The Complete Animations Guide

[Boom S]

actually I do need all the frames as what it does with the hands is important to the anim, it's only the legs I wanted to fix in place.
thanks anyway !

[Pat89]

I was referring to the legs actually... Every bone has its own "set" of frames. So what I meant is that you only need a few frames for the leg movement. That doesn't mean you have to change the frames of the hands as well

(Select a bone to see its set of frames)

[Boom S]

hey that sounds very promising. thanks a lot, I think that will work !

[Pat89]

I had an image there, but for some reason it doesn't show up anymore

I'll add it again when I have time...

[Gen.jamesWolfe]

I had an image there, but for some reason it doesn't show up anymore

I'll add it again when I have time...

the server being a douche? happens.

at least I found it now, and can make the ultimate musket loading animation. thanks for this guide

EDIT: my first skeleton!

[Raritу]

Hi guys, I'm quite a newbie to 3dsmax, and I'm having a problem with "auto-key"

Here is what happened to me:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I click the auto-key button, start animating as usual, like this:



Then I rotate the arm:



And finally, instead of having a frame which don't related to the 1st frame, I get this:

Any idea of what have I done wrong?

[Mataputas]

Yeah, that happens some times... I suggest copying the position of the bones in the animated frame to the first one, as when you erase frames, some times the animation persist anyway, unless you create a new frame in that position... Good luck!

[Finch]

you did not do anything wrong, that is how you use auto-key in 3ds max, as i can see you move time slider to 30, then you lowered the arm, therefore 3dsmax will just fill in the gaps from 0-29 resulting to what you have now.

[Raritу]

I usually have 2 complety different frames while using Auto-key, and the progam don't filled in the gaps like I'm having recently.

What I'm having now cause me a lot of trouble when I animating .

[Pat89]

I usually have 2 complety different frames while using Auto-key, and the progam don't filled in the gaps like I'm having recently.

What I'm having now cause me a lot of trouble when I animating .

It did. It did automatically calculate all stances between the starting position and the position you ordered at frame 30. That's simply how auto-key works, nothing to do about it.

If you want to change the default position of your model, then you should do so before turning on the auto-key.

[Raritу]

Oh, I get it now. Thank you

By the way, are there anyway for me to get rid of that gaps-filling ?

[Pat89]

Why would you want that? And if you export the animation and then import it again, you can delete all slots from the time-line you don't want

[Raritу]

Why would you want that? And if you export the animation and then import it again, you can delete all slots from the time-line you don't want

I'm trying to make a bowstring animation by creating new bone for the string, and this requires moving the bone to work.

The string needs to be moved in frame 15, but when I moved it, the string in the frames from 1st to 15th were all moved because 3ds max auto fill the gaps. This is why I want to get rid of it.

Thanks for the tips, guys

[Dark_horse_spirit]

you could also move your animation every frame, Like a movie projector, but very time comsuming

[Gen.jamesWolfe]

I have a question:


how do I make soldier march in cadence? I want them all to move their left feet simultaneously (more or less), then their right foot, then left, etc. As it stands, they do not do that.

[Pat89]

As far as I know, that's impossible with RTW, sorry

[Gen.jamesWolfe]

As far as I know, that's impossible with RTW, sorry

well, they practically do it with shield walls, so why not non-shield walls?

thanks for the answer. I'll indeed see if it is possible or not for sure.

[Mataputas]

I'm having some issues when modifying turn left/turn right and step back/step fron animations. When in game, the soldiers moves are a bit disorganized, they mess up when trying to rotate in formation. Do you guys have any clue of what can be happening? I didn't modify the animations' extension (i.e. number of frames), just the position of hands and arms.

[Raritу]

Can you give us something like... video or something about it? I have changed those turn right/left, back/front steps a lot of times, but I'vent got any problems with it

[Pat89]

You will indeed have to give a few more details