[WIP] - Animation Editor - BETA Available

[Neikun]

I'd just like to be able to preview my changes within the program, as I don't know what changes what unless I can see it.

[Xanathar]

Sooner or later it will likely be integrated with the GMT in some way, so that problem will be solved.
In the meantime, what I do is save the changes and check them in the GMT (is much faster than using LoG anyway) and eventually rollback using a snapshot if I don't like the result.

[Neikun]

Thanks for the tip! =D

[Xanathar]

TUTORIAL: How to rescale a Ogre

Resurrecting this from the long death because maneus asked me to do explain him how to scale Ogres.. posting here as I think others could benefit. Sorry maneus for the late answer!

Step 1 - Preparation

• Copy the .animation files somewhere in your mod_assets directory
• Create a definition of the monster using those animation files
• Place the monster in a safe room of your dungeon.
• Check everything works.. a good sign that everything is ok is that the monster attacks but never damages the party
• Open the Animation Editor pointing to the animation files directory

Step 2 - Snapshots

The most important section now is the Snapshot one. Here you can create snapshots (basically backups). With the "Take" button you take a new snapshot so that you can restore the animations if something goes wrong (and it will). With Restore you restore the selected snapshot.

• Now go a take a snapshot

Step 3 - Rescale

Select the "Rescale animation of predefined monster menu.



The following window opens:



Sadly here there's no real scientific method to understand which settings work with which monster. What you see is likely what I used to rescale ogres, not 100% sure. Under the presets button you can select what surely works to rescale slimes. Snails are better scaled with the default settings of the window.

As there's no way to understand which setting is best for a monster:

• Put the desired scaling factor in the top left (remember to do it everytime, 100 does nothing! )
• Try one, Save All
• In Grimrock, Ctrl+R to reload the dungeon, Play to check the result
• If not ok, Restore the snapshot and repeat

I know it's boring, but it really takes 10 minutes at most.


Good luck

[maneus]

Thank you Xanathar for this great turtorial. It helps a lot.

[Ryeath_Greystalk]

Anyway, I was able to load a model without any animation and add animations from scratch! Will try to work it better tomorrow/after (it worked, but the rotation was always with the center of the object and not from the pivot I set in 3dsmax).

Hi Xanathar,

Any chance you could explain this more thoroughly. It seems most the conversation is based on modifying existing animation, but this is the only reference I find to making a new animation.

My situation is I have a gong I made and imported into LoG (you can see it in John Wordsworth's Oriental Weapons thread). It plays a gong sound and calls a function when hit, but it just doesn't look right without any movement. In Blender I added a bone and made a small animation where it will swing back and forth a couple times to look as though it was struck. But that is as far as I have been able to figure out. I tried to export to OBJ and include animations but that just made 200 copies of the object (one for each frame) I assume that is not correct.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Isaac]

My situation is I have a gong I made and imported into LoG (you can see it in John Wordsworth's Oriental Weapons thread). It plays a gong sound and calls a function when hit, but it just doesn't look right without any movement. In Blender I added a bone and made a small animation where it will swing back and forth a couple times to look as though it was struck. But that is as far as I have been able to figure out. I tried to export to OBJ and include animations but that just made 200 copies of the object (one for each frame) I assume that is not correct.

Any help would be appreciated.

New animations are rather more straight forward... From Blender, just load your model, animate it as usual (Blender animation tutorials are plentiful on Youtube), and export to a format that keeps the animation. Collada or DirectX will work; (I use collada all the time).

Once you have the collada [.dae] file; import the model (via Assimp) into GMT; then switch to the animation tab and import the same dae file via Assimp' animation import.

Check the node names to ensure that the animation name and your gong mesh/node name are identical. Once they are, then select the animation and it will affect your model.
Once you see it in action (and it's satisfactory), then your almost done. (If it plays too slow or too fast, GMT lets you set the frame-rate).
You will then need to save the animation (from the animation tab) as a .animation file.

For the gong, in Grimrock, clone the wall button as your base object. Set the sound to your gong noise; set the press animation to your gong animation. Place the object in a room and click on it with the mouse. It should sound and sway as intended
**This assumes that the gong is with it's back to a wall; it doesn't need to be pressed up against it though; it's just that the click will only work from the front.

If you really need it to be free-standing with front & back access, then it's probably possible to make the object a custom door instead of a button.

** I could see making it a custom 'locked door' with a companion script for it, and making a gong 'key' to hit [open] it with; the animation would play two or three sways, then the script would return the gong to the mouse, and destroy & respawn a new gong.

[Ryeath_Greystalk]

Thanks for the info Isaac.

My model is not importing into GMT very well in collada. I will play around with it awhile and see if I can figure out what is wrong.