Exporting Multiple Animations from Blender Using Exporter Version 0.97 Beta3
Preface:Making this topic has been way overdue. I used to struggle with exporting multiple animations at the same time because they got tangled up when I was exporting with the latest available version of the exporter. I was searching the Internet high and low for a solution - to no avail I might add- until
Tophius shed a light on how it was supposed to be done. Three cheers for him!
So let us begin!
Note:
If you are consulting this thread it can be safely presumed that you have some experience with creating simple animations and exporting them. If not, then you should probably read this:
[Tutorial]Making Add-Ons With Blender(Not Modeling) - by DarkStar
Step 1: Setting up the animations in the Action EditorMost of you are probably familiar with this step. Whatever DarkStar said here applies.
The only extra thing we are going to do will be using
markers.
To add a marker, press
M in the Action Editor and a marker will be added to the position of the green vertical bar.
Add markers to the starting and the ending keyframes of your animation. Rename the markers the following (press
CTRL + M):
| Marker at starting keyframe: | "YourAnimation:start" |
| Marker at ending keyframe: | "YourAnimation:end" |
Tip: If you placed your marker at the wrong place, move it around by pressing Ctrl + G. If you need to remove a marker, press Shift + X to do so. You can find more marker related items under the Marker menu.Do that for all the animations you have. Make sure none of the animations overlap!
Fig 1. - Marker Placement in the Action Editor
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| You can see an example of marker placement. The marked areas should not overlap each other. Note the placement of the keyframe diamonds, they are placed directly on the markers. |
Step 2: "Untangling" the animations in the NLA editorFirst of all, switch to the NLA editor. The editor is divided into 3 panels:
1. Header - Contains the buttons
2. A "list tree" - It is on the left side of the editor, looks almost like the channels view in Action editor. It should display animated objects.
3. Main area - where the keyframes and
Action strips are located
What we are going to do will be converting the actions made in the action editor into action strips.
For that purpose, click the object that corresponds with the name of the armature of which bones you used for animation.
Press
Shift+A to add an
Action strip. The action strip is a pink bar which length is defined by the keyframes. Move the action strip to the corresponding markers. You can move the keyframes individually or the whole action strip.
Tip: turn on Auto snapping by setting "No Snap" to "Nearest Marker"Repeat this until you have turned all your actions into action strips.
Fig 2. - The Action Strips in the NLA Editor
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| Here you can see the action strips moved to their respective areas. On the left side of the screen you can see the object which was animated. It is an armature called "rig" which contains all the bones that were used for animating each respective part of the vehicle. After you perform the conversion to action strips, the keyframe diamonds will show up in the NLA editor. |
Step 3: ExportingThere is nothing much to do here. Since you placed all the markers, the exporter will automatically add the sequences.
Fig 3. - The Sequences Tab in the Exporter
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| Here you can see the sequences which were instantly recognised by the exporter without pressing anything here. |
Enjoy your animations!
Further notes:
I decided to not to get into a detailed explanation about the Sequences tab in the exporter as I could not give a useful explanation for all the buttons, and unfortunately the Wayback Machine did not archive that particular page of the exporter's homepage.
Revision:
- Revised the comment under Fig. 1. Removed factual inaccuracies about the keyframe diamonds.
- Changed picture of the Action Editor
