Tutorial/Animation



To start animating a model, you'll need Designer 2, into which you need to import a .3DF of your model.

Rigging
First of all, you will need to create a skeleton of bones. You can do this by clicking the "Object" Button at the top of the right tool panel, (you can name it what ever you want, just make sure no two bones have to same name) then dragging it into place, I.E. The neck bones on the neck, the leg bones on the leg. Make sure that the total amount of bones does not exceed 32. Place one bone in the center for all the bones to link to, this will make it easier to tilt the whole model for the death animation.

When all bones are created, you must link them. "Tools->Object manager". Select bone name in list and click "Link" button, then click on the one you want to link it to. For example, you should link the foot bone to the ankle bone, then the ankle bone to the knee bone, the knee bone to the hip bone, then the hip bone to the body, etc. Once you are done linking, link all the bones to the center bone.

Now it is time to actually link the vertices to the bones. First, Click on "sov" button on right panel to be able to see which vertices are linked to the selected bone. select the bone which you want to apply vertices to first, then click on the "V" tool (vertex selection tool) on right tool panel. Select the vertices you want to link to the selected bone, and then click on the "Owner" tool on right tool panel, then click on the selected bone. Press the Esc key on your keyboard to deselect vertices. The vertices are now linked to the bone. Repeat this step for all bones.

Now save the file as a .3DF. Don’t just click save, go on the save as drop down menu, and save as OldFile format, 16-bit texture.



Animating
To begin, you need a rigged .3DF. Open Animator 7.

You might need to right click on the Animator 7 program, and click on properties, then at the tabs at the top, click Compatibility. Then check the check box, and select Windows 95. Then apply your changes and exit the Properties window. The reason you might have to do this is because it is a very old program that might crash on newer systems. The 95 Compatibility helps it runs as it would on a real Windows 95 system.

Click on the drop down list "File" and click "Load Model". Browse for your model and click open.

The next step in actually creating the animations. You have to make all the animations for the AI you intend for your model to use. For example, the Allosaurus AI needs a walk animation, run, swim, slide, jump, die, eat, and sleep. These will be explained farther down. Put the bones in a good position for the first frame. Then go create another key frame right after the first at the top slider, and change the position in that key frame. (I.E. Look down a bit for the idle animation)

Then make another key frame and move it again (I.E. Look down even farther)

Repeat this until the animation is done. You can play it by clicking the space bar. To change how fast the animation plays is Animator 7 and in game, click Edit>Properties and change the Keys Per Second amount.

Then save the file as a Vertex Table .vtl.

Click clear track and start again on the next animation needed, and repeat for all the animations the AI needs. You can see which animations the AI needs by opening the .CAR file of that AI in C3Dit and looking at the animation list on the side bar. You can also click the play button (after opening the original .CAR file) at the top to play the animation or drag the slider along on the bottom for reference when making your own animations.