Tutorial Request: Tree Models with Snow Animation

[Emm-A-]

Hello Everybody,

I restarted making a map, which features winter and summer.

I try to change the whole terrain during winter, which works quite ok - By letting snow and icy objects appear in winter and by changing the tiles via triggers, this can be simulated, buuuuut:

It is pretty hard to come around the problem, that trees are not snowy during winter time.

So I thought, it might be possible to add some kind of snowy animation to an already existing tree like these here:

http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/...p2-48039/?prev=search=tree&r=20&d=list&page=6

and then trigger it in the map!

Unfortunately, even after reading tutorials like http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/general-mapping-tutorials-278/how-make-model-change-textures-ingame-222258/#1.1, I realized, that I dont really know, how to start now, so here is my request:

If there was someone, who could make a simple tutorial on how to add different looking animations to models like death and snowy animations?

Well, anyway best wishes to you all!

Emm-A-

 

[Ardenian]

This is perfect for your needs: http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/...el-texture-using-alternate-animations-264323/

This way, you only need a snowy version of the tree's texture, a simple 2D edit.

 

[Emm-A-]

This is perfect for your needs: http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/...el-texture-using-alternate-animations-264323/

This way, you only need a snowy version of the tree's texture, a simple 2D edit.

Thank you a lot for your answer. Despite I already read this tutorial and tried it, I guess, I will have to do it again more carefully.

I am not sure, but could it be a problem, that the model I am trying to modify has no real functioning bones (this tree model I linked up there only has a default bone)?

Also, may I ask, if you know whether there is also a tutorial how to add death animations? I wasnt succesfull in finding any on the web, and I also tried to swap animations from another tree model, but ingame, nothing happend and magos editor showed just nothing for the model with swapped animations (I took animations from another MDL file of an animated pine tree).

I am really curious to learn how to do this, so if anyone feels like spreading Knowledge I would be really greatful!

Best regards

 

[Ardenian]

You cannot simply take an animation from another model and hope it works. It does not sadly a lot of things would be a lot easier then.
You could try an animation transfer tool, may check out the Tools section.

Basically, you have a bone and attach everything to it, the whole model.
Then, you move the bone so that the tree disappears, e.g. into the ground.
It is a bit diffcult to explain as I don't know how experienced you are.

1. Search for a bone having all vertices attached to or create one ( this is best done in Mdlvis)
2. Add a Death animation sequence, if there isn't already one.
3. During the Death animation, move/rotate the bone, so that it will fall down and slightly disappear into the ground ( -Z)

I highly recommend to do all these steps in Mdlvis.

 

[Emm-A-]

You cannot simply take an animation from another model and hope it works. It does not sadly a lot of things would be a lot easier then.
You could try an animation transfer tool, may check out the Tools section.

Basically, you have a bone and attach everything to it, the whole model.
Then, you move the bone so that the tree disappears, e.g. into the ground.
It is a bit diffcult to explain as I don't know how experienced you are.

1. Search for a bone having all vertices attached to or create one ( this is best done in Mdlvis)
2. Add a Death animation sequence, if there isn't already one.
3. During the Death animation, move/rotate the bone, so that it will fall down and slightly disappear into the ground ( -Z)

I highly recommend to do all these steps in Mdlvis.

Thank you for your patience
Unfortunately I didnt have much time to try the tutorial u just linked before (will get back to learn how to animate asap), but this is what I already tried:

Atempts I made

- I used oinkerwinkles animation transfer tool and some other one and they both did not work properly
- I tried out this tutorial here http://www.wc3c.net/showthread.php?t=69135, but it is extermely confusing, so I did not succeed in simply "stealing bones" and animations directly from another mdl file. Note that this pine tree I wanted to use, has no bones in it as far as I can see (?)
- I downloaded Milkshape3D and followed a tutorial on how to animate, but I could not assign the tree's vertices properly to a bone, I created for the whole tree (just a line from bottom to top) and also in the animation section I completely got lost ...
- Tried MDLvis, I guess the very same programm u just suggested. Unfortunately I was not really able to create a bone there as well Also I had problems selecting vertices again ...

So as you see I am a bloody noob when it comes to animation. Most probably all my attempts look pretty funny to you but I am really trying to learn this shit

Anyway, Thanks a lot for highlighting MDLvis, this already helps me in my confusion. When I got more time, I will retry using this program!

Any How-To help would be greatly appreciated.

Best,
Emm-A-

 

[Ardenian]

Alright, back a few steps

For the snow 'animation', I recommend to add an alternate texture to the model ( as described in the tutorial) so the tree looks snowy if you wish too. A lot more complicated would be do add seperate animation being played via trigger, simulating snow falling and the tree slowly getting whiter. It is a big task and I would recommend to step aside from it for now, rather go for the alternate texture way.

Now the Death animation.
Aim: make the model disappear
Easiest way: Move it down the Z axis -> looks awfully bad.
Sadly, a good death animation for trees is a pain. I never understood rotations myself.
However, I recommmend to do the following:

1. Open the default Blizzard tree in Mdlvis. Go to Sequence Editor and Bone tab. Now you can see what vertices are attached to what bone. Note down the location of the bones

2. Open your custom model and create bones ( there is a tab-menu for creating attachments and bones at the top bar). Move them to the same locations as the ones from the default Blizzard tree.

3. Once your custom tree has the same bones, open the default tree model in Magos. Copy its rotations, translations and scalings ( if they have any other than default) and paste them somwhere.

4. Understand what geosets are attached to what bone. ( Open the geoset menu and ctrl+left-click on the model/geosets to select one. Keep in mind what you acknowledge.

5. Now open the custom model in Mdlvis and attach the vertices to the correct bones ( in the Bone tab)

6. Open the custom model once again in Magos and paste the Scaling, Translation and Rotation in the movement of the bone ( be careful of the other bone settings, what is checked and what kind of animation it is ( none, linear, ...)

This should do the job. Feel free to ask if you don't understand steps or you don't know how to do it

 

[Emm-A-]

Alright, back a few steps

For the snow 'animation', I recommend to add an alternate texture to the model ( as described in the tutorial) so the tree looks snowy if you wish too. A lot more complicated would be do add seperate animation being played via trigger, simulating snow falling and the tree slowly getting whiter. It is a big task and I would recommend to step aside from it for now, rather go for the alternate texture way.

Now the Death animation.
Aim: make the model disappear
Easiest way: Move it down the Z axis -> looks awfully bad.
Sadly, a good death animation for trees is a pain. I never understood rotations myself.
However, I recommmend to do the following:

1. Open the default Blizzard tree in Mdlvis. Go to Sequence Editor and Bone tab. Now you can see what vertices are attached to what bone. Note down the location of the bones

2. Open your custom model and create bones ( there is a tab-menu for creating attachments and bones at the top bar). Move them to the same locations as the ones from the default Blizzard tree.

3. Once your custom tree has the same bones, open the default tree model in Magos. Copy its rotations, translations and scalings ( if they have any other than default) and paste them somwhere.

4. Understand what geosets are attached to what bone. ( Open the geoset menu and ctrl+left-click on the model/geosets to select one. Keep in mind what you acknowledge.

5. Now open the custom model in Mdlvis and attach the vertices to the correct bones ( in the Bone tab)

6. Open the custom model once again in Magos and paste the Scaling, Translation and Rotation in the movement of the bone ( be careful of the other bone settings, what is checked and what kind of animation it is ( none, linear, ...)

This should do the job. Feel free to ask if you don't understand steps or you don't know how to do it

Hey Ardenian,

I just wante to answer you back to say thank you once more for your explanation I still did not succeed doing it as I am not sure if I attached vertices to a bone correctly or not ... I never see anything happen? (at least for the z movement, when I attach vertices to a bone and then go to "movements" and move the model, it seems that the vertices are attached correctly in case of the ugly dissappearing animation...)

At least I managed to create the ugly Z=-1000 version so this is actually a big success for me, as I needed this for a lot of other applications as well so yeah...

Thank you!!!

 

[Ardenian]

In Mdlvis, there are two main menues: The Vertex Editor and the Sequence Editor.

In the Vertex Editor, you modify the vertices, the blue points, move them or rotate triangles ( = tris). There you set up the basic shape for your model.

In the Sequence Editor, you manipulate sequences and movement of these vertices.
There are three tabs, Bones, Anims and Movement.
In Bones, you attach vertices to existing bones or create new bones.
To do so, select the vertices ( they will become red) and select a bone. The attach them via the little button at the right.
In Anims, you create sequences and in Movement, you create the movement using the bones.
Attached vertices to a bone will move with it.

I don't understand what is your problem with the Z movement, please describe it further and what you would like to achieve

 

[Emm-A-]

In Mdlvis, there are two main menues: The Vertex Editor and the Sequence Editor.

In the Vertex Editor, you modify the vertices, the blue points, move them or rotate triangles ( = tris). There you set up the basic shape for your model.

In the Sequence Editor, you manipulate sequences and movement of these vertices.
There are three tabs, Bones, Anims and Movement.
In Bones, you attach vertices to existing bones or create new bones.
To do so, select the vertices ( they will become red) and select a bone. The attach them via the little button at the right.
In Anims, you create sequences and in Movement, you create the movement using the bones.
Attached vertices to a bone will move with it.

I don't understand what is your problem with the Z movement, please describe it further and what you would like to achieve

My fault, there was no problem


Concerning the main topic of this thread:

I followed the tutorial, that was linked by you, and it works perfectly up to the part, where the 2 diff. textures show correctly in magos

The Tree shows up snowy

Unfortunately, it does not work ingame, when I change doodad or unit animation via triggers. The leaves just disappear:

Doodads nor units do not change to the snowy texture, but "loose" their leaves.

Do you know, what might be wrong there?

Here is the modified pine tree (orig. by nasrudin), if you want to take a look.

In case, this violates nasrudins rights, I will of course delete this again immediately (also informed him via PN)

Can you help me, whats wrong there?

Best,

Emm-A-

 

[Ardenian]

Hm, that was a bit messed up.
Try this one please. It should show the snowy version when you add the
animation tag 'Alternate' via triggers to it.

 

[Emm-A-]

Thank you very much for helping, but unfortunately, it still has the same effect in my editor. The leaf texture becomes invisible.

Does it work in your editor?

From what I see in the MDL, you re-arranged the sequences and the texture usage in the model?

 

[Ardenian]

Hm, I tried around myself, strangely it did not show up.
Furthermore, it crashed my world editor and caused the test map not to be saved.

My hot guess the issue is related to the texture slots, I tried to add the correct,
but the enumeration seemed wrong. In .mdl they were different than in .mdx.

As alternative you could try http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/...odad-without-importing-several-models-222212/

 

[Emm-A-]

The problem is, I need this method for doodad trees. I want the same tree doodads look different during summer and winter ...

Could it be a problem if the tree has no "real" bones or something? I will try it with a properly animated model ...

Any ideas why this is bugged?

 

[Ardenian]

Animated textures and Replacable ones are usually messy and tend to bug.
I never made them work approprietly.

There could be many things causing this. My hot guess, as already said, is the texture slot
which is different in mdl and mdx.
It could also be related to any Alpha setting or the Geoset Animations using color for some reason or
it could even be the tetxure itself, though I couldn't find any issue with it.

I would, as alternative, suggest to duplicate the mesh ( only 7 kb) and make the other geoset use the other texture, in a new material and using Geoset Animation to hide the wrong mesh dependent on animation.

That is basically the same as texture animation, but with additional geoset and geoset animation animation.