I've only learned how to animate things with bones as of this morning, and while there's still obviously a lot to learn, google hasn't turned up much in the way of creating custom animations for SC2. Basically I just want a thread on general things to consider for making dedicated SC2 animations.
Also, on a more specific note, say I'm creating animations for an entirely new unit. I understand animations can be exported via the M3 Exporter, however what I'm uncertain about is exactly how these animations are supposed to be applied to a unit in the game itself - in other words, how does SC2 determine which animations are the ones for idle, attacking, moving, etc. I don't want to end up wasting a bunch of time cranking out a bunch of animation keys only to find out that there was some important detail I was unaware of.
part of the m3 export plugin is sequences.
here you create new sequences (animations). you set a start frame and an end frame and a few other options like looping etc.
all your animations should be applied to skinned bones and all on the same track. you should separate animations by about 3-5 frames.
sequences must have certain names. obvious ones like Stand and Walk.
for a list of these it's easiest to just look at actor events and you can see all the words it accepts as sequences. note im pretty sure you can't do many multi-word sequences. i was able to get Stand Fly and Walk Fly to work. but some units i had many animations and i tried using combinations like A B
or A 1 and A 2. these unfortunately did not work.
i just vomited most of the info i know. probably makes little sense. gl.
I'm not seeing any function for designating sequences anywhere in Max or the M3 Plugin. Also, what if the unit I'm creating has potentially more total animation time than the time track allows? Or can you expand the time track?
Go to Untilites->Max Script, and select a m3-sequence there.
There u'll need to press add, then close and run m3-sequences again to see the animation u added in the list. Then u can set start and end frames. You need to have animation keys at start and end frames of your choosen animation. Also, don't include 0 and 1 frames, they are preserved for something. And I recommend to assume, thet 1 sec of animation is 1000 frames.
you can increase the time track yes
as in the above post. sc2 animations run at 1000fps. so likely you'll need to go into 30,000+ frames for any model with more than 10 animations
I dont know about that, i mean our human eye cant see speeds past 60 fps. Not to mention 1000 fps and say if what you said was true, then what about the zealots attack animation witch has like 100 frames or something around there? with 1000 fps nothing would happen. Starcraft 2 runs at 60 fps max and 1 fps min depending on your graphics card, but the models animation speed is 60 fps which can be modified via actors
Sorry to (sort of) necro this thread, but I've been gone for a while and there's a bit of a problem with the m3 plugin; there's no "M3 Sequences" utility showing up in the Utilities dropdown menu.
I've run all the M3 scripts, but for whatever reason the Sequences is entirely absent. Is this some kind of known bug with certain versions of Max, or am I just doing something wrong?
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Hi,
I've only learned how to animate things with bones as of this morning, and while there's still obviously a lot to learn, google hasn't turned up much in the way of creating custom animations for SC2. Basically I just want a thread on general things to consider for making dedicated SC2 animations.
Also, on a more specific note, say I'm creating animations for an entirely new unit. I understand animations can be exported via the M3 Exporter, however what I'm uncertain about is exactly how these animations are supposed to be applied to a unit in the game itself - in other words, how does SC2 determine which animations are the ones for idle, attacking, moving, etc. I don't want to end up wasting a bunch of time cranking out a bunch of animation keys only to find out that there was some important detail I was unaware of.
Thanks in advance
part of the m3 export plugin is sequences.
here you create new sequences (animations). you set a start frame and an end frame and a few other options like looping etc.
all your animations should be applied to skinned bones and all on the same track. you should separate animations by about 3-5 frames.
sequences must have certain names. obvious ones like Stand and Walk.
for a list of these it's easiest to just look at actor events and you can see all the words it accepts as sequences. note im pretty sure you can't do many multi-word sequences. i was able to get Stand Fly and Walk Fly to work. but some units i had many animations and i tried using combinations like A B
or A 1 and A 2. these unfortunately did not work.
i just vomited most of the info i know. probably makes little sense. gl.
I'm not seeing any function for designating sequences anywhere in Max or the M3 Plugin. Also, what if the unit I'm creating has potentially more total animation time than the time track allows? Or can you expand the time track?
@Henskelion: Go
Go to Untilites->Max Script, and select a m3-sequence there.
There u'll need to press add, then close and run m3-sequences again to see the animation u added in the list. Then u can set start and end frames. You need to have animation keys at start and end frames of your choosen animation. Also, don't include 0 and 1 frames, they are preserved for something. And I recommend to assume, thet 1 sec of animation is 1000 frames.
@Henskelion:
you can increase the time track yes
as in the above post. sc2 animations run at 1000fps. so likely you'll need to go into 30,000+ frames for any model with more than 10 animations
@maverck: Go
I dont know about that, i mean our human eye cant see speeds past 60 fps. Not to mention 1000 fps and say if what you said was true, then what about the zealots attack animation witch has like 100 frames or something around there? with 1000 fps nothing would happen. Starcraft 2 runs at 60 fps max and 1 fps min depending on your graphics card, but the models animation speed is 60 fps which can be modified via actors
Sorry to (sort of) necro this thread, but I've been gone for a while and there's a bit of a problem with the m3 plugin; there's no "M3 Sequences" utility showing up in the Utilities dropdown menu.
I've run all the M3 scripts, but for whatever reason the Sequences is entirely absent. Is this some kind of known bug with certain versions of Max, or am I just doing something wrong?