3ds Max simple animation tutorial

[jman0war]

Thanks that's really good advice.
I'll try that tonight to see how it goes.
The Adamantine Tower thread was here:
http://www.silgrad.com/wbb2/thread.php?p...post154299

[Razorwing]

Originally posted by jman0war
The Adamantine Tower thread was here:
http://www.silgrad.com/wbb2/thread.php?p...post154299

I don't know what happened to it. If another moderator deleted it I'm sure they had a good reason, but since I haven't read it I can't speculate why.

[jman0war]

Right, back to the tutorial.
I can't seem to Select and Link the Scene Root bone, and the bhkRigidBody02 (which is just a Helper and isnt really a mesh in my scene right?)
There must be some way of doing this via the "Select by Name" window?

Sorry ignore that. Ended up hiding everything in my scene except the 2 things im working with.
-----------------------------------------------


Stuck again!
Can't seem to Add Notes in the "Setting Up for Export - NifTools" section.
According to Max help:
To add a note track:
- On the Track View Dope Sheet toolbar, click Edit Keys.
- Highlight one or more item labels in the Hierarchy list
- From the Tracks menu, choose Note Tracks > Add.
A note track is inserted as a branch directly below each highlighted item.

To add a note key to a note track:
-Select the Note track (in Dope Sheet Edit Keys mode).
- Click Add Keys.
- Click a note track in the Keys Window to place a note at that particular frame.

This step isn't working for me. I don't get a little note icon on the timescale. Instead I get both Scene Root and Lever to highlight and a different icon on the timescale:

http://photos2.pix.ie/6A/0D/6A0D8A63ED97...E4-800.jpg
http://photos2.pix.ie/5B/CC/5BCC493A2BF8...68-800.jpg

[Razorwing]

It's true that helpers, bones, lights and many other objects are not actual 3d models, and they won't be exported as such.

There's a second method one can use to select and link objects in a hierarchy. I described the first method in the tutorial since it was easier to explain it in detail, but here is a rough desciption of the second method. I know you got it to work in the particular case you were working on, but it could help in the future.

In the second method you first use the "Select Object" helper to select the object that will become the child. With that object selected, depress the Select and Link button. Then press H on your keyboard, and double-click the object that will become its parent.

I use 3D Studio Max v8 so fortunately for me I have never been forced to set up animation via dope sheets. Sorry I don't have any information to share on that, but others here might.


EDIT. I did some research into the thread you mentioned, because it occured to me you might not be referencing a newly created thread which I had assumed. The thread, called "Tower Adamantia", was posted on High Rock's "Counties, Cities and Settlements" forum board. The High Rock project was abandoned quite some time ago and like with many other abandoned projects I backed up the threads in html form and then removed them from our database.

To access it, scroll down the Overview page and click the section Archived Non-Silgrad. In there, click the Main Archive link. As you'll see, the High Rock archive is split into two sections divided by time, and yours belong to the August 2008-January 2009 section. -Here- is a direct link to the thread.

[jman0war]

I'm using 3d max v8 too.
Why don't you have to use Dope Sheets for animation?
I don't have the Civ IV exporter the tutorial talks about.
And i didn't see MAXScript among the list in Utilities.
However i am now using the latest NifTools.

[Razorwing]

Originally posted by jman0war
I'm using 3d max v8 too.
Why don't you have to use Dope Sheets for animation?
I don't have the Civ IV exporter the tutorial talks about.
And I didn't see MAXScript among the list in Utilities.
However I am now using the latest NifTools.

There's no connection between the CivIV exporter and the Niftools team. I believe the CivIV exporter was released before the Niftools team formed. You can download it here.

The CivIV exporter comes with it's own system for exporting animation which is simpler than the system that is currently in Niftools' 3D Studio Max exporter. The tutorial has two sections on setting up animation, one for CivIV and one for Niftools. If you can use the CivIV exporter then you don't have to worry about the information that's geared toward users that can't use it.

(You don't export models with the CivIV exporter, you just use it to set up the animation info; the Niftools plugin then makes use of the information when you export it.)

[jman0war]

Ok, and this Civ IV exporter is your recomendation?
Oh, just saw your edit.
I mean, the text you have in brackets.
Thanks, i'll be giving that a try!

[Razorwing]

Originally posted by jman0war
Ok, and this Civ IV exporter is your recomendation?
Oh, just saw your edit.

Yes, definitely. It's a breeze to use it

[nick_op]

Originally posted by Razorwing
Sharp edges make the game engine shade your model crudely, which can make a model seem more lowpoly than it is.

Just a little unrelated snippet, but hard edges also up the vertex count as well.

[jman0war]

Well, my Lever didn't work out.
Which tbh is not surprising. I was rather guessing that trying to put animation in TES is like pulling teeth with a tweezers.
http://www.4shared.com/file/106660428/c2...ever0.html
For one, i've no idea why my collision stayed visible?
But re-reading the tutorial, i'm not sure at what point the collision wouldn't become any but a mesh?
During the collision section, when adding a "bhkRigidBody", am i supposed to add this modifier to my simple collision meshes?
I got confused there.

I just had a look at doing that again but found that once i tried adding a bhkRigidBody modifier to my animated lever mesh, and set the Layer to AnimStatic, i no longer got options for Motion System or any of that.

When i was in the NIFScope section, I also found that my Lever didn't have all the items the tutorial lists, so found that section difficult to follow.

I was doing this tutorial because nick_op suggested it on a thread i made at the official forums.
http://www.bethsoft.com/bgsforums/index....ry14305109
But now i'm discouraged.
Would i have better luck recruiting somebody to try and do this via script only?
Besides, while the animation i'm looking for is simple, the reality is that there would also need to be some sort of NIFScope setting on the platform so that it detects the player and activates the animation.