Help with Bladestorm Skill Animation

[SpiritPhoenix]

So, i've been looking into this for... probably a good hour now, (including using whatever help i could find on the forums here), and i've had little success.

My goal was to get a bladestorm-like animation for the hero i made, using the Troll Headhunter model. I was able to get a start up animation for the skill, using one of the custom Bladestorm Animations that i found here on the forums (which btw, are awesome, currently i'm trying to use the one by JetFangInferno)(The Explosive Tornado).

Currently, as mentioned, i got the skill to use that animation for starting it, but it ends about 1 second after starting, whereas the skill lasts for 8 - 10 seconds (based on level)(Since it has 2 levels). After the animation has played its 1 second or so, it just goes the Troll Headhunter model walking around, and still dealing damage for the duration of the skill.

I've looked over the forums, found a few other people having similar issues, but haven't found out how to fix it yet. If anyone could help me, i'd be grateful, because it's kind of nice to actually have a lasting animation for the skill, versus an invisible aura of death around him... lol.

Sincerely,
SpiritPhoenix

[Edit]: If you need more information about what i currently have towards it, let me know, i'll be glad to post anything you think is relevant.

Also, if there is a proper thread for helping me get through this problem, could someone direct me to it? As i stated before, i haven't been able to find a proper solved thread for this problem. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[DeadZero]

Is it possible that it's a problem with the animation itself, and the animation was made to end after about 1 second?
Have you tried using triggers to force the unit to do the animation?

 

[SpiritPhoenix]

I'll give it some more work, i had tried a few things with triggers... including starting animation, do you suggest any specific trigger for forcing a unit to stay in animation?

 

[DeadZero]

You could do Play (Unit)s (x) Animation and repeat it every time it stopped until the ability was done maybe.

 

[-SoulBurn]

Is it possible that it's a problem with the animation itself, and the animation was made to end after about 1 second?
Have you tried using triggers to force the unit to do the animation?

If you select your unit in the unit palette and select the bladestorm animation in the left, where the animation is playing, you can see right after the animation name (probably Spell Channel) it's duration, then you make something like that

• Events
  • Unit - Start's the effect of an ability
• Conditions
  • Ability being cast equal bladestorm
  • Unit-type of casting unit equal troll hunter
• Actions
  • For Each integer A from 1 to Y do actions:
    • loop:
      • Wait - X seconds
      • Animation - Play casting unit Spell Channel animation

Where X is the bladestorm animation duration and Y is the number of times it must be repeated for the animation to get it's desired duration. Note the Unit-type condition is here because i don't know if there is another unit that can bladestorm no your map.

Don't forget that if it's duration depends on the ability level you may add some "If-Then-Else" Triggers. Your trigger would look like that:

• Events
  • Unit - Start's the effect of an ability
• Conditions
  • Ability being cast equal bladestorm
  • Unit-type of casting unit equal troll hunter
• Actions
  • Variable - Set (BladestormLevelInteger) equal to level of (bladestorm) for (casting unit)
    • General - If-Then-Else- Multiple Actions:
      • If
        • BladestormLevelInteger = 1
      • Then
        • For Each integer A from 1 to Y do actions:
          • loop:
            • Wait - X seconds
            • Animation - Play casting unit Spell Channel animation
      • Else
    • Condition - If-Then-Else- Multiple Actions:
      • If
        • BladestormLevelInteger = 2
      • Then
        • For Each integer A from 1 to Y+1 do actions:
          • loop:
            • Wait - X seconds
            • Animation - Play casting unit Spell Channel animation
      • Else
    • Condition - If-Then-Else- Multiple Actions:
      • If
        • BladestormLevelInteger = 3
      • Then
        • For Each integer A from 1 to Y+2 do actions:
          • loop:
            • Wait - X seconds
            • Animation - Play casting unit Spell Channel animation
      • Else

Where X is the bladestorm animation duration; Y is the number of times it must be repeated for the animation to get it's desired duration. For Each level i'm givin the animation one more repetition, but you can change that. I think making a loop would be easier, but i don't know if it works with 0 like a starting integer and if it counts the zero like 1 integer. You may try this:

• Events
  • Unit - Start's the effect of an ability
• Conditions
  • Ability being cast equal bladestorm
  • Unit-type of casting unit equal troll hunter
• Actions
  • Variable - Set (BladestormLevelInteger) equal to level of (bladestorm) for (casting unit)
  • For Each Integer A from 0 to K do actions:
    • loop:
      • Condition - If-Then-Else- Multiple Actions:
        • If
          • BladestormLevelInteger = Loop Integer A
        • Then
          • For Each integer A from 1 to (Y+Loop Integer A) do actions:
            • loop:
              • Wait - X seconds
              • Animation - Play casting unit Spell Channel animation
      • Else

That way at level 1 it would repeat just like the first trigger i did, and for the other levels it would add 1 more repetition. You can even change that by doin another aritimetic where it repeats by (Y + Loop Integer A * 2) or something like that.

The First Trigger is simple and works with one-level-abilities, the second one gives you more control (as the duration don't increases by a single factor) and the third is like the second, but with less control and quicker to do

 

[SpiritPhoenix]

Hm... Well the problem is since it was a custom animation that i had downloaded that it didn't seem to work. Unfortunately the Play Unit's Animation thing doesn't seem to encompass custom animations (or if it does, i'm just not doing it right).

Anyways, no need to worry about it,
I've put that previous project on a temporary hold, in place for a new project that i started working on, on Friday.

I'll keep testing it though from time to time, putting a little bit of effort here and there towards fixing it though. Its just no longer a priority.

Thanks Anyways.

 

[-SoulBurn]

Hm... Well the problem is since it was a custom animation that i had downloaded that it didn't seem to work. Unfortunately the Play Unit's Animation thing doesn't seem to encompass custom animations (or if it does, i'm just not doing it right).

Maybe you could use Animation Index. It can play ANY SPECIFIC animation you want, but i don't know if it works with custom animations. You could try to catch the custom animation like one integer after the last model own animation. Worth a try.

SetUnitAnimationByIndex (Unit, Index #)

Or maybe you can edit the troll hunter model (it's the blizzard one, right?) and see if you can put the new animation to it. There's a lot of great tutorials here.