Jump to content
The Dark Mod Forums

Solis' (new) Thread


Springheel

Recommended Posts

Oh good, at least I finally made progress on it :D

 

Here's a new version with the body raised just a bit above the half-way mark between the previous two versions. It should match up fairly well now and I can tweak it again if need be since I have the process down finally and it only take 5 minutes to edit and export it:

 

http://www.geocities.com/canisinvicti/solis_walk4-fixed.zip

 

Unfortunately I'm having problems running the mod, it crashes when I try to start it. I think it's because my Doom 3 is apparantly only version 1.0.0.1 and the mod most likely depends on 1.3 features. I might have to...uhh...acquire the discs again so that I can do a fresh install since the one I have no I had just copied over from my old computer without installing it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 115
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

Posted Images

Can't you patch it without reinstalling?

My games | Public Service Announcement: TDM is not set in the Thief universe. The city in which it takes place is not the City from Thief. The player character is not called Garrett. Any person who contradicts these facts will be subjected to disapproving stares.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think it's because my Doom 3 is apparantly only version 1.0.0.1 and the mod most likely depends on 1.3 features.

 

Yep, it does.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can't you patch it without reinstalling?

Nope, the patcher refuses to err, patch, unless it detects the game is installed. I might be able to add the registry keys manually or something, but I should probably just do a fresh install of the game anyway. Strangely enough, I also had Resurrection of Evil installed which automatically patches Doom 3 to 1.2 (or was it 1.3?), but the executable is still showing up as 1.0.0.1, so...yeah, I probably shouldn't just wait until the game implodes on itself.

 

But I'll just do that on the side while I make these animations, I can use the model viewer to look at the finished .md5anim files so getting the mod to work isn't a neccessity right now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It should match up fairly well now and I can tweak it again if need be since I have the process down finally and it only take 5 minutes to edit and export it:

 

This one's pretty close. The left foot is on the ground but the right one hovers just a bit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

OK, been a while, but here's an update. I've been working on the animations on and off, although I haven't gotten around to them as much as I was planning. They're still being tweaked a bit since I'm not entirely happy with how the walk cycles look, but it's good enough to put in the mod.

 

However I'm having a weird issue when I import them to Maya (am I cursed or something?). No matter what settings I use, the skeleton seems to move in some weird ways while the joints (the round wireframe balls) look like they're in the right places. I tried both the FBXimport files and the other MBs I had of the citywatch, but it seems to have that problem on all of them. So I'm not even sure if it looks right in the game, here's the md5anim of the blind walking if someone wants to check, and if needed we can figure out a way to fix it along the way:

 

http://www.geocities.com/canisinvicti/blind.zip

 

Otherwise, you can take a look at how they currently look in these AVIs that were rendered from Motionbuilder and make any suggestions you like. But yes I know the waist movements look a little stiff right now.

 

http://www.geocities.com/canisinvicti/Solis-anims.zip

Link to comment
Share on other sites

However I'm having a weird issue when I import them to Maya (am I cursed or something?). No matter what settings I use, the skeleton seems to move in some weird ways while the joints (the round wireframe balls) look like they're in the right places. I tried both the FBXimport files and the other MBs I had of the citywatch, but it seems to have that problem on all of them. So I'm not even sure if it looks right in the game, here's the md5anim of the blind walking if someone wants to check, and if needed we can figure out a way to fix it along the way
All I get is the origin moving that results in a sliding t-pose (supposed to be walking forward but the model just slides forward). The animation looks great in the movies you posted. I could help resolve the import issues if you could post the fbx file.

 

Otherwise, you can take a look at how they currently look in these AVIs that were rendered from Motionbuilder and make any suggestions you like. But yes I know the waist movements look a little stiff right now.
I know they're rough but the one that bugs me is the cautious walk. The arms should move in the opposite direction of the legs (when the right leg moves forward then the right arm moves backwards). Right now the arms go in the same direction.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like them, especially the startled one, but I'm not sure exactly what they all are. Cautiouswalk I'm guessing is a search animation (since we want more than one), but--what is waistflinch? Is that a pain animation? It looks a little like he's about to throw up. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmm, ok, guess it did have problems converting then. Here's the fbx of the surprise animation, if you can figure out what's wrong with it and how to get it properly converted I'll start compiling the md5anims for the other animations.

 

 

 

I know they're rough but the one that bugs me is the cautious walk. The arms should move in the opposite direction of the legs (when the right leg moves forward then the right arm moves backwards). Right now the arms go in the same direction.

You know, I debated the arm movement and ended up changing it a few times before doing it that way. I think I might end up changing it back for the final version, I'll have to see how it looks when it's all said and done. The file is actually a RAR archive btw, had to rename it to .zip since it wouldn't let me put it on geocities unless if I changed the extension to that.

 

http://www.geocities.com/canisinvicti/surprisebig2.zip

 

I like them, especially the startled one, but I'm not sure exactly what they all are. Cautiouswalk I'm guessing is a search animation (since we want more than one), but--what is waistflinch? Is that a pain animation? It looks a little like he's about to throw up. :)

Yeah, cautiouswalk is the walking forward while alert, and waistflinch is the pain-torso one. Originally he was grabbing a bit lower at the waist, but then his arm went through the sword hilt so right now it looks like he grabs his stomach more. Not sure how noticable it would be in the game though, I'm assuming that animation would play when you do something like shoot them in the midsection with an arrow, so it should look OK in those situations. I'd have to see how it's used in the game though to see if I need to change it.

 

Oh, and how noticable is the right foot of the zombie walk being lifted off the ground? Is it something really obvious or is it just a minor thing that almost noone would catch? I'd have to do some work on it to get it to look right since I'd have to go back and reposition the leg bone on every keyframe and then reconvert it, so if it would be better to just work on other character animations I can do that instead.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmm, ok, guess it did have problems converting then. Here's the fbx of the surprise animation, if you can figure out what's wrong with it and how to get it properly converted I'll start compiling the md5anims for the other animations.

You know, I debated the arm movement and ended up changing it a few times before doing it that way. I think I might end up changing it back for the final version, I'll have to see how it looks when it's all said and done. The file is actually a RAR archive btw, had to rename it to .zip since it wouldn't let me put it on geocities unless if I changed the extension to that.

Success! You need to "Plot All (All Properties)..." in the animation menu in motion builder. Now it's successfully converted to Maya :) (It was a wild guess & I guessed right)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, and how noticable is the right foot of the zombie walk being lifted off the ground? Is it something really obvious or is it just a minor thing that almost noone would catch? I'd have to do some work on it to get it to look right since I'd have to go back and reposition the leg bone on every keyframe and then reconvert it, so if it would be better to just work on other character animations I can do that instead.

 

In the grand scheme of things it's a very low priority issue. I only mentioned it because you said you could make tweaks in 5 minutes. :)

 

Fixing issues like that can wait until we've got the other, more important animations finished (especially since the zombie animations are limited to zombies only).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Success! You need to "Plot All (All Properties)..." in the animation menu in motion builder. Now it's successfully converted to Maya :) (It was a wild guess & I guessed right)

Ahh excellent, glad it was something simple for once. Thanks for the help, I'll start converting the models after I tweak them over the next couple days.

 

In the grand scheme of things it's a very low priority issue. I only mentioned it because you said you could make tweaks in 5 minutes. :)

 

Fixing issues like that can wait until we've got the other, more important animations finished (especially since the zombie animations are limited to zombies only).

Oh ok, no problem. It would take a while longer to modify individual limbs since they have a large number of keyframes, just raising and lowering the whole model was what I was refering to when I mentioned the 5 minute tweak thing. I'll keep in in mind if I have some extra time and don't have any other models to work on...but that probably won't be for a while ^_^

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Gah, I'm horrible with dates and remembering stuff. Well anyway, here's the 4 animations I did in MD5anim format. They converted perfectly, once I did the "plot all" things it converted to MB and then to MD5 without a hitch. I also tweaked the motions a bit:

 

http://www.geocities.com/canisinvicti/city...-anim-4pack.zip

 

Baring any issues with these, what animations should I work on next?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry Solis, we'll need the source maya binaries :blush: The rigging isn't consistent between AI & the latest citywatch had a rigging upgrade so these animations won't work anymore. That's one thing about maya rigging is sometimes a joint that wasn't intended to be rigged gets included in the md5mesh/anim. I'm getting better with rigging but sometimes it's hard to tell what's rigged or not so the def file options are constantly changing according to what d3 is keeping.

 

Another thing is we want to share animations between characters. We can't use the same md5anim for other characters due to scalings & such. We can have the same source maya binary so we can scale animations/meshes accordingly.

 

In short, we do need the maya binaries or the fbx files.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Arg, it's always something. I thought the advantage of the new models was that their rigging systems were the same as the ones used on the in-game models?

 

Ahh well, here's the MB files of the animations, not sure what you need to do with them but if it's just a def file change maybe you could update the def file as you need to and we can compile the md5anims directly.

 

http://www.geocities.com/canisinvicti/animation_MBs.zip

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Arg, it's always something. I thought the advantage of the new models was that their rigging systems were the same as the ones used on the in-game models?

 

Ahh well, here's the MB files of the animations, not sure what you need to do with them but if it's just a def file change maybe you could update the def file as you need to and we can compile the md5anims directly.

Weird, the link in the forum doesn't work but copy & paste does :wacko:

 

Yeah, we'll need to have the source MBs due to the varying sizes of AI & the inconsistent rigging. It's hard to get them consistent because a joint could have an unintentional weight of 0.05 (d3's minimum) & wouldn't be able to spot it in maya.

 

I'll get these in game by tomorrow night. Thanks, Solis B)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

To be honest, I'm not really sure what the best way is to divy these up. I never expected to have five people working on them at once. We're actually almost done going through the ones I set as "necessary" (at least applying them to the citywatch) and have even started on some of the "desirable" ones.

 

I'm happy to hear some suggestions about what would be good for you guys.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hmm, any secondary/less important animations to do then? Maybe some of the longer or more complex things that you wouldn't see very often? Otherwise from the list it looks like some of them need a "with object in hand" version of the animations, which I could apply to the ones I've done (although most of mine already take into account that the character would be holding a sword in their right hand during the animation).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok, how about the following run animations:

 

Run forward, defensive (weapon out, arm up to protect face from arrows)

 

This is for combattants that are being shot at by the player. They raise their left arm in front of their face to shield it from any arrow shots as they run.

 

 

Run away, male/female (panic, no weapon--help meeee!)

 

This is far civilians who are scared, or for anyone who is panicking because they are hurt. Their weapons have been dropped and they are running for their lives.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not those ones yet, but some. Anything with a star beside it has been done (and possibly more, I haven't had time to check lately).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

OK, it's been a while since I've checked in, so here's a small update. Yes, I am still alive, and yes I have been working on the animations assigned to me from time to time (although I'll admit I've been procrastinating a bit between this and college stuff). The shrug, conversation, and death movements are pretty much done and just need polish. I'm working on the running animations, but so far I haven't managed to make any that look convincing. I tried a new method where I animated it in "slow motion" (basically just doubled what the final framerate would be so that I could compress the details down) and then would speed it up later, but it ended up not looking very good. For my next attempt I'll just look at the clip from the last Matrix movie where it shows Neo running from the side in slow motion and just use that as a reference for the animation and tweak it as I need.

 

Anyway, here's the AVIs of the 3 animations that are mostly done:

 

http://www.geocities.com/canisinvicti/chat1.avi

http://www.geocities.com/canisinvicti/death1.avi

http://www.geocities.com/canisinvicti/shrug1.avi

 

One thing that I'd like to fix is the movements of the feet on the ground in the death scene. Maybe ascottk can answer this: how do you disable the "ground connection" for the feet joints so that it doesn't automatically try to align the bottom of the boots with the ground? For some reason, it raises the foot way too high when I rotate it, so as you can see it's seems to raise as he falls down and it happens very ridgedly instead of smoothly (and it won't let the toes extend to the ground like I wanted it to). Is there a way to turn that feature off on the feet easily?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


  • Recent Status Updates

    • Petike the Taffer

      I've finally managed to log in to The Dark Mod Wiki. I'm back in the saddle and before the holidays start in full, I'll be adding a few new FM articles and doing other updates. Written in Stone is already done.
      · 4 replies
    • nbohr1more

      TDM 15th Anniversary Contest is now active! Please declare your participation: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22413-the-dark-mod-15th-anniversary-contest-entry-thread/
       
      · 0 replies
    • JackFarmer

      @TheUnbeholden
      You cannot receive PMs. Could you please be so kind and check your mailbox if it is full (or maybe you switched off the function)?
      · 1 reply
    • OrbWeaver

      I like the new frob highlight but it would nice if it was less "flickery" while moving over objects (especially barred metal doors).
      · 4 replies
    • nbohr1more

      Please vote in the 15th Anniversary Contest Theme Poll
       
      · 0 replies
×
×
  • Create New...