Guide: "From a picture to an animation"

@Skull24 Absolutely… there will be re-usable animations in Stonehearth. As long as you are able to adjust an existing model (so the size, etc. fits to what you have in your mind), there will be no need for animation.

This whole “tutorial” is more for those who are interested in how this could work and who are thinking about implementing an own model from scratch (including animations). Its only purpose is to show that it is not rocket science… and to waste some time while we are waiting.

I enjoy the fact that you made it. I think more people should learn how to do it for themselves so they are no intimated by it. I want to make a few animated shorts. To see what I can come up with.

Part 5 - Animation without Armatures and Bones

Part 5 of the series is uploaded now. This time, the video shows an alternative way to create animations in Blender… without using “Armatures” and “Bones”. As it looks from the different streams, that is the way how Tom creates all his animations.

Hope you enjoy it!

P.S. The .qmo-File for the “Firsherman” and the .obj-Files are again available for download.

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thanks again @voxel_pirate… your series is well done, and most appreciated! :+1:

@voxel_pirate Hello! and I am fairly new to the forums, so this is like one of my first posts. I like what you have done with everything and how you help people on their way and are able to break down everything for everyone, however the question I have is a little more technical. The first question that I have is have you ever tried to put the models you have built and animated into a game scenario like in a C# type game, or are you just an artist and animator??? and if you have please help me out, because the models that I try to put into my games from qubicle files into the game it doesn’t work. Not even .fbx files will work. So, just curious if you do stuff like that!

Welcome @Gubgub45, I am not a coder and am just interested at the moment in everything which can help me creating mods for Stonehearth, i.e. Lua, JavaScript, Qubicle and Animations. I am not writing own games and if I would want to, probably would use an engine like Unity (as my coding skills are at least rusted).

I would be astonished if you are able to simply load a .qmo-file in C#. Qubicle is using a proprietary file format and did not disclose its details, so where should C# know from, what to do with the file? The easiest way might be to export your model into someonething more common like an .obj-file and look for a guide on how to access .obj-files in C#.

Someone who might be a better fit for deeper discussions on this topic is @FinKone. Maybe drop him a PM or leave a short message in the thread related to his game.

Sorry that I am not able to help you too much with this.

Thanks voxel_pirate. I like the hobby game that he has produced, not going to lie it is pretty smooth considering it is a hobby project. I will ask him if he could give some advice or pointers.

And yeah, my main problem was trying to get the qubicle files to work through my game for a majority of the time. After a while I just sort of gave up (which I’m not proud of, don’t get me wrong). The internet could not help me with that, which is why I turned to the forums and you’re name popped up quite a lot!

I may need to watch your videos a little more at length, or more closely because I think my problem with the .fbx files is rigging the models up properly and then when imported through the game world, they appear distorted and are either missing major pieces, or facing different ways from when they are first animated.

Do you mind me talking to you here or there and asking for advice on rigging or animations?

Feel free to ask any question you might have. There are some other people in this forum, who might also help you with that. .

It’s good to know other ways to make animations. I see a big advantage with the method shown in your last video, and it is that is way simpler and fast. And it lets you see the model clean.

The method with armature is slow, as you said, and I don’t like to see the bones when I want to check the pose (even without x-ray, sometimes there is a tail of a bone standing out somewhere). Also I don’t like the way the fingers bend, with the deformation =/
Sometimes I’d want to separate more the arm from the body, and with the constraints it gets difficult.

But, at least, with this method, I can create a pose library, and that’s the best advantage, as I can create and save poses there, and later load them into keyframes, modifying only the body parts I want, so I can even combine some poses.

So I’m going to go for that method unless I make something very simple.

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@Relyss I do not know yet which way I prefer, to be honest. I agree that rigging takes a bit. However, things like the deformation of fingers, etc. can be easily overcome also with this method (just split it into two matrices as I did with the model in Video 5). Also it is possible to turn off the bones, so you do not see them anymore.

What I like on the rigging-method is that you can create some constraints for bones, i.e. allow the shoulder to only move along the Z-axis. With some work, you can create a skeleton which reflects the movement-limitations a real body has and once this work is done, the animation-process could be much easier.

At the moment I think that rigging makes sense especially for complex projects, where you want to include a lot of (longer) animations. For shorter animations (or if you have some different sizes of models where each would require an own skeleton), probably the second approach would be more productive. Somehow I also have the feeling that the second approach might be more suitable for people who have already some experience, as I find it more difficult to move the body parts to the place I would like them to be.

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@voxel_pirate This is probably my favorite thread in the forums, thanks so much for putting this together! I had used the free edition of Qubicle but I was utterly discouraged about animation, I’ve never had luck with it before in Blender.

This tutorial really closes the gap of animation that I had trouble with. I’m now pretty confident that I can create something in Qubicle and animate it up and (having just finished those Twitch TV streams on modding) eventually implant it into the game. I think I can actually accomplish this. Upgraded to home edition yesterday!

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Good to hear how people are finding the guide, I’m sure @voxel_pirate will be happy for the compliments!

I think I’ll go and pin this, as it does seem very helpful!

Of course @Geoffers747 … that’s the nicest comment someone can make at all, as it is exactly why I have put those videos together. So looking forward to see your creations @Roughshod and thanks :wink:.

P.S.: Need to negotiate a sales plan with Tim if this happens more often :smiling_imp:.

P.P.S.: Just added also an Agenda to the initial post, to make it more readable (forgot it somehow so far).

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So now I have watched the anitmating video I can say its very good. Saves me a lot of trial and error pains for sure.

Just want to say Voxel_Pirate, that this is a really good thread and you for this resource to inspiring modders and qubeaddicts

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I don’t know if this has been asked already as I have not gone through the whole thread or if I missed this in one of your videos but I can’t seem to render the animation in color even if the alt z mode is turned on.

Do you use the “Blender Render” or another one (you can chose between different ones in Blender)? Are your objects white like without textures or just very pale?

I use Blender Render but went back and tried all options still no color and white like without textures after rendering

Do you have a lamp in place, like a “Sun” or “Spot”? That’s my most common error, as in this case the result of your render will turn out black or white.

Yep I have a sun in place