Characters; a step-by-step list?

Support Animation and Rigging
1

My old thread seems to have disappeared entirely. No matter, it was poorly explained.

What I’m trying to do is create a character, then create animations for it that can later be played on that character model.
Please tell me if I’ve got this right:

1: Create skeleton, mesh, and texture.
2: Export as desired file type (in this case, .obj).
3: Setup actions with the action window.
4: Use the NLA editor to arrange actions into a specific animation.
5: Export as an animation (in this case, .x).
6: Repeat steps 4 and 5 for each sequencial animation.

Is this how most people do it, or am I missing something? Or are animations stored in an entirely different way?

2

Sounds easy, huh?

3

Have I got it?

If so, perhaps I should use a different exporter…

4

I think it would be better just to link everything, not export it.

5

Ah, this is what I was hoping for. What do you mean by linking?

6

basically when you have a completed a character in object mode select the mesh and rig and group them, save it. In a new file, save it as something, and go to file -append or link. at the bottom click link and relative paths so that changes made to the original file are transferred, find the character file and click on the group and hit the load or whatever button. you will see nothing! spacebar- add group- your group. if it is rotated, rotate it to the proper position. now, ctrl-alt-p, and select the armature from the window, and you are good to go. you can link actions too, and other things. http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/Using_Linked_Libraries

7

Thanks for the info on Linking. It seems that’s not helped though.

I’ve done some more experimenting, and I’m sure the problem is that I have not yet made an animation. The two Mesh Groups show up perfectly in the engine, but the animation and armature don’t show up where they’re supposed to.

I did exactly this:
1: Went to Pose Mode.
2: Split two window for Action Editor and Timeline.
3: ADD NEW to actions. Renamed it ‘stand’.
4: Created pose 1. Added Loc and Rot keyframes to every bone necessary.
5: Copied exact pose to put at the end of sequence; at frame 70.
6: Added poses in between the beginning and end, adding keyframes as needed.
7: Finished first action.
8: Created new action, named ‘run’.
9: Did same process of posing until action was completed.
10: Tested each action in the Timeline window. Both move exactly as I want.
11: Opened NLA Editor.
12: Added an Action Strip for Stand.

I did nothing more than this. I know there’s something I’m missing, but I can’t figure out what.