3ds Max/Maya Animation Support for ArmA 3?

[dealman 21]

So I'm new to the Modding Community for ArmA and have been trying to get one of my weapons into ArmA, however I'm having trouble with the animations. I can only find one tutorial about weapons and that's Booce's Tutorial.

And from what I can tell, all animations have to be done in Oxygen - including the hand positioning. Now I'm new to Oxygen so it might seem a bit unfair for me to say this but I find Oxygen to be absolutely horrific to make animations with. I have to use Wireframe Mode to move/rotate anything or the program practically freezes if I use 3D, even more so with 2 viewports active. It is so unnecessarily hard and complex to make good animations with Oxygen. Probably the very reason why animations in ArmA 2 in most cases, looked very awkward.

Which brings me to my question:

Will there perhaps be native support for 3ds Max/Maya Animations in the future for the Modding Community? For example Autodesk's .FBX could be used to export the Model and Animations, seeing as FBX is a very widely used and absolutely amazing format.

Being able to animate in 3ds Max/Maya would be a huge step for modders since it offers a much nicer environment for animating. Be it character animations or weapon animations - it will be much more accurate and much smoother!

I do understand that Oxygen would most likely have to be used to create all the different LODs unless a nifty plugin was made for 3ds Max. Which shouldn't be impossible since 3ds Max supports Max Script for custom-made plugins.

[Sealife 22]

isnt all this documented in the example pack ,including an fbx example and export info ?

[dealman 21]

The Example Packs does not have any documentation, at least not that I can see. I can't see any FBX Example either :(

[saltatormortis 12]

hmm? in my version are 3 fbx inside.

but we need anoutput after it in .rtm

maybe you ask smokie he had used maja for his animation pack before he was hired by BI

there was another tut with another software for animating too dont remind where i have found it

[Sealife 22]

there are .fbx files and also informations here

http://community.bistudio.com/wiki/Arma_3_Modding_Characters

[dealman 21]

Oh my, hadn't seen that page 'till now - thank you! Time to do some homework (:

[Vespa 1]

You can't animate anything with that though. Your best bet is to use some handanim existing in Alpha - pick one:

handAnim[]={"OFP2_ManSkeleton","\A3\Weapons_F\LongRangeRifles\EBR\Data\Anim\ebr.rtm"};
handAnim[]={"OFP2_ManSkeleton","\A3\Weapons_F\Rifles\Khaybar\data\anim\khaybar.rtm"};
handAnim[]={"OFP2_ManSkeleton","\A3\Weapons_F\Rifles\Khaybar\data\anim\khaybar_gl.rtm"};
handAnim[] = {"OFP2_ManSkeleton", "\A3\Weapons_F\Rifles\MX\data\Anim\mx.rtm"};
handAnim[] = {"OFP2_ManSkeleton", "\A3\Weapons_F\Rifles\MX\data\Anim\MX_cqc.rtm"};
handAnim[] = {"OFP2_ManSkeleton", "\A3\Weapons_F\Rifles\MX\data\Anim\MX_afg.rtm"};
handAnim[] = {"OFP2_ManSkeleton", "\A3\Weapons_F\Rifles\MX\data\Anim\MX_gl.rtm"};
handAnim[] = {"OFP2_ManSkeleton", "\A3\Weapons_F\Rifles\MX\data\Anim\MX_dmr.rtm"};
handAnim[]={"OFP2_ManSkeleton","\A3\weapons_f\Rifles\SDAR\data\Anim\SDAR.rtm"};
handAnim[]={"OFP2_ManSkeleton","\A3\Weapons_F\Rifles\TRG20\Data\Anim\TRG_21.rtm"};
handAnim[]={"OFP2_ManSkeleton","\A3\Weapons_F\Rifles\TRG20\Data\Anim\TRG_21G.rtm"};

etc.

Just wait, more tools and tutorials are coming, it just takes time. Or suffer the horror of O2 :)

[sauer 10]

I´m used to Cryengine SDK, and was hoping to import some of my complex buildings/towns, but after 20min I had enough of O2 he he.

Good news if there are improved tools coming :cool:

[Sealife 22]

You can't animate anything with that though. Your best bet is to use some handanim existing in Alpha - pick one:

etc.

Just wait, more tools and tutorials are coming, it just takes time. Or suffer the horror of O2 :)

or start simple with something like a killer whale ;)

6rs4elBX3fw

[icewindo 29]

You can't animate anything with that though. Your best bet is to use some handanim existing in Alpha - pick one:

etc.

Just wait, more tools and tutorials are coming, it just takes time. Or suffer the horror of O2 :)

Sounds good, is there a realistic chance we'll see a rigged character / skeleton? I'd start a crash course on a mobo 30 day trial any day then :). No more editing frame-by-frame in O2 (I did it lol) or ofpanim, that'd be quite an upgrade.

@Thromp

Looks sick dude :)

[SpaceNavy 16]

Could you possibly tease us with anything about the new/updated tools Vespa? :3

[chortles 263]

I'd be more interested in seeing *ahem* Blender support... :D but thanks for the explanation re: existing animations Vespa!

[shinkicker 5]

Any news on a rigged skeleton?

[shinkicker 5]

You can't animate anything with that though. Your best bet is to use some handanim existing in Alpha - pick one:

handAnim[]={"OFP2_ManSkeleton","\A3\Weapons_F\LongRangeRifles\EBR\Data\Anim\ebr.rtm"};
handAnim[]={"OFP2_ManSkeleton","\A3\Weapons_F\Rifles\Khaybar\data\anim\khaybar.rtm"};
handAnim[]={"OFP2_ManSkeleton","\A3\Weapons_F\Rifles\Khaybar\data\anim\khaybar_gl.rtm"};
handAnim[] = {"OFP2_ManSkeleton", "\A3\Weapons_F\Rifles\MX\data\Anim\mx.rtm"};
handAnim[] = {"OFP2_ManSkeleton", "\A3\Weapons_F\Rifles\MX\data\Anim\MX_cqc.rtm"};
handAnim[] = {"OFP2_ManSkeleton", "\A3\Weapons_F\Rifles\MX\data\Anim\MX_afg.rtm"};
handAnim[] = {"OFP2_ManSkeleton", "\A3\Weapons_F\Rifles\MX\data\Anim\MX_gl.rtm"};
handAnim[] = {"OFP2_ManSkeleton", "\A3\Weapons_F\Rifles\MX\data\Anim\MX_dmr.rtm"};
handAnim[]={"OFP2_ManSkeleton","\A3\weapons_f\Rifles\SDAR\data\Anim\SDAR.rtm"};
handAnim[]={"OFP2_ManSkeleton","\A3\Weapons_F\Rifles\TRG20\Data\Anim\TRG_21.rtm"};
handAnim[]={"OFP2_ManSkeleton","\A3\Weapons_F\Rifles\TRG20\Data\Anim\TRG_21G.rtm"};

etc.

Just wait, more tools and tutorials are coming, it just takes time. Or suffer the horror of O2 :)

So almost a year later and still no skeleton is available and little to no documentation on animation support. Any eta known at all? Or should I come back next year :)

[PuFu 4597]

the samples provided by bis in fbx format are already rigged. last a3 includes fbx2rtm via motion builder to o2. also there is short description on the biki.

but as always, there is no proper doc, neither is s straighforward workflow.

[shinkicker 5]

the samples provided by bis in fbx format are already rigged. last a3 includes fbx2rtm via motion builder to o2. also there is short description on the biki.

but as always, there is no proper doc, neither is s straighforward workflow.

I should be more descriptive, the problem I currently have is that I am not working with the arma man skeleton, so the rigged models are not so much use to me. I have a mesh with a new skeleton, rigged and animated in max, that I want to get into game.

And the fbx2rtm is again only useful for arma man bones.

What I would really love to know how to do would be use the FBX import and have it bring my mesh, weights and animations into game without warping the mesh out.

I have tried a few different ways now. 3ds renames all the bones as $$$DUMMY. The P3D ('VM') max export script only outputs the skin weights, not the animation.

There might be a way of doing it, but it just seems wrong that you have to try and second guess and go through everything that does not work first.

I don't get why BI don't share there workflows with us. Its not like we can use them in another engine and breach a EULA.