Using Weight Tool, directly. Check video "Skin and Edit Poly" here:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=13818978&linkID=9241175

Paint weights IMO is reasonable ony for blending ("Skin Blend Weights" video):

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=13819084&linkID=9241175

And I love Skin Utility, check this vidoe in case interested:

http://www.cgtutorials.com/t1773/Autodesk_3ds_max/Skin_Utility

Note that you can apply Morpfer modifier on weights holder meshes, this is very useful for creating Skyrim 0_1 morph targets.

the first video uses envelopes , the second is for blending paint .... so how do u rig a skeleton to a model without envelopes?

With the "Weight Tool" you can assign desired bone weight (just type the value in "Set Weight" or select "0.1 - 0.5 - 1") to the selected set of verices for the selected bone (first video) without even displaying envelopes.

yes but that works only if you have small meshes and few vertices to make a "decent" work on complex models ( for example a big Dragon ) and to do it faster thantaking a week to skin vertx by vertex I usually used envelopes, how are you supposed to do otherwise without a proper skeleton orientation?

I wonder about a few new functions that perhaps you animators can shed some light on. Do you guys have any idea what these mean/do exactly?

01CE RecvAnimEvent, rae: String, (String)
Simulate recieving an animation event from an animation graph.

01E0 SetAnimGraphVar, sgv: String, String, (String(optional)), (String(optional)), (String(optional))
Set an animation graph variable.

1249 SendAnimEvent, sae: String
Send an event to the animation graph.


Like, what are animation 'graphs'? What kind of variables do they have? What is an 'Event' in this context? I tried using them in the console, but I have no idea what kind of Strings to use.

These are all related to how Bethesda decided to tie Nif kf based animations into Behavior profiles look for an asset with one of these nodes BSBehaviorGraphExtraData all it consists of is a string pointing to a behavior profile setup.

If you want to know what a State or an Event are look up Havok Behavior and research them.

A couple of questions on idle animation ...

If I change the character main idle animation .... like from the standing pose to for example a hands behind the ass pose... when he will animate to another animation like extracting sword or start walking the engine will interpolate it's movement or instead will jump from the end of the idle stand loop to the start of the other loop?

Blend Interpolation is defined in the Behavior files -> which we can not alter so there is no point in worrying about interpolation.

Hey hun,
It seems that when I try to export the mt_walkforward using the method above i get a "Animation file contains no Animation bindings. Not Exporting."
It still exports and I can import it into 3dsmax fine.
The problem is when I export it using havok the animation is broken it seems. (The mt_idle animation works perfectly using the exporter with the same settings so I know its not the exporter settings.)
Any Ideas?

Edit: Never mind iI answered my own question.
You can ignore that error message.
Also you must stick to Havok 2010-2-0_2 for 3ds max.
I upgraded my 3dsmax and when i upgraded I upgraded my havok to the 2012 max version: 2011-2-0_2. which does not work for animations!

ok but to answer then my question if I make a new standing idle , all the other animations will break? I eman there will be visible jumps between the idle and the other loops?

I change mt_idle with dance anims....

Strange Effects

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOXDb-xWEQY

The Answer is yes -> if your anim is wildly different from the default it will cause jumps but I would not spend to much time worrying about it as we can do nothing to change how the game handles things it was not designed to do -> IE modded stuff.

The problem with your animations is you did not Extract Motion or Rotate Animation so the character is not actually moving its just idling, and the ending is in a different position and/or rotation then the base idle so it jumps.

I am not even sure if these filters will apply in-game as I have yet to give them a go as they are not my priority ATM though I do want to see if I can get them to work as I have a ton of concepts that would require them to function as designed.

Seems that when I make a mt_walkforward animation Then it shows either the default animation or cuts out the animation of other things when you cam out.
Very strange.

Hey, I'm working on redoing some of the kill animations for H2H. I get these errors when trying to extract the paired_* files:

Export failed for '.\anim-out\paired_1hmkillmovef.kf'
Error processing skeleton 'PairedRoot' number of tracks exceed bones.
Export failed for '.\anim-out\paired_1hmkillmoveg.kf'
Error processing skeleton 'PairedRoot' number of tracks exceed bones.
Export failed for '.\anim-out\paired_1hmkillmoveh.kf'
Error processing skeleton 'PairedRoot' number of tracks exceed bones.
Export failed for '.\anim-out\paired_1hmkillmovei.kf'
Error processing skeleton 'PairedRoot' number of tracks exceed bones.
Export failed for '.\anim-out\paired_1hmkillmovej.kf'
Error processing skeleton 'PairedRoot' number of tracks exceed bones.
Export failed for '.\anim-out\paired_1hmkillmovek.kf'
Error processing skeleton 'PairedRoot' number of tracks exceed bones.
Export failed for '.\anim-out\paired_1hmkillmovel.kf'
Error processing skeleton 'PairedRoot' number of tracks exceed bones.
Export failed for '.\anim-out\paired_1hmkillmovem.kf'
Error processing skeleton 'PairedRoot' number of tracks exceed bones.
Export failed for '.\anim-out\paired_1hmkillmoveshortb.kf'
Error processing skeleton 'PairedRoot' number of tracks exceed bones.

This I would probably have to see to understand whats going on -> maybe a video.


Your not going to be able to convert the paired animations with this program because:

1) They contain 2 skeleton's paired -> None of the skeleton.hkx's shipped are set up for this type of conversion -> that entire setup needs to be re-created.

2) The slave skeleton is prepended with a "2_" denoting it as the slave actor -> which means the bones in the second skeleton do not even match the actor they belong to -> not an issue for the conversion as all it cares about are the number of nodes present but you will not be importing this anim without the proper scene setup in your 3D application -> also many shared nodes Weapon, BackWeapon, etc... are all prepended with Dummy so the importer/exporter does not get confused.

Thanks for the clarification Saiden. Guess I'll have to hold that off until we get semi-official support for that.

There will never be any Beth support of Importing Assets especially assets in the HKX format which belongs to Havok and the chance that they are going to allow Bethesda to release any tool with Behavior/Havok coding it minimal at best and non-existant being the realistic option.

Havok themselves gives out their Animation and Physics Plugins and Tools for free just DL them but they only work for Max, Maya and XSI.

http://www.mediafire.com/?prwqktwo955qwj1 is the Character to Character Paired Skeleton required to use with this converter, I assume you wanted NPC to NPC and not NPC to ???Creature.

Well what happens is when you are close to an npc then her bust moves with the animation but when you are a little further away they dont. Which is strange because its the bones that are animated.
I wonder if it picks up the default anim when your cammed further away. Or it doesnt animate certain bones from a distance?
My mt_idle animation plays fine from a distance though. Very strange.

That is suppose to happen you added the new bones to the bottom of the LOD order so they will get culled first along with other small bones like fingers, toes, cameras....

There is only one way to correct this and its a pain that requires you to completely remake every Character Based Animation plus the Skeleton.hkx with this new Bone Mapping Order and update the Skeleton.nif with the New Bone LOD Definitions (Not Decoded As Yet).

Then why is it that my mt_idle animation can be seen when the npc is almost a spec on the horizon? lol
Seems only to be an issue with the walking animation. Also im not cammed out far at all, I practically have to be on top of the npc to see the animation.

Again it sounds like its working as intended the large bones animate at any distance -> Root Node, Pelvis, Spines, Upper Arms, Forearms, Thighs, Calfs, Feet, Skirt Nodes.

Then others start getting animation Culled at specific distances -> Anim Objects, Weapons and their attachment Nodes, Magic Nodes, Neck, Head, Eyes, Twists, Pauldrons.

Then Very Small Bones are the earliest to get Animation Culled -> Fingers, Cameras and any nodes you add below these.

----

Unless what your saying is the entire Animation is getting culled ?? at very close distance?

Hmmm I think your right.
I played around with the skeleton_female.nif file and under the BSFadeNode theres a BSBoneLODExtraData node.
If you play around with the Unknown Int A1 numbers (after you expand it of course) then it seems you can have the LOD bones render more detail further distance with no repercussion (other then possible speed of render)

I believe the A1 (second number 165 if you change tis it crashes the game on fast travel) Its trying to load too far a distance but if you change the third number it seems to work very well and I believe the third number in the A1 numbers is distance.

Still need a max scene set up correctly to do this though right? Skeleton.nif is not working because the exported anims are empty and there is only one skeleton (obviously).

Yes, you still need the Max Scene correctly set up for the paired import.