Strannik

Thanks for providing files. I successfully exported and added the idle file (from imported HTW_biped_idle1.dae). I used the same procedure as I used for a walking animation. From your Blender file it appears as if the armature was modified (I have no idea why): To the left is the armature from your Blender file, to the right is what I get after importing. You should skip 7. From 4 you need to change the end frame according to your animation (from your Blender file it seems you did it right) and you do not need "d" and "e". I do not know why the armature looks different. It is not modified in any step. All I can suggest is to try importing again and see if that helps. Edit: There is also a mistake I made in the skeleton file: bone_Lcalvical should be changed to bone_Lclavical in 3 places.

Ha-ha. A deal? Well, the cobra is a model made by Micket. So, technically, I kept my side of the bargain :P. Seriously though, I can hardly find time to make animations for one model. Working on two models at the same time is not really an option for me. Thanks for the update. I hope others will find changes useful. I have made several quick test on WIN10 with Python 3.5. It appears to work well. Putting chicken.dae and mastiff.dae resulted in only one file Armature.xml. But there is a warning about that in Readme. Maybe this can be avoided by using the name of the input file for the output file. But I can try to add something like that myself. I cannot afford another deal :P. Thanks again.

It may actually be that you did nothing wrong. I do not think I can tell what went wrong from the file you exported from Blender. Could you provide a file that you imported in Blender (like the HTW_biped_charge1.dae file), please? I can test if I can export it and add to the game successfully. And see where it fails.

@stanislas69 First of all, let me thank you for making this tool. Here you mentioned that you can make the script to work with a folder: Maybe these suggestions are similar to what you have in mind. A rough explanation of this concept. The main folder contains two empty folders ("input" and "output"), the script itself, a readme file, and a license file. When the script starts it looks inside the "input" folder for .dae files. If there are no .dae files found it shows something like "No .dae files found inside the input folder". Else for every .dae file inside the "input" folder it creates an .xml file with the same name inside the "output" folder. Main folder structure: Here is an example: 1. An artist puts .dae files inside the "input" folder. 2. Starts the script. 3. Waits until the script stops. 4. Takes .xml skeleton files from the "output" folder. Possible advantages for an artist. Somehow intuitive (well, for me at least). It works with any number of files. An artist only have to run the script. No need to manually edit path to files. All input files are located in the "input" folder. And that folder is located in the same folder as the script itself. Generated files are located in a different folder. It should help when there are many files. Disadvantages. Modifying the current script. I do not know how hard it will be to implement these changes. It is just my point of view. So it needs other artists' feedback about how intuitive and easy to use this concept can be. What do you think, stanislas69?

@The Undying Nephalim, please remember that steps described below are a way to test things in the game. It shows how to get from point A to point B without explaining why. https://trac.wildfiregames.com/ is a good source of information about getting art files working in the game. It was very useful for making the mod and writing this post. I used Blender 2.78c in default configuration. I can only assume how proficient you are in Blender. But "User Interface" section of the user manual should be enough to follow the steps. https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/interface/index.html For a skeleton file I used a text editor and followed part "3 - Creating the XML file describing the skeleton" from the tutorial https://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/AnimationExportTutorial A text editor was also used to create an actor file. I think tiger.xml was used as a base. And just removed what was not needed and changed several lines. That was it. The very same tutorial once again https://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/AnimationExportTutorial part "Creating the actor file". Additional information can be found here: https://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/Actors I guess it is the best I can explain. If anything is not clear let me know.

You are welcome. I am glad to hear it works for you. As I have already said, I did not do anything extraordinary. Everything was done with a text editor and Blender. I simply followed the tutorial (kudos to people who created it). I will try to write in detail what I did. Maybe tomorrow.

@The Undying Nephalim You can do what leper suggested: Go to the "Object" tab => change "Entities" to "Actors (all)" in the drop down menu right under "Filter" field => use actor viewer to play walk animation for Htest/Htest_unit.xml. That unit will be the first item in the list. If you are using A21 (the current version from the site, not RC, not SVN) open the mod.json file with a text editor and change 22 to 21 in "dependencies": ["0ad=0.0.22"] Save.

I have not noticed that the message was edited. Sorry @stanislas69. @The Undying Nephalim have you changed "Entities" to "Actors (all)" in the drop down menu right under "Filter" field? @leper I was using SVN version of the game.

stanislas69. The animation plays right in Atlas for me. What do you see? What does not work?

If you are not going to add parts of the unit as props the method of joining them together can be a problem (if said parts used different texture files). But you can create one texture. For example you have four textures then you can combine them into one and adjust UV's accordingly. But I am not sure you make "animated" props (like cape). Maybe someone with better knowledge of the game can clear this up. Also if you join parts together it makes creating variations harder. For example if you need the same unit but with a different shield or sword. The version of the game is A22. But you can modify mod.json to work with A21. And I forgot to mention that I removed movement along Y axis from bone_pelvis. So that it loops. Let me know if it does not work.

Greetings, The Undying Nephalim. I have tried to get files from this post: into the game. Files have multiple meshes so it did not work without several modifications. I joined all four meshes and followed instructions from the tutorial mentioned already by WhiteTreePaladin: https://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/AnimationExportTutorial Maybe the following mod can help. You should put it into (for Windows, for another system https://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/GameDataPaths): C:\users\"User name"\My Documents\My Games\0ad\mods. Then you can start the editor with pyrogenesis.exe -mod=Htest -editor Then object tab => change entities to actors (all) => use actor viewer to play walk animation for Htest/Htest_unit.xml. You can add more animations by modifying the actor file. I hope it may prove useful for you. P.S. I do not see the license. Let me know if it is not right to post your files and I will delete it. Htest.7z

Uploaded the .blend file. It was saved with Blender 2.78c. This file contains initial camera+lamps setup from the original file by Micket and all new animations (made so far) as actions in Action Editor. Also there is a test action I could not get rid of. It serves no purpose. Notable changes to animations: Fixed a clipping issue with idle_01 I totally forgot to fix before rendering. Fixed interpolation issues with idle_02. cobra_animations_WIP_170714.7z If anyone wants to try animations in the game or make additional animations, please consider reading notes below. I am not certain I can spare enough time to complete idle_03 during this weekend. I will try to get it done by the end of the next week then.

Idle_02 (video file): This one uses parts of the idle_01. Probably it does not differ much from idle_01 to warrant it a place in the pack. Idle_03 will allow to make an animation most suitable for the third slot (a mix of 1 and 3 with a different idle pose). More options for developers to choose from, I suppose. I should warn about an issue with this kind of idle animations. Its size. For example baked idle_01 is approximately 1.8 MB. stanislas69, I will upload the file. If I understood you correctly and that is what you asked for. Off-topic.

Stanislas69. Yeah, I have not posted updates in a long period of time. But there was not much to show except for ugly experiments I was making. The progress was moving at a pace slower than that of a snail (busy spring didn't help much). In retrospect, I should have posted that I am working on it (but I had no idea how long it will take) or rather that I would inform in case of being unable to continue working on this anymore. Well, learning from mistakes (again). As I am done testing everything I wanted to test, all available time will be spent on those four animations mentioned in my previous post. If everything goes well a preview for idle02 will be ready during this weekend. Should I fail to get time for idle02 there will be enough time for it next Friday when I shall get a day off. Also I shall get some more time in July (I will be able to finally catch up with a snail, hurrah!). Off-topic. To be honest, I have never thought about making videos. I suppose the only thing people can learn from my animation process is how animations should not be made (still valuable though :P). Jokes aside, I am not sure how useful such videos may be. The video probably will be like: insert keyframe => move this => adjust that =>insert keyframe... There are a lot of tutorials that actually show and explain what is going on. So I am rather sceptical. But let us not derail this tread too much.

A small information update. I was experimenting with different ideas for animations. And from results of those experiments I chose four that looked promising. The work progresses slowly. Idle02 is almost ready (needs several fixes). Idle03 is about 1/3 ready (I can hardly reuse any parts from other animations, ergo this one takes significantly more time than idle02). Because of time required for idles two death animations didn't receive much attention, apart from several iterations. What's next? I'll try to fix remaining issues with idle02 and post a preview during a weekend.

Thanks for answers and kind words, everyone. More animations. Attack animation: - Rather long (3 seconds). Actual attack happens around 51st frame. - A half of the body is immobile during the animation. I tried to add subtle movements to it but it looked bad. Idle_01 animation (a video file because of its length, let me know if it doesn't work): - As I mentioned above, this one is quite long. Death animation: - Probably it won't be noticeable in the game. I'm not sure about this death animation. To be honest I don't have any good ideas for it. Do we need run animation? It will look like a faster version of walk maybe with a more suitable head movement. It would be great to get at least 2 animations for attack, idle, and death. I'm going to try another idle animation with a different resting pose. Feel free to leave your feedback or ideas.

Greetings, ladies and gentlemen. My most sincere apologies for keeping you waiting for eternity. Thanks to stanislas69 I can resume making animations for cobra. Old animations are quite bad so I decided to make new ones. A new test skeleton has 38 bones (added 8 bones for hood animations). An example animation of the hood: Does it justify increase in number of bones? Should I use this test skeleton or return to the original one? A new walk animation: A picture of the new walk animation without hood animation (for comparison): Changes from the old walk cycle: + new path with more turns looks better (in my opinion); + almost no sliding; + movement forward is even; - new path with increased number of turns combined with symmetrical wave is obvious (though changed head animation helps to some extent). If anyone can help me with following questions, I would be grateful. Main bone (the one that moves the whole skeleton) is almost in the middle of the skeleton but located far from origin point. Do I understand it right that with animations (like the one on the left side) clicking near the head in game will select cobra but clicking the rest of the body will not? If that is right than should I use edit mode to move the mesh with its skeleton so that main bone is closer to the origin point or just move main bone closer to origin point during each animation? Animation on the left side. Skeleton rest position on the right side. Main bone highlighted in blue.

Salute. Thanks, Enrique. I created starting pose then movement for the main bone. Used graph editor to make a wave movement for the rest of the body. WhiteTreePaladin. You are right. But this armature don't have bones to fold it. I'm not sure how hard it'll be to add this. Death preview is ready:

Salute. Another great model by Micket. The only thing I changed: applied location on the armature. Walk animation (sounds weird): This is work in progress. There are some problems but I think it's better then other cobra walk animations I've made. I'll choose the best animations for death, attack, and idle and will try to make preview tomorrow. Any suggestions are much appreciated.

Salute. All right. I'll see what I can do with this zebu. But I need some time on the current set.

Salute. It's good to know that everything works. Thanks, Enrique. Micket. Already started to work on another animal but when I complete it I'll take a look at Rhino. I'll try to upload what I made as soon as possible.

Salute. I apologize for my very late response. I hope that Lee's tutorial (already mentioned by Enrique) will be useful. If you have questions I'll do my best to answer. There is no secret, magic or conspiracy. If you take a closer look at those animations you'll see that they are far from being that good.

Salute. Stanislas69. Did you ask for help with this? If so then what do you have difficulty with?

Salute. QUOTE Just pointing it out in case you didn't know and you think it may be useful for your workflow. Oh. It looks like I misunderstood your previous post a bit. My apologies. I didn't expect that everything will be accepted. The main problem with sleeping animation is laying pose. When I try to make it look like actual wolf it leads to bad mesh deformations. An obstacle I don't know how to overcome. I think that idle01 is the weakest of them all but still can't make anything better. Do you need me to create additional variations or this is enough for the wolf set?

Salute. Enrique. Thanks for a video. I think I can do this if you think it'll be more useful. While I'm waiting for decision on what needs to be changed, I'll try to make a better version of idle01 (sleeping). As I think it needs attention the most. Hephaestion. I'm quite sure that I'm not a hidden agent.