modelling... Looks like the Forum needs more skinners and animators then Modellers :/

Anyway... My first try is to try and fix that gangsta reload anim that ramms+ein did... And, i decompile the model, the load up the proper *.smd but nothing shows up on the screen <!--emo&:angry:--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/mad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='mad.gif'><!--endemo--> What am i doing wrong?


P.s I'm using Milkshape.... Can i use that or should i use 3Ds Max? (Wich i have gotten LEGALLY <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo--> (/me happy))

MalambisBZ

I don't see why you would use milk shape if you have 3ds max, but that's just me.

SilentMurderer

The reason i use Milkshape is...

I know crap about 3Ds Max

3Ds Max takes up a lot of space :/

ArgOnatH

3D stuido max for modeling, Milkshape for Anims etc.

Flakk

I'd like to know how to animate ^_^

I got 3dsMax too <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->)

SilentMurderer

Umm... 3D Studio Max is said to be more powerfull Animating program than Milkshape 3D <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo-->

CrouchingHamster

Yes, of course it is, so are Maya, Softimage, Lightwave etc.

The question you should be asking is do you actually need any of these powerful features for making a Halflife model, or are they just going to confuse you further?

Milkshapes relative lack of sophistication, is actually one of it's major advantages I reckon.

ArgOnatH

<!--QuoteBegin--SilentMurderer+Jun 11 2003, 02:15 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (SilentMurderer @ Jun 11 2003, 02:15 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Umm... 3D Studio Max is said to be more powerfull Animating program than Milkshape 3D <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
oh yeah, forgot but u need character studio for that <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo--> i dont have it :/

killer_olie

SilentMurderer, didn't they take the new sucking system out of 1.1?

Maus

No, you don't need Character Studio for it at all. You can quite easily make a suitable skeleton without it, and CS's Physique modifier is just a souped-up Skin modifier.

edit: And I totally agree about MS3D's lack of sophistication being a good thing. It just took me eleven days to figure out how to do something in max I could do in twenty minutes with MS3D. <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo-->

---

But anyway, with the actual question:

(1) With you not seeing anything, did you just load up the animation .smd file? If so, there's no model data in there - just the skeleton and its animation. If you've not got "show skeleton" checked you'll not see anything, naturally.

edit: Ah, Ollj is right (below) - no bone date is in the animation smd.

(2) It's easier to see what you're doing if you first load up the reference .smd, then load the animation on top of it. That way you'll be making the <i>model</i> move, not some abstract collection of blue lines and circles.

Ollj

there are 2 kinds of halflife .smd' s:
references and sequences.

<b>The reference.smd's determine the outfit of the skeleton</b>, the bone names, wich vertex is aligned to wich bone, wich polygon is aligned to wich vertex and the UVW/Skinmesh map. (some models have submodels, like the jp marine, so one model an have more than one reference)
The reference includes no animation information. when generating a reference the animation of the file is ignored.

<b>The sequence.smd`s just include the animation information and not more. </b>
When generating a sequence the the skinmesh/texture and all vertex/polygon information gets ignored.

The bone system of a reference and sequence must be the same or the .qc compiler gives errors.
<b>You can not import a sequence.smd without importing the reference.smd first</b> because the sequence.smd includes no vertexes , polygons or textures.
SIMPLE.

Another thing: never ever change/add/delete/touch/look-at parts of the bone-system of the reference.smd once you start to create sequences. It scews up the whole model. (vertexes and textures can be changed whenever you want, you can change wich vertex is aligned to wich bone, too.)

now have fun searching the reference.smd out of all the sequence.dms`s . norlally it includes "...ref..." or equals the model name.