Some questions about animating in brawlbox

[PegasusKnt]

I'm working on creating a simple animation in brawlbox (v0.76b) and I have couple questions.

In my animation, a bone moves to a certain point and back again in a straight line. I have keyframes at the start of the animation, the middle (when the object reaches its furthest point before returning) and at the end. The problem is that when I run the animation, the bone does not move at a constant rate. It gradually slows down as it reaches the furthest point, then slowly speeds up again on the return trip. I want it to go at a constant speed, both on the trip there and back. Since the problem is with the interpolation frames, I suspect that the way to fix this involves going into tools -> interpolation editor (see picture below) but I can't figure out what to do from there.

So yeah, you can see the curved lines representing gradual slowing and stopping. I want to get them straight. Also I'm not sure what "Interpolation Precision" or "Tangent Scale" do. ?_?

I'm also wondering; is there an easy way to repeat the same sequence within an animation? What I mean is, suppose I have 1,000 frame animation, and within that I want my bone to go back and forth every 100 frames. Do I have to manually create 10 sets of keyframes to accomplish that?

Thanks in advance, helpful forum-frequenters. You guys have been awesome for answering my past brawlbox questions.=D

 

[PegasusKnt]

Since making this post I have figured (some of) this out myself, so I'm just going to answer my own questions in case somebody else is wondering the same things, or if they find this thread on google or something.

The key is the "Tangent" value. Every keyframe has two tangents (an "in" one and an "out" one). The values of the Out tangent of keyframe A and the of In tanget of keyframe B will determine how "smooth" the interpolation frames between them are. For a completely "sharp" animation that does not speed up or slow down, the tangent value should be equal to the distance you want the bone to move in 1 frame. For example, if I have 60 frame animation in which a bone moves a total of 120 units, I would set the tangents on all my keyframes to 2.

 

[Solaros]

Hey, are you learning animations too? I just barely scratched the surface, and I'd love some guidance.

 

[Javln Mastr]

I've been meaning to make a thread asking this question, but since this pertains to my predicament I hope it's fine I post it here.

Since Lylat Cruise is stationary in PM, I want to make it's Brawl alt a bit different than just slightly tilting side-to-side. My goal is to animate the ship collisions to tilt obnoxiously steep. To do that I need to know what files to access and what to edit.

Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[PegasusKnt]

I've been meaning to make a thread asking this question, but since this pertains to my predicament I hope it's fine I post it here.

Since Lylat Cruise is stationary in PM, I want to make it's Brawl alt a bit different than just slightly tilting side-to-side. My goal is to animate the ship collisions to tilt obnoxiously steep. To do that I need to know what files to access and what to edit.

Any advice would be appreciated!

I just looked over the files for Lylat Cuise, and I *think* I know exactly what you need to do.

Lylat Cruise has 5 different files (see the list here for names of all them http://smashboards.com/threads/character-and-stage-editing-with-brawlbox.305039/). In 4 of those 5 (all but the one ending in GDIFF) you will find a CHR animation under ModelData[0]. One of the bones in this animation will always be "slope", which I believe is bone which affects the ship's tilt. You'll notice that it has values in the keyframes for rotating on the Z axis. Increase these values, and the ship should tilt at more extreme angles. I haven't tested this, so fiddle with this and let me know if I'm right.

Oh and remember that alternate stages end in _Z. So in PM, all the tilting Lylat Cruise files end in _Z.

 

[Montimers]

As for quickly making a repeating animation in brawlbox, that's easy. Just make a small animation consisting of one loop, and export it from brawlbox. Now go back to brawlbox and right click the animation -> edit -> append animation, and select your exported file. Repeat for as many loops as you want.

Just a hint... looping animations like this is a terrible way of doing it. By appending animations, you lose A LOT of space in your motion file. The first frame of every animation usually have lots of keyframes for bone translations that don't have to be repeated. This first frame can consume 8-10kb on its own. Not just that, the rest of the animation being repeated is not needed.
You can simple turn on the loop flag via psa if you need it loop. Unless you really have to do this... though I can't think of any situation this would be useful.

 

[PegasusKnt]

Just a hint... looping animations like this is a terrible way of doing it. By appending animations, you lose A LOT of space in your motion file. The first frame of every animation usually have lots of keyframes for bone translations that don't have to be repeated. This first frame can consume 8-10kb on its own. Not just that, the rest of the animation being repeated is not needed.
You can simple turn on the loop flag via psa if you need it loop. Unless you really have to do this... though I can't think of any situation this would be useful.

I see now that my original paragraph on this was poorly worded, so I've deleted it to avoid confusion.

I know about the loop flag, and you're right- doing this for the whole animation instead of using that flag is a terrible idea. I use this method to build animations for specific bones. So when I'm done, I export the raw data file for the bone I was working on, close the file without saving, and then import that raw data file. I hope that makes sense.

 

[Javln Mastr]

I just looked over the files for Lylat Cuise, and I *think* I know exactly what you need to do.

Lylat Cruise has 5 different files (see the list here for names of all them http://smashboards.com/threads/character-and-stage-editing-with-brawlbox.305039/). In 4 of those 5 (all but the one ending in GDIFF) you will find a CHR animation under ModelData[0]. One of the bones in this animation will always be "slope", which I believe is bone which affects the ship's tilt. You'll notice that it has values in the keyframes for rotating on the Z axis. Increase these values, and the ship should tilt at more extreme angels. I haven't tested this, so fiddle with this and let me know if I'm right.

Oh and remember that alternate stages end in _Z. So in PM, all the tilting Lylat Cruise files end in _Z.

Thanks so much! Im gonna test it later and hopefully return with positive results

 

[Panudroid]

Can anyone show me how to edit bones in BBox 0.76b? Every time I edit a bone in BBox, it becomes invisible in game.

 

[Montimers]

I see now that my original paragraph on this was poorly worded, so I've deleted it to avoid confusion.

I know about the loop flag, and you're right- doing this for the whole animation instead of using that flag is a terrible idea. I use this method to build animations for specific bones. So when I'm done, I export the raw data file for the bone I was working on, close the file without saving, and then import that raw data file. I hope that makes sense.

I think I got it. I do something similar to that when I certain animations over a different characters look way too weird, or when I have to make an aerial version of a grounded special attack. Sometimes it's easier just delete that bone animation and do it again. Good luck with that, then.

 

[PegasusKnt]

Hey, are you learning animations too? I just barely scratched the surface, and I'd love some guidance.

I'm also a surface scratcher! =D I had to learn some rudimentary things about animations in order make some elements of my Chemical Plant Zone stage (The rotating blocks in the background, etc) but I haven't tried anything involving actual characters. I'd bet that the same principles about keyframes and tangents still apply though.

Can anyone show me how to edit bones in BBox 0.76b? Every time I edit a bone in BBox, it becomes invisible in game.

I never ran into this problem. How exactly are you trying to edit the bone?

 

[Panudroid]

I never ran into this problem. How exactly are you trying to edit the bone?

When I change the translation/rotation of a bone in brawlbox, the materials don't seem to load properly

 

[PegasusKnt]

When I change the translation/rotation of a bone in brawlbox, the materials don't seem to load properly

Oooooh I bet I know what your problem is. You probably didn't keyframe it. In the model data which contains that model (and thus that bone) there should be a CHR animation. In that animation, you need to make a keyframe (on frame 1) for that bone's position. Fill in the keyframe data with whatever new position you want the bone in.

Edit: and actually, I have run into this problem before, now that I think of it. Try making the keyframe and let me know if that works.

 

[Panudroid]

Alright, will try it later. Thanks again.

Edit: It worked, but I end up with this monstrosity:

For some reason, when I change the keyframe of 1 of the statues, the keyframe of the other statue also changes. Is there a way to "unbind" them or something?

 

[Javln Mastr]

Lol it worked. It's not finished yet because I need to tweak the values some more, but it's really funny and a hell of a time to play on XD
Thanks for the info m80!

 

[Llama Juice]

Alright, will try it later. Thanks again.

Edit: It worked, but I end up with this monstrosity:View attachment 99308

For some reason, when I change the keyframe of 1 of the statues, the keyframe of the other statue also changes. Is there a way to "unbind" them or something?

Add a new bone to the scene, change the statue you want to move to be using that bone, and animate the new bone. If all you're doing is translating it away then it should work out well enough for you.