Animating models - is there a cheap way?

Hi all - I just wondered what progress there had been in Unity in terms of getting animated meshes into Unity using tools that don't cost the earth? This was a problem last year - has anything changed? I know that Cheetah3d is working on fbx animation but are there any other methods people use successfully?

One of the things that always struck me about Unity (and other engines) is that whilst it is a fantastic tool for the indie developer they never seem to provide the one thing the indie developer really needs - a cost effective way to create animation.

I was playing with a fantastic Machinima tool the other day called iClone - it was so easy to create animated people by simply loading in a .BVH motion capture file. Trouble is its only output is video files, but I thought if only something like iClone and Unity could come together what an amazing game game development tool that would be!

 

Animation solutions available -now-:

1. Blender => Dim3 => Unity
Total cost = 0, runs entirely under OS X

2. Blender => MilkShape => Unity
Total cost = $25, you'll need Windows (running under Parallels Desktop will do) to run MilkShape

Possible solution I'm investigating:

3. Blender => Ogre3D XML exporter => Ultimate Unwrap3D => Unity
Total cost = $49, you'll need Windows (running under Parallels Desktop works) for UU3D. The only advantage this route has (if I can get it to work) is that all the animation will be done in Blender.

Solutions for the future? Contact OTEE...

 

I still have not figured out how to use Dim3. Maybe I don't understand the concepts behind using bones, but the application itself just makes no sense to me.

 

Do any of these content paths allow you to make use of .BVH motion capture files?

Ideally I just want to use a premodelled and rigged mesh which I can then apply different motion animations to - then load the whole thing into unity so that I can just invoke the different animations through scripting.

 

milkshape has bvh import. never tried it though.

 

I haven't had a chance to dig into Dim3 either, I'm still hoping there will be a way to do everything in Blender.

Blender can import .BVH files also. A search of the forums at blenderartists.org should find several threads on this and I beleive an updated script will be included with the next version of Blender.

 

Do md2 models work wth Unity? Also do BSP maps (or quake 3 maps) work with unity as well?

 

md2->milkshape->fbx->unity

.map->realityfactory->3ds->blender or milkshape->blend or fbx->unity
it won't retain entities or lighting etc and you'll have to retexture. but you can get the geo in.

both ways involve a pc or parallels at least. i never tried. not sure if there's an md2 importer for blender. static stuff you could do all on a mac. getting animations out of blender is tough at best and involves going through other software right now (most likely pc atm).

 

What other file formats support animation that are compatible with Unity? I have a graphic artist based on a Win32 machine, and I would like us to be on the same track as of what file format we'll be using.

Btw, thanks for the reply pete

 

http://unity3d.com/Documentation/Manual/HOWTO-importObject.html

 

pretty much fbx is it if you need animation (or mb if you have maya). plenty of fbx exporters out there though. i'm sure there'll be other options soon.

[edit... oh yeah... yer welcome! ]