Animated static meshes?

[Guest Messenjah]

So, I've seen a few animated static meshes released such as the fish tank ecs... and I'm wondering how I could accomplish making an animated static mesh and getting it in-game? I'd like to make a spinning ceiling fan made out of lawnmower blades for a gunshop I'm working on and maybe some regular desk fans with spinning fan blades. I've seen it done with scripting but how are people animating static meshes? Are they using nifskope to do it? If so, what are the correct blocks to use?

[Ghogiel]

So, I've seen a few animated static meshes released such as the fish tank ecs... and I'm wondering how I could accomplish making an animated static mesh and getting it in-game? I'd like to make a spinning ceiling fan made out of lawnmower blades for a gunshop I'm working on and maybe some regular desk fans with spinning fan blades. I've seen it done with scripting but how are people animating static meshes? Are they using nifskope to do it? If so, what are the correct blocks to use?

Great idea to learn basic animations with. Very simple. it'll be good bang for the work involved. you need to know a bit of nifskope and nif format for this to make sense...

 

First make your models and textures. Have these completely finished before animating. you need simply the fan blades as 1 single tristrip.

 

you want to find a mesh with a NiTransfromManager. take a door for example.

 

in nifskope, do the copy and paste over of the nitristrips.

 

Now your blades are animated. but lke a door... i am looking at the vault sliding doors. vdoorsliding106.nif

 

take a look at the nicontrollersequence for Open.

 

expand the NiTransformInterpolator, there are couple in there, one for each object being animated. find the NiTransformData, look in the block details, this contains the animation keys you will edit. first zero everything in there, you only have to remove the translation keys. just set the "Num Keys" from 40 to 2. first ones time 0. and value to 0. and the 2nd ones time to match the end of the sequence. 1.333. and its value at 0

 

play anim. now it no longer moves.

 

now back to the NiTransformData.

 

look at XYZ rotation. depending on which way your fan is facing, will determine which of these you edit. lets asume its a table fan blade. So thats Y axis we want. now just add in a key to that. and set its value to something like 6.

 

test. it should rotate... works but needs some tweaking there

 

Now delete the "Close" nicontroller sequence, change the num of controller sequences in the nicontrollermanager from 2 to 1. change the name of the sequence "Open" to something else, dunno SpecialIdle maybe, or just Idle for now

 

delete the other NiTransformInterpolator. add over your collision- which if static doesn't need to be animated (like my nif, but will have to be on the targeted node if you want it to move with the block thats being aimated..)

 

hack in the rest of the fan that isn't animated...

 

edit the nicontrollermanager- change Num Controller Sequences from 2 to 1.

edit the NiControllerSequence - change the Num Controlled Blocks from 2 to 1. change Cycle Type from CLamp to Loop.

edit the NiDefaultAVObjectPalette- reorder the 3 remaining referenced blocks. set num of objects from 15 to 3.

sounds are in the NiTextKeyExtraData...

 

I *think* that is all off the top of my head. if you get an error in the GECK, I didn't, but it'll probably be the one saying the anims shouldn't target the root node. just ignore it.

 

FOr complex animations- use blender/max

this works perfectly in combination.... All you need to do is animate the object inside the app, export the KF, and instead of hand keying, you simply copy over the nitransformdata from your exported KF.... and its all basically set up to go.

 

Example hacked up file http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XZ7JXT8C

[Guest Messenjah]

Ah cool, I'll try it out. It would be better to use Blender as I am a Blender fan but I haven't tried animating yet with it. I know how to pose and create skeletons but I haven't created say, an animated fan with it.

[baduk]

Hi!

 

Thank u Ghogiel. Whenever i was looking at some animated nifs i would end up selecting some too complicated one out of bsa to look at, and it would make my eyes rool around!

 

This vdoor one is perfect for learning on and u end up with great of translating, rotating and scaling nifs!

[iceburg]

Hello!

I've animated a static object in blender. I exported the mesh and animation separately and then combined them in nifskope, and it animates fine in nifskope, but in oblivion it just sits there without moving. I've been able to successfully create a character animation. When the char animation wasn't playing, it was because i needed to change my NiTextKeyExtraData keys to "start" and "end" instead of idle loop stuff. I've tried to apply the same fix to my static, but without success. Would you be able to help me? Also, if you would need any extra information, I'd be happy to provide it.

Thanks man!

Iceburg

 

EDIT: Never mind, a friend fixed it. Thanks though!

Edited January 20, 2012 by iceburg

[xxfadingxsoulxx]

If i wanted to make a moving train or an elevator, would i go through the same steps? And then script it to run on a certain activation?