Tutorial: Importing Animations into Geppetto

Transcription

1 Tutorial: Importing Animations into Geppetto This tutorial walks you through the steps needed to import animations with Geppetto, including setting up the.chrparams file, the Skeleton List, and importing an animation with default compression settings. At the end of the tutorial you will have completed the set up required for importing animations for a character and have an animation playing on the character. You will learn how to do the following: Setup the.chrparams file Apply the skeleton to the Skeleton List Import an animation Prerequisites You will want to have a general understanding of the Lumberyard Editor and an Animation exported from a modeling program. Lumberyard installed An.i caf file exported from your animation tool of choice. Step 1: Setting Up the.chrparams File In order for the character to know where to find its animation files, the.chrparams file for the character s skeleton needs to be set up to point to where the animations are stored. This is typically a one-time process unless you need to add additional animation directories later. To Set up the.chrparams file: 1. In Geppetto under the Assets panel, expand the Skeletons rollout and navigate to your character s skeleton. You will notice that it has.chrparams for the file extension instead of.chr. Select the skeleton s.chrparams file. 2. In the Properties panel in Geppetto, there is an Animation Set Filter rollout with a number next to it (usually 0 if it s a.chrparams being set up for the first time). Click on the drop down list next to Animation Set Filter, and select Add.

2 3. A new empty property field with additional fields below it will have been added to the Animation Set Filters list for the.chrparams file. Click on the folder icon next to the empty field to bring up the folder browser window. 4. In the folder browser window, navigate to the directory where you exported your.i_caf animation files in the project and select it. The folder you select will be the one that the character will look in for animations to use. 5. You can keep the fields below the animation path left as default. These are used to find the various animation extensions that are used within Lumberyard such as the compressed animation file (.caf), blend space file (.bpsace), and combined blend space file (.comb).

3 6. After assigning your animation directory, click on the Save icon in the Properties panel to save your changes to the.chrparams file. You have successfully set up your.chrparams file to point to where the character s animations are stored. Next, we will go over how to apply the character s skeleton to the Skeleton List. Step 2: Applying the skeleton to the Skeleton List A character s skeleton needs to be added to the Skeleton List in order for animations to be imported and compressed properly. This is typically a one-time process unless you need to reuse the same skeleton with another alias. Apply the skeleton to the Skeleton List 1. In Geppetto under the Assets panel, expand the Compressions (Animations/) rollout and select the Skeleton List. 2. In the Properties panel, you will see an Aliases rollout. Click on the drop down menu next to Aliases, and select Add. A new empty Alias will be added to the Skeleton List. 3. Click on the folder icon next to the empty Alias to open the file browser window. Navigate to where your character s skeleton (.chr) is saved and open it. This will assign the.chr and automatically be given the same name as the.chr file for the Alias.

4 4. You can change the name of the Alias for the character s skeleton if you choose. Click on the Save icon in the Properties panel when you ve finished selecting and naming your character s skeleton to save it to the Skeleton List. You have successfully applied your character s skeleton to the Skeleton List so animations can be imported and compressed to that skeleton. Next, we will import an animation for the character s skeleton to use. Step 3: Importing an Animation In order to use an animation (.i_caf) exported out from DCC, it needs to be imported by being compressed and converted to a.caf file for Lumberyard to use. To Import an animation

5 1. In Geppetto, load the character that will be using the imported animation. Expand the Animations rollout in the Assets panel. 2. You will see the name of your.i_caf listed and a greyed out icon of a man running to the left of it. Select the animation. 3. There is a text warning that will display in the Geppetto Viewport regarding the selected animation not being imported with information on how to import as well. You can ignore this for now since we are in the process of importing the animation. 4. In the Properties panel, you will see a Skeleton Alias field with a drop down menu. Click on the drop down menu and select the Alias that you had assigned to your character s skeleton (.chr) previously. 5. If your animation is an additive animation, enable the check box for Additive. Otherwise if it is a full body animation, leave this unchecked.

6 6. Click on the Import button to import your animation for your character. This will create a.caf file that gets saved in your project s cache and will now be used for this animation for the character. 7. When first importing the animation, it uses default compression values that only get exposed after doing you initial import. You will see new properties available for the animation in the Properties panel such as Tags, Compression, and Animation Events that are available for you to explore and adjust. You have successfully imported your animation for your character. Please refer to other documentation in the related section for next steps. Want to learn more about Lumberyard? Visit the complete Lumberyard Tutorials Page. We d love to hear from you! Head to our Tutorial Discussion forum to share any feedback you have, including what you do or don t like about our tutorials or new content you d like to see in the near future.