Keyframed Animations

[Gusher Castaignede]

Are animated keyframed meshes supported? For example, a simple keyframed animated mesh from blender 3d then exported as dae format... any info about this appreciated, thanks!

[OptimoMaximo]

Meshes don't get keyframes, the object can be keyframed as the mesh is geometry within a transform. The answer is no for both transform animation and vertex animation (shape keys). You may look into animesh though, for which you can use the second life avatar skeleton to bind a mesh to it, animate the skeleton, export both animation (bvh or anim file format) and the rigged mesh to import to second life. Then you'll need to write a script to define the conditions for those animations to trigger. Animations within the dae file are automatically discarded on upload, whether they be baked, linear or non-linear (clip based approach) as one might be used to in other game engines. 

Edited February 25, 2020 by OptimoMaximo
Typos

[Gusher Castaignede]

1 hour ago, OptimoMaximo said:

So the workaround is that the mesh must be binded to bone, then export animation as BVH? Does it have to be the whole skeleton or just a root bone?

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Meshes don't get keyframes, the object can be keyframed as the mesh is geometry within a transform. The answer is no for both transform animation and vertex animation (shape keys). You may look into animesh though, for which you can use the second life avatar skeleton to bind a mesh to it, animate the skeleton, export both animation (bvh or anim file format) and the rigged mesh to import to second life. Then you'll need to write a script to define the conditions for those animations to trigger. Animations within the dae file are automatically discarded on upload, whether they be baked, linear or non-linear (clip based approach) as one might be used to in other game engines. 

 

[OptimoMaximo]

9 hours ago, Gusher Castaignede said:

 

It can be any set of bones really, even just one if you need no more, in such case it makes more sense (and reliable) to use the root bone. However every animesh object loads a full skeleton even if only one bone is in use, the other option could be a script function called keyframed motion, which needs position and rotation values for in world motion, and that needs you to record those, can't ensure a preciseness comparable to animation made externally and can't be applied to a child object in a linkset. Much to ponder, depending on the application you're after

[Gusher Castaignede]

35 minutes ago, OptimoMaximo said:

It can be any set of bones really, even just one if you need no more, in such case it makes more sense (and reliable) to use the root bone. However every animesh object loads a full skeleton even if only one bone is in use, the other option could be a script function called keyframed motion, which needs position and rotation values for in world motion, and that needs you to record those, can't ensure a preciseness comparable to animation made externally and can't be applied to a child object in a linkset. Much to ponder, depending on the application you're after

Thanks for this information, much appreciated...