Exporting animations from Blender

[CaptainKipard]

I'm trying to understand how FBX exporting works with animations.

If I create a complex rig in Blender, and animate it, does the exporter only export the resulting animation frame by frame? Or does it export all the constraints as well?

When animating a piston for example, is it better to rig it in blender and have it as an animation, or should it be rigged in unity with the "look at" constraints in the cfg?

[landeTLS]

Iwe been doing some experimentation on the Subject

since i usually use the modular approach with my models and export in fbx..

gonna assume your asking if the exported fbx rig can be used in unity.

The answer i came up with is both yes and no.

Yes vertex group parented meshes to armature works as is (mesh skinning), if a collider is needed this needs to be parented to the bone and not the mesh as the mesh object origin wont be moving.(needs to be a unity primitive collider as mesh colliders cant be skinned and i couldnt get bone parented mesh colliders moving properly at all. Better just stick with primitives)

Yes bone relative parenting works but after importing to unity the mesh(plus an optional primitive! collider) has to actually be parented to the animated bone object.

However bone constraints(inverse kinematics etc.) As far as i can see dont seem to be usable in unity so all armature animations should be done in blender prior to export. Or alternativly a poselibrary with each intended keyframe pose for the rig should be created in blender and the animation made in unity with the poses (unsure how to do this but i just observed that the poses got exported with the rig as an animation)

Hope this helps

Edited August 9, 2014 by landeTLS

[CaptainKipard]

That's interesting.

What would happen with animations which don't use armature, but instead just use objects, meshes and constraints?

Can those animations also be exported and used? I'm specifically asking about rigging a complex telescopic piston with "lookat" and location constraints. Can I animate that in blender, or do I need to rig that with unity and configs?

This is for the Skylon. I don't need the piston to be dynamic(unlike the steering and suspension), so if I could just animate it in blender that would be great.

[FiresThatBurn]

You still need help?

[CaptainKipard]

Yes. I just posted that question.

[landeTLS]

That's interesting.

What would happen with animations which don't use armature, but instead just use objects, meshes and constraints?

Can those animations also be exported and used? I'm specifically asking about rigging a complex telescopic piston with "lookat" and location constraints. Can I animate that in blender, or do I need to rig that with unity and configs?

This is for the Skylon. I don't need the piston to be dynamic(unlike the steering and suspension), so if I could just animate it in blender that would be great.

Animating the objects in blender is probably the best way to go.it works the same way. I tried once to do animation stuff in unity and it was very frustrating

Tip: use the nla menu to strip together your animation actions. This allows for more control and even multiple animations per object.

Edited August 9, 2014 by landeTLS