MS3D Exporter

Instructions

• Model, UV map, and rig your model.
  
• Run zero joints. This must be after your skeleton is made but before you animate. If you run this after you animate, it will ruin your animation.
  
• Animate. Just make one sequence (as in stand, walk, attack, whatever) after another with some space between. If a bone is animated during a sequence, make sure that bone has a frame on the first and last frame of that sequuence.
  
• Define sequences in the comment of your model. (As in under the 'Comment' button of the model tab.) The format is "Animation name, first frame-last frame[, looping/nonlooping]"
  Example sequences:
  • Stand,1-30
  • Attack,45-70,nonlooping
  • Walk,90-120,looping
  'Looping' means that when the animation is played in-game, it will continue to run until the unit is told to do something else. Walk, stand do that, for example.
  
• Define materials for your model. This is done by editing the comment section of a material. Types are set by having one of the following words on a line:
  • Teamcolor - Make black alpha channel into team color
  • Glow - Hero glow
  • Transparent - Make black alpha channel area invisible
  • If you don't have one of those, it will just be a default material.
  The path is set by putting "Path:Textures\whatever.blp". This is where the texture should be imported.
• Geosetanims - Done by putting comments on groups.
  Example line:
  Hidden: Stand, Walk before 30, Death after 80
  The animation names are caSe-sEnsiTIve.
• You can make a bone use linear interpolation by adding "Linear" to its comment.
  

Stickied for incredible usefulness and quality.

hey, your importers are really helpful but ive run into a problem. i just dled the latest exporter you released and the animations for my model got all messed up. this is what my walk animation looks like now.

any idea of how to fix it?

You have to run the Zero Joints plugin first and not be in animation mode when you export. If you did both of those things right, then post your MS3D and I'll look more carefully.

well i just ran the zero joints plug in and i have animation turned off but the animations are still getting messed up, but not as bad as before. here is the model ive been trying to animate. thanks for all your help.

You kind of have to run zero joints before you animate, unfortunately. Right now, it looks the same in Milkshape as in Warcraft.

Another thing I noticed missing was your sequence. Change the comment on your model to read "Stand, 1-95" or whatever.

i re-animated the body and followed the steps you posted and the model runs prefectly. thanks again for your help and making a kick ass exporter!!!

Yay.

I'm having a problem with my "Stand - 2" animation. I'm trying to get my model to do a back flip, but when he does it he shoots like a bullet all over the place rather then going up and then coming down. The animation looks fine in milkshape and WC3 viewer, but in Magos' editor and WE it goes crazy.

ruki.zip

Try using Linear interpolation on all the bones. (Add "Linear" to bone comment).

It worked! Afteer I updated the exporter that is. :-P Thank Rao!

Did you guys post this to the milkshape board yet so they can list it as an official plugin?:D

I dont mean to be an ass, but shouldnt this be in modeling/animation?

No, because even with the new exporter, to get the best results while Milkshaping you need quite a bit of MDL editing.

And this is my forum, and I'm apparently the resident MS3D expert, so, uh, it's best if it's here.

ok :)