Exporting Animated Nodes
by Chris Ushko · in Artist Corner · 05/30/2006 (11:48 am) · 3 replies
I've got huge machine full of levers, switches, and buttons, and they're all animated sequentially in the same file. The problem is, when I export, each sequence exports animation information from every node, even if they're not being animated in that sequence.
For example, I want to animate Lever01 and Lever02 independantly of each other. However, I can't animate Lever02 on it's own without clashing with info from Lever01. I can write a CFG file telling it not to export Lever01, but then I lose the Lever01 animation.
I've noticed that both Blender and Lightwave allow you to fix this. I was wondering if I could do the same in Maya, where sequence nodes only export the nodes I tell them to. I'd like to do this without resorting to a ton of DSQs, directories, and separate animation files. I've read of something called "Collapse Transforms," but can't find this option anywhere. I also read there was a way to write a CFG file that could do this for me, but haven't seen any examples or documentation relating to it.
Any help would be much appreciated.
For example, I want to animate Lever01 and Lever02 independantly of each other. However, I can't animate Lever02 on it's own without clashing with info from Lever01. I can write a CFG file telling it not to export Lever01, but then I lose the Lever01 animation.
I've noticed that both Blender and Lightwave allow you to fix this. I was wondering if I could do the same in Maya, where sequence nodes only export the nodes I tell them to. I'd like to do this without resorting to a ton of DSQs, directories, and separate animation files. I've read of something called "Collapse Transforms," but can't find this option anywhere. I also read there was a way to write a CFG file that could do this for me, but haven't seen any examples or documentation relating to it.
Any help would be much appreciated.
#2
07/11/2006 (3:56 pm)
Chris I am working on a similar thing. Can I ask you what was the basic scriting you used to get 1-2 levers to change aspects of your dsq animated model? I have been looking for examples of how to do this with dsq and I have had no luck. I would be very greatful for any information or pointers to information.
#3
Something I figured out is that you need all your levers and buttons to go back to the base pose after every animation as well as turn on the Blend option for all your sequences (considering there's only one animation per node.) You can test it out in Torque by opening the Thread menu and playing every sequence simultaneously in different thread each.
07/13/2006 (8:21 am)
I don't use DSQs, since I work with references and it's a pain to go back into Wordpad and repeatedly delete the lightlinker node before every export. I mostly animate all the machine's animation inside the DTS file now. Works for me anyway.Something I figured out is that you need all your levers and buttons to go back to the base pose after every animation as well as turn on the Blend option for all your sequences (considering there's only one animation per node.) You can test it out in Torque by opening the Thread menu and playing every sequence simultaneously in different thread each.
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