My animated catapult wheels rollback in-game!

[ColdStar]

Hello Folks, I'm still pretty new to animating, I've been trying to work out simple models and animations to get accustomed to the techniques and the like... Just so you know, I'm using 3d Studio Max 5.1 for this. Anyway, I figured a catapult (well trebuchet actually) would be pretty simple just 5 animations total (stand, walk, attack, death, decay). All seemed to go well until I imported into Warcraft and I noticed that when the unit stops after moving, the wheel will sometimes rollback as if to reset itself. During the walk it rolls normal and looks fine, its just when it stops.

To animate the wheel I created the first keyframe then rotated the wheel 45 degrees each key until it was 360 and created the end animation keyframe. I mean I notice it but perhaps this is normal/acceptable, but I wanted to see if anyone else knows a trick or has an idea what I'm doing wrong thanks!

Here's a little sample of the model moving...

 

[donut3.5]

Its because the stand is set to a certain frame, and if it is moving, it is likely when you stop the wheel will not end up on that frame.
I do not know how to fix this though.
--donut3.5--

 

[blazing-inferno]

i think donut is saying that the animation you made is probably not even.

example.

Walk
MoveSpeed 240

that is your note, both opening and ending; 240 is about normal speed for units.

your time line needs to read something like this

starting point: 0 ending point 40

something like that, the starting and ending need to be equal so it loops. if its not equal the animation wont loop and thats probably why your animation is screwing up.

and your wheels need to move the at the same range, so select all your wheels first then rotate, make sure your thing is on auto key and continue to rotate after moving the slider from 0 to 5 then to 10 and so on.

 

[Guessed]

Set BlendTime to 0. You can probably do that in Magos' editor (look under Model or something) or by converting to MDL, searching for BlendTime, setting it to 0, and converting it back to MDX.

BlendTime controls how long to spend transitioning between animations. Setting it to 0, the result will be that the wheels snap back instantly instead of rotating, which should hopefully be less obvious.

 

[Deleted member 126647]

Other than that, it's just something with the game, not the model, and as such you shouldn't worry about it.

 

[madcat2]

the moon walk wagon! that just made my day!

 

[ColdStar]

Thanks for all the help, I tried the blendtime suggestion and it does seem less noticeable! I think a few little tweaks here and there and I'll put it up for download.

Cheers