CREATING GAME ART FOR 3D ENGINES- P11

CREATING GAME ART FOR 3D ENGINES- P11: Iwish to thank the editing team at Charles River Media (Emi Smith,Karen Gill, Jennifer Blaney, and Jenifer Niles) for their help in gettingthis book publish-ready. Thanks, too, to my technical editor, MikeDuggan. Also deserving recognition are the guys who make the TorqueGame Engine available, GarageGames, who directly or indirectly madethis book and the accompanying CD possible. In particular, I want tothank Joe Maruschak at GarageGames for the great articles and forumanswers that have helped me and many others get a handle on this engine.I...
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CREATING GAME ART FOR 3D ENGINES- P11278 Creating Game Art for 3D EnginesEXPORTING CHARACTER ANIMATION (DSQ) FILES Characters require the same general markers and meshes as the other art assets, but there are some important differences, particularly to get the animations to properly export. As mentioned in Chapter 11, the best way to manage your animations is to create them in separate files, although it is possible to export your animation sequences as part of the DTS export. The process we will be using is to export a DTS file of your character mesh and create a DSQ export for each animation, from the run to the backward run to the jump. The 3ds Max file you are using for the differ- ent animations does not need the character mesh; all you need is the biped and the other associated markers and Sequence objects. There is an order to setting up your exports so that you do not end up re-creating markers and linkages. Start by defining your character shape file with all the mark- ers and parent-child relationships so that you can export the DTS file. Then use a copy of that file to animate the root animation, and move on to separate copies of the other animations. Delete the mesh when you are ready to export the DSQ file. The hierarchy when exporting a character animation is much the same as the hierarchy shown in Figure 12.2, except that the animation will have a Sequence object. Figure 12.4 illustrates the changes between the two files; this image shows the position of the bounds object in the hierarchy, the Sequence object, and the dele- tion of the character mesh and any other associated meshes. Because it is helpful to have a version of the character animation with the mesh intact, it is recommended that you save a copy of the file before deleting the character mesh and exporting the DSQ file. FIGURE 12.4 The run sequence is almost ready to be exported. Chapter 12 Character Exporting 279Sequence Object SetupFor a typical animation export, you first have to make sure your Sequence objectexport settings are correct. If the Sequence object is selected and the Modify panel isselected, your screen should look something like Figure 12.5. For a run or strafecycle that will repeat over and over, use a Cyclic sequence. A Complete cycle is onlyapplicable to an animation that should play from start to finish and then stop, suchas with a death fall. FIGURE 12.5 Modifying the parameters of the Sequence object before exporting the sequence. Blend sequences allow you to animate just the lower or upper portion of thecharacter. An example of a blend sequence is a look animation. The lower body ofthe character may be in the middle of a run or root animation, but the look anima-tion, which uses only upper body movements, blends with current actions. Moreinformation about blend sequences is available on the GarageGames Web site. Formost character animations, you only need to check the Transform Animation checkbox.280 Creating Game Art for 3D Engines Footprints and Foot Sounds Each Sequence object comes with a Triggers track. You can use the Triggers track to place triggers that indicate where the feet should leave footprints and generate foot- fall sounds. You place these triggers in the Curve Editor, by selecting the Triggers track, inserting two keys, and assigning values to those keys. In Figure 12.6, a key was assigned at frame 4 with a value of 1.0, and a second key was assigned at frame 22 with a value of 2.0. The default setup for the Torque Game Engine is that a value of 1 generates a footprint for the left foot, and a value of 2 generates a right foot- print. Make sure the key values are exactly 1.0 and 2.0. FIGURE 12.6 Keyframing footprint triggers with the Curve tool. Export of the DSQ Animation You export the DSQ animation from the Torque DTS Export menu. If you are ani- mating your character while the mesh is still present, delete the mesh from the biped before exporting the DSQ file. Make a copy of the 3ds Max file with the character mesh intact in case you want to work with it again, delete the character mesh, and click the Sequences button from the Utilities rollout. Save the file as player_root.dsq, player_forward.dsq, or whatever is appropriate for your character name and animation. Chapter 12 Character Exporting 281USING THE TORQUE SHOW TOOL PRO The Show Tool is a great time-saver for character previewing. Here, you can preview your character in full animation w ...