[Hostile]

How hard would it be to take say Legolas firing a bow animation and add it to Aragorn?

Can animations be used over differant models fairly easily. I notice it's just a bone structure. Can I just assign the animation to the code? I'm sure there is something I must do to associate it with the model.

[Rene]

An animation only makes a reference to a skeleton file. The animation channels make references to bones in the external skeleton file by index number. Applying an animation to a different file would just mean changing the name of the skeleton file referenced by the animation file. Note that the new skeleton file should have at least as many bones as the old one.

This would mean though that the order in witch the bones were exported in the original skeleton file also has to be the order in witch they were exported in the new skeleton file. If this is not the case you get the wrong animation channel on the wrong bone.

All the above conditions kind of rule out simply renaming the skeleton file reference in the binary w3d file.

The easiest way in my opinion would be to import the animation file, rename all bones used to existing bones in the target skeleton file and export it again as a pure animation.

In your case, import the 'Legolas firing a bow' animation. Rename all bones created to the matching bones in Aragorns skeleton. Then export using Aragorns skeleton.

[Sy]

When I was doing the infantry in Call To Arms, I would load the infantry model and then load whatever skeleton I wanted for the animations that I wanted into gmax and then re-make the links between the bones and the skin. Its pretty straight forward once you've done it once or twice.

Search for the Infantry Tutorial by OldFaq for help.

[key0p]

1) Import animation
2) import models skeleton
3) Use position/orientation constraints to make the static skeleton inherit the animation.

This is how I generally use another skeletons animation.Skeletons often have subtle differences that can make the animation look goofy.Taking this approach allows you to fine tune the animation for the model.It also means that the number of bones in each skeleton is irrelevant, and that you dont end up with multiple models of the same unit bound to different skeletons.

[Hostile]

All very good stuff. I will have to research and test everything you all have said here. Until I do it, it will be fear of the unknown. Once I can do this than a whole new world opens up for making new units. I will than not have to make new animations.

[Eradicator]

Yes, in general you can take any basic humanoid shape and rig it to a skeleton and use all the animations for that skeleton. For an FPS this mesh and skeleton mix and matching would be inappropriate, but for an RTS its not that bad most of the time.

[key0p]

Originally Posted by Eradicator";p=&quot

For an FPS this mesh and skeleton mix and matching would be inappropriate, but for an RTS its not that bad most of the time.

It can be quite appropriate, depending on how well you know your tools