[Guide] Animation Modding - From the ground up.

[Gorlath]

Hello everyone! Gorlath here with a guide on animation modding.
I am trying to write this guide as completely and as concisely as possible so as to provide an all-in-one algorithmic approach to animation modding. This way, I cut down on confusion in the long run. Thus, I shall be including some things covered in other guides. (These parts will be spoilered)

Before we begin, I'd like to thank Noonehere, Cross and everyone who helped me in this thread for making this guide possible. I'd also like to thank some Japanese modders who offered their advice, but I shall keep them anonymous for reasons.

By the end of this guide, you will know how to make your very own custom animations and add them to Mabinogi.
I would like to stress, however, that since pmg editor ignores mesh data received from 3ds files, this method DOES NOT allow you to edit pmgs.

In this part, I shall cover the basic tools you will absolutely and with no exception need in order to mod an animation file.
I am assuming that you know the very basics of modding here.
So, without further ado:

• Mabinogi Unpacker
• A data packer of some sort (for applying your mod)
• A working copy of the PMG Editor
• Autodesk 3ds Max (2014 verified to work)

A word of caution: It is vital that you use 3DS Max and not another editing tool. As far as my tests have revealed, 3DS Max is the ONLY editor that can correctly import the pmg editor's exported .3ds files. Consider Blender and Metasequoia to be confirmed to not work. I have received word from one of my Japanese sources that Studio Maya is an alternative to 3ds max but I have NOT tested it myself.

To get the pmg editor working, follow the guide linked in the list above. Be certain to pay attention to the section telling you to copy the .dll files into your java directory or your pmg editor's import/export functions WILL NOT WORK.

In this part, I shall cover the steps you must take before you can start editing your file. Again, these are vital.

I am going to list here the FILES that you will need to extract from mabinogi:

• The animation you wish to edit
• Some kind of headgear mesh
• A body mesh
• The body framework

***If your animation is not a human animation, make sure to extract the correct mesh and framework for whatever animation you are trying to edit. For example, if you want to edit Nao's spinning animation, you will need her mesh and her framework! This is non-negotiable!!!***

Now, some extra information on these.
First of all, the framework. I've observed that sometimes the new framework used for players (with wing compatibility) does not like older animations in pmg editor. You'll get an error like "The bone is not fit for this animation". If this is the case, someone should let me know and I'll upload a version of the old framework that I know works.
Next is the headgear. Why do you need the headgear? Because 3ds max will not import a .3ds file that does not have a mesh in the head slot. I would like to note that if you are doing player or npc animations, you can use the Incubus mesh located in

Code: [Select]

##_full.pack/data/gfx/char/monster/mesh/incubus/. I will be assuming that you have not chosen the incubus mesh, however.
The body mesh can be any mesh that fits your framework, from female_default_bss.pmg to some obscure piece of g1 armor.

Once you have all of these files, go ahead and open your pmg editor and load the framework and body mesh in that order. Once you have done this, you'll need to import part the face mesh you chose. Using the Succubus as an example...


Once you've done that, load the animation and export the whole thing as a .3ds, ensuring the bone and animation boxes are checked. After this, just boot up 3ds max and import your 3ds file! If you did everything right, you'll have a screen that looks something like this...

In this third part, I'll be going over how to animate your mesh within 3ds max.

First of all, I want to stress that the pmg editor does NOT receive mesh data from your saved 3ds file. Again, THIS METHOD DOES NOT ALLOW YOU TO EDIT PMGS.

When it comes to actually animating, I really can't give you much information on how to do it. If you want to learn that, go watch youtube videos on beginner's animation. 3ds max takes a while to get used to so don't expect to make anything glorious the first time. What I CAN tell you, however, is how the meshes work and how to animate it specifically.

You will immediately notice that your mesh seems to be made up of two things in max: Actual body parts, and little floating "dots". These dots are the origins for the bones within your framework. They control the mesh entirely and a .ani file ONLY recognizes changes in bone rotation and location.
Let me repeat that: .ani files DO NOT recognize any changes to MESH data. Do not move the body parts! In fact, I would recommend that one of the first things you do is select all the mesh parts and freeze them. This will prevent you from accidentally selecting and moving them.


Now, when you select one of these bones, you'll notice that keyframes at the bottom of the screen appear on your timeline:

These keyframes contain all the animation data for your ani right now. In order to edit it, you will have to understand how keyframes and keyframe animation works. Thankfully, that's the easy bit, which I shall leave to you.

Once done animating, export your animation as a .3ds file.

Finally, here's a video if you'd prefer a more visual introduction to the subject:

(Thanks, Cross)

In this final part, I'll be going over how to turn your 3ds back into a pmg.

For this, we merely need to look at our pmg editor, import .3ds and "save as .ani". Be sure to play your animation the entire way through a couple of times in the pmg editor to make sure it works correctly! Finally, put the .ani in its correct slot in your data folder and run your data packer.
After that, run Mabinogi and take a look to see if your new animation applied. If it did, congratulations! Enjoy your new animation! If not, double check your file path. If there was an error with the actual animation, the pmg editor likely would have let you know.

Thanks for reading my guide! Please let me know if/how I can improve it to help you, as helping one person now can possibly help hundreds more in the future.

[Lady Playtime]

Your formatting is a little whack, otherwise an incredibly well done guide!

Example of the url code:

Code: [Select]

[url=https://mabimods.net/index.php?topic=16967.0]this thread[/url]
The one you have used:

Code: [Select]

[url=http://"https://mabimods.net/index.php?topic=16967.0"]this thread[/url]

[Gorlath]

Your formatting is a little whack, otherwise an incredibly well done guide!

Example of the url code:

Code: [Select]

[url=https://mabimods.net/index.php?topic=16967.0]this thread[/url]
The one you have used:

Code: [Select]

[url=http://"https://mabimods.net/index.php?topic=16967.0"]this thread[/url]

Fixed.
Turns out that adding quotes around the url causes the url tag to not recognize it as a url. Guess I'm too used to working with strings, haha.

[chaoticoracle225]

I can back up this method. Not to long ago I ran did this same method to fix the displacement glitch I was getting when I was attempting to add the unreleased berserk running animation. Which I should just get around to releasing in the File section sometime.

[Noonehere]

Nice guide to animating for Mabi! \o/

[majorcyto]

----Snip----

EDIT - Uhh, so I got it to export... and then this happened. :O

http://i.imgur.com/AUV2FXI.png

Question - Is it possible to export item meshes by themselves (such as a sword) without needing it to be attached to a body? Or does it matter.. should I just export it anyways then delete the body in 3ds max? Lol.

Oh, well it exported this doll correctly into .3ds even though it looks wrong on the male framework in the viewer lol.

http://i.imgur.com/enFvPDd.png

Trying to find an item by itself though, like clothing at least. So far I'm finding balloons and dolls. -.-


Edit 2 - WAIT.. are the clothes.. an entire model..? Like I selected "elf santa female wear" and its the entire thing :O. Is that because its akin to a full body costume, while individual armor pieces would be separated?

Edit 3 - Welp I guess I managed to answer all of my own questions via exploration lol.

http://i.imgur.com/nCtNu8I.png


Hopefully now I can get the textures to load, haven't tried yet. Thanks for your wonderful guide! Where should the .dds texture file go for it to properly load it and export it?

[Noonehere]

Sorry for necro. I don't want to make another thread since its expanding on whats on the guide now.


Advanced Mabi Animating

Before starting your animation, I advise a few things.

The default rotation that you get from importing a .3ds file from PMG Editor is set to "TCB Rotation". It allows you to animate fine but you cannot edit the rotation through 3DS Max's helpful "Curve Editor". Changing the rotation controller mid animation will also affect the previous frames you have done, which is why I advise changing it in the beginning.

1. Select all the bones you're going to work with. It could be all of them
2. Open up 3DS Max's Curve Editor in Graph Editors -> Track View - Curve Editor
3. Select all the Rotation properties in the bones you're working on
4. Right click the left panel -> Assign Controller... -> Euler XYZ -> Ok

Now the Rotation property will have more properties underneath, revealing X/Y/Z Rotation, which will be useful when your animation starts to wobble midway.
You can keyframe the rotations to be still all you want but it's going to be extremely frustrating. With the curve editor, you can see why its wobbling (probably because of an ease) and you can set the curve of the rotation to be linear (or something less infuriating), which will take out the infernal wobbling.

IK is stupidly useful for keeping your animation planted on the ground, though using it for animating might be tricky. I'm no expert on this, so try it out yourself.
I also recommend setting this up before you start animating so you don't mess up your previously finished frames.

Heres an example on setting up the IK rig on the legs of an animation
1. Load your ani and do whatever pre-animation setup you need to do
2. Find the bones "%leg1r" and "%footr" for the right foot, and "%leg1l" and "footl" for the left. Isolate it if you need to. Make sure you can click it.
3. Select the leg1l/r bone and go to Animation -> IK Solvers -> IK Limb Solver
4. On the viewport, your mouse now has a dotted line coming from the leg bone, click on the foot bone that is on the same side as your leg. (I think this can be done in the Scene Explorer)
5. Now the leg has an IK solver attached to it. The IK Handle is a blue + object that should be centered on the foot bone. Move it around and check that the leg bends properly forward.
5a. If the foot doesn't bend properly, Undo the Solver away, give the "leg1" a little bend forward (along the Y axis), "leg2" a little bend back (along the Y axis, I recommend using Local rotation instead of View rotation), and remake the IK Limb Solver. This will help the solver know which way to bend.

Move the IK handle around and you'll see that the leg can now rotate in forward, backwards, and side to side. The only thing missing is the rotation inwards and outwards, which the Command Panel can help with.

1. Select your IK Handle
2. Click on the Motion tab (1) and scroll down till you see the IK Solver (2) and/or IK Solver Properties box (3)

In the IK Solver mini-panel has a drop for the solve you wish to use. More info of the solver here here. Use IKLimb if you're not sure. The "Enabled" button will enable the IK to set Preferred Angles properties on your bones. The "IK for FK pose" box will allow you to move the handle around AND allow you to rotate the bone to animate in FK. IK/FK Snap will snap the IK handle to where the end Joint Bone. The buttons in the Preferred Angles I haven't explored yet. Bone Joints is the bones you're solving.

In the IK Solver Properties mini-panel, is what rotates the leg inwards and outwards. Just click and drag the "Swivel Angle" number box up and down to rotate it inwards and/or outwards. Make sure the parent space is in the Start Joint. Try not to rotate like crazy (like to -720).

When you have an angle you like, you need to key the rotations on the bones.
I'm still not sure what the proper way is doing it (probably something about those preferred angle buttons), but what I do is I move the IK to where I need the leg to be and manually key the rotation on every bone along the leg. Then I click back on the handle and disable IK solver. If the leg doesn't flip to some weird angle, then I'm good.

If you have any questions, just ask.

[Lady Playtime]

Sorry for necro. I don't want to make another thread since its expanding on whats on the guide now.


Advanced Mabi Animating

Before starting your animation, I advise a few things.

The default rotation that you get from importing a .3ds file from PMG Editor is set to "TCB Rotation". It allows you to animate fine but you cannot edit the rotation through 3DS Max's helpful "Curve Editor". Changing the rotation controller mid animation will also affect the previous frames you have done, which is why I advise changing it in the beginning.

1. Select all the bones you're going to work with. It could be all of them
2. Open up 3DS Max's Curve Editor in Graph Editors -> Track View - Curve Editor
3. Select all the Rotation properties in the bones you're working on
4. Right click the left panel -> Assign Controller... -> Euler XYZ -> Ok

Now the Rotation property will have more properties underneath, revealing X/Y/Z Rotation, which will be useful when your animation starts to wobble midway.
You can keyframe the rotations to be still all you want but it's going to be extremely frustrating. With the curve editor, you can see why its wobbling (probably because of an ease) and you can set the curve of the rotation to be linear (or something less infuriating), which will take out the infernal wobbling.

IK is stupidly useful for keeping your animation planted on the ground, though using it for animating might be tricky. I'm no expert on this, so try it out yourself.
I also recommend setting this up before you start animating so you don't mess up your previously finished frames.

Heres an example on setting up the IK rig on the legs of an animation
1. Load your ani and do whatever pre-animation setup you need to do
2. Find the bones "%leg1r" and "%footr" for the right foot, and "%leg1l" and "footl" for the left. Isolate it if you need to. Make sure you can click it.
3. Select the leg1l/r bone and go to Animation -> IK Solvers -> IK Limb Solver
4. On the viewport, your mouse now has a dotted line coming from the leg bone, click on the foot bone that is on the same side as your leg. (I think this can be done in the Scene Explorer)
5. Now the leg has an IK solver attached to it. The IK Handle is a blue + object that should be centered on the foot bone. Move it around and check that the leg bends properly forward.
5a. If the foot doesn't bend properly, Undo the Solver away, give the "leg1" a little bend forward (along the Y axis), "leg2" a little bend back (along the Y axis, I recommend using Local rotation instead of View rotation), and remake the IK Limb Solver. This will help the solver know which way to bend.

Move the IK handle around and you'll see that the leg can now rotate in forward, backwards, and side to side. The only thing missing is the rotation inwards and outwards, which the Command Panel can help with.

1. Select your IK Handle
2. Click on the Motion tab (1) and scroll down till you see the IK Solver (2) and/or IK Solver Properties box (3)

In the IK Solver mini-panel has a drop for the solve you wish to use. More info of the solver here here. Use IKLimb if you're not sure. The "Enabled" button will enable the IK to set Preferred Angles properties on your bones. The "IK for FK pose" box will allow you to move the handle around AND allow you to rotate the bone to animate in FK. IK/FK Snap will snap the IK handle to where the end Joint Bone. The buttons in the Preferred Angles I haven't explored yet. Bone Joints is the bones you're solving.

In the IK Solver Properties mini-panel, is what rotates the leg inwards and outwards. Just click and drag the "Swivel Angle" number box up and down to rotate it inwards and/or outwards. Make sure the parent space is in the Start Joint. Try not to rotate like crazy (like to -720).

When you have an angle you like, you need to key the rotations on the bones.
I'm still not sure what the proper way is doing it (probably something about those preferred angle buttons), but what I do is I move the IK to where I need the leg to be and manually key the rotation on every bone along the leg. Then I click back on the handle and disable IK solver. If the leg doesn't flip to some weird angle, then I'm good.

If you have any questions, just ask.

Stolen, thanks!
Going to the same place everything else I take goes.

Bug me if it should be removed. Assuming from your past contributions it's still fine to take.

I'll take any excuse to add to that monster thread.