The Complete Animations Guide

[Pat89]

Hmm...

Are you sure you saved the animation in data/animations/data/animations?

[Gen.jamesWolfe]

so, where may I find this semimythical red box with the number 7? I am looking all over the screen, and cannot find it, it's late at night, and I want to go to bed.

it's the one for the timeline, and I'm using 2009, not 2010.


EDIT: found it....jeez, that was hard to find.

because of the trouble, I realize that there is a way to improve the tutorial: actually post pictures of the thumbnail appearance for that. (turns out there is a button immediately right of the frame number, in turn a box immediately right of the one marked "key filters". that one is it for me.)

[Mataputas]

It seems it was a corrupted file... I fixed it, sorry for the silly post. Now I've got another problem:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

It's just the animation that I modified which has the bug... Any solution?

[Pat89]

It seems it was a corrupted file... I fixed it, sorry for the silly post.

It's ok... I'm glad you got it fixed now

Now I've got another problem:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

It's just the animation that I modified which has the bug... Any solution?

Ah yes that sometimes happens... Something goes wrong at times with importing or exporting. To fix it, you have to load the animation in 3ds (via import! Not a previously saved 3dsMax file or something), then go to the frames that have this problem (mostly just the first frame) and move the central bone (the base or "root") up until the unit is on the correct height. Make sure you have the have the auto-key turned on! If you don't put that on, you will change the unit's height position in all frames, which means it will be flying when shooting arrows

If you did this then export the animation again and it should be ok

[Mataputas]

Thanks! It really worked
+ rep for your goodwill and efficiency

[Yosemite]

does it also work with empire total war?

[Pat89]

I have absolutely no idea, sorry...

[Yosemite]

ok thanks
well, i am worried a bit because i am currently making models for empires that would require new animations, and i can't find much on that topic

also that is some impressive work, i wish CA would make it easier though

[Mataputas]

Is there a way of making animations last longer? I mean, will they last longer if I add more keys or should I change anything different? Cause I want to change crossbowmen animations and I want them to take longer to reload.
Thanks in advance

[Squid]

Add more frames between the key frames and this extends the length of an animation.

[Pat89]

Add more frames between the key frames and this extends the length of an animation.

True

Only purely adding more frames to the end of the animation will "freeze" the unit, letting it do nothing until the animation has ended (unless you add some movement to those new frames of course). But when you do this "freeze" when he's aiming, it won't matter much

Edit: Yes it will take ten times longer.

[Mataputas]

So, if I make a 20-frame-long animation to be 200 frames long, will it last 10 times more time? I'll give it a try... thanks

[Mataputas]

It's great to know that... cause I want crossbowmen to take more time to reload than regular archers... Another thing... Is there any easy way of making the soldier to lean forward? I mean, I want the guy to move like this:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I'm trying to make something like that, but instead, it seems the guy is breaking his back, as if he had a hump growing out of his body...

And if I try to move the torso from the hips bones, he moves his legs... HE MOVES HIS LEGS!! He must be making a lot of fun of me... Whatever, do you have any suggestion?

[Pat89]

I'm afraid not much can be done about it, as rotating the base bone will rotate everything with it. I suppose you've already tried to simply move the legs back?

[Mataputas]

Perhaps I could rotate the whole model... first legs up-forward, then the whole model rotated (for example) 90 degrees, and now the feet would be on the ground again and the head would be pointing to the front. Then, when rotating the back bone, there shouldn't be so much preasure to "break" the back as i would have to rotate it just a bit... Is it possible to rotate the whole model? I mean, will the tw engine recognise that movement as an animation?

[Pat89]

I think it does yes, but I haven't tested it myself

[Pat89]

That's very useful, thanks!

[Mataputas]

That's very useful, thanks!

Indeed! Thanks!

[Boom S]

is there any way to fix the position of a bone(s) throughout an animation without manually doing it for each frame ?
specifically, I'm doing a cavalry animation and the leg positions keep jumping around during the full animation if I try to do it manually. it is very difficult to align the legs in each frame perfectly and as a result on running the animation it looks like the leg is vibrating.

[Pat89]

Like I think I mentioned somewhere in the preview, sometimes you might actually get a better result by removing frames rather than to add frames. 3ds Max will automatically calculate the positions between one frame you change and one a few frames later, to make the transition as smooth as possible. Much smoother than you could probably achieve yourself.