@seppgirty
Quote: "i believe you have to use inverse kenetics animation in DB classic as aposed to bone based animation in DB pro. you have to save as a .x file. i think blender supports this."
You are correct that DBC cannot use bone based animation like DBPro. Inverse kinomatic animation is more of a method of setting up an animation, or how you influence the movement of multiple bones or limbs by moving the furthest child limb, rather than it being not the same as bone based animation. I wonder if you meant hierarchical animation for DBC which is where each piece (limb) of a whole object is a separate mesh - unlike bone based animation where you have one figure and a skeleton that animates it. And you are right, Blender supports both types and inverse kinomatics and can export the file a .X .
@HK47
The first thing, is to grab a direct x exporter script. You can find a pretty decent one here:
http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=166987&b=3
As far setting up your object for animation, you have to link multiple objects together in parent child relationships. Once that is done, you can begin animating your object.
Here's a quick walk through using Blender 2.49 . I haven't gotten around to downloading 2.5x but I'm sure the same controls exist, but may be selected through different means. For this example, we'll add a jointed arm to a body. I'm going to assume you know some basics about Blender like views, or adding meshes/objects or change from edit to object view.
Make sure you are in OBJECT MODE
1. In TOP view, press SPACE and add a cube
2. Press S to scale, type 4, and then press ENTER to scale the cube up four times. If you press N, you will see the object information box. You'll notice it's dimensions are 8 and the scale is 4 for each axis. The rotations should all be 0.00.
We scaled this object because we wanted it bigger, and also so that I could tell you that BEFORE you link any limbs together, each object must have it's final scale and rotations LOCKED in place. Right now, our cube (the body) is showing a scale of 4. We can't export this object or you will run into problems when you try and use it in DBC. BEFORE we export it, and before we attach any limbs, if this is this limbs final position and rotation at start, then commit the scale and rotation by pressing CTRL + A and clicking on apply scale and rotation in the dialog box. You should see the scale set to 1.0 in the object properties box.
This is very important to do for every limb you make before linking them and before exporting the object.
3. Tap the A key until no objects are selected.
4. Press SPACE and add another cube.
5. Press S, type X, type 3, and press ENTER. This will scale the box along the X axis to 6 units long. If the object properties box isn't visible, press N. You should see that the dimensions for X are 6 and the scale for X is 3. Commit the scale by using CTRL + A.
6. Press G to enter Grab Mode and move the mouse so that the long cube (upper arm) is on the outside right edge of the main cube - just touching. We want to move the pivot of this arm as if it were a shoulder.
Left click where the main cubes right outer edge and the upper arm's left outer edge touch. The 3d cursor (bullseye) should appear at this location. Center it in the area as best you can just by eyeballing it for now. Then click on Object > Transform > Center Cursor. The dot in the middle of the arm should have moved to the edge position where the 3d cursor is positioned. This is now the point where the upper arm will rotate relative to the body.
7. To make things easy, we'll just duplicate the upper arm. Press SHIFT + D and move the mouse to the right and a duplicate copy of the upper arm should move with it. Position this as the lower arm so that the two cubes meet where an elbow would be. Since you duplicated the upper arm, the pivot should already be set for this object.
8. Now we link em up! Right click on the lower arm (it should already be highlighted) hold the SHIFT KEY, and right click on the upper arm. It should highlight a light shade of purple or pink. Press CTRL + P to make a parent. Click Make Parent when the dialog asks.
Tap A until nothing is selected. Now Right Click on the upper arm, hold SHIFT and right click on the body. Press CTRL + P and make the parent.
9. Switch to front view. We'll do simple animation. Press the DOWN ARROW until the frame is set to 1. You can look in the lower left hand corner at the number in the parenthesis. Press A so that all of the objects are selected. Press I and LEFT CLICK on LocRotScale to insert a keyframe. The starting keyframe (the neutral start position) for the entire animation. Press A again to deselect everything
Right click on the lower arm to highlight it. Press UP ARROW to advance the frame count to 11. You should see a little number in parenthesis in the lower left hand corner of the view area. Press R to enter rotation mode. Move the mouse so that the lower arm rotates about 90 degrees. Press I to insert a keyframe at frame 11 and LEFT CLICK on LocRotScale.
Right Click on the upper arm. Press R and rotate it up about 10 degrees. Press I and insert a key frame for this limb as well.
Now, tap the LEFT ARROW and the frame count should go down. You should see your arm animate towards the start position. If you tap the RIGHT ARROW, you will see the animation step up to and past frame 11. but you only defined the last keyframe to 11 so it won't do anything when you increase the frames past that.
Now, using that link I posted earlier, there should be instructions for loading in that exporter to export your wonderful new 3 limbed animated creation to an x file. I have to go for now, but see if reading through the link is enough to help you export your object.
Enjoy your day.