Thanks for the reply Thomas. I was indeed using parenting. I fixed that and am now using armature modifiers.
Finally got it to work. Thanks!
Parenting should work.
Or?
Anyway, it works for me, i use parenting and Blender automatically adds Armature modifier to object, i just need to click Make Real to export it correctly.
Just for clarification the ‘make real’ button simply converts a parent-based armature into a modifier-based armature - its not that parenting works for you, its just that you are applying the armature the old fashioned way (parenting) and then using a helper button that converts you to the more modern way (modifier), which is the only way that Chicken supports. I’ld be very surprised if the ability to parent an armature survived in Blender for the transition to 2.50 anyway.
Hi All,
Apologies for going over ground that seems to have already been covered, but I’m really stuck! I’ve spent my three day weekend trying to figure out why my (very basic) animation won’t export to .egg format using Chicken R91. I’ve followed Thomasegi’s vid tutorial on how to do this (nice vid btw Thomas!), and I’m certain I’m going through all the right motions but alas I still cannot get my model to animate in pview.
So here’s what I’m doing :
-Create basic mesh
-Create corresponding armature
-Add armature modifier
-Use weight paint mode to assign armature to mesh
-Create animation in pose mode
-Launch chicken
-Deselect ‘Single File’
-Click ‘Add Animation’ (I keep the defaults here - my animation is only 5 frames)
-Click pview
-Click Export
If I launch pview this way, I get absolutely nothing, besides a line saying ‘no animation’ (the model isn’t displayed). If however, I run pview from the command line after the export takes place, and pass the newly created .egg file as a parameter, I can at least the the model. There is no animation though (and pushing ‘a’ doesn’t help). I’ve also ensured Envelopes are not being used.
Again, apologies as I’m sure you guys have dealt with this many times before, but I’ve been searching for the reason as to why this won’t work for a while, and I’m totally stumped! Any advice would be massively appreciated!
Probably should also mention I’m a blender noob and this is my first forum post ever!
Thanks in advance!
sounds like all your steps are basically correct.
can you provide the blend file in question so we can search the error there?
Thanks for getting back to me. I’ve uploaded my file here :
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QA39W317
As the description says, this is a very basic model with an even more simplified animation! I created this to troubleshoot the aforementioned issue.
Cheers.
i’m tried with r71b and r91 … the model exports fine in both versions (although you have envelopes enabled in the armature modifier which throws a warning,nothing serious). even single-file options works. maybe your blender/chicken install is missing something.
Thanks for trying it out. I’ll look closely at the blender/chicken config. In the meantime, can anyone point me in the direction of a .blend file that did export from blender with animation in tact (and perhaps the associated .egg files) ? This may be useful for further troubleshooting. Thanks again.
I’ve managed to sort it! It turns out my animations were being exported, only to the directory above the folder where the model was being exported! I don’t know why Chicken is behaving in this way, but as long as I’m getting my model and my animations exported I’m happy! Thanks again for your help ThomasEgi - I’ve learned alot from your tutorials!
hm. it should not export the animation to a seperate directory. maybe you have some strange directory names? in any case you might want to report it on the official chicken thread. so we can fix it.
No need to report it - I already added it to my todo list:-)
Was the underlying problem ever figured out here?
I’m getting the same thing and it’s rather annoying…
I have to export to a root drive or else the animations will be in the parent folder of the intended export location.
Sorry - haven’t had time to look into this one. Its still on my todo list, but then so are a lot of bugs. I will hopefully get around to looking into it at some point - I expect its actually really simple, but time is always the issue.
I would assume that it’s something on my end, but I can’t figure it out. If I do I’ll post it for others that encounter it as well.