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Skele: Character Animation Tools, Cutscenes and Animations authoring tools

Discussion in 'Assets and Asset Store' started by TMPxyz, Apr 16, 2014.

  1. saucer78

    saucer78

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    That is a HUGE help, thanks so much!

    I hope it helps other newcomers as well!
     
  2. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    Glad it can help, if you have any other questions, you could just ask me =)
     
  3. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    Hi, Developers,

    I've posted a video before to introduce how to use the AnimCurvePropEditor to batch apply prefix on curves.
    This time I'll show you how to directly change transform paths with AnimCurvePropEditor.

    A typical use case is to fix up the animation clip after hierarchy is modified during level editing.

     

    Attached Files:

    hopeful likes this.
  4. IndieScapeGames

    IndieScapeGames

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    Skele makes life unbelievably easy! I created something similar in a matter of minutes (albeit no shooter control) and was very happy with how it turned out.
     
    TMPxyz likes this.
  5. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    Hi, ChadM,

    Glad to hear you made progress there.
    Just to clarify that plain moving object and camera path only needs utilizes native animation view. You could also use Skele to combine it with SMR animation and multi-object animations during the fly path. =)
     
  6. saucer78

    saucer78

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    I am looking forward to using Skele along with the native animation to create a more complex scene, but have another question for you... even though it may not pertain directly to Skele. I like the method of creating a motion path using the first-person camera and CTRL+SHIFT+W, but I would like to be able to visually edit a spline afterword. Do you know of any way to do so? I've looked into iTween and HOTween but they are a bit complicated for a new user like myself. I also have not found a way to create the initial spline using a first-person view; it seems like they must be constructed entirely from outside. (Plus, I'm having trouble getting iTween Visual Editor to work - for some reason the transform handles and the spline do not appear when I add a path??)

    Anyway, if there's some way to convert the animation keyframes from a first-person path into a visual, editable spline, it would help me immensely!

    Thanks again :)
     
  7. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    Hi, saucer78,

    That sounds like a motion path in blender, I think I could try adding one in v1.7 to add some visual appeal.

    Meantime, you could have a look at Simple Waypoint system, and Camera path animator.
    I used to play with ITween Visual editor a while, but in the end I feel I prefer animation view to spline. =)

    Best regards, Be creative.
     
  8. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    This video shows a FPS hand animation example.
    This game is what I'm working on to expand to full-title, based on my LudumDare 30 entry:



    Here's some useful experience:
    1. Character
    The model is created with Autodesk Character Generator.
    It's FREE and create models with full rig, (free version doesn't have facial rig, what a pity)
    As it's a web-service, it's a little slow for me here, not sure it's on my network or on the autodesk server.
    upload_2014-9-1_13-14-56.png

    The generated FBX can be opened in Max smoothly, but when it comes to blender, it loses all the skeleton, eek..., well it's not uncommon that blender cannot import archives right. You just need to live with it.
    upload_2014-9-1_13-19-56.png

    So, I tried to export the model from Unity with Skele DAE exporter, and this time blender has it with skeleton. Lucky one.


    Then I cut it and leave only two hands, and put it back to Unity ( could use a subdivide to give the arm some more geometry )
    The full model, I will keep it to use in the cutscenes.


    Remember to put the Armature(Skeleton) as child gameobject the camera, so you can automatically get your hands rotated when you rotate camera around.


    The skinning on the fingers is not very satisfying, you could give it some fix to make better result.


    2. Hands animtation
    This is standard animation authoring stuff.

    Here's a trick you might need,

    Basically I'll put the GameView at the top-left to keep an eye on how it looks in game during animation authoring. As it's quite important of the hand's details in the FPS.


    Hope this info can help. =)

    Best regards, Be creative.
     

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  9. red2blue

    red2blue

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    Hi TMP,

    i bought your asset in the last sale, but didn't had much time to test it out. Since it also has a cutscene functionality, i would like to know if it is comparable with the asset which is right now on sale Link.


    Is it possible to make something similar (Video) with your tool?

    Thanks and keep up the good work!

    Cheers!
     
  10. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    Hi, red2blue,

    The biggest feature of Skele's cutscene authoring is to create motions for one or more characters right in the cutscene. You don't need to switch back and fro external softwares frequently to fix motions of your actors, especially the interactions between the scene objects or other actors.

    Check on the demos =)
    [Game on Kongregate]
    [Demo1] [Demo2] [Demo3]
    [Demo4] [Demo5] [Demo6]
    [Demo7] [Play_Demo0] [Dance_Demo0]

    But, a custom timeline editor is always useful, it could handle some tasks more intuitively than the animation events based methods. e.g: the time-interval control.

    By the way, you could check out the new director system in Unity5. It looks a new better timeline editor of unity.
     
    Last edited: Sep 22, 2014
  11. red2blue

    red2blue

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    Hi TMP,

    thanks a lot for your valuable answere. I will dig into your links and will see if this is satisfying my needs.
    Hope this will bring me an answere for my question.

    Cheers! :)
     
  12. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    Hi, red2blue,

    Sorry for not make it clear enough, the definite answer is YES, we can make same thing like that, but the method might be different. For example like the sound setting, Skele uses animation event based on Animation view, and Flux uses custom timeline editor that makes the operation easier and more intuitive.

    Hope this info helps. =)
     
    Last edited: Sep 3, 2014
    red2blue likes this.
  13. red2blue

    red2blue

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    Thanks, I think I understood. I don't want to make to fancy cutscenes. It is more like camara path through the environment (Trailer) and that something is triggert / happening.

    Thanks again for the quick answere. I will dig a little bit deeper in your asset since I already own it :)
     
  14. Neo-Gamefactory

    Neo-Gamefactory

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    Hey, great tool :)


    But... can you make a function that you can rig the Model direct in Unity :)

    So i can make my Model with GameDraw and Rig/Animate with Skele :)
     
  15. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    Hi, Neo-Gamefactory,

    Thanks for the feedback. =)

    Yeah... I've considered that before.
    But for now I need to make some more features on animation authoring first.
    So, maybe I'll try adding it later.
     
  16. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    My LudumDare 30 Post-Compo version, I made the animations with Skele package, the level is made with Probuilder, combined with some spice from substances. I have played with the Substance painter too.

    You could see in this video that, the Titan robot at the start walks towards the player, and makes a battle howling almost face-to-face, then in battle, it will use arm to swipe at different level of platforms.
    ALL these animations require exact positioning against the scene settings, and it's of great help to be able to tweak the animation details right in the scene.



    You could play this game freely at Kongregate
     

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  17. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    Hi, Developers,

    Skele v1.7 has been submitted to the assetstore, if things go smoothly, it will be online around Sep. 25th.

    I'll put the introductory videos for new functions in later posts. :)

    1.7 (Submitted on 2014/09/21)
    NEW: Multi-select + Multi-edit in FK mode
    NEW: Use Ctrl+LMB to recursively select bones
    NEW: Use '[' ']' '\' to fast switch bones ( parent, child, sibling )
    NEW: Inspector style control for current selected bone
    NEW: Mirror Edit

    Based on feedback from developers, I added the mult-select / multi-edit / keyboard switch functions in this update.

    Also a transform editor is displayed at the top-left of scene-view, you could see the data and modify it during edit. You could toggle this editor with the "Show Xform" button.

    Based on the "Mirror animation" in prev update, I added this new "Mirror edit" functions. You could manipulate your character in mirror-ed fashion.

    NOTE: the gift models in v1.6 will be removed in this update, backup the "Assets/Skele/Mechs" directory to other project to prevent unexpected deletion.

    upload_2014-9-21_21-33-34.png
     
    Last edited: Sep 21, 2014
  18. sjm-tech

    sjm-tech

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    It is online now!
     
  19. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    What? Why? It should take AssetStore three days for review usually.
     
  20. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    Well, it seems AssetStore put on the update early. But I haven't received the notification mail yet.
    I planned to make & post videos in the review period, but things seem to go faster than I expect.

    Anyway, I'll make the videos tomorrow and post them here. So hold on for a while :)
     
  21. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    Hi, developers,

    Here is the intro videos of Multi-bones select/edit functions

     

    Attached Files:

    hopeful likes this.
  22. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    Hi, Developers,

    Here is the Mirror-Editing functions video. Be noted it shares same setting mechanism and restriction like Mirror-Animation function. I'll expand its compatibility in later updates.

    [
     

    Attached Files:

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  23. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    Hi, Developers,

    Skele v1.7a has been submitted to the assetstore, and is online right now.

    1.7a (Submitted on 2014/09/24)
    NEW: Mirror-Edit for IK;
    FIX: PoseManager Multi-Select error message;
    FIX: Recalculate the Gizmo's pos & rot on Undo;

    If you ever find any issues, be sure to tell me via mail or by forum of Skele.UserEcho.com;

    Best regards, Be creative :)
     
    Last edited: Sep 24, 2014
  24. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    Hi,

    We have shown in prev videos that, how to export [Skinned Mesh] and [Skinned Mesh + Non-skinned mesh] with DAE exporter.

    Some users asked if they could export only non-skinned mesh with our DAE exporter, so I added this change in v1.7b;

     
  25. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    Hi, Developers,

    Skele v1.7b has been submitted to the assetstore, and is online right now.

    1.7b (Submitted on 2014/10/03)
    NEW: Enable DAE exporter to export only non-skinned mesh.
     
  26. nasos_333

    nasos_333

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    Hi,

    Is it possible to assign animation curves to a body point and follow them ?

    I have the splines from my Particle Dynamic Magic asset and would love to use them to define the motion for body parts or for the motion of the character in a cut scene.

    Is there a way to do that ?

    Another thing is emulating a timeline editor functionality for the cut scene creation, is that possible ? From what i understand you can have sounds etc play as part of an animation, but there is no timeline to tell when the animation should start, but can be done with triggers, is that correct ?

    Finally i am using Unity 4.3.4, is it safe to download and use the new version (says it requires Unity 4.5)

    Thanks
     
    Last edited: Oct 9, 2014
  27. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    Hi, nasos_333,

    Thanks for your feedback :)

    1.
    It's easy to add the feature to assign an existing animation curve to specified bone, but I'm not sure how to use it?
    In what form do you store the spline? Is it saved as animation curve or a custom spline data structure?

    Be noted that the Unity Animation Engine manipulates the Transform component in local-space (by local_position / local_rotation / local_scale). So if we have position and rotation animation curves defined in world-space, in theory, it could be applied to the topmost transform of the character.

    2.
    We use Animation event to trigger the Sound / GUI / and other custom parts.
    Take a look at the video tutorial 3m30s part

    3.
    Unity 4.3.4, Well, I need to download one and check against it, I'll notify you tomorrow =)

    Best regards, Be creative.
     
  28. nasos_333

    nasos_333

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    Thanks for the answers, i have been playing with Skele and is really amazing and stable in Unity 4.3.4 so far, works fine.

    I decided to install and see what happens and is going well, so dont worry about testing it, i will report if anything bad happens :), but so far is perfectly stable.

    My splines expose a word space matrix of all their points and another for the handle points.
     
  29. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    Thanks for the help testing on U4.3.4. =)

    I have thought about making a max-like step-editor, with a spline as position input on root-bone, the data structure might has position/rotation/time/speed info.

    As most of other bones on characters mainly use rotation not position curve, I'm not quite sure how to use a position spline to define their paths. So there would not be such functionality shortly.

    Best regards,
     
  30. nasos_333

    nasos_333

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    I was thinking more in the IK and path of overall character motion use, you are right that otherwise it would be harder to implement for any other case.

    I can also program it myself probably, using the spline as an IK path or providing it to a move script, so dont worry :), if it ever gets integrated would be nice though.
     
  31. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    Hmm, It could be an interesting method to combine IK with spline path. :)
    Although it could get a little tricky to tweak details and sync between multiple bones' path, but it's just my guess

    I'm considering the step editor and integrate physx recently, so I would keep the spline path method in mind, and see if I could make something with it later.
     
    nasos_333 likes this.
  32. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    Hi, developers,

    I think most of you have known about this already, just put it here in case:

    You need to enable the bones in mask section of your model's importer setting,
    Or the bones' curves will not show up in your clip.


    It got me for about 10 minutes, make me doubt if I exported the model right. LOL.

    31.jpg 32.jpg
     
    hopeful likes this.
  33. Alexarah

    Alexarah

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    Hey TMPxyz I just purchased your asset a few minutes ago. I have an issue with it though. I'm using Unity 4.5.5 and as soon as import your asset it gives 1 error which says (The Member 'MH.ObjectRefModalWindow.m_onCancel' cannot be used as method or delegate. Is this error known by you? If so how do I fix it or do I have to wait to the next update? By the way I'm new to coding, especially C#. Any help to resolve this error would be appreciated because I really need to use this awesome asset!
     
  34. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    Hi, Alexarah,

    Thanks for your feedback, =)

    It looks like a name conflict with another global namespace symbol defined by 3rd-party plugin or custom classes.

    Fortunately, we've recently solved a report that looked quite similar to this one, could you take a look at this post and check if this matches your circumstance?

    If it's not the case, please tell me and paste the full error logs from console window.

    Best regards, Be creative,
     
  35. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    Hi,

    Some user asked for examples of applying rootmotion to make spheres rolling on.
    So here comes some examples, you could get the source scene from the forum post

     
  36. Alexarah

    Alexarah

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    Hey TMP I'm curious is Skele is able to make Machinima in Unity? That would be nice so I won't be isolated to UE4 neither buying more and more stuff from the Asset Store. And no I'm not going to use Blender and especially not an overpriced Autodesk software for making short to longer Machinima after all Machinima is made using game engines are they not? So Autodesk in particular is out of the question as they shouldn't be so expensive from the start.
     
  37. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    Hi, Alexarah,

    What do you mean by "Machinima"? Do you mean the cutscene in game? There're a bunch of cutscene examples links in the first post and store page.

    Skele + Animation View could enable you to animate skinned models / non-skinned models in Unity. But you might still need models / materials / FXs / SFX / BGM from AssetStore or elsewhere

    As for Autodesk, their softwares are expensive, but I don't really think they're overpriced. =)
     
  38. inas

    inas

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    Hi @TMPxyz

    Your assets looks good! I wonder how you replace actors when playing animation clip?
     
  39. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    Hi, inas,

    Sorry for the late reply, been busy working on game dev work yesterday :)

    Replacing actors can be setup during edit-time or in run-time.
    To do it in run-time, use the CutsceneController.SwapGO() method,
    To do it in edit-time, use the CutsceneController MonoBehaviour's ToSwapObjTrPaths list.
    You could check the PlayDemo0 scene for examples.

    Basically, the two actors should have identical skeleton structure,

    Just tell me If you need more info / details =)

    Best regards,
     
  40. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    Hi, developers,

    Just catch some moments to make a new "animation authoring tutorial 101" on the weekend,



    If you have any questions, you could ask me here or by mail,

    Best regards,
     

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  41. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    Hi, Developers,

    LudumDare #31 has just ended the submission phase. Have you guys joined this game jam?

    This is my submitted game, take a play and have fun.
    If you have submitted one game too, drop me a PM and I will go take a play and rate.

    Detective vs Killers is a logical game derived from the table game "Killers" with extra spice of "Minesweep".
    You will play as the Detective, and your task is to find out the Killer hiding among the Citizens.

    Player Action:
    0. Arrest: Arrest this guy, reduce credit if it turns out to be a Citizen;
    1. Inquire: a citizen will mark possible cells if the killer is near him; Killer will not mark any cells;
    2. Trace: Color a person, so you could still distinguish him in next turn;

    Rules:
    1. The Citizen and Killer could move1-tile at Night;
    2. The Killer could only kill 1-tile nearby citizens, so check around the corpse closely.
    3. The point is to deduce and guess where the killer is as soon as possible. Don’t need to be 100% sure to issue an arrest order.
    4. You lose when your credit is not enough to issue arrest.

    JAM ENTRY: http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-31/?action=preview&uid=39382
    JUMPTO GAME: http://www.kongregate.com/games/tmpxyz/detective-vs-killers


     
    Last edited: Dec 10, 2014
  42. eridani

    eridani

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    Last edited: Dec 10, 2014
  43. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    Hi, eridani,

    Yeah, Skele does the jobs to convert between legacy/generic <=> humanoid clips.

    1. humanoid to legacy/generic:


    2. Legacy/Generic to humanoid: (with DAE archive, you could convert between Legacy/Generic/Humanoid as you like)


    3. See Also the channel for Skele:
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLhQ5ZXMdmnf40mmuKsUQPQ

    -- Does Skele make AnimationBaker unncecessary?
    No, no, I don't think so.
    I think AnimationBaker has done a great and elegant job.
    As far as I can tell from its tutorial video, it has better UI and a cool batch operation to bake many clips to many models, that would be VERY efficient if you have a lot of different models with different skeletons.
     
    eridani likes this.
  44. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    Hi, developers,

    Just made a new video to show examples of clips conversion on weekend.



    If you feel anything not clear, just tell me.

    Best regards,
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Dec 14, 2014
  45. nathantran

    nathantran

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    TMPxyz,

    Hi. I would like to file a bug report. This has taken me quite some time to track down. After installation into an existing project, Skele wouldn't show the edit button on the skinmeshrenderer. It turns out there's a conflict of some sort between Skele and the UVersionControl plugin that I have been using. UVersionControl is available for free on the asset store. https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/3350. Once UversionControl is removed, Skele is finally working. My work around is to keep Skele in a separate project, but it would be great if I can use both of the plugins without having to switch projects.

    Thanks.
     
  46. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    Hi, nathantran,

    Thanks for your bug report,
    I will take a copy of UVersionControl and find out where the conflict is.

    I'll add what i find in this post later.
    ====================================
    UPDATE:
    Well, It seems that UVersionControl has made a custom editor on all renderer components, which conflicts with Skele's cutsom editor on SkinnedMeshRenderer.

    That would be complicated, I don't know if Unity has a standard method to handle such inevitable conflict.
    I've post a thread in the extension forum, hope could get some answer from Unity devs.

    Best regards,
     
    Last edited: Dec 15, 2014
  47. Dbone

    Dbone

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    Hi TMPxyz,

    Skele's features have really grown since I bought it last spring! I want to import it into my current project but I don't want any example files, or the cutscene director unless it's and a necessary thing to have.

    Do you have it outlined anywhere which files are necessary and which are optional when importing the bone manipulator on it's own, and when importing the cutscene director?

    Fantastic asset! Great job!
     
  48. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    Hi, Dbone,

    Thanks for your support,
    Yeah... should sort it out so you can keep only the part you need,
    I will make an update later for that soon, with a patch to make Skele "Unity5 ready".

    Thanks for your feedback,

    Best regards, Merry Christmas.
     
  49. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    Hi, Dbone,

    I Just finished downloading the Unity5 installer, if things go smooth, I will upload a new update on this weekend with the resources sorted out.

    Best regards,
     
  50. TMPxyz

    TMPxyz

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    I just submitted v1.7d, in which I re-organized the resource so you could strip out the runtime part if you only want to use the animation authoring part. [If you don't have such demand, you could skip this update]

    (Just move the "Assets/Skele/CharacterAnimationTools/Res/Extra" directory outside the "Assets" )
    upload_2014-12-28_22-40-28.png

    I wanted to make Skele package "Unity5 ready" in this update... but it turned out that I have used much more internal API and reflections than I thought. I need to make a careful check and get a better hold of the Unity5 APIs before inserting new Unity5 specific code. So, the U5-ready patch will come a little later.

    By the way, I thought I could have a try with the new "Director" system in U5 beta, but it seems that it's not available yet. :(