Thank you! How can I go about making something static get animations? Something simple like a fence that goes from vertical to horizontal as in being knocked over. I just replace the first morph block in the nif with my asset?
Hi, I was going to say that morph animations aren't the kind of animation you'd want to use in this case, as one shape would "morph" into the next shape instead of rotating... But, I tried making what you wanted, and it seems like adding a NiTransformController to move an object doesn't work, probably due to a NifSkope bug (and you can't add an Interpolator like in Oblivion, Skyrim, etc.). If it works for you, please go ahead and use a NiTransformController for your animation instead. I'd suggest exhausting all other options before doing what I suggest next.
You can theoretically use this method to knock a fence over, but there's things I want to caution you on:
You'll have to create this animation frame-by-frame. This means you need to create at least 30 frames of morphed .objs (and offset .objs) for every second of animation. If you don't do this, the standing fence will appear to "morph" into the knocked-over fence. This is obviously very tedious - I'd suggest animating normally in whatever program you prefer, and then exporting each frame as a separate .obj.
Have 1 key per morph, use Linear_Keys for interpolation, set the time to (the animation length in seconds/the frame rate), and the value to (1/the number of morphs you have).
Again, If you REALLY REALLY can't get your animation to work any other way, this is a distant second-best option. Good luck. To reply to your second point, yes, the first morph block's Vectors should just be a copy of the array in your NiTriShape's Vertices. The other Morphs are free to be used for your morphed meshes. It's all explained in the tutorial.
I'll try first to do the regular animation as sugested. Also I'm thinking this could be done in scripting, as do the tavern signs keep rotating using a script. Will post once I get to do a result.
Thank you once again!
And as extra info, there's a mod from G7 for animation blending that blends the object's movement between the shape keys, and thus makes the movement look continuous.
I've tried to use the .nif plugin for Morrowind morph animations, but I couldn't get it to export, due to to it expecting interpolators(which don't exist in Morrowind). Since I don't know how to code in Python to fix this, and I couldn't find any help online, I went another route.
I'll try to justify why to use this over the Blender plugin (if you can get it to work):
With this method, you use an existing .nif as a template, so everything is already set up to work in Morrowind. You don't have to worry about setting up keys, bones, blocks, animation timings, etc. The only things you have to replace are the mesh and its morph shapes, which leads to point 2.
You can use any modeling software you like. I am very fond of Maya, but its .nif integration is very poor. I thought it would be a good idea to make the process as accessable as possible. By using an existing .nif, it's much simpler (in my view) to just replace the meshes, which allows any software that can export .objs make morph animations. What NifSkope is bad at (confusing animation curves, can't export/import morphed meshes) I compensated for making these tools.
TL:DR: Use the Blender plugin if you like it, but this is simpler, has fewer points of failure, and can be used with any modeling software.
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But, I tried making what you wanted, and it seems like adding a NiTransformController to move an object doesn't work, probably due to a NifSkope bug (and you can't add an Interpolator like in Oblivion, Skyrim, etc.). If it works for you, please go ahead and use a NiTransformController for your animation instead. I'd suggest exhausting all other options before doing what I suggest next.
You can theoretically use this method to knock a fence over, but there's things I want to caution you on:
Again, If you REALLY REALLY can't get your animation to work any other way, this is a distant second-best option. Good luck.
To reply to your second point, yes, the first morph block's Vectors should just be a copy of the array in your NiTriShape's Vertices. The other Morphs are free to be used for your morphed meshes. It's all explained in the tutorial.
I'll try first to do the regular animation as sugested.
Also I'm thinking this could be done in scripting, as do the tavern signs keep rotating using a script. Will post once I get to do a result.
Thank you once again!
And as extra info, there's a mod from G7 for animation blending that blends the object's movement between the shape keys, and thus makes the movement look continuous.
I'll try to justify why to use this over the Blender plugin (if you can get it to work):
- With this method, you use an existing .nif as a template, so everything is already set up to work in Morrowind. You don't have to worry about setting up keys, bones, blocks, animation timings, etc. The only things you have to replace are the mesh and its morph shapes, which leads to point 2.
- You can use any modeling software you like. I am very fond of Maya, but its .nif integration is very poor. I thought it would be a good idea to make the process as accessable as possible. By using an existing .nif, it's much simpler (in my view) to just replace the meshes, which allows any software that can export .objs make morph animations. What NifSkope is bad at (confusing animation curves, can't export/import morphed meshes) I compensated for making these tools.
TL:DR: Use the Blender plugin if you like it, but this is simpler, has fewer points of failure, and can be used with any modeling software.