What steps are needed for an animated part?

[baijuncheng]

Hi everyone, I've been playing around modelling stuff and putting it into the game, now I want to try animated parts. I'd like someone in the know to explain the steps needed to go from my 3D modelling package to the game with an animated part.

For example, I have two box primitives, one of which I would like to rotate 90 degrees. How would I achieve this?

Could I animate there and export to Unity? Must I create each moving part as a separate mesh and somehow put them together in Unity?

[nli2work]

you can animate in 3d app of your choice or animate in Unity.

in Unity, set the import object's Rig to "Legacy" and make sure the "Animation" component is applied to the root object of your import. assign the animation clip if it's not already, uncheck "Play Automatically";

export same way you would any other part.

in KSP, simplest way to call the animation is using ModuleAnimateGeneric.

MODULE
{
   name = ModuleAnimateGeneric
   animationName = antenna   // your animation clip name from Unity
   isOneShot = false     // set to true if you want the animation to play only once.

   startEventGUIName = Extend    // name of trigger button in right click menu in game. goes away once you activate the animation
   endEventGUIName = Retract     // name of return button. will only appear after the animation has finished and you right click on the part a 2nd time.
   actionGUIName = Toggle Antenna    //name appears in Action Group settings.
}

[baijuncheng]

Thank you nil2work, this is most helpful and greatly appreciated. I'll have a go at animating some parts.

[Apollo13]

I got a lot of good, to-the-point help on an animation problem I had. This might help. nli2work was instrumental.

Animation help

[ximrm]

MY question is:

Do I need a reverse animation for eg. retract/close or will the game automatically rewind it on clicking the toggle/endevent?

[nli2work]

ModuleAnimateGeneric will automatically reverse the clip. No need for reverse animation.

[ximrm]

Thank you very much!