Exporting skeleton from Blender (5 posts)

  • Profile picture of enum enum20p said 3 months, 2 weeks ago:

    Hello,

    I’m right now creating an animation and because I just need a skeleton I have not created any mesh.
    The problem right now: The OGRE Exporter just exports a .scene file that is completely worthless.

    I tried to append a box mesh to the bones but that hack did not work^^ xD For something more functional I do not have the knowledge of blender (I’m a programer and happy that I can navigate the 3D view and create animations^^)

    Can someone tell me what would be the easiest way to make my skeleton export?

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  • Profile picture of normen normen1290p said 3 months, 2 weeks ago:

    Theres lots of info at the end of the Hello Assets tutorial.

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  • Profile picture of enum enum20p said 3 months, 2 weeks ago:

    Mhh.. I read most of that before..
    I exported mifth’s example and that worked well so I conclude that the exporter works fine.
    But I can’t figure out how to make my skeleton export. I put a bone into the origin and made the other bones extend it like in mifth’s example and disabled envelopes.
    I put a box to it (maybe wrong?) and that did not help either…

    Can please anyone tell me a simple trick with some keywords how to make a lonely skeleton export? It’s really anoying that this hinders me from progressing with my game.

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  • Profile picture of t0neg0d t0neg0d135p said 3 months, 2 weeks ago:

    Um… well…

    First off, models/animations/etc shouldn’t be holding you up from working on your game. As cool as graphics are, they are lipstick on a pig. First… write your pig, then put some lipstick on it. Use simple geoms (Box, Sphere, etc) as placeholders and keep going on your game logic while you learn the quirks of Blender/Ogre Export & JME’s blender model handling (or 3jo is an even better idea).

    As for the Blender issue:

    1. Select your model, then select your Armatures (bones).
    2. CTRL+P (Make parent)
    3. Select Armatures as parent option
    4. Select Named Groups option.
    5. Now select just your model and go into Edit Mode.
    6. Assign the vertices you want to to each bone vertices group.
    7. Add a new Pose Library to you model. (In the buttons window… don’t remember exactly where off the top of my head)
    8. Use the action editor to create your named animations.
    9. Open the Script Window and select Ogre Export > Meshes
    10. Select your model (In Object mode) and then click the Update button in the Script window to make sure the model you have selected is the one you are exporting.
    11. Add your animation poses (Keep track of the names)
    12. Set your export directory so you can find the exported files.
    13. Make sure your material name is the SAME as your model.
    14. Copy the outputted files into your assets folder… under whatever sub you want.
    15. Select the *.mesh.xml (I think it is named) file, right-click and select Covert to j3o.

    One of the 3 xml files is named *.skeleton.xml (I believe) This with have all of your pose library’s bones/vertices groups/transform information. But, really… doesn’t matter at this point. Just load the j3o, grab the relevant AnimChannels and write your animation handling routine.

    If you plan on applying your materials via code, remember to flip your images vertically.

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  • Profile picture of enum enum20p said 3 months, 2 weeks ago:

    Thank you very much for this nice description. It’s the abbreviated form I needed to find the important steps to make an exportable skeleton. It seems like the export really needs a mesh to export anything of the skeleton.
    I seem to have missed one of your steps because the normal animation tutorials flood you with information on animating and weight painting and and and, what is not in my interest (I’m creating the Mesh in my game by myself). So your post was very helpful. :)

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