TUTORIAL - Animating verticies with 3Ds Max 8

[DarkSpyda04]

Or "morphing", as they call it. This tutorial uses the same tools and techniques as the last one so you need 3Ds Max 8 with the DDS plugin and the CivilizationIV Exporter for Max 7+

 

Sample GIF of morphing verticies in Oblivion

 

 

A morphing object is one that "morphs" its verticies into the same shape as another object with the same number of verticies. Imagine a shapeshifter copying the appearance of another creature that is similar. That's pretty much all there is to it.

 

-Create the object that you want to morph and create a single bone at the origin (0,0,0) and make sure the bone's rotation is also "0,0,0". Link the object to the bone.

 

-Create a duplicate of the object (move it out of the way), convert it to editable poly, and modify it's shape but NOT its vertex count.

 

-Select the original object and apply a "Morpher" modifier. "Channel List" should already be expanded and shows a list of empty boxes with a percentage modifier beside each. Each box is a slot for a morph target. With the first box selected, scroll down and choose "Pick Object from Scene", and select the target you want your main object to mimic.

 

Now if you scroll back up and increase the percentage, you can see the object changing shape! It's safe to delete the target object now. You might also want to set the percentage back to "0" when you're done playing around with it.

 

-With your object morphing correctly, select "Autokey", move the frame slider to 50, and increase the object's morph percentage to 100. Now move the frame slider to 100 and decrease the object's morph percentage back to 0. Turn off autokey. If you play the animation now, your object morphs into the target shape and then back into its original form.

 

Now we must decide what type of animation we're looking for. Do you want it to loop over and over or play once? If you want a looping object, export as a CivIV NIF with default settings and in nifskope, add BSX flags to the scene root with "Enable Havok" checked (Right click on scene root, go to Node > Attach Extra Data > BSX Flags. Select the BSX Flags, select the flag icon, and check "Enable havok"). Go through the data blocks, setting all of the controller flags to "Cycle". When you preview it in the CS, run the havok simulator, or otherwise play the game you'll see the object doing the same morphing animation again and again. However since we're after an animation that plays only once, let's take a step back to where you animated the object and turned off autokey.

 

-Open up the CivIV Animation Manager (explained how to set it up in the "Making objects disappear with NiVisController" tutorial), set the scene root, rename the animation sequence "Forward", uncheck "looping", and export as a CivIV NIF and when the "Export Scene to NIF File" dialog box pops up, select "Single KF export with NIF" from the dropdown where it says "File Export Script". Click OK to export the NIF. Three files will be generated (KF, KFM, and NIF)

 

-Open up the NIF and go to Spells > Animation > Attach KF, and attach the KF of the same filename. Your NIF now has the "Forward" animation. Now add BSX flags to the scene root with "Enable Havok" checked. Since this is a play once animation, do NOT set controller flags to "Cycle". An animation that plays once should have controller flags set to "Clamped". Now save up and import the NIF into Oblivion. When you preview the animation now and toggle the animation's name you will see it play. However, running the Havok simulator will do nothing. Instead you have to activate the object's animation by script via the "PlayGroup" function.

 

 

If you did everything correctly, the object will change shape, change back, and retain its normal shape until you play the animation again. Otherwise re-read the tutorial or ask here for help. I'll post some other helpful facts below:

 

-Yes, you may remove the NiVertexColorProprty, NiZBufferProperty, and the lights without really screwing something up. You may also remove the first scene root so the new once takes its place but you have to assign the new scene root BSX flags.

 

-How do I make the bone invisible? Find and remove the branch of the bone's NiTriStrips or expand the branch, select the NiMaterialProperty, set "Alpha" to "0.0", and insert an "NiAlphaProperty" into the TriStrips properties list.

 

-How do I preview animations in the CS? Right click an object in the object window and select "Preview".