Animations with O2?

[Rav_Raven 8]

I would suggest to me some tutorial to make animations with O2?

Thank you.

[max power 21]

I don't think there is such a tutorial. My knowledge is limited, but I may be able to answer a few questions. What sort of animations are you wanting to do, and what animation experience do you have?

[Rav_Raven 8]

Thanks for reply.

My interest is to learn the mechanism for making an animation. I have O2 and BIskeleton but to do with them?..

Greetings.

[max power 21]

Okay.

So, in order to save animations properly, you need to use the ArmASkeleton unit. It has all of the necessary bones and memory points in order to save rtm files.

When you open the unit, you will see that it has 3 LODs. LOD 1.000, Edit 0.000, and, Memory. I believe all of your changes should happen on LOD 1.000, despite the name of the Edit LOD. If my memory serves me correctly, the Edit LODs are for making changes to things in the 02 manual, like a sketchbook or a work bench. I am not certain about what the edit LOD is for, but I have made changes to LOD 1.000 and successfully exported animation using that LOD.

LOD 1.000 has a number of named selections, and each of them seem to have a number of copies. For instance, there is a 'Left Arm' named selection and a '-Left Arm' named selection. 'Left Arm' only concerns the points directly related to the bones and vertexes of the upper arm of the model. '-Left Arm' is concerned with the bones and vertices of the upper arm and all points distal from those parts. In other words, from the shoulder to the finger tips. The named selections with the - in front of them are the ones you want to be animating with. You must completely disregard the ones with out the dashes in front, or else you will be rotating only the humerus and not any other bone, so the forearm and hands will not follow.

In order to alter or create new animations, you have to open the animations window under windows. It is at the top of the third demarcation under the windows dialogue.

In the animation window, you see a keyframe and a phase column. I believe the number under keyframe is the time in seconds when the model will reach that pose if played from the beginning, for instance, a pose at 0.500000 will occur at half a second after the animation is started. I am not certain what phase means. I believe it is simply a count of the number of animation keys.

If you want to load an animation to alter, you must right click on the animation window and choose 'from Matrices (All LODs)'. This will change the contents of the animation window but may not change the position of the model. This is because, in my very limited experience, frame -0.500000 is always the bind pose. These animations can be found in the pbos supplied with the game. For instance, the .rtms concerned with the poses for units within wheel vehicles can be found in the wheeled pbo, in the data\anims folder.

If you want to create a new animation, right click in the animation editor and create a couple of new key frames. Taking tips from the original animations, I would suggest renaming the phase 0 keyframe to -0.500000 and leaving it the bind pose of the model.

In order to alter the pose of the model properly, you need to turn on the local axis of the components you wish to animate. This will allow you to rotate the arm from the natural joint of the shoulder, etc. This option is under 'Points\Transform 3d\Show Local Axis'.

When you are moving the bones, you want to make sure that yo are only rotating them (never tranlating them or scaling them), and always rotating them one axis at a time. The axes of the named selections are set up so that the z axis is the one that is most likely to be moved. The knees, wrists, and ankles, and 'twist' bones are the most notable exceptions that I can recall. The bones are always set up so the y axis twists them, and this is the only axis you want to animate the twist bones on unless you're going for a broken limb look or something. Also, don't twist any bones but the twist bones.

That is all I know about animating in ArmA. I have no idea about playing back the animations or anything like that. I have only saved 3 keyframe rtms to act as a cargo poses for some vehicles. I hope this is enough to get you started.

[Rav_Raven 8]

That I have to start.

I appreciate it very much.

Greetings.

[sakura_chan 9]

Another useful tip is to have view > solid fill faces selected for each window, it is easier to see the stance of the model without the wireframe.