Hey Everyone,
I seem to be having an issue exporting animations packed from one model format to another.
I’m using tmd importer to import models from Jurassic park operation genesis. These models come with animations but the way blender operates, I only see one animation visible in the main interface, and consequently, I only get one animation when I export the this model as an md3 file for game purposes.
Going back to Blender, when I change the screen layout to animation, the editor type into dope sheet and the editing context into action action editor, I can view all those hidden animations as a collection list of F-Curves animations. How can I export ALL the animations with the models as an MD3 file?
I looked at the md3 addon and it doesn’t have any options for exporting. Seems to me that If you need to write an md3 file with multiple animations in it, your options are:
Join the separate actions into a single one before export and take notes of which frame each animation starts.
Export the animations into a format that Blender can export multiple animations to (like fbx), import it to another program that can export multiple animations into an md3 file and export from there.
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3. Or you can just export multiple times, each time a different action.
It all depends on how you need to import it and where.
Thanks for the response Helluvamesh. I’m not so sure about md3 files myself but I tried your advise on separately saving each animation as an md3 file. However, I don’t know how to merge them into one, with the animations having their own individual timeline.
@helluvamesh, I’m trying to import this into Gzdoom. I have misfit 3d and tried to merge those model animations into one file using it but each time I did this, it gave an error that the animation isn’t skeletal. I’m at the moment trying to figure out how I can join the separate actions into one single one before export.
I’m really stumped here. I tried merging the animations in the file, firstly by trying to add the existing animations to the pose library (It asked me to sanitize it first, but nothing really happened). Than I tried messing around with cameras and scenes, but it just doesn’t seem to work. It appears that I’m continously running into new obstacles that are becoming increasingly difficult to fix with my current knowledge of Blender. I have posted the file containing the animations that I wish to export as MD3.
For somone who hasn’t used the NLA editor before, I’m struggling a little with merging process (its not complex, mind you. Its just a bit like walking in the dark). As of now, I just familiarizing myself more with the NLA editor before I can do that. Its really just related to arranging those animations in sequence. I’m already getting a hang of it but I’ll need to watch some more tutorials.
I already understand the part where baking is involved.
So helluvamesh, thank you very much. Your help has been instrumental for me in figuring out how to cross port models between different model formats.
That solved it. I can now bake those into a single animation file. That said, I have unfortunately run into another obstacle that I’m not able to get around.
First and foremost if this tutorial I found:
My issue here is that the blender manual doesn’t mention how to turn on those tools/addons from that video. here are the links to the pages I read:
I notice that the tutorial simply has a far more comprehensive animation tool set available and greater number of options for pose editing. Mine for some reason isn’t showing, and I’m not able to find any addons that allow me this capacity.
I’m looking to do the following editing work:
Reduce the frame animations without too much quality loss because the GZDOOM engine can’t handle them as is. GZdoom needs to break down any action if it exceeds 26 frames, so an animation with 80 frames require 3 actions to accommodate them as a whole animation.
Merge two animations into one. As in, merging the position of a few frames of the head and neck portion of the biting animation armature to the rest of the body of the walking animation.
Everything you see in that tutorial is part of Blender by default, no addons are involved. Blender’s UI is context sensitive and a lot of elements are hidden when there’s no point in showing them.
Breaking up an 80 frame animation to three 26 frame animations:
First sample the keys: in the dope sheet select all keys, Space > Sample Keyframes
Now, you could make 3 copies of the action and delete parts that are not needed in that perticular action fragment BUT you don’t need to do that because you would need to recombine all the actions into a single action, anyway, SO WHY BOTHER WITH THIS?
Instead just take notes of which frame all the fragments would start. (Which frame means which frame on the action that has all the actions merged.)
Combine animations, e. g. walk + bite:
In the NLA Editor make stripe and add the walk action to it
In the Dope Sheet Editor set the biting action as the active action, mute all bones, then unmute those bones that should be controlled by the biting animation (e.g. from the mid-spine up).
I’m aware that this thread was solved 12 days ago thanks to helluvamesh. It was all hunkydorey for the time being, but there were a few things I had assumed from the last response that today I realized are not true and It seems that instead of making a new thread, it would be best to revive this one since the context of my modelling issues are still on the same model.
The false assumptions and the confusions:
I assumed that the tracks on the NLA editor can be edited to allow postures to be edited but now I’m not sure if this is true. One of the problems I have is that my dinosaur walks with his head held really high up, and the solution to this is to select the neck bone, rotate it, copy the bone posture and paste it in a way that all the frames in the walk animation are altered. I attempted doing this with two possible options shown in the image.
Options 1 are in the light blow box, and Options 2 are in red box).
Unfortunately, with options 1, I keep getting an error every time I select any of its choices. While with number 2, I’m not even sure how it works from there. I selected the editing stashed action and the track turned green with patterns.
The other confusion is about helluvamesh’s solution to merge actions (like biting and walking). I assumed that the mute button is not about sound but rather, bone selection. From there onwards, what must I do to merge those bone posture frames for biting onto the walking animation, replacing this animations bone postures with the unmuted ones from the biting animation?
1.:
The solution for your first problem is animation offset. For some reason this function is left out of default Blender, but you can use the ‘Global/Local Offset’ functions of my addon ‘GYAZ Animation Tools’ to do this. They directly alter the action, doesn’t take the NLA Editor into account.
In pose mode: 3D View > Toolshelf > Tools > Edit Animation
2.:
As for your second problem, as I said two weaks ago, you have to bake a new action from the combination of the new one with the settings I showed you.
Alright, so I downloaded the file and started checking out each and every function in these tools. It unfortunately didn’t give results, so here is an image file that states exactly what I’m not able to get:
As for the second solution regarding merging of two animations… I have not gotten results just yet, and I’m not done exhausting all possible solutions (I have to look up the functions on the manual and check a few example tutorials before I can claim that I’m done).
1.: Animation Offset:
Let me quote myself form my previous post
That means you have to mute every track in the NLA Editor, and set an action in the Dope Sheet Editor > Action. It operates on the active action, when you place markers, you have to do it according to the action’s timeline, not the timeline in the NLA Editor because, let me say this again, the addon doesn’t care about the NLA Editor.
Global vs Local/Local2/Local4
Global means from start to end of the active action’s timeline, local means between markers. All 4 functions operate on the active action only because, let me repeat myself, the addon doesn’t care about the NLA Editor.
The workflow after that is pretty simple:
Global: position bones, select all the bones you changed, hit button
Local/Local 2: position bones, place 2 markers, select bones you changed, hit button
Local 4: same as above but with 4 markers
(Just for clarity, it doesn’t matter if you position bones AND place markers or the other way around. The order you place markers also doesn’t matter.)
2.: You need to better explain what’s wrong with my solution to combine actions. In post #13 I uploaded a blend file that has the desired result.
That means you have to mute every track in the NLA Editor, and set an action in the Dope Sheet Editor > Action. It operates on the active action, when you place markers, you have to do it according to the action’s timeline, not the timeline in the NLA Editor because, let me say this again, the addon doesn’t care about the NLA Editor.
Global vs Local/Local2/Local4
Global means from start to end of the active action’s timeline, local means between markers. All 4 functions operate on the active action only because, let me repeat myself, the addon doesn’t care about the NLA Editor.
The workflow after that is pretty simple:
Global: position bones, select all the bones you changed, hit button
Local/Local 2: position bones, place 2 markers, select bones you changed, hit button
Local 4: same as above but with 4 markers
Oh, I understand now. Now It worked; the posture changed accordingly.
There is nothing wrong with your solution regarding merged animations. Its just that there are some anomalies that I wanted to get to the bottom of before I make another post.
Anomalies such as:
How and why there are 3 full meshes of the dinosaur model, all positioned to appear as one single model (Trex_LOD0_MESH0, Trex_LOD1_MESH0, and Trex_LOD2_MESH0). I notice that when I delete the other two meshes, the active animation stops working.
How I can mute all of the bones in such a large list with one key, a selection box or any hotkey steps rather than individually one by one. Its apparently not in the manual or in anything I have searched so far.
Apart from those factors, everything else is clear.
@Hendrix: Oh hey there. I’m indeed using your scripts, and I like the results except for some anomalies like the three meshes loaded together as one and interconnected in loading animations.
Select all channels (not the keys but the channel names) with A
Menu > Channel > Enable/Disable/Toggle Channel Settings
By the way, that’s not a large list, that’s just 34 bones, in a more elaborate biped rig, the fingers alone take up 38 bones.
The 3 meshes are level of detail (LOD) meshes, google it for more info.
The armature plays the animation, all three meshes are attached to the armature via the Armature Modifier. The meshes have no effect on the armature or on each other, so deleting any of the meshes can’t affect the skeletal animation.
