Setting up 3DS Max & Havoc for Skyrim animations

[LargeStyle]

@ AlphaWolF - really don't know what's going on with your imports! I have all skeletons, meshes, and animations prepared for use, and so far the only errors I've had is the infrequent animation .KF not being recognised as a proper file format. No corruption or missing information (as yet).

 

All I do is what I gather is the done thing - import specific skeleton.nif for your specific character type, then import specific character meshes as desired, drag-and-drop a specific .DDS also if desired, then import the .KF animation.

 

I've just tried a dog for you - skeleton, mesh and animation seems fine. If you have only certain specific files going wrong, post which ones that don't work for you and I can see if it's a normal error, or perhaps something wrong at your end.

 

If you have any trouble with exporting - I'd follow the guide that Smeden_Nils kindly linked above - is the best thing I've seen so far.

 

Out of curiousity - I presume you have your dragon wings flapping around on your animation - question being, did you have to manually adjust each frame to achieve motion of the wings, or can you just set a start and end point and have 3DS blend the imbetween frames? I'm looking into tweaking vanilla Skyrim anims but I've come across some that are like 500 frames, so not sure I wanna go there!

 

Right now I'm having trouble finding the correct export settings just for a custom edited skeleton.nif - I've managed to use a modded skeleton in-game, I can walk / run backwards and forwards, but as soon as I turn the character to change direction it triggers some kind of unkown error and I get CTD. ):

 

 

EDIT: Ok, I've just read that 3DS can autofill keys, but my new problem is that when modding vanilla anims I want to find keys for specifc bones so I can delete most keys and rework the anim by tweaking the few remaining keys. I assume there's a key list somewhere, but no idea where the heck it is......

Edited May 27, 2012 by LargeStyle

[xp32]

Yeah you dont really need the havok tools. If you are just editing vanilla skyrim animations you just save them as .kf files and then convert them to .hkx files to use in skyrim anyway, so no need for the havok tools.

You are absolutely wrong for this one, I did that and don't get what I want. e.g when walk or run you'll never her footstep, those step screw the annotation function of the animation. The only animation that work for that is mt_idle, believe it or not

 

@Alphawolf

did you add new bone for the wing?

Edited May 27, 2012 by xp32

[AlphaWoIF]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1jWC8BaJJQ

 

well as you can see i have this animation saved and exported via havok tools from following that tut.

but ive hit a problem because i dont know how to create a custom skeleton hkx or custom skeleton nilf to go with the mesh that the animation can be applied to so there is now way for me to test it out in game ,

 

@LargeStyle no onec i imported the dragon fly anim to the wings and scaled & positioned it down all i did from that moment was animate the female body a bit to try and create some momentum.

 

also you may notice that the bone that goes to the ground is raising up with the mesh , it was the only way i could find to make the body raise with the wings ,all other attempts failed and just rotated the thing , i had same problem trying to get a char to squat down to pick something up no matter what i could not get the body to drop down , anyone know what the trick is?

this is really my fist attempt at a proper skyrim animation, so many hoops to jump through:(

Edited May 27, 2012 by AlphaWoIF

[xp32]

lol, making new skeleton.hkx is really "pain in the ass"

I believe that I've already mentioned how to make one here

http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/648277-animation-tutorial-for-3dsmax2012-stepbystep-with-pics/page__view__findpost__p__5322330

 

For how to make custom skeleton nif, use nif tool

 

EDIT: If you upload those animation of yours for download, I'll may able try to figure how to make one

both for skeleton.nif and hkx

btw, nice wings animation

Edited May 27, 2012 by xp32

[LargeStyle]

@ AlphaWolF - nice work! Dunno if you're planning on using that character as being playable, or NPC, but looks sweeet either way!

 

but ive hit a problem because i dont know how to create a custom skeleton hkx or custom skeleton nilf to go with the mesh that the animation can be applied to so there is now way for me to test it out in game

Can't you export the skeleton you used for the anim (as a .NIF) in 3DS using the NifSkope exporter plugin? This plugin will need including to 3DS if not done so already. I don't know what export settings to use though - still trying to suss this out myself.

 

 

i had same problem trying to get a char to squat down to pick something up no matter what i could not get the body to drop down , anyone know what the trick is?

Wouldn't that be a case of selecting a part of the skeleton, say the pelvis, then press either "w" or "e" to either move or rotate the bone section + connected bones. By doing this through mucking around I've made characters move in all kinds of weird ways. From what I've read, 3DS can somehow autofill frames / keys so I guess only a few key frames will be required and then blend them in 3DS (?)

 

Def don't take my word tho - I'm on day 3 of 3DS Max usage! (: Still looking into animation keys myself - I'm still stumped......

[MikeDavis]

DUdes so in the end can u do this for new monster or not?

 

1.Duplicate a model

2. Replace Mesh

3.Replace his animations

4.The result is very diferent

 

Why it has to be so hard for a 2011\2012 game.

[Nimbus21]

Man that is cool, could it be used to give wings to the player character?

[harmlessinsanity]

 

Yeah you dont really need the havok tools. If you are just editing vanilla skyrim animations you just save them as .kf files and then convert them to .hkx files to use in skyrim anyway, so no need for the havok tools.

You are absolutely wrong for this one, I did that and don't get what I want. e.g when walk or run you'll never her footstep, those step screw the annotation function of the animation. The only animation that work for that is mt_idle, believe it or not

 

@Alphawolf

did you add new bone for the wing?

 

 

 

Thank you to xp32 for pointing out what misinformation has been hijacking this thread!

 

VileTouch & biggestkid told the OP that he doesn't need Havok Content Tools. But xp32, the person responsible for one of the most popular and important animation mods for skyrim (XPMSE) disagrees and says they are wrong.

 

I am so glad I returned to this thread with a decision to ignore the de-railer comments.

 

See 9:29 on the following video

 

I know this is an old thread but I want my post to help anyone else whomight have gotten confused by the bad advice given before Alphawolf & xp32 helped the OP.