How to Import Models to Art Tools with Animations

[BlinkBoy]

Importing Models to Art Tools with Animations.

Material Requirements:

• Mago's Model Editor: http://magos.thejefffiles.com/War3ModelEditor/
• Notepad
• Art Tools: http://www.wc3campaigns.net/showthread.php?t=81629
• 3dsmax 4, 5
• Fadis Moundir MDX Importer: http://www.wc3campaigns.net/attachme...7&d=1168450690

Knowledge Requirements:

• Advanced Knowledge of 3dsmax and Art Tools
• Basic Knowledge of MDL Editing.

Optional Requirements:

• My Anim 2 Keys Convertor: http://www.wc3campaigns.net/attachme...1&d=1168734703
• VB6 Runtime Files: http://support.microsoft.com/support.../Q192/4/61.ASP

Tutorial Time:

• 1 hour the first time.
• 10 to 20 minutes after some practice.

Getting Started:

Okey, Aren't you excited of learning something new? . Me too , took me a long time to write this, because I had to learn some new techniques to reduce the current one for making less of the work it takes for making the old one.

I hope you like the Tutorial, I haven't made many tutorials before, so forgive my noobiness and my crappy English .

Important Note: just to have you prepared, , place the Fadis Moundir's script at the folder 3dsmax 5\scripts\startup. in other words, in the folder startup, inside the folder script, in the 3dsmax 5 Directory.

Going on:

Ok , to start getting familiar with this technique for importing models, we must select an easy but not so easy model to import (If you get what I mean ). I selected the ChaosOrcRange model for us to learn; since he has no particles, lights or complex hierarchy.

lets get on the work,

First, we shall start by opening Mago's Model Editor, now go to Windows [In top Center], then to MPQ Browser. It is essential that you open war3.mpq [if you indeed want to find the model]. Now guide through my picture here:



You got the model, Don't you?. Good, now lets save it somewhere else, unless that you want to corrupt the mpq by changing an inner file. So be a nice guy and save both a .mdx and a .mdl in a different folder.



Ok, now lets look at the anims, in the mdl data. As you can see, all that data is organized in Intervals, which will be lost after importing the model, because of the importer's limitations. So on, we must create a bone that will hold the times & intervals.



Lets get back to magos editor, and lets open the node manager.



Is time to create our little bonysaver [really, before without this bone, was a extremely difficult to find the animations]. give the manager a right click, and click on Create Bone.



Now Right Click the New bone, and go to 'Edit Node'; lets call him Animations.



Now for our lil bonysaver to save lives, it must have the keys. Doesn't he?

Lets go to the translation tab, and this window shall appear.



We must do 2 things, 1 set the new key's data, and 2 set the interpolation to Linear.

Open up the precius tool, that I made for u, select all the sequence data in the mdl, and click Convert.

If the tool doesn't work for you, you'll have to add the keys one by one, (which is frustating). Just incase if the tool doesn't work, try making sure that you installed the VB6 Runtime Files.



Now copy/paste, the new key data, and set the Interpolation to linear.



Close the node manager, and save the model [save in the mdx format].

Now, which preparations are left?. Well, lets say that the sequences need to unified into one.

Why they must be unified?. The reason is because Fadis Moundir Importer does not actually import the animations, but plays them. So on, we must fool the tool, by making 1 big anim based in the first and last anim.

Look for them:



Good, you noted their Intervals & names, right?. Lets unify them, but first open the sequence manager.



select the first anim, walk, right click, and click Edit.



rename it, and call it Anim. Now change its end value for, the last anim's end value (Decay Bone).



Now, delete the rest of the animations. Save the model, and open 3dsmax.



Once opened 3dsmax, go to the utilities Panel and select Maxscript.

[Make sure, that you read the important note, at the Getting Started part, Else you'll have to do it and restart 3dsmax]



Now browse down, go to utilities and select MDX Importer/Exporter. [if it isn't there, then you didn't placed the script in the folder that I told you]. In cse it isn't there, click Run Script and select the script.



Roll down, and click on Import MDX. Don't turn on Create Skin, we don't need skinning.



Now browse through, and import your model.



Wait for every bone to be created, and then select in the Animations Panel, our Anim. Now click Apply Selected.



Select our bonysaver, as you can see, we got all the animation keys saved. Before writting the notes, we must make some adjustments.



First, we going to take out the old bones, which referenced to the geometry, that got no animations (they aren't needed at all), we will detect them by selecting them and look if they got any keys at all. Select them and type Delete/Supr key of the keybourd, or just delete them manually. I kept those 4, because I'll turn them into attachments later.



For some weird reason, the Importer, Imports the model facing 90.0 degrees than it has to face.

We must select EVERYTHING and rotate it -90 degrees in the Z axi.



Now, the last adjustment. Lets configure the Time settings. First we going to change Frame Rate from 300 FPS to 30 FPS. Now lets set the interval start to 0 and click Ok.

One more thing, before adding the notes. Select every animated bone, and using the User Define editor, set them as bones. That way Wc3 Previewer won't give us problems.



Time for adding the Notes, click on Graph Editors, then on Dope Sheet.



Select Objects, and afterwards, add a note track controller to it.



Now reveal the bonysaver's translations



Now add a note key to objects for every key that Animations Bone has. Remenber to guide yourself with the MDL and add the animation blocks correctly, as in the picture.



You should have this when done, remenber to delete the Animations Bone afterwards.



Now another issue. When the Importer imports the model, It needs to convert the FPS from 960 to 300, so it multiplies the keys by 30 and divides them by 96 as a result, we get decimal frames. wc3 preview/exporter, won't read this well, forcing us to fix them.



Good for us, we only need to fix the Start and End keys. select every key in the row.



Now do as it tells you.



Is time for making the materials. First we need the textures. Go to mago's Model Editor --> Windows --> Texture Manager.

Now select the textures that you need and export them.



Remenber to note the Material data for making the materials. Making the materials is documented inthe Art Tool's Guide, so I won't explain anything.



before aplaying the materials, we need to fix the unwrap of the meshes [seen in selection]



save the scene. [you may get errors later]

add an unwrap modifier to each mesh



click Edit, and select everything



Move the unwrap, 1 unit up.

Note: you may guide better by setting the material's texture as the background



now convert the meshes to editable mesh to colapse the Unwrap into the model, or do it manually.

This is how it should look:



Now hide everything except the bones and the meshes[xept for gutz]



Time for linking the mesh to the bones. Good for us Blizzard models happen to keep the meshes sepparated as sub-elements.



Now Detach each mesh, and give it a name to relate it with the bone.



After detaching everything, go to the user property Editor, and connect the meshes.



Set everthing as you see here:



Now, lets go to the hierarchy panel and select affect pivot only. Then click Center to Object, and then Align to Object.



Now go to the Object list and click Display Subtree.



After you have done this, star linking the meshes to the bones.



Now you are practically done, the rest is left to you.

try to add the visibility Anims, Colition shapes, events and mipmaps.

Here's the sample http://www.wc3campaigns.net/attachme...1&d=1168748525

Credits:

Mc !, Olofmoleman & xXm0rpH3usXx: Inspired me to write Teh Tutorial.

Cookie: made the first tutorial, even though not as advanced as this one.

Magos: made that nice tool that we used.

Fadi Moundir: Made the Godly Importer that we used.

Wc3c staffs: keeping this site running

[BlinkBoy]

Okey, the tutorial is finished.

[xXm0rpH3usXx]

very cool, but complicated i guess...

[Mc !]

Originally Posted by BlinkBoy

Credits:

Olofmoleman & xXm0rpH3usXx: Inspired me to write Teh Tutorial.

http://www.wc3campaigns.net/showpost...9&postcount=21
You forgot me :P. I won't give you the cookie now

But anyways, this is very useful, REP

[BlinkBoy]

I knew that I was forgetting some1, added u.

[Mc !]

Thanks.

You should've made the tut with an easier thing like a sheep :P. I have tried it with the sheep and guess what...

IT WORKED, WOO!! Here you have your cookie

[Chriz.]

I've been wanting this for ages, lovely. I'll have to try it out sometime soon : )

[jigrael]

Very nice tut, when I did it before I did it Cookie's way :D Anyway there are some things I didnt knew and I think will be very helpful, but I recomend that you work with the other importer too(KMK's I think) its an importer that doesnt work very well for animations but imports the mesh right(uvs) just to ease the proces of aplying the skin, Ill post that importer here.
oh and +rep of course
edt:use this importer just for the mesh, selecting mesh only

[Taziz]

nice the problem is that its something like this
a.help me fix my car ?
b.sure thing man
a.where should I start and what tools should I use ?
b.Use a screwdriver and start from here.
a.k thanks what next ?
b.Lol nub soz !!!!
I know this tutorial is for advance users
but I'm stuck were you should delete unused parts
"First, we going to take out the old bones that got no anims (they aren't needed at all). Select them and type Delete/Supr key. I kept those 4, because I'll use turn them into attachments later."
Looked half of the program and did int find the part for it I stoped and looked deeper in the tutorials and I sow that If I fix that problem another will come up

[BlinkBoy]

Hmm, You need to look around the bone meshes, which don't have keys. [normally you'll notice them at the animation var]. After that just select them and delete them. I kept some, because I wanted to use them as attachments.

to jig: I don't use it because of 3 facts: 1 it resets the FPS, increasing the minimun error of key's positions. 2nd It can mess Fadis if not used at the correct time. 3rd, It makes the tutorial more complex than it is.

[Jazradel]

I seriously recomend you talk to prophet and get his Art Tools Addon. It lets you import into 3d Max 5 without having to do anything else.

I use it all the time. If he's ever online, I'll talk to him about fixing it up and publicly releasing a version.

[BlinkBoy]

Originally Posted by Jazradel

I seriously recomend you talk to prophet and get his Art Tools Addon. It lets you import into 3d Max 5 without having to do anything else.

I use it all the time. If he's ever online, I'll talk to him about fixing it up and publicly releasing a version.

I know, I talked with him, but he has been rescripting it. So on, I made this tutorial meanwhile.

[Jazradel]

Oh, that's really great to know. I thought he'd lost all interest.

Great tutorial anyway.

[RaveEye]

When I try to import the model with the "MDX Importer" script,
I got this error:

-- Runtime error: Struct member access requires instance: AddOffset

I use 3ds Max 4.0, anyone know the problem?

[BlinkBoy]

hmm, make sure that you turned off skinning checkbox. Else, the script may not be compatible with max 4, you may need max 5.