What am I doing wrong? Animation help needed

[Cattrina]

I am new to Kenshi modding, but I am not new making animations (Second Life).

I am trying to replace the sit chair animation for a chair I made


I am using Blender 2.8 with Kenshi Import plugin 2.8 (I checked both versions are the same)

I managed to import the vanilla female skeleton, deleted all but one animation on the NLA (Non Linear Animation) list,

I renamed the animation strip and the skeleton, saved the blender project, clicked the female mesh and then the skeleton (w shift) in Object Mode.

(I did not make any edits to the actual animation)

I exported using Kenshi Ogre mesh and having Export Tangents, Export Binormals, Export Skeleton, Export Animation tagged

then I copied the skeleton (newcomfysitF.skeleton) and pasted it in my mod folder under character\meshes\female_skeleton path

In FCR I have
Unique ANIMATION_FILE under Animation Files which I named Cozy Sit Animation. Inside it it has the path to the skeleton in the character\meshes\female_skeleton file (.\mods\Cozy Furniture\character\meshes\female_skeleton\newcomfysitF.skeleton

in my chair file I have functionality CBT chair animation
under CBT chair animation I have animation CBT Cozy Sit In Chair Animation
under it the anim name cozysitF (the same as in the Blender strip/track)

I have tested my chair with other creator's animation skeletons and anim names and it works perfectly with these setups in FCS.

Same issue happens whether I use the plugin's own template or the vanilla female skeleton (renamed ofcourse) So something must be wrong with Blender export. Help?

Does the animation need to have the default pose at the frame 0? (In Second Life it is mandatory for reference, but, as I said, I did not actually edit the animation, just renamed it)


Here is a video of my process. Please what am I doing wrong?
https://youtu.be/VHAJ3Fcpv2w

[Big Wolffe]

Hey there.

I'm new to Kenshi modding too and, unlike you, Blender animation as well, but after trying desperately (and mostly successfully by now) to figure out animation overrides by myself, I think I know what's causing your problem.

When you try to name your animation, you name the NLA track it's stored on, howerever the game seems to consider the... uh, the text on the orange strip on the NLA track panel the animation's actual name, rather than the track's name. As far as the engine is concerned, the NLA track names appear to be irrelevant (though it's still better to have them match the anim name for your browsing convenience in Blender).

Which is to say, you'll probably want to name your Action the intended name, before clicking the button that sends it down onto a new NLA Track, so that the needed name displays on the orange. That way the engine should be able to read it and, hopefully, your mod will work as intended.

Again, not the biggest galaxy brain on animation, but this method worked out for me for the most part - though for some mysterious reason I've been so far unable to override jog animations. Worked out for walk and run, but not for jog, despite the method being the exact same. Adding a brand new animation should probably work fine though, I reckon it's the override bit that I'm having problems with.

[Cattrina]

Hi, thanks for reply

Since I wrote this dilemma, I have learnt how to make animations for Kenshi and also made a tutorial video on YouTube about it.

My issue was that I did not know how to assign the animation to a race. I did not know it had to be done. So it was a week's worth of tedious testing one setting at a time and trying to find answers online. I found a passing mention about assigning animation to a race on a super old PG18 -rated forum, after browsing three dozen posts about making sex animations. It was not a how-to, just a mention.

Realizing that single piece of critical information was not available for anyone who did not wish to troop through all said conversations. Not sure how many kids play or mod this game, but it would not be available to them either, being behind PG rating.

Hence the video. At least now a beginner modder does not have to spend a week trying to figure out what he does wrong.