Animation in XSI: Difference between revisions

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The article that was once here has been dropped for being incomplete and outdated. [http://www.moddb.com/groups/noesis-interactive/videos/animation-with-the-softimagexsi-6-mod-tool#imagebox Watch this much better free Noesis video tutorial instead!]
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== Welcome ==
It is recommended that XSI [http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/XSI_Beginner_Tutorial beginner] and [http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/XSI_Texturing texturing] tutorials be worked through before working through this one. This tutorial discusses the major points of animating in XSI, and making a final deliverable into HL2.
 
Note this tutorial does not cover animating a ValveBiped (a character model), for tutorials regarding the ValveBiped go [http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/XSI_Video_Tutorials#Killer_Monkey.27s_Character_Animation_Tutorials here]
 
== Some definitions ==
=== A skeleton ===
:A skeleton is what comprises the moving parts of your model. A skeleton is comprised of "chains" of bones, joints, effectors, and a root. Some good things to know:
 
:'''Bone:''' This is the principle object in the skeleton and is what the mesh of the object will be attached to.
:'''Joint:''' Joins two bones, and is where bending and IK (defined below) occur.
:'''Effector:''' These move a bone system around. The end point of a bone chain.
:'''Root:''' Where your skeleton starts. Moving the root moves the skeleton as one unit.
[[Image:xsi_animating1.jpg|thumb|right|IMAGE OF PARTS]] (NOTE: the default root shape is the 3D cross thing like the effector. Its properties were modified to change it to rings.) {{note|The default root shape is the 3D cross thing like the effector. Its properties were modified to change it to rings.}}
 
=== IK (Inverse Kinematics) ===
:The backbone of animation in any game is the ability for bones to interact together in order to create realistic motion. This is where IK comes in. IK can control how the bones and joints work together to create an animation that is linked and able to be done easily without having to move every single bone every time a step is to be animated or a head is to turn.
 
 
=== Animation stuff ===
:Some things to know about animating specific things.
 
:'''Key:''' A point in the animation sequence where specific settings about the bones are saved into the frame. Two keys saved several frames apart will result in an interpolated sequence, doing the 'animating' between those frames automatically.
:'''Frame:''' A section of time in the entire sequence.
 
 
 
== Animating in XSI ==
=== Placing a skeleton ===
:The first step in creating an animated model is to create a skeleton for the model. The model can have as many skeletons (bone chains) as desired and each bone chain can be made to work independently of others. However, only one bone can be used per mesh (more on this later).
 
 
:This tutorial will demonstrate the making of a security camera. Click 'MODEL' on the top left of the screen and then click 'ANIMATE' to bring up an animation pane. To create the skeleton for the camera, click 'CREATE', then 'Skeleton', then 'Draw 3D Chain'. [[Image:xsi_animating2.jpg|thumb|right|The Skeleton buttons]]
 
 
:Now place your points down, I suggest going in the middle of your object, however you'll have to experiment with a good position depending on what type of animation you are doing, you can always change the position later. '''An important point''' to keep in mind is that all NON-ANIMATED parts of your model still needs to have a bone. This is because when you put it in HL2, it will only play the parts that are defined in the animation, and if there is no bone there will be no object. As you can see in my camera model I have NOT connected my two skeletons, this is because I do not want the base to be animated, just the camera (remember IK). [[Image:xsi_animating3.jpg|thumb|right|My Bones]]
 
 
=== Connecting bones to "skin" ===
:When I refer to the mesh I mean the polygons of your object. You DO NOT have to combine a bone with the entire object, you can combine just a few polygons, vertices, what have you! But for the security camera, I wanted the whole camera to rotate together so there is one bone that is bound to the the whole object (camera/lens). You do this by 'enveloping' the mesh to the bone.
 
:Before starting 'enveloping', don't forget to perform '''Freeze''' and '''Transform > Freeze All Transforms''' on your model. Without these '''Freeze''' operations, your model won't be exported right. Then make sure you have selected ''Animation'' in the pull down list in the bottom left corner under 'Construction Mode' to ensure XSI is set in animation mode. To envelope your mesh make sure the things you want to attach to the bone are selected, then under 'DEFORM' click 'Envelope' then click 'Set Envelope'. A picker will become your cursor, so pick the bone you want to attack this stuff to, then right click to set it.
 
=== Animation bar ===
[[Image:xsi_animating4.jpg|Animation Bar]]
 
 
:'''=== Blue box ==='''
::These are you animation playback controls. The two on the far left are to go from keyframe to keyframe (more on that later). The next four are your basic rewind, play backwards, play, and fast forward buttons. The last button is to say whether or not to keep looping the animation.
 
 
:'''=== Red boxes ==='''
::In these boxes are information on what frame you are currently on, and how many frames you want in your total sequence. In the box on your left when you start your animation make sure 0 (zero) is in that box. You can go to different frames by just putting the frame number in that box, or by dragging the little red bar in the long timeline, or just clicking in the timeline. In the box on the left is how long (in frames) your animation sequence is. You can put whatever size you want in it, depends on how long your animation is going to be.
 
 
:'''=== Yellow box ==='''
::In this popup menu are all sorts of sweet things. The main thing I want to focus on is the 'Animation Editor...' in which you can fine tune your animation and create so AWESOME effects really easily. You can also access this by pressing the number zero on the keyboard.
 
 
:'''=== Green Box ==='''
::Press this button to create a key. If this button is colored gray you are placing your first key. If the button is colored green then you are placing a key that will have interpolated values. If the button is red it will delete the key at the current frame. If the button is shaded like it is now you '''cannot''' place a key! More on keys later (they are pretty in-depth).
 
 
:'''=== Purple box ==='''
::Finally, in the purple box is a magical list that you can use to pinpoint the exact type of transform you want to capture in a key. I.e. if I only wanted to make the camera rotate back and forth I would select 'Ori.Y' and when I pressed the key button it would only store that value at that key!
 
 
== Getting in depth with animation ==
Make two cubes at 90 degrees to each other, texture them, make a skeleton with TWO bones and envelope each cube to their respective bone.
[[Image:xsi_animating5.jpg|thumb|right|The Cube and Bone]]
 
 
=== Setting up your workspace ===
To ensure the animation works correctly in [[Half-Life 2]] Make sure you start your animations on frame 0. Make sure any transformations you do, do them in global coordinates [[Image:xsi_animating6.jpg|thumb|right|Global Coordinates]].
 
 
=== Animating ===
:In object selection mode select the effector. Now press V to enter Translate mode. Press the button to set a ''Key'' at the first frame (0). This is now a reference key, and the next key will interpolate from this position, if you want to start at another place move the effector around and set that as your first key. Click on 20 in the timeline to set the place for your next Key. Now move the effector 10 units in the Y direction. Now make a second key at 20.
 


[[Category:Modeling]]
[[Category:Modeling]]
[[Category:Tutorials]]
[[Category:Tutorials]]
[[Category:XSI]]
[[Category:XSI]]

Revision as of 13:10, 15 July 2008

The article that was once here has been dropped for being incomplete and outdated. Watch this much better free Noesis video tutorial instead!

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