Adding additional animations.

[Jimaras8]

I was scratching through character's tool the other day and i noticed that many meshes meshes have far more animations than those who appear in the editor. For example Spiderman_AA mesh has at least 7-8 more animations. Is there any way of adding them to  in-game editor. Spidey has some sweet combos that could prove useful for expirementation. I went to the keyframes and copied the branch from meleecombo_c for example, renamed to melee_combo_b and still it didn't appear. What did i do wrong?

My second request is something that bugs me for over a month. Has someone from the community installed tommyboy's map pack for FF2? If yes could you point me in which files do i need to copy to my directory cause it's a bit messy. I would really appreciate any tips.

[Cyber Burn]

As for your first question, I believe that animations that are titled with an (_a), (_b), or (_c), are random animations. For example: You may choose to give your character a (Melee_2) attack, but in game, the character would randomly use (Melee_2), (Melee_2_a), or Melee_2_b).

As for your second question, I have never been able to get maps to work and haven't tried in years, so hopefully someone else can help you out there.

[Jimaras8]

Thx for the response CB nut that doesn' explain why my new animation fails to appear in-game. I will be as specific as i can. I am trying to add spiderman_AA melee_combo_c in-game (  it's a flip kick ). I copied melee_combo_c branch to melee_d in the keyframes although i can copy it anywhere, if i am not mistaken. Saved and closed the keyframes. In-game the mesh has the pre-existing melee_1, melee_2, melee_big, melee_360 and melee_combo. Oh, forgot to mention i renamed the new animation melee_combo_c. What did i do wrong in the procedure?

[spydermann93]

Thx for the response CB nut that doesn' explain why my new animation fails to appear in-game. I will be as specific as i can. I am trying to add spiderman_AA melee_combo_c in-game (  it's a flip kick ). I copied melee_combo_c branch to melee_d in the keyframes although i can copy it anywhere, if i am not mistaken. Saved and closed the keyframes. In-game the mesh has the pre-existing melee_1, melee_2, melee_big, melee_360 and melee_combo. Oh, forgot to mention i renamed the new animation melee_combo_c. What did i do wrong in the procedure?

That's what Cyber was trying to explain.  Any animation with the suffix "_y", with y being any letter of the alphabet, will appear as a "diversity" for the base animation name.

In your case, "melee_combo_c" would be the fourth variation of "melee_combo" with "melee_combo_a" and "melee_combo_b" being the second and third variations of "melee_combo", respectively.

By renaming "melee_combo_c" to "melee_d", all that was achieved was you making another variant for "melee".

In order for the animation to appear as its own entity in selecting your character's animation, either rename an animation to where it is only the base animation "melee" or add a "_x", where x is any number.  For example, "spidey_combo" or "spidey_combo_1" would work.

If you ever wanted to add variants to those animations, you would make something like "spidey_combo_a" or "spidey_combo_1_a".

So the animation template is this:

"basename_x_y"

x = a number (dignifies a new animation set)
y = a letter (dignifies variants)

[Jimaras8]

Aha, now i get it. Thats why when i added supes flying_melee the animation appeared normally. It didn't collide with any existing animation due to name misconceptions. Thx for the response guys as always.

My second question is like the Holy Grail. Searching it for too long but to no avail. My attempt to add tomyboy's maps resulted to a dark scenery where the heroes could move but apart from that it was just a black scenery.

[spydermann93]

My second question is like the Holy Grail. Searching it for too long but to no avail. My attempt to add tomyboy's maps resulted to a dark scenery where the heroes could move but apart from that it was just a black scenery.

Unfortunately, since I do not tamper with map files and the likes, I have no idea how to fix that issue or issues related to maps.

All I know is that if it's pink, it's in need of a few texture files

[Jimaras8]

Spiderman doesnt' seem to like me and the new animations don't add up. However i tested 3 other heroes and it worked. Now i will elaborate on my previous question. is it possible to add animations without copying the branch over existing animations? Let's say i have a moon knight skope that in game has 3 animations. however the character tool shows at least 10. How can i add additional animations in-game without losing the already available ones?

[spydermann93]

If it's the Moon Knight mesh that I'm thinking of, you see "melee," "melee_2," and "melee_knife," correct?

If you look in the character tool, you will see "_a," "_b," "_c," etc. for all of the animations, giving Moon Knight many different animations, but since there are only three distinctions ("melee," "melee_2," and "melee_knife"), those are the only three that you will see, but the game will use the variant animations randomly when the character uses that specific melee attack.

If you'd like to make each melee attack its own animation (not a variant), the easiest way would be to rename the animation into something else, like "melee_a" to "melee_3" (since there is already a "melee_2").

There is not need to copy branches; just rename the animations.  That should get them to work for you.

[Amazo Version 2.2]

just out of curiosity, are you using nifskope or m25's keyframe tool to change your animations

[hoss20]

You can't make any alterations to keyframes in-game. Your best bet is to use M25's Keyframe Tool located here:  http://ezscript.wikispaces.com/Mod+Tools

This will allow you to transfer keyframes from one mesh to another if they are compatible. You can also rename animations, which is the main thing you are looking to do right now. As an example, take the melee_a and melee_b animations for the Spiderman_AA mesh you are dealing with and change the names to melee_3 and melee_4. You will then be able to see them as choices in-game. This way you can see what spydermann93 and Cyber Burn are talking about.

[Jimaras8]

Amazo if tis me that you are asking i am not really sure i ''change'' the animations. I just use nifskope to copy some branches or rename animations here and there. But yes its nifskope.

Hoss. I have done the trick with three other heroes and the animations showed up. Mister webhead is giving me hard time, but i will work this around.

Last thing even if its irrelevant does anyone have male_basic_draconus_nowings_sp_hair for AA x-man two pak? Standard draconus kf dont work.

[hoss20]

Well, there is also an issue where even though you can copy animations over from one set of keyframes to another, they won't show up to be used. This comes from the difference in the number of bones or Bip nodes in each mesh. As an example, most male_basic type animations will copy over to male_cape meshes, but because there are no cape nodes in the male_basic keyframes, the animations won't show up because the cape meshes need those nodes to move all of the nodes on the cape mesh. A lot of us skopers have been doing this for a while to get the animations right for our creations with all of the extra stuff we add to the skopes. I think there is a tutorial somewhere on how to do this properly. I'll have to look for it.

[SickAlice]

Bumping this up to ask if there was a solution figured for this one. I'm doing exactly what Hoss is describing here in trying to transfer an animation from a basic to a caped nif's keyframe set. It works in CTool but the game doesn't recognize the animation.

[detourne_me]

If it's not showing up in-game, but it works in Ctool, then that means it is probably missing a leave_hand or contact. the game will only use melee animations that have a 'contact' in them. The animation could be named absolutely anything, even Ranged_1, but if it has a 'contact' it's a melee, if it has a 'leave_hand' it's a ranged/area/direct. If it doesn't have either, and isn't named 'run', 'idle' or a number of other specific movement based animations, it won't show up at all.