Oblivion:Базовое руководство по анимации

TES4: Oblivion. Basic Animation Tutorial
	автор: XMarksTheSpot перевод: (Rumor Wiki Team) редактирование: Garin (OSFM team) ccылка на оригинал: Basic Animation Tutorial ссылка на сайт: The Elder Scrolls Construction Set Wiki

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Базовое руководство по анимации

Пример объектов, использующих простые анимации. Щелкните для увеличения.

Вступление

Рис. 1: Типичный вид блока дерева простой анимации.

Цель этой статьи дать модерам возможность создавать очень простые анимированные объекты, применяя для этого заранее приготовленные файлы основных анимаций. Кроме того, эти файлы анимаций могут быть настроены так, чтобы что бы в итоге получить более сложные анимации.
Особенно этот материал будет полезен тем модерам, у которых нет доступа к знаниям по использованию программ 3D графики (например такой программы как 3ds Max) для создания и экспорта анимаций.
Хотя базовые знания об анимациях и об использовании программы Программа:NifSkope у вас должны быть.

Можете добавлять к этой статье свой материал и/или исправлять какие-либо ошибки, которые вы встретите по ходу прочтения, так как статья не претендует на исчерпывающий материал и на 100% точность.

Анатомия анимаций

Анимационная последовательность, внедренная в файлы .nif состоит из определённых блоковых структур (смотрите Рис. 1).
Ниже представлен список краткого описания наиболее часто используемых элементов.

Управляющие Менеджеры

Рис. 2: Пример опасной настройки Контроллеров Последовательностей.

В основном, ссылки на Контроллеры Последовательностей (Controller Seguences) будут создаваться автоматически при использовании команды Attach .KF spell в программе NifSkope.

Примечание: Внутри массива Controller Sequences не должно быть никаких пустых ссылок иначе, при попытке движка подгрузить файл .nif игра вылетит на рабочий стол.

Controller Sequences (Контроллеры Последовательностей)

Контроллеры Последовательностей и есть сами анимации, их также можно назвать душой содержимого файлов .kf. Эти последовательности содержат информационные блоки (Blocks), состоящие из ссылок на Интерполяцию (Interpolator) и ссылки на сами контроллеры (Controller), а также несколько строковых переменных, определяющих цели, типы и иногда некоторые параметры контроллеров анимации. Названия контроллера последовательности также важно, так как он обслуживается в качестве параметра для определенной команды скрипта анимации (например PlayGroup). В случае с PlayGroup вы можете использовать только определённые названия, чтобы эти названия анимаций правильно распознавались компилятором скриптов (смотрите AnimGroups).

Примечание: Если вы дадите Контроллеру Последовательности название Idle, то эта последовательность будет использоваться автоматически и возможно, перекроет собой другую анимационную последовательность, которая переключается через скрипт, если значение Cycle Type (Тип Цикла) блока NiControllerSequence установлено в CYCLE_LOOP (Цикличная анимация - прим. Vel)

Animation Controllers

Contain certain interpolator blocks as well as as data blocks in turn containing the actual keyframe data.

• NiTransformControllers

Transform Controllers are used to apply translation, rotation and/or scaling to NiTriShapes, NiTriStrips or NiNodes. This means you can make your object or parts of it dynamically move around, swivel, shrink/grow, etc.

• NiTextureTransformControllers

Similar to Transform Controllers, but must target a NiTexturingProperty. You can use it to affect the UV coordinates of the targeted mesh. In other words, you can make a texture scroll, spin or zoom in/out.

Note: The texture you're trying to affect mustn't have a normal map for this to work correctly.

• NiAlphaControllers

Alpha Controllers are used to affect an object's opacity. They must target NiMaterialProperty blocks and in most cases the mesh node (NiTriStrips/NiTriShape) needs to have a NiAlphaProperty attached to it. Using Alpha Controllers you can make objects smoothly fade in or out; partial transparency is also possible, but unfortunately behaves a little glitchy since the alpha values can and will get overridden by the game's built-in distant Object/Item Fade feature.

Note: The texture you're using on the fading mesh node needs to have a normal map for this to work correctly.

• NiVisControllers

Vis Controllers toggle visibility of Nodes meaning you can dynamically switch objects or parts of them on/off visually. Can also be used in conjunction with NiAlphaControllers to circumvent Object/Item Fade issues.

Animation Interpolators

Certain types of controllers need certain types of interpolators. Interpolators can either store a single keyframe value or point to a Data block.

• Animation Data blocks

Contain keyframe information for a specific animation controller. In other words, they specify the values of certain variables (e.g. translation, rotation, scale, opacity, visibility, etc.) at specific points in time of the animation and how to interpolate in-between.

Step-by-step guides

The following is a list of instructions about how to set up a certain simple animation in a .nif and about how to tweak it afterwards if needed.

Fig. 3: The basic .nif branch setup that is required before attaching one of the provided animation sample files.

1. Download sample package here
2. Open your .nif file in NifSkope and set it up similar to how it was done in Fig. 3.

Note: For the sample .kf files to be attachable it is crucial to have a Base NiNode like in the example. For some of the samples it is necessary to have either another NiNode named Branch and/or to rename your mesh node to Target.
Also adding a BSX Flags Extra Data block to the Base NiNode and setting its Flags value to a certain number ('11' is confirmed to work in all provided examples) is a requirement for animations to function properly.

3. Decide on what sample animation file to attach. Possible choices so far:

Transform Controller

Visibility Controller

Alpha Controller

Texture Transform Controller

Note: Attaching is done via selecting Spells -> Animation -> Attach .KF in Программа:NifSkope - you'll need at least version 0.9.5 or it will spawn an error message about the .kf file containing too many root nodes.

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Creating a Transform Controller animation

4. Attach anim_scale.kf and you're done - the 2 animation sequences in it target the Branch NiNode and will make it shrink from 1.0 to 0.0 and vice versa in 1.5 seconds (see example_scale.nif inside the sample package for an example object using this technique)

If you don't want your targeted object to (solely) behave like that see Tweaking an animation.

Fig. 4: Assigning a target in NifSkope.

Creating a Visibility Controller animation

4. Attach anim_visibility.kf - the 2 animation sequences in it target the Branch NiNode and will make it disappear almost instantly (see example_visibility.nif inside the sample package for an example object using this technique)

Note: Программа:NifSkope will spawn an error message when trying to save the file after attaching the .kf file.
This is due to a missing target link in the NiVisController that is contained in the .kf file. You can fix this via assigning a target - simply enter the node number of the Branch NiNode into the Target Block Details entry of the NiVisController (see Fig. 4).
The animation will work without applying these fixes though.

If you don't want your targeted object to behave like that see Tweaking an animation.

Creating an Alpha Controller animation

4. Attach anim_alpha.kf - the 2 animation sequences in it target the NiMaterialProperty of the Target mesh node and will make it fade in/out in 1.5 seconds (see example_alpha.nif inside the sample package for an example object using this technique)

Note: A NiVisController was added to circumvent the alpha values getting overridden by the game's Object/Item Fade feature.
Furthermore Программа:NifSkope will spawn an error message when trying to save the file after attaching the .kf file.
This is due to a missing target link in both the NiAlphaController and the NiVisController that are contained in the .kf file. You can fix this via assigning a target, simply enter the node numbers of the NiMaterialProperty of the Target mesh node and of the Branch NiNode into the Target Block Details entry of the NiAlphaController respectively NiVisController (similar to Fig. 4).
Also the NiMultiTargetTransformController, which will be created automatically, is targeting the Target mesh node (which will cause an error message, too); simply remove the NiMultiTargetController block as it is not needed there anyway.
The animation will work without applying any of these fixes though.

If you don't want your targeted object to behave like that see Tweaking an animation.

Creating a Texture Transform Controller animation

4. Attach anim_textransf.kf - the 2 animation sequences in it target the NiTexturingProperty of the Target mesh node and will make its texture scroll to the right/left in 1.5 seconds (see example_textransf.nif inside the sample package for an example object using this technique)

Note: Программа:NifSkope will spawn an error message when trying to save the file after attaching the .kf file.
This is due to a missing target link in the NiTextureTransformController that is contained in the .kf file. You can fix this via assigning a target - simply enter the node number of the NiTexturingProperty of the Target mesh node into the Target Block Details entry of the NiTextureTransformController (similar to Fig. 4).
Also the NiMultiTargetController, which will be created automatically, is targeting the Target mesh node (which will cause an error message, too); simply remove the NiMultiTargetController block as it is not needed there anyway. The animation will work without applying any of these fixes though.

If you don't want your targeted object to behave like that see Tweaking an animation.

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Fig. 5: Updating the animation's global time frame after adjusting keyframe values.

Tweaking an animation

The provided .kf files contain animations of the most basic kind.
The following list contains information how to tweak the aforementioned attached animations.

Note: If you are to change the keyframes' time values to exceed the default 1.5 seconds you'll have to edit the Stop Time value inside the NiControllerSequence accordingly or else the game will ignore any of these keyframes.

Tweaking a Transform Controller animation

• Altering the Scaling:
  • Locate and select the NiTransformData block inside a NiControllerSequence (see Fig. 6 if you have trouble finding it).
  • Inside the Block Details list expand the Scales entry.
  • Increase the number of scale keys if desired and update their array.
  • Edit the Time and Value settings of your animation keys to your liking.
  • Repeat for other NiControllerSequences if desired.

Fig. 6: Relative position of a Ni[..]Data block.

Note: Change Num Keys to 0 to get rid of scaling for good.

• Adding Translations:
  • Locate and select the NiTransformData block inside a NiControllerSequence(see Fig. 6 if you have trouble finding it).
  • Inside the Block Details list expand the Translations entry.
  • Change the Num Keys entry's value to at least 2 and update the Keys array.
  • Change the Interpolation value to 1 or 2 (LINEAR respectively QUADRATIC).
  • Edit the Time and Value settings of your animation keys to your liking.
  • Repeat for other NiControllerSequences if desired.
• Adding Rotations:
  • Locate and select the NiTransformData block inside a NiControllerSequence (see Fig. 6 if you have trouble finding it).
  • Inside the Block Details list change the Num Rotation Keys entry's value to at least 2.
  • Change the Rotation Type value to 1,2 or 3 if you want to use Quaternion Keys or to 4 if you want to use XYZ Rotations and update the respective array
  • Quaternion keys work exactly like rotation values inside other node types (e.g. NiTriStrips, NiNode, etc.).
  • For XYZ Rotations you'll be facing another 3 arrays of key data, one for each axis (see figure E).
    

    Note: Angles inside XYZ Rotations are measured in radians
    (as in Pi = 3.1416 = 180°)

  • Change the Interpolation value to 1 or 2 (LINEAR respectively QUADRATIC).
  • Edit the Time and Value settings of your animation keys to your liking.
  • Repeat for other NiControllerSequences if desired.

Tweaking a Visibility Controller animation

• Locate and select the NiBoolData block inside the NiBoolInterpolator in turn inside a NiControllerSequence (similar to Fig. 6 in case you have trouble finding it).

Note: NiVisController keyframe data must use the UNKNOWN_KEY interpolation type.

• Increase the Num Keys value and update the Keys array if desired.
• Edit the Time and Value settings of your animation keys to your liking.

Note: Only 1 (=visible) and 0 (=invisible) are valid input for the Value entry.

• Repeat for other NiControllerSequences if desired.

Tweaking an Alpha Controller animation

• Locate and select the NiFloatData block inside the NiFloatInterpolator in turn inside a NiControllerSequence (similar to Fig. 6 in case you have trouble finding it).
• Increase the Num Keys value and update the Keys array if desired.
• Edit the Time and Value settings of your animation keys to your liking.
• Repeat for other NiControllerSequences if desired.

Note: Changing settings in the NiAlphaProperty of the mesh node can create interesting results when seen in motion, feel free to experiment.

Fig. 7: Example showing how to find the Interpolator block which is in charge of translating a texture along the V axis.

Tweaking a Texture Transform Controller animation

There's about 5 operations you can do via Texture Transform Controllers:

• move textures along U axis (left/right)
• move textures along V axis (up/down)
• rotate textures
• scale textures along U axis
• scale textures along V axis

In the sample anim_textransf.kf file each of these operations is included, but only one of them has keyframe data that has an actual impact on the visual outcome. Each operation has its own NiFloatInterpolator complete with a NiFloatData block. To find the right one you'll have to:

• Select the NiControllerSequence block.
• Expand the Controlled Blocks entry and its sub-entries in the Block Details list.
• Search the Blocks for entries labeled Variable Offset 1, there you will find String values determining the operation that the NiFloatInterpolator's assigned to
  (see Fig. 7).
• If you found the right Block containing info for the operation you would like to modify check the Interpolator link inside that very same Block - it'll lead you to the NiFloatData block you'll have to edit then, which is similar to most other kinds of data blocks:
  • Increase the Num Keys value and update the Keys array if desired.
  • Edit the Time and Value settings of your animation keys to your liking.
    

    Note: UV coordinates are usually values between 0 and 1, so translating by a value of 2 along an axis will make the texture completely scroll over the mesh twice.
    Changing values for scaling will work quite the other way round though, the higher the value the smaller the texture will become - it'll be repeating itself along the edges in that case.

  • Repeat for other NiFloatData blocks and/or NiControllerSequences if desired.

Final Words

Further iterations of this guide may include instructions about how to merge multiple controllers into a single controller sequence and maybe provide example files for this.
Currently, there's also an .esp file included in the package which places all example files on a table in the TestingHall cell (type 'coc testinghall' in the in-game console to get there).