I need more help about animation and bones.

As some of you may have known I am new at this, and I want to make fully animated mdl models for WC. This would include: modelling, texturing, and ofcourse animating.

I've got the first 2 covered. It's the animating that's a bit hard to nail. The thing is, I am such a noob at animating 3D models that I manage to crash milkshape again and again for ... whatever. Anyway, on to the topic:

I know that there are animation transfering tools ready. I have deducted that Blizzard must have made their models with the same set of bones and attachment points or else such transfers would not work.

My question is, if the model is made from scratch, how do I add the bones so that it would correspond to Blizzard's? I am guessing Magos' Model Editor is the best way to add such bones and naming them because it has a neat function to add bones and attachment points, etc. But I can't "copy" and then "paste" bones from a Bliz mdl to my own model, so how do I do this?

I hope that was all clear. I really am quite slow at this but I hope that once I understand I will go *lightbulb* and then go on to make dozens of models for you guys :D

Well, you can't.

Oink's AnimTransfer operates on 'helpers', not 'bones'. Most Blizzard skeletons are built from helpers; each with a dummy bone to which the geometry is actually attached.

I suppose you could assemble your skeleton, and with some naming convention, distinguish between your 'bones' and your 'helpers'; and then convert the appropriately named parts into helpers via find-and-replace.

*sigh* See this is what I was referring to as my n00bish-ness. I don't really understand that. And I know you wrote it so well already... T_T

Does this mean:
I am to make the skeleton first, then duplicate it and make this second thing "helpers", then convert these "helpers bones" into real helpers?

But which helper is which? I mean, I could probably guess the ones named "hand" and "weapon", but what about "Hero1" or "Mesh1", etc. What are those?

See, it all depends on what model you're looking to theive from; Blizzard are horribly inconsistent.

Begin by examining your target model: is its main skeletal structure composed of bones and helpers, or just bones? (If bones: score. If not, argh.) Are the nodes named in a convinient way? (If yes: huzzah. If no: give up, choose a different model.)

And so on.

So choose your target model, and I'll talk you through prepping your own for using it.

OK lets try it with my model the Turtle, using the Fire Panda (which I based the model on anyway) .

I have both as mdl files already, the Turtle is also in MS3D, and I believe I have ll the necessary programs.

Units\Creeps\FirePandarenBrewmaster\FirePandarenBrewmaster.mdx, mm-hm?

Disclaimer: I can't promise you this will work, but the chances of success are reasonable.

Programs: Milkshape 3D, Notepad, MDL/X converter/viewer/etc of your choice.

Create the skeleton thus in Milkshape, and rig as necessary:


Symmetry is your friend!

Note that the Bone_Leg1..s are helpers with no immediately-riggable children, so these may well cock up when you rig to them. One would hope not, but you never can tell.

Once you have this rigged up and ready to go, export to MDL. Since the Oinkertools will not oblige us for bones, this will have to be done manually.

Now you must manually copy all animation data from the appropriate node in the Fire Panda to its counterpart on your own model. When I say "all animation data", I mean complete segments concerning Translation, Rotation and Scaling (be very careful -- forgetting a single bracket or comma here will poop your party).

That's to say:


Having done that, you'll also want to steal the Fire panda's "Sequences" section, overwrite whatever default area you have.


Again, be careful of missing brackets and commas.

And all that should get you a working model with the right animations. If you're not sure about anything, get right back here; making an error somewhere up there and not finding out about it until the end will ruin everyone's fun.

Points to note: your skeleton will not have precisely the same proportions as the original, so some sequences may appear 'buggy'; there is little you can do about this, and it's why I almost never anim transfer.

This is done where? In the Model Editor or in notepad?

Also: seeing the file in ModelEditor's node manager, it gives me a weird tree on which the Bone_Chest is found. Like, there's a Box06 under it. And there's a Mesh12 under Arm1_R.

And I can't find "Bone_Chest" in notepad...

Notepad.

The target model:

Your just-exported model:

Stealing animation data from them via copy 'n' paste:

Ah I didn't see you reply. Well, see my edit, because what I'm finding in Notepad is

Bone "Bone_Root" {
ObjectId 7,
GeosetId 0,
GeosetAnimId None,
Translation 63 {
Hermite,

I don't have a BoneRoot, but there is a bone root on FirePandaren if I see the Node Manager..

Well, you should have made a bone_root. You could just paste one straight in the MDL and parent you pelvis/etc as appropriate; I don't think anyone ever attaches any geometry to a root bone.

Oh, and all the strangely-named bones floating around are for, I assume, the panda's robes. You won't need them at all. And there most definitely is a bone called Bone_Chest in there...