Help with animating a t.rex

#1 You would do the animation in your modeling software, not Torque.

#2 Ok the trex is animated,but how do you get it to move? i gess i need to learn c code to this stuff.

#3 Ah. You're looking for setActionThread or playThread methods on the object.

I forget the difference, but search for those and you'll find what you need.

#4 I would look into the default "playerAvatar" sequence 'names' run, back, side, look,jump, death etc...and animate those sequences as well as any 'custom' ones, it will give your shape a little more lee way in it's functioning; depending how you intend to utilize the shape[Class]. Can't wait to see some visuals of this critter!

#5 I have got the trex animated and working great but when the trex is moving on the path its body is half below the terrain.can anybody help me with this.

#6 I too have had a hard time with this. I believe the bounding box must be wrong on the model.

#7 Can someone please help me here??????????????????????????

#8 @James H.,

Is this T-Rex your own work, or is it the T-Rex from 3dbud? If it's the 3Dbud dts version, their stuff is kind of wacked. If it is let me know, I can fix it ( I actually own it also, haven't even looked at it yet --- but I've fixed several other of their characters for use in Torque), but I have to re-export it from another app.

If it's from somewhere else or in a 3D Studio Max format or something I won't be able to help you since I don't own a high end 3D app. If it's something you've made you've just got the point of origin 0,0,0 at the center of the model and it's dropping it to that place in the Engine.

#9 @Alan: Do you think you could share the general steps you take to fix the 3dbud trex? I have it too, and it's quite nice, and I ran into the same issues.

BTW have you found a way to export animations from Milkshape? I'd love to know a way to do that, as well, as I've had no luck trying. But I'm still a novice when it comes to animation...

#10 @Lee,

Basically you need Fragmotion and Milkshape. The really, really cool thing about Fragmotion is that you can move nodes, rename them, (i.e. add mount points, etc.) add camera and eye nodes and it *doesn't* break the animations. You can also translate the position of the model (i.e. it's Y co-ordinate in relation to the start 0,0,0 position) and again not break the animations.

Once you've fixed the mounts, position and such you can save it as a .MS3D file and open it in Milkshape. From there it is just a matter of using DTSPlus! to export the DTS for Torque. You have to name the animation sequences in the export dialog box, give them the accurate start and finish frame, tell whether it is a single cycle or cyclic animation, and then export it. I also have a rough illustration of how to do it in this thread:

www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.thread.php?qt=69654

It should explain the bulk of the process, and it's pretty sweet once you get the hang of it. You can use most any .x also, which is cool because there are a lot of good animated models floating around that are in that format.

Let me know if you get stuck on any of the steps and I'll try to help you out.

-Alan

#11 Thanks for that. I haven't used Fragmotion before, I'll check it out!

It will let you rotate the skeleton and animation, I guess? That's the main problem I ran into with that model, is Torque really wanted him to be sideways.

#12 Yep, it will let you rotate the entire model and the animations will stay intact.

#13 The trex is from 3dbud,i think.you cant export animations from milkshape to dts.

#14 @James,

Actually you can very easily, just take a look at that link that I posted for Lee. I've done it *many* times with all sorts of models, animation sequences, etc. You can do embedded animation sequences in the DTS or you can export as DSQ files either way. You use the DTSPlus! exporter.

Go here to check out the DTS exporter chart for all 3D apps, including Milkshape:

www.garagegames.com/mg/forums/result.forum.php?qf=129