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Sotha's Animations


Sotha

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This is awesome. The anims are a bit clumky indead, but I guess this is because the movement is not correct. You should record someone doing brushing and then anim that. (Noone moves his whole upper body to brush ;) )

 

But basically this is very good for the mod. It adds a lot to immersion. Imagine a mansion or castle mission where you enter and sea some servants brushing the floor, some others wash some clothes etc ...

 

If you enjoy creating such anims, keep on the work. It's appreciated.

FM's: Builder Roads, Old Habits, Old Habits Rebuild

Mapping and Scripting: Apples and Peaches

Sculptris Models and Tutorials: Obsttortes Models

My wiki articles: Obstipedia

Texture Blending in DR: DR ASE Blend Exporter

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Thanks. I took a brush myself and wiped the floor in front of a big mirror to get an idea how it is done. I think the biggest difficulty in getting the right feel is that I cannot see the brush in Blender when I animate. I had to do a few iterations and corrections, because I could see how the brush moved only after completing and exporting the animation into TDM.

 

This was the best I could do in a sane time scope. You would be surprised how the animation improved after each step when I grew accustomed what bones did what.

 

I have some ideas what to animate next, but let's see what I have time for. Again, the quality will probably be on this level, but... still it is probably better to have a crude animation for something than not have one at all.

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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This is so cool Sotha! One thing I noticed is that the legs look very stiff. Yeah I know you don't use your legs to use a broomstick but nevertheless they still look kinda oddly stiff. I think getting down on their hands and knees and scrubbing the stains with a brush (you use a broomstick to sweep at debris eg leaves) plus having a bucket with water in it beside them would look better for cleaning up stains. I swear I saw the AI do this in a TDS FM.

"I believe that what doesn't kill you simply makes you... stranger"

 

The Joker

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Pretty neat. I had this on my list of animations to get to....someday.

 

It's a very difficult animation to do, since you've got two hands to line up, and you have to line up the broom with the floor. You need to make sure the feet stay in one spot...they slide around during the animation, which spoils the illusion more than anything else.

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I have some ideas what to animate next ...

What would be really helpful is an praying animation for builders etc...

 

It does not neccessarily have to look like christian praying or so, maybe just look upwards and hold there hands on the sides or similar.

 

And yes, I agree: Better to have one that none. :smile:

FM's: Builder Roads, Old Habits, Old Habits Rebuild

Mapping and Scripting: Apples and Peaches

Sculptris Models and Tutorials: Obsttortes Models

My wiki articles: Obstipedia

Texture Blending in DR: DR ASE Blend Exporter

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We already have a reading animation. Sotha used it in the mission were you have to enter the citywatch to rescue your pale.

FM's: Builder Roads, Old Habits, Old Habits Rebuild

Mapping and Scripting: Apples and Peaches

Sculptris Models and Tutorials: Obsttortes Models

My wiki articles: Obstipedia

Texture Blending in DR: DR ASE Blend Exporter

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It's the little details like this, that really make The Dark Mod world so immersive.

I started playing Knighton Manor a few days ago and I really loved the funny stuff that the drunk lords were saying in the beginning of the level.

Thanks for your great contributions Sotha.

"You taffed Rosmary!?"

Hahaha!

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I have blender 2.61 with this import script:

http://www.katsbits.com/smforum/index.php?topic=358.0

 

After importing the AI model, I saved it as blender project and opened it with blender 2.63, which has this export script:

http://www.katsbits.com/tools/#md5

(The one corresponding to 2.63)

 

Works like a charm. I needed to make bogus materials for the AI mesh, though, before the exporter started to work.

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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I had some problems with exporters for Blender 2.6. Shadows would dissapear so I exported from old ver. 2.49 but your shadows seem to be fine. See post http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/14970-blender-rig-for-standard-male-npc/page__view__findpost__p__316249 I uploaded my Blender rig which you may find helpfull.

It's only a model...

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I need to get back in to learning Blender. I did an on line tutorial last year and managed to make a snowman. Hardly impressive. maybe once my WIP is out the door I'll get back to it.

 

Very nice work Sotha.

"I believe that what doesn't kill you simply makes you... stranger"

 

The Joker

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You just stick to the noob-to-pro tutorial and you'll get the hand of it. There are also good youtube videos on blender.

 

Anyhow: with Arcturus' rig, it is easier to animate.

 

Here is the next iteration of the floor sweep. Comments welcome.

(This is a real spoiler for people who have not played The Lich Queen's Demise.)

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_L4k3r4zjRc&feature=youtu.be

I bet you didn't expect you'd to see the Lich Queen swiping floors in front of you when you got up this morning... ;)

 

 

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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Definitely improving. I'd recommend keeping the head staring at the spot where they're sleeping, instead of it moving back and forth with the shoulders.

 

Might want to warn people who haven't played that mission yet (like me) that there's an actual spoiler in the spoiler tag...I just assumed it was to save screen space.

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Right hand is twisted too much and the elbow should be closer to the body. Also I think they should work a bit more with arms and turn the body a bit less. I heard that one should mow using the whole body but I think that's not necessary in case of sweeping. Also they put right leg forward but the weight stays on the left leg. I would put the weight more forward.

It's only a model...

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Definetely an improvement. But as already said by Springheel and Arcturus, there are some minor tweaks needed. It still doesn't look natural.

 

I think the aspects mentioned by the aforementioned can be summed up, that if someone is doing something he or she has done quite often, he will do it with a minimum effort of energy consumption. Referring to your animation, I guess this means there should be as less movement as possible to get the floor clean.

 

I would suggest the following:

  • arms close to the body, with a rather loose tension in the whole body, one does not need a lot of force to carry a brush
  • maybe slowly turning the upper body into the sweeping direction or even a bit forward sometimes, so they sweep as much space as possible
  • let the head look into the direction of the body most of the time, only move it a bit from time to time so it doesn't look too static
  • when moving the brush against the sweeping direction, it should be raised, now it just looks like the ai would move the dirt back and forth
  • don't know if it is part of the animation, but the ai shouldn't move several meters before continuing sweeping. Normally one would start in one part of a room and slowly continuing further
  • the sweeping should take place closer to the ai and the ai shouldn't lean forward that much

I hope this is constructive.

FM's: Builder Roads, Old Habits, Old Habits Rebuild

Mapping and Scripting: Apples and Peaches

Sculptris Models and Tutorials: Obsttortes Models

My wiki articles: Obstipedia

Texture Blending in DR: DR ASE Blend Exporter

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Sotha, ive been skimming over your threads as of late, you seem to know a fair bit about what your doing.

 

Im actually going into blender as a brand new modeler/animator currently with only youtube tutorials to accompany me (I have animated before in Source Filmmaker but it was nothing that could be applied to a game), and I have to say its sorta hard. I have been able to learn how to make some sorta crude models in it but nothing really good currently, so do you have any tips or good pieces of general advice? I know this isn't exactly a question related to The Dark Mod but once I learn im planning on including my work on animating and modeling in any fan missions that I do, as well as using it for other things.

 

Also, A idea for your animation. Perhaps you could edit the current animation to make it so that they cross their arms and kneel on one knee instead of both knees? Or maybe you could make that a seperate prayer animation.

 

Thanks!

Edited by MacD11
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There are, of course, more experienced modelers around here than me, but the OP here links to the stuff I've read to learn:

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/14900-tdm-building-with-blender/

 

I think Arcturus posted a TDM house build video in that thread. It was very educating. I also watched some medieval architecture build videos, you might find with googling.

 

Read the theory, watch the videos, and after that it is just practice. Every time you rebuild something, it gets better as seen in the thread I linked to. After few complete rebuilds your workflow will improve and you begin to get things done in a single go.

 

Once you learn to make a boxy wall section effectively, it might be a good idea to build something different, like a spherical or organic object, so that your skill base widens. Give yourself time and patience to learn UV unwrapping, because that is the most difficult part of modeling and it requires you to be able to think in a new way, ie how to cut a sheet of paper you wrap onto the 3d mesh.

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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I know this may sound ill-bred but can you please make some nice conversation animations? :o

 

I tried the ones in 1.08 and they were only a slight hand move, hardly noticeable. Since the development freeze happened there's no need to hurry making them but I think they are easier for the start that full body / object interactive animations. They could be applied to later released missions for 2.0 (as md5anim files I guess) if needed.

 

This doesn't mean that I don't like the idea of sweeping and praying animations though ;)

"Einen giftigen Trank aus Kräutern und Wurzeln für die närrischen Städter wollen wir brauen." - Text aus einem verlassenen Heidenlager

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here is the floor brooming newest version. I think I'm getting there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCxpJNWhHq4&feature=youtu.be

 

Note that there is tdm_brush01 sound played upon each wipe, but the sound is so silent, you can barely hear it. Is there a reason for this sound to be so quiet? I saw it was accompanied by multiple animations, but I have never realized there is a sound that occurs during the anims.

 

I know it is somehow possible to spawn particles in an animation. Could it be possible to spawn some dust particles from the broom origin during the swipes?

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Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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