Game Development Community

MilkShape Half-Life/CS model animation

by Craig Cole · in Artist Corner · 05/01/2002 (3:39 pm) · 4 replies

Hi.

To get started on developing for the Torque engine, I've been trying to put a half-life player model in place of the default example player. I've encountered problems when trying to export the model with some simple animations.

When I import a triangles and skeleton HL SMD from a decompiled HL model, then import the a HL SMD Animation file onto and then go to animation mode, the model jumps from its position "standing" on the "floor" (origin?) grid, down to being effectively cut in half by the grid.
The result being that when I import this into the Torque engine, the model is only showing from the waist up, the remaining half of his body underground. Heres an image to illustrate:
Piccy1 (the left frame is the base model, the right is after I have imported an animation and pressed the Anim button)

I've tried selecting the bones and moving them up above the floor, but this seems to mutate the model into something from The Thing.

Is this half way cut off supposed to happen?

Can I stop/change this in anyway? (e.g. is there an easier way to move the whole animation up a bit without grotesque-ing the model and keeping its bones.

Any pointers would be great. I'm quite new to this modelling lark btw :)

Thanks for any help/pointers,
Craig.

#1
05/01/2002 (5:42 pm)
Grab the root joint in each frame and drag it up until the foot joints are correctly positioned. You'll have to do it for each keyframe, then re-set the keyframe, but that's all. I think the root joint in that character is the one at the tailbone. If you don't touch any other joints, then you won't distort the model.
#2
05/02/2002 (4:16 am)
Thanks, I'll have a go at that when I get home :)

Cheers for your help.
Craig.
#3
01/06/2003 (8:36 pm)
For anyone else interested (Since this thread is 6 months old), another way is to export out to Milkshapes ASCII format and manually edit the root node's position. If you have several keyframes, it might be faster to import the root bone's position values into a spread sheet programe (e.g. excel) and 'add' the offset value to all positions. Re-import updated model/animation and it should be shifted.
#4
01/06/2003 (9:32 pm)
Craig where can I find a reasonable explaination for doing what you are doing.

I need to do the same thing but have been un-successful at the initial conversion of the compiled HL files?