Animations From Blender To Leadwerks?

[SlipperyBrick]

Just a question about how animations work from Blender to LE. I am new to animating and I've just learnt how to rig and animate in Blender so I have a few questions about workflows and how to's.

 

Firstly I want to know if Leadwerks supports IK bones? I've watched a tutorial where a guy is rigging a simple model and he has two IK bones and 'pull targets', would there be any issue if I rigged in a similar way (would be easier to animate) and then exported into Leadwerks?

 

My next question also is, does every bone/armature need to be tied to a model? Rick is coding Phobia and we discussed about having the FPS camera attached to the head bone of our model/rig we are wondering if we did this then there would be clipping issues with the camera and the model (ever played GMod and spectated a game and zoomed up close into a players head?).

 

I think that pretty much covers it for now. Just to add. I would like to know anyone who uses Blender for animating, what is your workflow from Blender to Leadwerks? Another thing (might be stupid) what are your export options when exporting your animations from Blender as FBX?

 

P.S. get your butt in here YouGroove and share your Blender powers to me

 

Thanks!

[YouGroove]

P.S. get your butt in here YouGroove and share your Blender powers to me

 

 

Powers can't be shared , because the secret of powers is PRACTICE

 

 

Firstly I want to know if Leadwerks supports IK bones? I've watched a tutorial where a guy is rigging a simple model and he has two IK bones and 'pull targets', would there be any issue if I rigged in a similar way (would be easier to animate) and then exported into Leadwerks?

It works, already tested. I mean for standard bones and IK constraint.

 

My next question also is, does every bone/armature need to be tied to a model?

Armature indeed will be tied to a model, than you paint weight for each bone , you can leave any bones without any weight.

 

I think that pretty much covers it for now. Just to add. I would like to know anyone who uses Blender for animating, what is your workflow from Blender to Leadwerks? Another thing (might be stupid) what are your export options when exporting your animations from Blender as FBX?

Noting special, in object mode select the character (not the armature) and choose "Export to FBX"

Here are the options :

 

Some old thread about Blender export and IK discussion containing same params as above:

http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/topic/8584-blender-export/page__hl__fbx%20export#entry71891

 

May 3D powers be with you young padawan

[Haydenmango]

Well Yougroove covered pretty much everything.

For the camera parented to the head bone I would make a suggestion-- Make a copy of your player model without a head(but keep the head bone) and then parent the camera to the head bone. After all if you are doing a first person game your characters head will never be visible. Then for cutscenes replace the headless model with a model with a head. Just an idea.

[SlipperyBrick]

The game will always be in in FPP so you'll be playing through the main characters eyes so we can work with having a headless model

 

I think Rick wants to do the same thing (parent the head bone to the camera) I'm new to animation and still have all this to learn but I wanted to know a few things before I continued with it cos I'm not entirely sure how animations work in LE3 although Rick pretty much has that covered so I can watch and learn when he gets to doing that in the engine

[catch22]

Or put an invisible material on the head mesh, but you'd have to unwrap it properly.

 

What's the fascination with the camera mounted to the head bone? For more realistic head movement, or something? Interesting idea, but would it look proper?

 

You'd be limited in your perspective for weapons, which would probably make the projection look off and or not provide the typical "fps" experience of seeing a gun and some arms in front of you. But no one holds a gun up to their chin while walking around. For example, the way you hold a gun (realistically) would only appear on an FPS model with iron sights "mode" enabled. Our FOV looks different than a computer game Humans see roughly 180 degrees. Most games are between 70 and 110. Big difference, because you're projecting on a 2d surface -- it has to be lower than 180 or everything will look quite warped.

 

Eh, just my 02. It might make the camera programming a little more simple, but I'm not positive the results would be desirable... let me know how it goes.

[Rick]

Look at outlast and you'll get a better idea of what we are going for. We have this look right now and it's working well. This isn't a FPS game.

[beo6]

But something like >this< should not happen.

[SlipperyBrick]

But something like >this< should not happen.

 

Ahh yes haha the headless man from The Forest. The way we are going to do it is include the full model of the player (as Rick said like in Outlast) but push the models head back a little so we don't have clipping on the camera. We could possibly use an invisible material on the head instead so the shadow still shows but you won't be able to see the head.

 

First person games don't usually include a full body when the player looks down, it's usually just a pair of floating arms. We agreed though that something like this would add to the realism of the game plus this opens doors for some really cool player animations