Animating for Battlefield 2

[Rhino]

Updated OP with extended animations and files:

Chuc;1052844']Tutorial available for public distribution.
Note: These animation scene are only compatible with 3DsMax9.

BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING YOU NEED THE FOLLOWING:

1. 3D Studio Max 9 (Not 3DsMax 2009, Not 2014, v9) With the POE2 BF2 Extended Tools For 3Ds Max9 v0.30a
2. The BF2 Editor with a working "pr_edit" mod
3. The Project Reality Animation Export Examples provided below
4. The will to work things out on your own

Project Reality Animation Export Examples

These animation export files are only to provide you with examples of how Project Reality sets up and dose weapon animations for different types of weapons so you can learn how to apply these to your own animations. Using these animations for any other purpose is a breach of copyright law. By downloading these files you agree to only use them in this manner.

Download: http://realitymodfiles.com/rhino/weapon ... -01-14.zip (260mb)



Chapter 1 - Introduction to BF2 Weapon Animation

Download Link

Skeleton Setup Max Scene

Note: You need CamStudio Movie player to play the encoded .avi files, it is available here.

You will also need the following BF2 tools to be able to import and export to and from the bf2 engine.



Chapter 2 - Setting up for Export

PASSWORD IS pr

Explained in this video

• Weapon Export Rundown
• Pivots, where to put them?
• Importing into a preexisting MAX animation scene
• ANIMATED Selection Sets

Chapter 3 - The BF2 Editor

Explained in this video

• Object Editor
• Animation Editor
• Foley Syncing

A useful tip if the editor is refusing to load the correct animations is to "Add Effect" (the plus sign close to the BAF animation's name), and add a randomly named effect and it will reload the proper animation for the weapon you've loaded. Because the editor doesn't save anything unless you tell it to, you don't have to worry about unintentionally adding an effect.



Chapter 4 - Animation System Files

Chapter 5 - First-Person Animations

PASSWORD IS pr


Chapter 6 - Animation Principles and a complete reload animation from scratch

PASSWORD IS pr



Extra Reading Material

https://www.killeenisd.org/schools/high ... ciples.pdf

If you are really nerdy I can highly recommend buying the book "The Illusion Of Life" - Disney animation. This is where these 12 principles originate from.

In terms of applying these principles to the world of 3D rather than 2D, here is a pretty good article on the subject:

CGSociety - Applying the 12 Principles to 3D Computer Animation by Disney's Isaac Kerlow

IBrokeRU's channel, talented first person weapon animator, also making his own series of tutorials.
YouTube - ImBrokeRU's Channel



Good luck, and I'll reiterate by saying that anyone can do this, with the right amount of dedication.



- Last Updated: 18th of January 2014

[Darman1138]

There's nothing under Chapter 4.....

[Rhino]

Can't you see this youtube video? Animating in BF2 - Animation System Files - YouTube

[Darman1138]

Now I can see it. I have no idea what was wrong before. I refreshed the page a few times and nothing was there.

[BroCop]

Derp. Browser decided to not refresh. Nvm.

[KaB]

Anyone knows why doesn't my camera movements get exported ?

I didn't test it with BF2 Editor, but just with 3ds max.
I exported the animation into pr folders, then I imported back into 3ds max, and the camera don't move :/ The rest is fine though...

Edit : Ok nvm that's because I animated the model and not the bone...

[Ironclad2014]

I face a problem, in max 9 the animation is 100% okay but in bf2 and the editor the hands move in the animation but the weapon doesn't

[KaB]

My guess is that the mesh of your weapon isnt well placed in the tree of the obj list.

[MightyPole]

All the youtube videos are dead.

[KaB]

You can find some in there : http://realitymodfiles.com/ancient/chuc ... torials.7z

[MightyPole]

KaB;2090147']You can find some in there : http://realitymodfiles.com/ancient/chuc ... torials.7z

Many thanks for quick response mate!

[Haggard99]

Are the links dead? Can someone reupload them?

[w0lf3k]

Hello, can somebody explain how animate things such as bipod on rpk74m(run animation, bipod shaking) deployed or ironsight animation on AT4(deploy animation)? As i know mesh2,3,4,5... should have same pivot as mesh1... So not quite understand how to animate such things.

[w0lf3k]

Looks like i'm found solution. U can rotate and operate those meshes by using helper-dummy(green) with this hierarchy.



Full tutorial if interested of 4 parts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXrbc6RN4rQ

I was doing same before, but looks like i messed up with links or smth. Redone it from a scratch and it works. Now i have pivot(using dummy's) in positions where i need them.

btw ty for reuploading some Chuc's videos <3

[w0lf3k]

bone selection tut by Chuc.

Most of what is explained in the video, however one very important thing is the ANIMATED selection sets of which for third person animating, is quite tricky to remember the first time.

Exporting is tricky in that there are certain bones you need to export depending on the kind of animation.

Stand
Standing fire
Zoom
Zoom fire
Prone Fire
Reload
Prone Reload
Idle animations
Stand deploy

All those animations require you to ANIMATED select all the bones EXCEPT for -

left_upperleg
left_knee
left_lowerleg
left_foot
left_ball

mesh9
mesh10
mesh11
mesh12
mesh13

right_upperleg
right_knee
right_lowerleg
right_foot
right_ball

mesh14
mesh15
mesh16

-----

Next is the crouch still animation.
The problem I've encountered is that once you export the crouch still (and also the prone still animation, since they're
exported in the same way) you are UNABLE to import it again, so be careful.

Same ANIMATED selection, except this time also DESELECT the root bone.

Do the crouchturnleft, crouchturnright in the same way as the standturn equivalents. However this time you need to select
ALL the bones for export.

-----

Zoom fire animations are what I would consider my favourite, don't ask why..
Exported in the same way as the stand animation. Also, if you want to line up the sights with the eye, bring the sights to the right eye bone, and have the point where he's looking just under the bone. Once you exported the zoom fire animation, take the last frame of the zoom fire animation and copy it throughout the sequence and export that as your zoom animation.

Do the same with the prone_fire animation.

-----

The last and probably most tedious is all the other animations, like running, crouch walking and prone crawling. For these you need to select ALL the bones for exporting. To make life easier, set up IK constraints between the left ullna and the weapon, and also save the finger positions so you can easily import them again without having to tinker with them by eye every time.

-----

Unfortunately, I've been unable to work out how to properly export the Crouch deploy and prone deploy animations without them looking all super funky.

[Rhino]

Updated the download links in the OP

[MajorIceman]

Hi there

Wasnt sure if it would be ok to ask this question here as it is partly related or i should start of a new post but is it possible to put Animation on a Vehicle?

For example after you take off in a plan a trigger will trigger the animation to say extend the wings back or roll out an engine pod as idealy i need to have some wings extend downwards on a Goul'd Cargo Ship and then retract when under a certain speed and heigh like the landing gear but i need to these with Horizontal and Vertical movements so you can see what i mean a video to a Puddle Jumper i ahve done but although it works it causes other problems as the Pivot is way above the craft and if something was to hit where the pivot is causes damage to the craft.

https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=FlulU_UaPEQ

Hopefully this has attached the video ok if i need repost this else where i will

[Rhino]

Vehicles can't have animations in BF2, but they can in BF2142 (with the mechs walking animation etc) but dunno how that works.

Offset pivot is the only real way, shouldn't cause the craft damage if done right but does have other issues like making a large bounding box and other possible issues coming from it, but as long as you don't have a col on the pivot it should just go though anything.