Can someone teach me how to animate dropships? because I currently need them for a firefight map that I'm working on.

These might help:
http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=1326
http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=3002

1) Import model into 3ds max
2) Animate the frame nodes world relative
3) Use an animation exporter to export your animation
4) Get ingame
5) Copy and paste your nodelist checksum count from the model to the animation
6) Check world relative
7) Apply with scripts

custom animations for dropships is so 2009.

What is the "2014" method then? :p

Ripz. teh way of da futurre.

Recorded Animations is the way to go.

This.
While Custom and Recorded animations both get the job done (see below), Recorded animations have the benefit of making the vehicle feel like it's actually being piloted. They allow the proper usage of functions such as engine whirring contrails and lights, wings or fins move automatically when making a turn, etc...

Custom animations on the plus side do allow the object to phase through other objects and BSP, however.


Custom Animation



Recorded Animation

You can close the banshee's hatch when making an animation.

CA are just more reliable.

Yeah but you won't get the right sound and function effects with a Custom Animation. Also an RA can be done super quickly and will always fit in more naturally.

tut on recorded anim plz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxt2VB0UAus

Ive just never have had good experiences with flying vehicles and recorded anims. If someone can make a tut for setting all of that up, that'd be cool.

Plus OS hates Recorded Anims.
Edited by MatthewDratt on Mar 30, 2014 at 08:35 PM

Custom animations are not the way to go IMO when we can now make full use of recorded animations. They can be useful for certain things (like a dropship crashing\etc). Other than that I'd use recorded animations. The people that use custom animations for dropships I've seen don't even do it right (lumoria, lawson, etc). You should NOT be using world relative animations for dropships (I assume people are exporting as .JMW).

Instead, you should be importing your BSP into your dropship animation max file, move the BSP accordingly to your dropship spawn point (do not move the drop ship until your BSP is positioned). Then animate as you would. Export as .JMM. You won't have broken collision or whatever half-as*ed things I have been seeing in peoples maps.

The only thing I've seen wrong with the custom animations when using world relative is that vehicles can phase through them. My gun hits them fine last I checked.

Not using world relative is just a pain in the HEY because then you have to go through and align everything. #easywayout

I just went cheap and used command waypoints as you would with an AI warthog.

Results:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeKiRXksmOU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytHZnekuBxk