ok, so i made a morpher animation, its part of a basic creature, its two antennas on top of the creatures head, and its also attached to bip01 head(skin partition) to make it
move with the head when the creature jumps etc.

its playing fine in 3d max 8, but when i export it, the morpher animation ends up at a different location, 0,0,0, the same position as the scene root, or bip01 if you wish.
no matter what i do both in nifskope or 3d max, it will not work.

is it not possible to have both a NiGeomMorpherController and Skin instance on the same mesh? is there another approach i should use?

Can you clarify how the antennae are added to the creature? If they're a separate mesh, does it have the same issue without any animation attached?

i have tried it both ways, as a separate mesh, and one complete with creature + antennas

i think i see whats wrong now, all the anim movement keys is attached to the mesh in 3d max and
not the bone like it should, how do i transfer/copy them to the bone?

I don't think you can have a mesh with both skinning data and morph data - I've tried before and could never get that to work. I'd make your antennas a separate mesh from the creature's main body, then morph animate those antennas once they're a separate mesh. Export the creature's main body and main body animations separately..export the antenna mesh with morph data separately. You'll then need to attach something like a "Bip01 Head" Prn NiStringExtraData block within the antenna nif using Nifskope (look at how the doghead.nif does it, under the "Dog" creature's folder - copy and paste that NiStringExtraData from the doghead.nif).

If the antennas are not protruding from a head bone area, but some other bone, name the part in that NiStringExtraData that says "Bip01 Head", to the name of the bone you want the antennas to be attached to. These NiStringExtraDatas, are special, in that they tell disembodied "body parts" of creatures (aka body parts that are spread over several nifs and not within one combined nif), what bone these parts need to be attached to. If you attach the antenna to the head bone, using this method, and the antennas are still not sitting in right spot, tweak the Translation and Rotation data of the morph-animated "NiTriStrips" in Block Details of Nifskope, until the antennas sit on right spot. I know there's a way to exactly position such disembodied nifs in correct the first time, but I forget the exact steps needed, and how to calculate it all.

You'll need to set up the morph animations by plugging them by hand into an already exported kf animation (by using Nifskope), like probably used on rest of the creature's body. I'd just look at the "Dog creature in vanilla Oblivion, and see how the morph data is set up within its animations.

Koniption

Yes, Its Possible -> you are most likely just not setting things up correctly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1-cea9BNNI, Skinned
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFmmx-QmKp0, Prn Attached -> it saved file size and the skinning was not needed for anything so this was the superior method.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-YZRPzfeO4, Skinned because its required for the way FO3 sets up VATS targeting BUT!!!! Doing this screws up shadow instancing forcing you to have to turn off shadows for that creature.



It is possible but using a Prn Attachment is by far the superior method for any meshes that do not also need to be deformed by bones.