im animating a flying vehicle but i need to know what types of animations to use

these are the actions that would reqire animations

- primary fire
- secondary fire
- hatch opening and closeing when getting in and out
- landing gear that comes out when you get close to the ground
- turning
- acclerating
- rolling

i would like to know they animation type, number of keyframes, and anything else that you think is useful
Edited by randomteddybear on Mar 8, 2009 at 02:16 PM

Primary Firing would be if you have barrels.
It would have the same amount of key frames as the number of barrels.
Exported as:
stand fixed fire-1.JMO


Secondary Firing would not be needed unless you plan on having an actual moving object for it.
Depends on what it is, if its a barrel like above or some complex firing mechanism.
Exported as:
stand fixed fire-2.JMO

Hatch opening can be any amount of keyframes you want.
Exported as:
stand opening.JMA - When you are exiting the vehicle
stand closing.JMA - When you are entering the vehicle

The opening and closing is coupled with "stand fixed idle.JMA", which tells what the vehicle is like when unoccupied.

Turning would be 3 frames.
0 - Default
1 - Turning Right
2 - Default
3 - Turning Left
Exported as:
vehicle steering.JMO

Accelerating has 3 main parts:
stand acc-left-right.JMO - What the vehicle does when turning left or right, such as on the Warthog's Chaingun.
stand acc-front-back.JMO - What the vehicle does when moving front or back, such as on the Warthog's Chaingun.
stand acc-up-down.JMO - What the vehicle does when moving up or down, such as on the Warthog's Chaingun.
Each has 3 keyframes, and they are in the order that it says:
0 - Default
1 - left/front/up
2 - Default
3 - right/back/down

Rolling is not needed.

Another animation you may need is "stand fixed aim-still", which defines where the vehicle's weapon can aim. The Warthog's Chaingun demonstrates that, where you can aim 360 degrees, but you cant aim straight up or straight down.
For a full 360 aiming:
0 - Default
1 - Aiming Backwards 180 degrees, and down.
2 - Aiming Right 90 degrees, and down.
3 - Aiming Forward 0 degrees, and down.
4 - Aiming Left 90 degrees, and down.
5 - Aiming Backwards 180 degrees, and down.
6 - Aiming Backwards 180 degrees, at normal.
7 - Aiming Right 90 degrees, at normal.
8 - Aiming Forward 0 degrees, at normal.
9 - Aiming Left 90 degrees, at normal.
10 - Aiming Backwards 180 degrees, at normal.
11 - Aiming Backwards 180 degrees, and up.
12 - Aiming Right 90 degrees, and up.
13 - Aiming Forward 0 degrees, and up.
14 - Aiming Left 90 degrees, and up.
15 - Aiming Backwards 180 degrees, and up.
__________________________________________
For 180 degrees aiming:
0 - Default
1 - Aiming Right degrees, down.
2 - Aiming Forward 0 degrees, down.
3 - Aiming Left , down.
4 - Aiming Right degrees, normal.
5 - Aiming Forward 0 degrees, normal.
6 - Aiming Left , normal.
7 - Aiming Right degrees, up.
8 - Aiming Forward 0 degrees, up.
9 - Aiming Left , up.
Export both as:
stand fixed aim-still.JMO

For the actual landing gear coming out:
Suspension Animations.
Depending on where each suspension is, such as the Warthog and Scorpion has 4, but the Pelican has 3, you name each on differently.
0 - Default
1 - Extended Down
2 - Extended Up
Then you export it for the location each suspension each. You have to make one for each suspension there is, the Warthog has 4 suspension animations, the Pelican has 3.
So export as:
suspension front.JMO - For the wheel
suspension left back.JMO - For the left beam
suspension right back.JMO - For the right beam.


Hope this helps.

damn bo. that needs to be put in the sticky thread

Took me about 20 minutes to type XD