Tuning Animation Blending??

Mooseboy

I'm working on a UT2K4 model which flies while running. (A gargoyle with flapping wings.) This is fine up to a point, except when UT blends the rifle & biggun burst & aimed animation with the "running" animation. The problem is that the garoyle's body at this point is horizontal, but the blending appears to take the animation at the mapped joints (spine, rshoulder, lfarm, etc.) and replace it rather than adjust it for the character's orientation. Which means that the character fires facing the ground rather than in the direction defined in the main animation.

I tried adjusting RunF's orientation in UEd (Sequence tab), attaching Bip01 to the main pivoting joint (sort of like in Magdalena), and by removing all attachment points except the head and two hands.

Any thoughts?

KDR_11k

You can't fix that except by having the spine oriented the same way during the standing and running anims. UT2 just replaces the animation on the corresponding bones. I don't think there's an engine out there that does it differently because nobody expects a model that has a different orientation for running and shooting.

Mooseboy

OK, but how does UT2K4 deal with blending when the model is swimming? I've not run a character through water in UT2K4, but I'm assuming that since UT99 supported shooting while swimming that the 2K versions do as well. The swimming animation is horizontal, so there would need to be something that blends the animation in a manner similar to what I want to achieve. In theory, I could tap into that mechanism and subvert it for my own nefarious purposes...

KDR_11k

I don't think it plays any firing anims when swimming, jumping, etc.

Mooseboy

Odd - UT99 used firing animations under water, so I would expect the new generation to do that as well. You said "I don't think", which suggests you're not 100% sure. What maps have water? I'd like to experiment.