Morrowind Animation Frames
2002.08.01 - Shield Bone!!!
Here's a little work in progress...for fun I named one of the animation bones Shield Bone...this is what I found:
I also added a Spell Bone (still don't know if it does anything...creature not complete enough for spells) and a Weapon Bone - non weapon showed up, but I suspect that this is because I never gave him an equip weapon animation...I also wonder if he'll need special animations depending on the weapon....ah well I'll find out on Monday :)
2002.07.31 PM - BREAKTHROUGH
So I got an email when I though there was no hope for working animations in MW...the email has a file attached to it. A MAX3 file, after converting and looking at it, what do I see? Well the very simple object there had an interesting item attached to it...a object (no type showed up in MAX4) called Root Bone. During the walk forward portion of the animation Root Bone moved forward and the main object was attached to it.This is how it is done folks! You take your main object (that all other objects are linked too), and link it to an object called Root Bone. I tested with a simple helper object named root bone and it worked like a charm!! There was also a box named bounding box---so set up a box on the base frame of your animation named Bounding Box, then just hide it- that will be handy for big stuff like dragons, as you could allow the PC to walk through his neck (which should be high up) in theory.
Anyways I also used the latest version of the official MAXexporter and it worked like a charm...just export your file (less lights and cameras) and it makes all three files...no more 3 step :).
Why am I posting crappy flat shaded model screenshots? Because them critters is walkin' they is
Anyways without further ado here's Rakendon II-- the notes there are stripped down to a single Idle and a Walkforward, but pop in that .NIF and guess what? The darn thing rocks (albeit with a crappy animation I whipped up). The MAX4 file is in there too...
Now go forth o legions of animators and populate Vvardenfell!!!