Custom Animation makes player mode sink

[shinkicker 5]

Hello All,

I am trying to get my own custom made anims in game. I made some good progress with the help of Thromp / Sealife, but now I am stuck.

For now I am keeping it really simple with a head nodding, arm waving model.

My animation works in game, but the only thing is that the player model sinks halfway into the ground.

Here is my work flow..

1. Load BISkeleton.P3D into the game.

2. Set Points > Transform 3D > Show Local Axis 'on'

3. Create a '-0.500000' starting point.

4. Create the next time frame. '0.000000'

5. Animate my the skeleton into a starting position in the timeframe above.

6. I then start to use rotate to move around the limbs (never beyond a natural limit), creating a new frame each time.

7. I finish the animation at '1.000000'

This is the result:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/caehkhol8kx8lsd/Arma3%202013-08-23%2023-29-30-57-1.mp4

I have also tried 'Auto Time'. Lifting the skeleton above the ground level line in oxygen, everything I can think of.

I have also confirmed that its not likely to be my config.cpp / model.cfg, as when I set my 'file=<file.rtm> path to a different anim (not made by me), it works with no issues!

I have been trying to resolve this for a few days now, but I am beat!

Any help would be great!

[shinkicker 5]

Sussed it out with help from Bad Benson, i needed to zero the root bone.

[da12thMonkey 1943]

What did you use as the root bone? "Spine"?

[PattyRevere 10]

Sussed it out with help from Bad Benson, i needed to zero the root bone.

Would you be so kind to elaborate on that as in what you mean (What function did you use) by "zero" the root bone and, as da12thMonkey also likes to know, are you talking about the spine bone/selection?

I am seeing a similar behaviour on a custom animation that i did.

Thank you.

[da12thMonkey 1943]

When you save your animation as a .rtm via the Export Matrices function (shows when you right-click they keyrame animation panel in O2) it will come up with a window asking you to "Select Animation Center" and give you a list of selections (bones) in the model. AFAIK selecting one of these bones makes is the 'zero' reference point for the animation matrix.

At least I think that's what Bad Benson and Shinkicker mean, but maybe there is more to it.

[bad benson 1733]

i just randomly stumbled upon this thread. eventually shinkicker used maya and not o2 at all i think. all i told him was to set a key for the root bone which is a separate handle in maya. i'm not sure if there is an equivalent in o2 but generally lifting up the whole skeleton so the feet are at the level of the origin (where the grid axis meet) should work. the male skeleton example model is "in the ground" by default i think. this means that the pelvis bone is about at the height of the origin.

the animation center thing could help too but when i opened anims i made in maya inside o2 the character was always lifted up, so i think that's the general fix.

short answer: the grid origin is the ground level. make sure your character has his feet there.

EDIT: so to elaborate on the term "root bone". it's basically a spline object in maya which is part of the rig which has all the body bones as childs to it in the hierarchy. so moving it will move everything. but in o2, i think, you can just select everything and move it. in other 3d apps generally selecting all bones and simple moving them can create some crazy behavior. that's why you need that global controller aka "root bone" in maya. so it's not actually a bone but a controller for bones.

this is just my self taught knowledge though. keep in mind that i'm not a real animator. i just learned this stuff for arma and made some experiments in UDK using CAT. so take my info with caution ;)

Edited August 27, 2013 by Bad Benson

[shinkicker 5]

Sorry for late reply (bank holiday weekend).

Bad Benson has already outlined this quite well, in the end I found the lifting the whole skeleton so the feet were ground level did the trick. The interesting part was doing the same in O2 did not have this result.

> when you save your animation as a .rtm via the Export Matrices function (shows when you right-click they keyrame animation panel in O2) it will come up with a window asking you to "Select Animation Center"

Mine was not doing this, turns out that 'pelvis' was set a value under File > Options where there is a stakeholder for "Select Animation Center"

I will try and reset this to 'root' or 'spine', see if it makes any difference.

[da12thMonkey 1943]

Oh I get what you mean. I didn't know you were using Maya with a proper skeleton rig

Confusion over the term came about from this part of the O2 Manual:

You select BindPose frame, select ExportMatrices from context menu and define root selection.

What are you using to export .rtms from Maya anyway? teaCup's plugin? I could never get that tow work as RtmBin2.exe would always crash trying to open a .rtm

Edited August 27, 2013 by da12thMonkey

[shinkicker 5]

Oh I get what you mean. I didn't know you were using Maya with a proper skeleton rig

Confusion over the term came about from this part of the O2 Manual:

What are you using to export .rtms from Maya anyway? teaCup's plugin? I could never get that tow work as RtmBin2.exe would always crash trying to open a .rtm

Yes, teacups scripts. I never import .rtm's which i why I would not have seen you're issue. I am only exporting.

[bad benson 1733]

i'm only using it for export too. be aware that import is only for preview and you need to use a special file for that. not the normal rig (iirc). but since all i did are totally new anims and they look pretty much like ingame inside maya, i never needed that feature.