Animating a sword-like weapon

[SuperSuit12]

How do I animate anything at all, even? I don't know how any of the animation stuff works and the relevant tutorials seem to be unusable (missing permissions, no images, etc) or just don't work.
(I'm using Port's .dts exporter and Blender.)

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[ArmyUnit]

Well, I can't give you as much help as I'd like, since I have not use Port's exporter yet and I currently still use Blender 2.49 for mods.

As far as I'm aware, armature/skeleton animations are not supported by Port's exporter, so you will have to use empties and animate those (you parent the mesh to the empties).


As for animating within Blender, you'll want to have the action editor visible so that you can see the keyframes of your animation (set a window to the Dope Sheet and then from within there, change the dropdown menu to action editor, as by default it is set to Dope Sheet).
It can also be nice to have the timeline window visible.

Press I (with mouse over the 3D view) to add keyframes. Normally you'll only need to use LocRot (location and rotation) for Blockland animations.
The left and right arrow keys will move the selected frame of the animation around, and you can also drag the green line around in the action editor to move the frame around.
And press Alt+A to preview your animation.

You might want to ask Trogtor for further information, since he is a very skilled animator and he has used Port's exporter quite a bit.

[Conan]

animation works with the concept of keyframes

keyframes can contain rotation, scale, or position data

in between the keyframes, the program automatically generates keyframes to make the animation "smooth". animations are a bunch of these.

for ports exporter, you dont use action editor, and instead use IPO editor and timeline, since you use markers to label animation starts and ends. That's for items, at least; no clue about vehicles or whatever.

[Cruxeis]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kbTY1Ht-bc
this is a pretty good tutorial on how to use the ipo
also, for using markers with items in the ipo editor, you need to select the keyframe, hit m, then ctrl m, and rename it to nameofanimation:start, and do the same thing at the end of that animation with nameofanimation:end

[Cruxeis]

I whipped this up for you, I included the .blend and I used the new exporter and everything seems to work fine, take a look
Here

[SuperSuit12]

thanks cruxeis, I'll look at it.
Sorry I took so long to understand.
Also, I'd figured out how to animate stuff with and without armatures, but I didn't know how to export it properly or what to apply the animation to.

EDIT: I set it up like you have it already and tried that, tried it again. It doesn't work. I think Port's exporter needs something different?

[Cruxeis]

thanks cruxeis, I'll look at it.
Sorry I took so long to understand.
Also, I'd figured out how to animate stuff with and without armatures, but I didn't know how to export it properly or what to apply the animation to.

With the new exporter, you use empties, not armatures. You then parent the meshes to the empties, and animate the empties.

[SuperSuit12]

With the new exporter, you use empties, not armatures. You then parent the meshes to the empties, and animate the empties.

That's what I've done. My hierarchy looks exactly like yours, except Shape is capitalized and there's no muzzlepoint because it's not a gun.

[Conan]

post a blend

[SuperSuit12]

k
probably did something really stupid

[Potatoh]

Animated pringles

Nice

[Conan]

couple things you dont need a mountpoint (its automatically generated at the origin pointing in the positive Y direction) and you didn't title the markers on the timeline to label the animation so you can play it with stateSequence


right click to select the start marker, title it how cruelxeis explained, and do the same with the ending marker.

edit: fixed typo on cruelxeis' name

[Cruxeis]

cruxeis explained, and do the same with the ending marker.

boi

Also, supersuit, muzzlePoint isn't just for guns, you can use it for anything that needs to fire a projectile

[SuperSuit12]

Also, supersuit, muzzlePoint isn't just for guns, you can use it for anything that needs to fire a projectile

yes, I know, but it's a pringles can that you hit people with.

Anyways, I didn't see that I needed (or was able to) label keyframes and didn't understand exactly what Cruxeis was saying. I'll have it done soon.

[Rally]

yes, I know, but it's a pringles can that you hit people with.

Melee weapons fire projectiles.