FBX from 3D Studio Max -> Leadwerks -> Animation seq.

[GSFC_1]

Hey guys, I guess this topic gets tagged a lot, but i am a newb and I cannot seem to get this figured out.

 

I have been using 3D Studio MAx since 3.5 (1995 or so) but never really got into programming or games engines. i know the software VERY well, but i guess i may be missing some things here.

 

My issue is:

 

I want to make some basic animated scenery models for my scene. So, I made a cylinder with a rotating billboard on top. I know that the geometry can be animated in leardwerks, thats not the point of this post. I want to have certain things animated in the FBX file.

When I export a model from 3d studio to FBX format, the model comes in fine, but there are no keyframes in the animation tab on the model viewer.

 

I have included both my export from max and the max file i was working with.

sensor_bot.zip

sensor bot.FBX

[Brutile]

I haven't used 3ds Max for a while now, but I remember there was a setting in the export popup to include animations. Might be a good idea to check those export settings to make sure you haven't missed anything.

[GSFC_1]

I haven't used 3ds Max for a while now, but I remember there was a setting in the export popup to include animations. Might be a good idea to check those export settings to make sure you haven't missed anything.

 

I definately did that, checked all my settings multiple times. It just does not seem to embed it? Anyone else with this problem?

[gamecreator]

I looked at your Max file. You don't have a skinned mesh set up. Leadwerks animates using skinned models via bones. I'm pretty sure it doesn't support keyframe animation. You would need to use the Skin modifier to attach and animate bones on a model.

[GSFC_1]

Skins? But then how do we create multisegment robots or other hard surface models? Create body parts then use leadwerks hinge/joint?

[gamecreator]

Yes or code the movement yourself. You can move children independently with code if you want with something like:

entity->GetChild(0)->SetPosition(1,1,1,true);

[macklebee]

Leadwerks animates using skinned models via bones. I'm pretty sure it doesn't support keyframe animation. You would need to use the Skin modifier to attach and animate bones on a model.

er - that's exactly what LE uses is keyframe animation. Keyframe animation is just the Position/Rotation/Scale of each bone at each frame of the animation. When you are setting the animation frames in LE, you are telling it to set the bones at these P/R/S values based on these keyframes. Skinning is essentially just the model's surfaces vertices being affected by the bones' weights and the bones' P/R/S values.. <---At least this is exactly how every animation tool I used over the years for LE has worked. Set the weights of the vertices to the bones and then set the keyframes.

 

--EDIT: as far as the user's problem, I don't know why LE doesn't like the animations. When opened in Ultimate Unwrap 3D and saved as a LE MDL file, the animations work just fine. Do you happen to know what version of FBX this is? 2015, 2012? ascii?

 

Here's the UU3D saved MDL file:

sensor bot.mdl

[gamecreator]

I meant that there's also keyframe-only animation in Max, like shown around 1:15

(not tied to bones). The Max exporter has a lot of options and I tried several of them but I couldn't get it to animate and the 2016 FBX Leadwerks couldn't convert at all. I'm a little surprised that UU3D could export the model animation without bones (the top opening and that thing coming up is not attached to bones). But there may be some exporter setting combination we're missing (checking or unchecking the animation checkbox didn't change anything).