Two Part Vehicle Look Animations - yaw/pitch look .dsq Help

[PhantOS]

I'm trying to make a Turret vehicle, and I'm having a bit of trouble with the animations, specifically the looking animation. Just before anybody posts, I am looking for help specifically from users who have had experience with turret-like vehicles, such as the default Pirate Cannon or Bushido's Sentry Gun. If you really have no luck understanding what I am trying to communicate and/or you have absolutely no skill in this area, please ask for clarification, or, for the latter, please do not post. If you know someone who possibly has skill in this field, please, show him/her this topic. Thank you

Here comes the details:

I'm trying to make a turret-like vehicle, as I explained before, that functions identical to the default Pirate Cannon in terms of animation and movement. It will have three 'parts' of the model:



- The Base, which is immobile at all times

- The Body, mounted on top of the base, which has complete freedom of rotation along the Standard Z Axis (Yaw)

- The Gun, mounted on the top of the body, which has partial freedom of rotation along the Y Axis RELATIVE TO THE BODY (Pitch)





In terms of hierarchy, it's kinda like Base(Body(Gun)), so if the Body rotates 20 degrees to the left, so does the gun, but if the gun rotates 30 degrees upwards, the body will stay stationary.

Here's some imagery:






How exactly do I do this? If a .dsq is required, how should it be set up? I know that there are two variables in the .cs file of most turrets that control the maximum and minimum pitch theta, and that's not exactly what i'm looking for. I'm looking for what animations I have to make exclusively for the gun to look up an down while the body can move left and right. Simultaneously!


Fast Responses Appreciated, Trying to release this ASAP!

[Ad Bot]

[Thorfin25]

You do know that the turrents aren't vehicles, but rather bots, right? Specifically they use the TSShapeConstructor
The only animation you will need is the root animation, example:

Code: [Select]

datablock TSShapeConstructor(TankTurretDts)
{
baseShape  = "./tank_turret.dts";
sequence0  = "./t_root.dsq root";

sequence1  = "./t_root.dsq run";
sequence2  = "./t_root.dsq walk";
sequence3  = "./t_root.dsq back";
sequence4  = "./t_root.dsq side";

sequence5  = "./t_root.dsq crouch";
sequence6  = "./t_root.dsq crouchRun";
sequence7  = "./t_root.dsq crouchBack";
sequence8  = "./t_root.dsq crouchSide";

sequence9  = "./t_look.dsq look";
sequence10 = "./t_root.dsq headside";
sequence11 = "./t_root.dsq headUp";

sequence12 = "./t_root.dsq jump";
sequence13 = "./t_root.dsq standjump";
sequence14 = "./t_root.dsq fall";
sequence15 = "./t_root.dsq land";

sequence16 = "./t_root.dsq armAttack";
sequence17 = "./t_root.dsq armReadyLeft";
sequence18 = "./t_root.dsq armReadyRight";
sequence19 = "./t_root.dsq armReadyBoth";
sequence20 = "./t_root.dsq spearready"; 
sequence21 = "./t_root.dsq spearThrow";

sequence22 = "./t_root.dsq talk"; 

sequence23 = "./t_root.dsq death1";

sequence24 = "./t_root.dsq shiftUp";
sequence25 = "./t_root.dsq shiftDown";
sequence26 = "./t_root.dsq shiftAway";
sequence27 = "./t_root.dsq shiftTo";
sequence28 = "./t_root.dsq shiftLeft";
sequence29 = "./t_root.dsq shiftRight";
sequence30 = "./t_root.dsq rotCW";
sequence31 = "./t_root.dsq rotCCW";

sequence32 = "./t_root.dsq undo";
sequence33 = "./t_root.dsq plant";

sequence34 = "./t_root.dsq sit";

sequence35 = "./t_root.dsq wrench";
};   
The base of the pirate cannon does in fact turn with the whole thing, the vehicles that have the unmoving base have the bases modeled into the vehicles, as for the yaw I haven't a clue. I can tell you that the root animation is a short, one-frame animation that is the default pose of the model in question.

[PhantOS]

Thanks, I got the root handled. Still doesn't solve, but again, the body of the bot moves with the aim along one axis, while the gun moves along another. Although there may be no look .dsq (even though Pirate Cannon has a 'look.dsq' file in it) I still need to figure out the movement part.

[Thorfin25]

I just noticed that the tank turret has a look as well. If nobody jumps on who has in fact made turrets before that can help you then you could try searching the ancient forums, asking a modeler directly, and if those fail PM Badspot.