Animation Guidence Request

Hello All,

So im currently looking for help and a nudge in the right direction as i have no idea how to animate anything but i have been given 40 frames of a model that changes. File types i have of the model are, OBJ and FBX.

Can this be animated with in Unity?
Is it best to animate it in 3dsmax/Blender/Maya?

Could you provide links or suggestions on how this can be done please?

I have looked but not really sure what im looking for or even if what i find is correct or incorrect.

Thanks

 

You will need to animate in blender/maya/3ds etc. I use blender and it is extremely easy to animate once you learn how to do it. I use Darren Lile tutorials for reference, he is the best in the biz. If you watch and follow along his video tutorials you will be good enough to rig your own models. You only need about a day to complete the tutorials and some patience.

You can edit your keyframes in unity and it appears you have at least 40 frames that you can manipulate. However to make any new animations you will need blender. Blender can do anything you would ever need. I am proficient with blender and 3ds max and actually got my start on 3ds max. I prefer blender though and although I think the learning curve for blender is more difficult, once you do learn it the workflow is quicker and more efficient.

They are all great so it really is just a preference on what you choose to go with. If you plan to do this for a company then getting one of the mainstream apps would be best. If you are just doing this for personal use/indie games then Blender is what I would go with.

 

@StickyHB
Thank you for this information very informative which has now raised more questions for if you would be so kind to answer.

edit:
The frames are single files with each step in the simulation. so i have 50 steps = 50 frame files which i need to combine.

Now what i have been given is frames from a simulation and wish to combine these all to create the animation. Is this possible within these Blender tuts?(This is not gaming related simulation)

As my true roll is not to be an animator i want to keep it to basics and not fall down the rabbit hole as all i need to do is combine a bunch of frames to a single animation every time they give me a new simulation. Do you have any pointers that are more specific on this?

Is it possible to create a script for this process and have you ever tried this approach?

Thanks

 

I have never done what you are trying to do since I make all of my animations myself. I don't see why it won't be possible in Blender but I can't say how to do it exactly. Many of my animations have similar positions so what I will do is copy the key frames into a new animation into blender and then modify it accordingly. I don't see why you can't do the same with your setup but I honestly think it would be too time consuming.

Do you actually need to combine them or do you just need to play all the frames in the correct order? I suspect you only need to play the frames in the correct order. If that is the case then I would think a script would be the easiest to implement.

Let me see if I can pull in someone more knowledgeable on this. I think this question would be better served on the Animation forum but that's ok I will try and tag someone.

@theANMATOR2b, you think you can help this fellow out. You are kind of my go to guy for animation questions anyway.

 

Strongly suggest finding an animator who is informed on this topic to perform the tasks required.

You are describing (what is called in Max) a point cache cycle. This is not something that can be walked through - as it is a complex sub-set topic. I'm not even 75% familiar with this topic. I default to Mega-fier asset pack for these things.

@Gasric If able - research point cache in the Unity documentation and search on the asset store. I don't know if there is a supporting pack other than Mega-fiers which is a top quality tool that DOES address this topic for Unity.
Consider requesting a keyframe based fbx rather than point cache files.

I've imported and animated a point cache one time before - and it was complex/complicated. Sorry I can't help more.

 

@StickyHoneybuns
Thanks for all your help. You correct all i want to do is play the frames in sequence but wrap it up in a single animation.
I have done some digging and come across a python script that will sequence the frames which is fantastic but python counts oddly and has put some frames in random places. SO at this point im almost there but yet still so far.....

How would you do this if you didnt script it?
Is there a way to move frames around and correct the faults?

@theANMATOR2b
Unfortunately i dont have the luxury of an animator to hand and have to do this one solo. The cache cycle sounds familiar but i think im leading you off what i really need to do which is my fault.
I will take a look into Mega-fier pack and see if thats what im looking for just in case!
Thanks for your guidance and feel free to add your thoughts on the above questions.

 

This should be possible - (I don't use blender) in Max just selecting all the animated bones/objects will allow the creator to move the keyframes associated with those objects.

It might be worth it to scale all the keyframes apart from each other (if animation is 100 frames long, select all the keyframes and scale them up to 200 frames) - then you will have space between the keyframes to reorganize the out-of-place keys back to where they should be.
Then select all and re-scale all the keyframes back into the time-frame the animation should play in.

This is generic animation speak - blender and Max have different terminology.

 

Update.
So i have been given 3dsMax now woohoo....I think!? i have a script that puts them all together but required some tweaking on the naming format for the frames. However i have now got them in order but suffer from a new problems now.

The size of the animation is 300mb in size which is just silly for what i need, also the object is massive. Is there a way in MAX to reduce the size and cost but keep the animation intact?

Thanks for all your help.

 

Yes
A couple questions first though.
So the Max file contains only one instance of the 'character' with the bones, Not 40 instances of the character, one per animation frame?

Is the 'character' rigged in Max with bones, or is it just a deforming mesh?

Is this still only 40 frames long? I ask because 3DMax file bloat happens with a lot of keyframes, and it is likely you can delete a BUNCH of keyframes. Not every bone needs a keyframe on every frame.
I currently have a robot (about 40 bones) pushing 1600 keyframes (about 50 animation cycles) and the export fbx file is about 3mb.
Here are a couple 3D Max specific links to reduce the number of keyframes in the animation. Save a copy of the Max file before performing any of these techniques. It is likely you will have to perform these processes on every bone - if the character is still rigged.
https://knowledge.autodesk.com/supp...0F1A6517-2989-4638-9D8F-0F3DD18A4BCF-htm.html
http://www.3dmax-tutorials.com/Reduce_Keys.html
http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/scripts/reduce-transform-keys

Are you saying the size of the animation is 300mb in size - what is that size? The Max file? The fbx export? The fbx import into Unity?

One simple test before answering questions
- Open Max by default (don't click on the Max file with the animation), open it without anything else in the scene, a clean max file start up.
- File, Import, Merge; (don't click on import - it will default to import dialogue. Float on import and click on merge).
- Locate the Max file with the animation in it and click open.
- Click - select all - at the bottom left of the dialogue box - make sure all objects in the hierarchy view above are selected.
- Save this new Max file.
Might be considerably smaller in file size.

 

There are no characters just an object from a simulation suite.

The object has 30-50 frames and i have hard coded them in Unity to play in sequence but i want to use the animator and not have to hard code every new sim i get.

Is the 'character' rigged in Max with bones, or is it just a deforming mesh? N/A

Is this still only 40 frames long? I ask because 3DMax file bloat happens with a lot of keyframes, and it is likely you can delete a BUNCH of keyframes. Yes i have been trying to keep it to that size but can this still be done if its not a character?

Are you saying the size of the animation is 300mb in size - what is that size? The Max file? The fbx export? The fbx import into Unity? Its the fbx export from 3dsmax.


One simple test before answering questions
- Open Max by default (don't click on the Max file with the animation), open it without anything else in the scene, a clean max file start up.
- File, Import, Merge; (don't click on import - it will default to import dialogue. Float on import and click on merge).
- Locate the Max file with the animation in it and click open.
- Click - select all - at the bottom left of the dialogue box - make sure all objects in the hierarchy view above are selected.
- Save this new Max file.
Might be considerably smaller in file size.

Tried this and it didnt change the size of the file. The max file size is 926mb. sorry i didn't mention that.

Thanks