Well, this one looks fine in the game. Because it has only one frame, it is like a pose and just moves the arm to the side a little and stays there.

The problem you had following my instruction is that I did not explain that you ADD NoAnim: to the comment, instead of replacing what is there. On the next line, type in NoAnim: including the colon, and then OK. So when you are done it will look something like this:



I know you probably went to bed, but it will be here when you get up and I am still sleeping.

<* Wes *>

Oh great! Yes I was sleeping, then working and then spending the evening at my sons scool. Sadly I have to wait till tomorrow to test this

Finaly I had some time to test. (Busy time of the year!) It was a bad example package I used. It takes a few seconds before the real test animation is shown and it repeat itself. (The firs pose is one I made In milkshape to see how the object was placed in hand)
I used NoAnims on the hair and biceps and the arm looked much better but the sholder problem was still there.
Then I tried NoAnims on the clavicle and the problem was gone.

I guess I then have to delete all keyframes that has no movements as I had to import it with the setting "sample key at each frame" when importing to Milkshape.

This will be fun to play with!

NoAnim: on the clavicle could be a problem if you wanted to move the shoulder for any reason. NoAnim: eliminates all movements from that bone.

Can you send me the .fbx file? Email would be fine. I need to try and make sure that it is not in the code I wrote. Another animation I saw had a bend added to one of the bicep muscles. That wasn't right, but adding NoAnim: is less of a problem, because that bone is not likely to be needed to be moved.

<* Wes *>

It is the same one I posted in post 75. Named "from Maya"

Doh!
Thanks. I have that.

<* Wes *>

I think I still am missing a step for all of this, and if someone can help me figure out what I'm doing wrong I'd sure appreciate it.

I've spent days and lot and lots of hours creating joints for a horse, and a couple of other animals. I have yet to find any way to get the setting of joints except to do many try this setting, import it to milkshape and see how close it is or not. It literally took me 100's of tries to get this.
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/...horsejoints.jpg

These are some of the results so far:
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/...deablehorse.gif
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/...et/movie041.gif

I seem to have the most trouble from importing the cres. I know when you import the cres you have to go through and change all the PRel to Imp. A very tedious option especially when you have 43 joints, and have to redo this numerous times. I'm thinking maybe this is the thing I do wrong.

It sure would be nice to have a script to rename them. I think if I knew the package structure I might be able to do something, but I have not written any programs for a few years and would have to dig out my compiler. Would this be difficult to do Wes?

Ok back to my problem. When I import the gmdc back into my package and go into the game my items are all streached out. I don't have pic's of the animals I'm working on but Rosie asked me for help with a doll she created. I figured it would work similar to what I've been working on and tried to do this for her. Importing the gmdc and cres changing all the comments from Prel to Imp it got the following:



I tried it several times the pic is actually one of the better one others were streached out the length of a few tiles. Then I went back and just imported the gmdc and not the cres. I had to figure out the joints in the list by comparing a bear without the cres imported. I did finally get this doll working. Now because of all this I realize I must be doing something wrong.

I have found that you have to rebuild your model, after you get your joints placed, export the gmdc from milkshape then import it into simpe. Then reimport the new gmdc into milkshape along with the cres, before you create your animations. The animations seem to need the PRel setting and the rebuilt gmdc.

Otherwise you get items that look like this.


I've looked at the objx file that is exported and I'm not sure what this is for. Is this something I should be using too? I tried to find where I got this and can't seem to find it. I assumed that Wes had created it but I looked under his mini page and it's is not listed as one of his posts, but I don't think the new animation plugin is listed there either.

I am also having problems like my camel sinks in the ground when they first try to ride it, and my donkey goes up in the air and flies around instead of on the ground, and I cloned the horse to do both of these. My horse did go around in the ground but somehow I fixed that. If only I could remember what I did. I still need to fix the joints of the legs for all of my rideable animals to have better leg animations, before I can post them. Plus figure out my other issues.

Another issue I have is I get errors requested to play animation for the third time. Echo do you know what might cause this? I don't get it all the time but pretty often.

Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to give me.

Whew! I can't tackle all of that at once.
Let me start with the quoted statement. The way that the coordinates are expressed in a GMDC and the way they are expressed in a CRES are different. The GMDC does not have the parent information, and the positions are all absolute. The ImpQuatDat comes from the GMDC via the UniMesh importer.

The CRES has the joints as Parent Relative. This means that the toe is the child of the foot, and it's position is expressed in relation to the foot. If you charted it all, it would look like a tree (or a skeleton).

So, the CRES position importer uses a different keyword, PRelQuat, to differentiate. In the animation exporter, there are two sets of code, one tuned for the body meshes, and a general one. If it isn't a body mesh, then it should use the PRelQuat comments.

Now, I don't know that we have tested anything as complex as the animal skeleton. I know the regular Pets ones create problems because they refernece joints as parent before they define the parent, and this crashes MilkShape, if not immediately, a little later.

But, the animation exporter is supposed to work with object meshes, and if it has problems, they surely can be fixed.

You talked about rebuilding the GMDC. I am not sure, but what I think is happening is that you are trying to use the same MilkShape MS3D file for both meshing and animation. This will bring you nothing but headaches. Make one copy of the imported GMDC for tweaking the mesh, and another copy for making each animation. For the animation one, use the CRES importer and leave the values as changed to PRelQuat. The joints are in the same places, but referenced differently, and are used differently by the animation exporter.

<* Wes *>

Least camel shaped camel I've seen for a while. More sort of... well... horse?

Wes beat me to the explanation about the different co-ordinates, so I won't repeat that. The short of it is, even though they're both in Milkshape, the mesh and the animation template are not interchangeable. If you've made changes to the cres and want them reflected in your GMDC, then here's the easiest way to do so:
1. Make sure you have the same *number* of joints in your GMDC milkshape file as you do in your cres. Don't worry about where they are, just that they exist. You can add these yourself the usual way in milkshape.
2. Import that GMDC into SimPE 3. There's a function in the GMDC view which is something like "rebuild joints". I can't remember exactly where because I haven't got SimPE up, but find that and click it.
4. Commit then re-export the GMDC
5. Import to milkshape
6. Ta da! Joints in the right place.

As for the "third time" error, read point three in this thread:
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=239168

Yes, I understand the differences, but if I don't change the PRel to Imp to import the gmdc into SimPE it crashes SimPE and destroys my package. I also understand that the when you place the parent joint it also moves the child joint (believe me this can be a real headache).




I tried to import the large dog but had the same problems, it also has rotation setting that seem to cause problems. It also crashed Milkshape for me. I created my joints in a reasonable order, but I did use the dog as a basis for the names of the joints etc.



It would just be so much help to have a plugin that allow us to rename the PRel to Imp. It could just be I am not doing something right though. That's why I'm asking.




I'm actually saying that you have to use two different files, or your animations end up like the horse I pictured. I learned that the hard way. lol

The photo here is a horse...lol. My camel is the in the video link.



I did get all my joints imported ok etc. I have that part down pretty good. I did about 12 the first time around and kept building more from there, because my first attempt building all 40+ crashed my game. I've started over on this project at least 10 times if not more. The rebuild option seems to be another very important step that I had missed in the beginning too. Now I do it everytime I make a change.



Thanks I'll check that out.

But... You shouldn't be renaming them at all...? If you're keeping the GMDC and the CRES milkshape files separate, then you should never end up with PRels in the GMDC, and thus should never need to change them to Imps... Right? Ug, I'm confused.

If you don't rename the comments to Imp you can't import the gmdc back into Simpe. It crashes SimPE and destroys the package. I use the newest QA version of SimPE and the second newest. The newest version will not rebuild the Model, to do so I have to use the older version. I found a post by Jasana_BugBreeder that helped me figure this out.

Ok I shouldn't import the cres into milkshape? How do i get the joint names? I'll go back and reread the instruction. I could have swore that was how we get the joint names by importing the gmdc first into milkshape then the cres.

[QUOTE=Echo]Go back to SimPE, and find the CRES file. Extract that file the same way you did with the GMDC, then go back to Milkshape. Without closing the file you imported the mesh into, go to "File", "Import", then "Sims2 Unimesh CRES Skeleton Import Vx.xx". Select the CRES file you just saved, and open it. You'll get a couple of messages popping up, to which you should click "OK". These messages are telling you about what it is doing, but assuming that you've done everything right so far it should work correctly.[\quote]

This step changes the comments to PRel.

[QUOTE=rebecah]If you don't rename the comments to Imp you can't import the gmdc back into Simpe.[\quote]

OK, here is what I have figured out from that statement: Your animation base and your meshing base are the same file. It cannot work unless you change the entire comment line (Prel to Imp and all seven numbers must change). So you need to make two files, because when you make those changes, your animation will be hosed.

When you import the CRES to MilkShape, it not only renames the bones (from Joint@00, etc.) but it changes all those number values, and sets the joints up in a parent-child tree relationship. The GMDC has none of that. The only reason you see names in the GMDC plugin in SimPE is because it gets them from the CRES. And the names for the Body mesh joints are hardcoded into the UniMesh importer (which is why the root bone is always named auskel, even for the child cuskel meshes).

You need to make different base files for your meshing needs and your animation needs. The only really important thing is that the bone positions be in the same overall positions and in the same order. The UniMesh exporter is not equipped to translate the PRel positions back into Absolute positions. That would be nice, but it hasn't happened yet (lazy developer).

Once you have the skeleton for the animation base properly converted, you can transfer any mesh changes you need to via .obj file, but it will require reassignment.

The only thing the GMDC and an animation share are that the joints are in the same order between the GMDC and the CRES, and that the names match between the ANIM and the CRES. You can make an animation with nothing but a skeleton in your base mesh, but it is easier when you have some skin to see.

<* Wes *>

[QUOTE=wes_h]
OK, here is what I have figured out from that statement: Your animation base and your meshing base are the same file. It cannot work unless you change the entire comment line (Prel to Imp and all seven numbers must change). So you need to make two files, because when you make those changes, your animation will be hosed.[\quote]

I see I shouldn't just change the PRel I need to change the whole comment. Wow I don't know if I could go back and find those settings. Then copy all 40+ comments, individually?

It doesn't work to use the same file for the animation as the mesh base. Well actually you can import the file with the Imp's but the animations are screwy. If the comments do not have the Prel the animations don't work properly. I honestly do have 2 different files for this.


Ok maybe I'm asking the question wrong. Maybe this is just way over my head, but I do think I'm pretty close.

The horse mesh is by Dragon_Slave, she requested that I make a rideable animated horse. I took her mesh imported it as an obj file into my rideable item. I created the joints in the cres portion of simpe, I rebuilt the model, then I then exported the gmdc and cres from simpe, then I imported those into milkshape, gmdc first and cres next. I assign the vertexes to the joints.

What should I do differently here:
Now I export with the Sims2 UniMesh v4.09 a new gmdc. If I don't change the comments, prior to this step, to Imp it crashes SimPE and destroys the package.

Now I delete the GMDC, then I import the new gmdc by using the add option, then in the resource tab select Geometric Data Container, name it to the original GMDC name, I fix the integrity, and rebuild the model, tgi, commit and save

I now export the gmdc and cres again. Import them into milkshape. Now I can create animitions that work.

I sure hope this explains it better.

For this part I really though I wanted a way to rename the comments with a script. Now I'm totally confused.

The doing differently has to happen a bit earlier than that.



Close, but not quite.
1. Take her mesh and import it as an obj into the rideable item.
2. Create the joints in the cres portion of SimPE.
3. Export the GMDC only from SimPE.
4. Import the GMDC to Milkshape
5. Add joints to the GMDC mesh using the Milkshape joint tool
6. Export the GMDC mesh with UniMesh
7. Import the GMDC mesh into SimPE.
8. Rebuild the model/joints
9. Export the GMDC mesh from SimPE.
10. Import the GMDC to Milkshape.
11. Assign the vertices to the Joints.
12. Save as your mesh file, which you can use to make future mesh changes safely

Then, in a completely different file,
13. Export the CRES from SimPE 14. Import the GMDC into Milkshape
15. Import the CRES into Milkshape
16. Save as your animation file, which you can use to make your animations.

Yes?

OK! Thanks so very much Echo. Now I see the whole picture! I will try this out tomorrow. I'm exhausted.

Thanks for helping, Echo.

I spent all evening updating BBS system software and then fiddling with settings for my Custom Sims 3 site. No wonder Delphy wants to retire... it is as complex as animating, I think.

<* Wes *>

Sorry if I'll add more confusement to the matter then I already did :o but, since I recently made a skeleton from scratch for a previously boneless object, and it was not a standard skeleton (roughly follows sim skeleton, but no bone rotations hence no quaternion pain and wings), so here are steps I did.
1. Create a boneless mesh (in Max, in my case). Import as 3ds to GMDC. Export GMDC. Import to Milkshape. Add more comments to subset (like HasTangentArray) if necessary.
2. Add joints to CRES - one by one, not all at once. Export CRES. Import CRES over GMDC - it will create all joints and on proper positions. If I dislike a joint position - move it, and read new position in Model Information. It can be misleading, though, since Milkshape loves to rotate joints, not move Then trial-and-error. I'd sujject to avoid joint rotations different from 0,0,0 - object is animated this way fine, too, and there's no problem with conversions. When finished with checking joint position - undo CRES import.
3. Repeat step 2 until skeleton is complete.
4. Then, after importing CRES - export to Milkshape ASCII, and change comments Import back. Do bone assignments. Export as GMDC.
5. Replace GMDC in object package. Go to Model tab and hit Rebuild - guess this fixes the relative/absolute position issue which Wes has mentioned? I just used to hit it whenever I do anything with joints positions, and it hadn't any problems after that.

That's all. Sorry if I'm using it, erm, in a non-intended way, but it works and I'm happy with it

Thank-you Jasana you may have just saved my project.

Not being able to import the cres information makes it almost impossible to work with. If you only have a few joints Echo's explaination may work, and using the joint tool to assign the vertexes, won't work for my project. The placement is very important for the animations.

If you exported an ASCII after your step 1 copy the comment and bone sections of that file. Do steps 2 and 3. Import your CRES information. Export another ASCII file and replace the comment section and the bone sections only, with the comment and bone info in your first ASCII file. Wouldn't this give you the correct information needed for the GMDC?

The ASCII type file is going to be so much help to me Janasa...Thank-you so much for pointing it out.

After step 1, there's no bone information in GMDC yet - so there's nothing to copy from there.
Valid bone information to replace entire section after 'Bones' would be available only after step 5 - it's Rebuild that fixes bone positions. But it's kind of too late, except that you would want to edit mesh. Then it's better to export GMDC from SimPE again, and edit it, rather than version from step 4.
By the way, the only reason why I used Milkshape ASCII is that it produces a text file - so replacing a word in comment would be a piece of cake

I though the GMDC didn't need or use the joint information that is in the cres. It was my understanding that to rename the comments to just Imp was not correct, that I also need the full comments of the original GMDC. Wow this is really hard to explain, but I actually tried it and it works great.

I tried to only copy and replace the Bone Comments but that didn't work so I also copied and replaced the Bones section. It sure seem to work much better for me and it's so much faster.

If you're happy then I'm happy Bec, just adding something here to clarify for anyone else reading this thread.

When you add the joints using the Milkshape tool, you don't have to add them to the correct locations. You can add them anywhere, you can put them all at (0,0) if you want, just make sure that you have the right number of joints. Then when you run the "rebuild" step in SimPE, it moves all of those joints to the correct location for you! The next time you export the mesh from SimPE and load it into Milkshape, they're in the correct position.

Oh I see you are just referring to building the joints Echo. I didn't have a problem with this part.

Thanks so much for the clarification though.

I am still a bit confused about assigining the vertexs to the joints then, and importing that back into simpe. This is where I was having the problem.

Using the ASCII seems to have solved my problem though so no big deal.

Thanks so much again Echo, as always you are one of the greatest and number one in my book.

Echo, Thanks a lot for this tutorial, and for all your other tutorials.

I was reading everything easily and i had......(deleted )

$RaMRoM$

*EDIT*
I just found out how to do it, but the flag isnt animating in the game, does it animate by itself? And there isnt a pie menu, so i cant do any commands.

Help! *edit*