Skele: Character Animation Tools, Cutscenes and Animations authoring tools

is there a way to copy all the frames instead of saving it to pose manager frame by frame? i find it hard to paste it one by one when making cutscene animations..a single walk cutscene takes me a while because i manually pasting all the single frames

 

Hi, cjrussel14,

Thanks for the feedback,

To copy & paste keyframes, you could utilize Ctrl+A / Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V;

Check the gif below for example:


You could also take a look at this video if you want to see how to modify the animation curves:
http://i.imgur.com/ri75lfX.gifv


Tell me if you find it not clear enough,

Best regards, Be creative,

 

i mean when copying all frames then pasting in a newly created clip..

 

Hi, Developers,

I just submitted v1.8.2f1, this update fixed a API changes causing error on Unity5.1.
This update also modified the directory structure so the example scenes files are easier to find.

1.8.2 f1 (Submitted on 2015/07/13)
FIX: On Unity5.1, CCEditor calls new internal API to get RootGameObject;
CHANGE: Move the examples scenes to the top dir;

Best regards, Be creative,

 

Hi, cjrussel14,

I've tried with Unity5.1, seems Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V works well across different clips.
Did you find some issue on that?

 

when i copy a single frame in animation clip the paste it to a new clip it doesnt work well

 

Looks like a known issue on AW since 5.1, it's marked fixed in future release though.
http://issuetracker.unity3d.com/issues/aw-can-no-longer-move-the-current-time-before-the-first-key



For now, you could workaround it by:
* paste multiple keyframes (best include one at frame 0);
* Or, double click on frame 0 position to create a new keyframe;
* Or, paste one at frame 0;

Tell me if you find it not clear =)

Best regards, Be creative,

 

hello,is there a way to move the pivot of skinned object

 

Hi, perryperkins72,

I'm not sure what you're trying to do, but moving the reference node should have a good chance to fit your need.

And be sure to toggle the Unity's pivot mode to "PIVOT", not "CENTER".

Chekc the gif below:


Best regards, Be creative,

 

Purchased this asset some days ago, when i import it to unity 5.0.1f1, and unity updated the content to work with unity 5, i get the following error message:

Assets/Skele/CharacterAnimationTools/Editor/EUtil.cs(652,15): error CS1061: Type `UnityEditor.EditorWindow' does not contain a definition for `titleContent' and no extension method `titleContent' of type `UnityEditor.EditorWindow' could be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)


Send you an email and wrote on the support site but never got any response that the question was received.

 

Hi, sobek,

Ah... It seems that older version of Unity5 doesn't have the API yet. I just checked the API history that it was introduced in v5.1.

Sorry for the inconvenience,
Here is a quick workaround so you could get it work before I submit a fix:

Change that from:

Code (CSharp):

1.         public static void SetEditorWindowTitle(EditorWindow w, string title)
2.         {
3. #if U5
4.             w.titleContent = new GUIContent(title);
5. #else
6.             w.title = title;
7. #endif
8.         }

To:

Code (CSharp):

1.         public static void SetEditorWindowTitle(EditorWindow w, string title)
2.         {
3.             w.title = title;
4.         }

Tell me if you find out other issues,

Best regards, Be creative,

 

Hi, Developers,

I just submitted v1.8.2f2, this update only fixed an API which would cause compilation error on Unity5.0,

If you're using Unity4.x or Unity5.1 , you're safe to skip this update.

1.8.2 f2 (Submitted on 2015/08/07)
FIX: On Unity5.0.x, a compilation error caused by API introduced since Unity5.1;

Best regards, Be creative,

 

Hi. Just getting started using Skele. I want to take an existing animation for a gun aim and change the placement of one of the hands. What's the process for this? I tried deleting the start and end keys for the hand then added new properties and keyed a start and end key with the new position but it didn't have any effect, I must have missed a step.

 

Hi. Thank you.
I wrote at the support community again. In short i can't save the changes I made. When I'm done editing the animation pose and then press the record key to end the recording, the whole animation is just reset to what it was before. I Have followed all tutorials, tried to switch the model to generic etc, but nothing seems to work. Have i missed something?

 

Hi, Hedonsoft,

Thanks for the feedback, =)

As you've managed to delete the keys, so I assume the clip is NOT READ-ONLY.


And you've succeeded in adding some new keys, and they're already shown in the AW(AnimationWindow), right?
Hmm, if it's true and the modification doesn't take effect. Please take a check that if all the properties are shown yellow.

In normal circumstances, there should be at most one or two properties being yellow ( for RootMotion, usually )
If that's the case, you should check if there're other Animator/Animation components in the children GameObjects , and remove that component if you find it. (Most likely on a GameObject with SkinnedMeshRenderer)

If none of these is matched with your case, please provide more details on how to reproduce the issue. (Unity version, steps, etc)
It would be very helpful to use ScreenToGif to record a gif and post on imgur/gfycat, be sure to take the full Unity window.

Best regards, Be creative,

 

Hi, sobek,

I've seen the message on support community and added a reply.
http://skele.userecho.com/topic/833009-import-error-message-about-tilecontent-in-editorwindow/

Best regards,

 

Thanks for the reply. I decided that instead of editing canned animations I'll just make my own. I'm using 2 projetcs, 1 just to setup characters and prototyping and my main project with UMA characters. In my prototyping project I set my test character to generic and animated it, and it looks fine but when I bring the .anim into my main project the animation is not playing.

I should mention I'm using 2 animation layers, one for bottom, one for top of body.

[/QUOTE]

 

Hi, Hedonsoft,

As the Unity animation engine uses the "transform path" to find the joints to animate. (e.g.: Hips/Spine/RightArm/RightHand)
Could you confirm that the skeleton of two models are identical? [at least the animated joints have identical transform path]

e.g.: if your anim file wants to animate neck joint at transform path "Hips/Spine/Neck", then to apply it on another model, the new model needs to have the same neck with "Hips/Spine/Neck" to animate.


If this is the cause of the issue, you have multiple options to handle that:
1. Prepare a model in your prototype project with the same skeleton, you could either build one with cubes or export the UMA model with DAE exporter;
1.1 build one proto-model:

1.2 Or, export the UMA model and put it in your proto-project (pause game and use DAE Exporter to export):

2. Export the animation from prototype project with DAE exporter, copy to UMA project, make it into humanoid animation and apply on the UMA model;

Tell me if you find anything not clear enough,

Best regards, Be creative,

 

My friend the using DAE exporter was exactly what I needed to do. This software is incredible. I'm really excited by how much it's going to simplify my pipeline!

 

hi, when i'm making cutscene can i use 3rd party dialogue framework?

 

Hi, gabrielceleste845,

I think it's possible, as far as I know, most of the 3rd party dialog frameworks can play .anim clips.

it is a good workflow to make some individual animation clips, then play them with dialog plugins.

Best regards, Be creative,

 

Glad it can help =)

If you find any questions when using it, be sure to tell me.

 

Thank you for the reply.

I tried to animated the slider on the material but no luck i want to use it for the emissive map for glowing purpose is there a way to animate the parameters in the materials?

 

Hi, gabrielceleste845,

It's possible to animate material parameters with anim clip;
You need to ensure:
1. The GameObject has Animator component not Animation component;
2. The clip must be recorded with Animator component on the GameObject;

It won't take effect if any of the two conditions not met.

(Recorded under Unity4.6, animating an arbitrary parameter of material)

 

does it work with all kinds of shaders? i'm using custom one and didn't work & i followed all of your steps

i'm using unity 5 btw..

i tried it in unity 5 and it worked,however..i mainly use this for my character w/c is a skinned mesh and it set to legacy..

what i did is i set the animation in generic first them i made the emissive then set it to legacy,the animation worked but the movement only,the material i edited isn't working

 

It works with custom shaders, the gif above is a custom shader made with shaderForge;

Yeah, you need to use Animator, Animation component (aka Legacy) is not working to animate the material parameters;
Also, it cannot change referenced texture, you can change material though.

You could also check this unity issuetracker post if you've interest.

 

I've owned skele for a while but havent really used it yet because i switched to 2d games. But I just bought final IK on the madness sale. I am currious can you use final ik to improve making skele animations, or does skele already do everything Final IK can? Is there anything you can gain using Final IK + Skele, for animation?

 

Hi, cj31387,

Thanks for the feedback, =)

In fact, they're two packages aiming at different aspects.

Skele is made to create/modify animation clips, ( skeleton animation & vertex animation ).

Final IK is made to provide a better IK solution to replace the Unity built-in IK system.
It's supposed to work in runtime, modifying the pose of model with/without an animation clip.

e.g.: During the normal walking animation, you could hold the arm up with the IK control, without interruption other limbs moving by the animation clip.

tell me if you find anything not clear enough,

Best regards, Be creative,

 

Hi TMPxyz,

I also bought finalIK in the sale. Just wondering if it's possible to have skele recording an animation while the model is adjusted using finalIK in runtime? Thus creating on the fly animations.

Just a thought.

Thanks

 

Hi, docsavage,

Thanks for the suggestion, =)

Currently there's no runtime animation recording feature yet, as it usually needs to make some edits to fix & decorate the recorded clip, that would calls for a runtime animation editor with dope-sheet & curve-editor, could be a little too much for player.

But if you just need to playback the recording, Unity already has a built-in runtime record/playback system in Animator class,
http://docs.unity3d.com/500/Documentation/ScriptReference/Animator.StartRecording.html

It's kind of different from the animation clip, but might be worth a look.

Best regards, Be creative,

 

Thanks TMPxyz. Lots to learn!

 

Hi, I just purchase this asset and wanna record some animation clips of a generic model(a hand-ish boss) for mecanim. But it looks there're so many docs here Where should I start ? Thanks.

 

Fortunately, the videos are all short and go directly to the point.

But I do understand the confusion. I was just looking at the video docs myself over the weekend. Had to watch them all!

 

Hi, I meet 4 issues, any help?
1. Skele pops lots of errors when I try to select IK(attach below)
2. Undo function doesn't works well, it apply to animation curve only, joints still in the wrong position.
3. Can't change joint target directly in IK mode, have to click "Reselect End Joint" button every time.
4. Editor is VERY slooooow, in most of time it take seconds to response. But I'm just editing a 2 second clip and there's only a FPS hand model in my scene.
CPU: i5-2500k OC to 4.5G, GPU: GTX970, Mem:8GB, Unity5.1.1
-------------------------------------------------------
Issue #1 error:
NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
SMREditor.OnSceneGUI () (at Assets/Skele/CharacterAnimationTools/Editor/SMREditor.cs:399)
System.Reflection.MonoMethod.Invoke (System.Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, System.Reflection.Binder binder, System.Object[] parameters, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono-runtime-and-classlibs/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MonoMethod.cs:222)
Rethrow as TargetInvocationException: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.
System.Reflection.MonoMethod.Invoke (System.Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, System.Reflection.Binder binder, System.Object[] parameters, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono-runtime-and-classlibs/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MonoMethod.cs:232)
System.Reflection.MethodBase.Invoke (System.Object obj, System.Object[] parameters) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono-runtime-and-classlibs/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MethodBase.cs:115)
UnityEditor.SceneView.CallOnSceneGUI () (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/Editor/Mono/SceneView/SceneView.cs:1987)
UnityEditor.SceneView.HandleSelectionAndOnSceneGUI () (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/Editor/Mono/SceneView/SceneView.cs:1352)
UnityEditor.SceneView.OnGUI () (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/Editor/Mono/SceneView/SceneView.cs:1188)
System.Reflection.MonoMethod.Invoke (System.Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, System.Reflection.Binder binder, System.Object[] parameters, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono-runtime-and-classlibs/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MonoMethod.cs:222)

 

Hi, Developers,

Just come back from the LudumDare33, made a game with UnityChan,
I will get to reply the mails and forum messages today.

Have a play with my game if you have interest.
http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-33/?action=preview&uid=39382



Best regards, Be creative,

 

Nice mallet!

 

Hi, zhuchun,

1. It's confirmed, I will make a patch to fix soon;

2. That's an main difference between Unity5 & Unity4 from Unity ;
In unity5, AW(AnimationWindow) doesn't undo the modified object itself but only the keyframe when undo is invoked.
I'll ask the UnityDev if this is by design or a bug, and decide what to do with it.
For now, as the keyframe is undo-ed, clicking the timeline would resume the pose as well.

3. It's the designed interaction now, I would consider adding direct change joint;
For now, You could use 'ESC' shortcut key to deselect current IK joint, then click any joint to make it the IK target;
Also, you could use 'Backquote' key to switch FK/IK.

4. It's this Unity5.1 issue that caused the lag, it's fixed in Unity5.2 though.
I've tested with the U5.2 beta and confirmed the fix; you could get the beta at:
http://unity3d.com/unity/beta

-- Update --
About the item 2, it's a known issue, hope it got fixed soon.
http://issuetracker.unity3d.com/iss...doesnt-have-visible-results-in-the-scene-view

Best regards,

 

Hi, Developers,

I just submitted v1.8.2f3, this patch fixes a logic error on both U4 & U5;

1.8.2 f3 (Submitted on 2015/08/26)
FIX: The error output when press deselect IK-target in IK mode;

Best regards, Be creative,

 

I imported the plugin to my project and am trying to follow the tutorial, but when I click "StartEdit" the aniamtion helpers don´t appear and I get the below message:

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
SMREditor.OnUpdate () (at Assets/Skele/CharacterAnimationTools/Editor/SMREditor.cs:242)
UnityEditor.EditorApplication.Internal_CallUpdateFunctions () (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/artifacts/generated/common/editor/EditorApplication.gen.cs:268)

 

Hi, SkullKing,

Thanks for your feedback,

Hmm, I cannot reproduce the issue here.
It shouldn't go wrong at that place, is there any other error messages?

If there's no other messages, could you tell me your OS ver., Unity ver., and if possible, pass me the fbx/dae archive you're using so I can try reproducing the issue.

Best regards,

 

Tried the plugin in an empty folder and it worked without any problems. So there is nothing wrong with skele itself.

Thank you for the quick reply

 

Glad to hear that, if you ever find any other issues, let me know =)

 

Hi I am looking to purchase this but I have a question before I do so.

Lets say I have armor pieces (helmet, body, gloves, boots, etc) which can be worn on a character and swapped out. The character isn't going to have any bones or rig. Would I be able to create character animations (walk, run, attack, etc) with the vertex animation for the characters? Again there would be no bones or rig involved just a mesh. So I can create a walk animation for a base armor and than have the animation swap over to other meshes?

Thanks

 

Hi, Rhithik,

Thanks for your interest, =)

1. Vertex animation is not transferable. it animates an array of vertices by index. It cannot work on another mesh with different topology and vertex count. Also I don't recommend to replace standard bone animation with vertex animation, it's not good for the performance.

2. I don't know the requirement of your project, is your player a biped? If so, maybe the auto-rigger could be of some interest to you.

Best regards, Be creative,

 

Hi, Developers,

I just submitted v1.8.2 f4, this version's main purpose is to update the directory structures to make compatible with the new Immediate Console. There's also some upgrade to the libraries in use.

You could safely skip this update if you don't import the "Immediate Console" asset together.

1.8.2 f4 (Submitted on 2015/09/09)
CHANGE: Replace LitJson with FullSerializer;
CHANGE: Upgrade DAE Lib;
CHANGE: Reorganize directory structure;

=======

Check this new intro video for "Skele: Immediate Console" if you have interest,

Best regards, Be creative,

 

I seem to have encountered the same problem as before, posted all the relevant info on the userecho, with a video.

I am probably missing some basic step but can´t figure what i am doing wrong.

 

The one with a video on dropbox? I've already posted the solution on the UserEcho. Check it out. =)

You'd better not add SkinnedMeshRenderer component yourself, should use the one automatically created by Unity.
Although with some setup you could make manually added SMR to work too.

 

In v1.8.2f4, we switched the JSON serialization from LitJson to FullSerializer,

But a bug in the PoseManager serialization is introduced, it'll be fixed in a new patch soon.

Or you could modify the PoseSet.cs manually:
from:

Code (CSharp):

1. public class PoseSet
2. {
3.     #region "data"
4.     // data  
5.     private string m_FileName = string.Empty; //base: Project root, e.g.: Assets/Skele/Poses/xx.poses  
6.     private SkeletonDesc m_SkeletonDesc; //the description of skeleton structure  
7.     private List<PoseDesc> m_Poses; //all the poses that belong to this skeleton

to:

Code (CSharp):

1. public class PoseSet
2. {
3.     #region "data"
4.     // data
5.     [SerializeField]
6.     private string m_FileName = string.Empty; //base: Project root, e.g.: Assets/Skele/Poses/xx.poses
7.     [SerializeField]
8.     private SkeletonDesc m_SkeletonDesc; //the description of skeleton structure
9.     [SerializeField]
10.     private List<PoseDesc> m_Poses; //all the poses that belong to this skeleton

So they can be picked by FullSerializer;

 

Hi, Developers,

I have just submitted Skele 1.8.2f5, this patch is used to fix the bug described by the #599 post (Serialization).

1.8.2 f5 (Submitted on 2015/09/09)
FIX: PoseManager serialization failure;

Best regards, Be creative,