Importing .SMD for animation
Hey all,
I'm just starting out with dota2 modding, so please excuse any lack of knowledge. What I'm trying to do is create custom taunt animations for the existing dota 2 heroes. I have gone through a few tutorials on how to get started, but where I'm running into trouble is getting a fully functional skinned model into maya. I have decompiled the model files so I have the .mdls ready to be imported and the plugins ready to go. When I import the skeleton king .smd into maya, its just his body, when I try to import more, the initial body is gone and just the new piece is in its place. Another problem is when I try to import an animation, its just the skeleton. To start, I would like to just edit a pre done animation and export it to make sure I have the pipeline down. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Do you see any obvious steps im missing? FYI, I'm using maya 2012 x64 on a windows 7 machine. Thanks for any and all help!
I'm just starting out with dota2 modding, so please excuse any lack of knowledge. What I'm trying to do is create custom taunt animations for the existing dota 2 heroes. I have gone through a few tutorials on how to get started, but where I'm running into trouble is getting a fully functional skinned model into maya. I have decompiled the model files so I have the .mdls ready to be imported and the plugins ready to go. When I import the skeleton king .smd into maya, its just his body, when I try to import more, the initial body is gone and just the new piece is in its place. Another problem is when I try to import an animation, its just the skeleton. To start, I would like to just edit a pre done animation and export it to make sure I have the pipeline down. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Do you see any obvious steps im missing? FYI, I'm using maya 2012 x64 on a windows 7 machine. Thanks for any and all help!
Replies
Just import the FBX files or directly use the Maya files they provide
Also, I don't really know what you mean by "get the pipeline down" since there is no submission process for animations as of yet.
No kidding, I was worried about uploading animations, but that sounds pretty easy. Thanks for all the replies.
Ex: # Error: file: C:/Users/Matt/Documents/maya/projects/Dota2/root/models/heroes/skeleton_king/skeleton_king_model.ma line 8: RuntimeError: file <maya console> line 1: Plug-in, "vsMaster.mll", was not found on MAYA_PLUG_IN_PATH.
I thought this would be the reason.
The error you're getting is trying to access a valve Plugin which to my knowledge cant import animations SMDs but can export static mesh SMDs (only 32bit Maya though). Again, though, it hasnt been updated in a while.
Again thank you for your replies, spudnik, you've been a great help.
EDIT: I am selecting the bones in the same order.
a) want to bring an already existing animation from the game into Maya
b) make a custom animation on an existing skeleton in Maya
Solution to
a) import FBX files from the zip that you downloaded into Max, decompile the animation you want from the game files, import that smd animation onto the the model that you got from the FBX files in Max, select the model and export it with the the animations now on it. Import the FBX you just created into Maya. Result: Mesh with bones, weights and the animation of your choice in Maya.
b) import FBX files from the zip that you downloaded into May, make a control rig on top of the existing bones/weights. Result: Clean character in Maya ready for animation.
Solution: Import FBX files into Maya, build your rig (can be very simple to test it before you commit). Follow the steps outlined in b) and when you import the character with the idle animation into Maya, make sure the "use namespace" option is turned on so that importing doesn't fuck up your clean rig. Then go through the bones and copy the rotation values from the bones onto your FK rig (pivot points of your FK controllers must match the bones they are controlling of course). A neat trick that makes this super easy: Select the object you want to copy TO, then select the object you wanna copy FROM. With those two selected, go into the Channel Box and click on the Rotate X value (so the number) and then hit TAB 3 times. This will copy the rotation values for XYZ over the object you selected first. Repeat this for the rest of the bones, and you should have your rigged character in the exact same pose as the the idle animation you copied it from (obviously copy the first or last frame) and you can go from there. Yes, it's a little bit of busywork that'll take 10min or so but it's a onetime thing since you only need one frame and no dota 2 model has more than 56 bones ^^ Hope that helps.
EDIT:
Oh and concerning the IK concern raised in the other thread: If you rig the legs (and arms/spine/whatever) so it's switchable between IK and FK, then it's as easy as starting in FK and blending to IK in the first couple of frames. You can also match IK to FK but that's a bit more complicated. For the switchable IK/FK setup, this hould get you started. There's a ton of tutorials floating around on this and if you look around, you'll find answers to most of your questions.
I'll give your solution a try and let you know how it goes. Thanks!
But if you want to test ingame, you gotta compile.
Zipped them up and uploaded with video. Simple and Clean.
Awesome, thank you. I kind of thought this would be the case, but didnt want to just assume.
(so its not really an option, but do-able)
TVidotto just posted his taunt like described in this thread. The only difference was that he actually modded the game to have his taunt play. Similar to the courier method, but he actually found a hero in the game files and edited a QC file. Or just named his smd and compiled it to overwrite a hero animation.
Example would be that he made the taunt, and called it idle, so that the Idle in game is not just the taunt playing over and over.
Sadly this is not a process that is easy to explain. I am under the impression he would like to get around to doing a video on how to. But usually by the time he does that type of stuff, the submission process has updated.
I think if we keep strong on creating taunts, soon they will want to capitalize on the additional revenue they will create and stream line everything for us, just like the did for the couriers.
Since the in game importing is not easy to access for now, im just creating a rough shot of what it would look like in game with an Image plane of the ground and my taunt at an angle close to what it would look like in game.
You can see that here - http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=177028544
if your interested.
This will most likely be something that Valve rolls out when the submission process is set up. But for now I personally just search for some good images on Google for the Idle pose, and replicate that. Once the real idle poses come in, it shouldn't be too hard to adjust your animation.
I attached an image of what im using.