Morph Animation Tutorial

[yoshi]

I was thinking maybe.. that the tutorial that explains how to create Cal3D models with blender could include a part on morph morph animations.  It already explains how to incorporate multiple bone-based animations into one mesh as well as texturing the mesh, so why not go the whole nine yards and include morph targets?

I actually found a section in the CS manual that deals with morph animations (in section 7.7.6 SpriteCal3D Mesh Object), and the fact that it is included in the same section as the Cal3D mesh section leads me to believe that the two types of animation techniques can be combined.  So I tried it out... I figured that, in order to make a target mesh, I could just take a rigged but animation-less version of my model, change the geometry a little (while keeping the number of verts the same), and export that as my target mesh.

Then in my .cal3d file I have the following:

Code:

<meshfact name="test">

<plugin>crystalspace.mesh.loader.factory.sprite.cal3d</plugin>

<params>
  <!-- options rotate_x_axis="yes" flip_textures="yes" / -->

  <path dir="modeldata/" />

  <scale value="0.3" />

  <skeleton file="cal3d.csf" />
    <animation file="Walk.caf" type="travel" name="Walk" base_vel="2" min_vel="0" max_vel="3" />
    <animation file="Idle.caf" type="action" name="Idle" idle_pct="33" />

  <material file="/this/testmodel/modeldata/test-map.bmp" name="map1" />

  <mesh file="g_choma.cmf" name="test_body" material="map1">
    <morphtarget file="g_choma_mBigHead.cmf" name="mBigHair" />
  </mesh>

  <morphanimation name="maGrowHair">
    <morphtarget mesh="test_body" morph="mBigHair" />
  </morphanimation>

  <!-- don't export for soya -->
  <!-- hardtransform rot_axis_x="1" rot_axis_y="0" rot_axis_z="0" rot_angle="-90" / -->

</params>
</meshfact>

...and it manages to crash viewmesh.exe on loading... haha.     So I am requesting that that a tutorial for morph animations be included in the current blender to cal3d tutorial.  Or something.

Thanks in advance.

[deckerego]

That would be a good additional tutorial on "advanced" topics. The original cal3d tutorial was meant to give a brief overview of the toolkit and files you need - upcoming are more advanced tutorials like the one you mention.

Right now I'm working on a UV texture mapping tutorial... after that's written up I'll look at doing advanced rigging and animation targets.

[Mentoliptus]

I konw this thread is from 2005 but I'd like the morph target facial animation tutorial too...

I'm more intrested in the 3DS MAX to CAL3D version, but the blender one will be ok

Thank you!