Vertex animation

[resin]

I'm trying to get vertex animation to work.. Anyone have some idea how?.. if you check the model \effects\portalfunnel.mdl you will see that it doesnt use bones for animation.. Ive tried making some normal vertex animation in max and exported it (1 file for the model, and 1 for the animation).. but it seems to ignore it totally if its not bones animations.. anyone have any idea of how to get this working?..

Thx in advance

 

[swiss_cheese9797]

Shit, I wish I knew that too. I know the character's faces are vertex animations done with specific facial keys, they might have used that and just fudged it. What 3d program are you using? If you are using XSI there's a tutorial on facial animations, but I can't find it again. If you are using 3DS Max like I am, I dont know. If you find a way, plz let us know. If i could do vertex animations in hl2, I could do some nifty shiz!

 

[resin]

Well I'm using 3dsmax too but i know cannonfodder has written a tut for facial anims.. The tut is here you you wanna see..

http://www.*************/wiki/index.php/Creating_facial_animations_with_VTA_files
(its hl2 world . com)
Any ideas anyone? Cannonfodder?

 

[swiss_cheese9797]

Yeah, I JUST NOW stumbled upon that. If you know your stuff, you can follow that tutorial and do the effect you're lookin for with that and face poser.

 

[resin]

Well you could probably.. but there must be a way to do it properly.. as some hl2 files has actual vertex animations as sequences..

 

[mindless_moder]

i think the method is called morph targets im not hundred percent sure but thats the only way you can do vertex animation without bones. basicaly all you need is to get the rigged model and create and instance of it in another stance delete the bones , add a morph modifier to one and set the other instance as a target then push up the bar to animate it. it will morph into the other shape

 

[junkers]

I beleive mindless moder got it right. You need to make instances of the original and edit them. They must have the same poly count and vertice count, so deleting poly's and adding verts is highly not recommended. I havnt tried this with hl2 yet, so i am really no help in aiding you with your concern.

 

[swiss_cheese9797]

yeah, but like I said before, to setup an event so you can actually trigger any vertex animation you have to use face poser, whether it's a face model or not. morph targets are how you make the facial keys on your character models too.