UE3 - UT3 Custom 3rd Person Animations

[GeneralSoundwave]

I searched these forums for a ridiculously long time last night about custom 3rd person animations.

I have found this minor tutorial concerning 1st person anims (Animation of the the Arms) by r1esG0, and he was a successful champ:
http://utforums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=610093

Denny-kun has the hookup on a custom 3rd person Maya animation rig:
http://utforums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?p=25429533

BUT! I have found no one or no post who can or has animated the 3D Max bone structure provided by Epic to export custom animations. What baffles me is that the MSU competition is going on right now as we speak and I have found no reference to this issue whatsoever. It is probably so minor that I am completely overlooking it.

Also, does anyone have any information on a great read about animation-trees? I still want to code a motorcycle, but I need to know how to set the anim-tree up.

 

[XeroWolf]

Maybe you haven't been looking in the right place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh8fKjRtnVg
The animation came out a bit wonky cuz I modified Epic's rigg but anyway there are a lot of of examples of animations done with the original rigs Epic provided.
I was planning to do something for MSUC but I've into quite a few problems that only Epic can answer or fix.
Mabey they'll be fixed with the next big expansion but I won't hold my breath.

The info Epic provided on the anim-tree is almost laughable.
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/AnimTreeEditorUserGuide.html

Anyway you may find this helpful.
http://jeremylanum.com/tutorials/part-4/

 

[GeneralSoundwave]

you did this with 3d max using epics rig? interesting. how many bones show up in the editor? does this model work inside of unreal3 in-game?

 

[InAction]

http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UT3Mods.html

At the bottom of that page you have the official skeletons. Download the male one, delete all the biped meshes in the scene, animate it and export.

I use the same skeleton in my Maya rigg, so it should work.

 

[GeneralSoundwave]

In max, it doesnt work like that. I can animate it, but there is no IK on that rig. its awful to animate, thats why its constrained to the biped. it doresnt matter anymore. i re-did all the animations myself.

 

[XeroWolf]

you did this with 3d max using epics rig? interesting. how many bones show up in the editor? does this model work inside of unreal3 in-game?

I'm not sure exactly how many bones it has as I add a few new bones for her hair and apron. Yes the model works in-game too but I had some custom code to get it to work with the extra bones and other custom stuff I wanted.

http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/UT3Mods.html

At the bottom of that page you have the official skeletons. Download the male one, delete all the biped meshes in the scene, animate it and export.

I use the same skeleton in my Maya rigg, so it should work.

Actually if you want to animate the official skeletons it was be a better idea to skin your model to the mesh rigg and animate it using the biped rigg. That's what I did and it works fine.

 

[InAction]

Of course you have to rigg it to animate easier. But I didn't feel to dwell into the rigging territory when it's enough to just get people to successfully get an animation out properly from their 3d package.......