[Zig-Zag]

A few quick questions about animations in Gmax.
1) How do you delete animations without decreasing the number of frames/how do you increase the number of frames?

2) How do you copy some animations and then play them backwards? (ie. You have frames x,y,z animated, but you want the final product to be x,y,z,y,x)

[Flyby]

aahhh...It is time you start investigating the Trackview

Animation is stored in what is known as "keys".
A key holds the positional, rotational and scale information of an object.

An animation has at least 2 keys, one defining the begin situation, one for the end situation.
You can copy and modify the way keys are blending together (making an ease in/out for exemple).

If you drag the end key to the left, you're shortning the animation, while the total number of frames remains unchanged.

To increase a number of frames, RC on the play button and set the total length to your desires...

[Romlel]

Easy answers, but not easy to apply....

Animation in RenX is KeyFrame based.... so, the timeline just give you access to frames from 0 to 100 but keyframes can exist before or after... it is just a "current working interval" in fact.... The length of animation is just the difference of the last frame of any object in the scene minus the first frame of any object

1) To delete animation, just delete the frames by hand. THe current working interval will stay the same after. To increase the number of frames, just click on "Time COnfiguration" button (lower right, under the "Go to end" VCR button) and change "end time". WARNING, if you shorten the interval, keys after this time will still exist !

2) To do so, you can copy/paste the keys one by one or use the "Out of range Types" dialog. In fact, for each object, you can give a rule for animation when current time is "out of range" (before object first key of after object last key). Goto "Track View" ("Graph Editors"/"Track View"/"Open Track View"). In left pannel, choose your object, then the track (positon, rotation or scale, each is independant). On the top of the window, search for the "Parameter Curve Out-Of-Range Types" button and click on it. Then choos the type of Type you want... choose LOOP for your example (click on the white image).

Good luck and ask for more if you are lost.

[Zig-Zag]

Thanks guys! I'm almost done completing my dream pathfinder .

On a side note, in order to get the sniper to deploy such that he loses his stealth and becomes immobile (for balance) I have to kill the original and replace him with a new unit that inherits his veterancy. Unfortunately, this has a horrible impact on the "units lost" statistics. Is there a way to make it so that if a unit is killed by the "SUICIDED" damage type that it won't count against the player?

[LtZack]

wow I need to talk to you people as I am still trying to find out how the heck do you animate infantry models in gmax

[Flyby]

Originally Posted by Romlel

Easy answers, but not easy to apply....

Agreed.
That's why I didin't go very detailed. It would become very complicated explaining it in text form.
The best thing he can do, is doing all tutorials about the trackview and animating keys to grasp the basics...