Well, thanks for the nice comment. However, if you wanted to ask, you could have used a less abrasive manner. I countered your post with one that was just as pointed... I AM a grumpy old man, to be sure.

As far as the tool goes, it does only 3 things. It converts the Sims 3 animation file format, Clip, to a standard 3D animation format called SMD. And it converts SMD files back to Clip files. The third function just displays information about a Clip file, mainly how many frames and what joints have keys on them.

I believe the tutorial is a much better place to learn the process than anything I would write about the tool. While it performs a lot of very specialized conversion work, that is just a small part of the process of making animations. Orangemittens and Cmomoney have done a lot of work providing a practical method of deploying animations in the game, while all I have done here is make a tool that manages one step in the process. Basically, your observation that it only allows you to make imports and exports is 100% correct. That is all it is for.

I wrote a basic animation tutorial once, and I think it is on the wiki, but there are some good tutorials on making animations here, there and everywhere. That subject is more closely tied with the 3D tool used (MilkShape or Blender) than this tool. Still, most games, and Sims 3 is no exception, use file formats that are nowhere near alike any standard, public formats. AnimTool exists to span the gap between a well-known format that can be loaded and saved from multiple programs and the very game-specific format that EA used for Sims 3. If you want more detailed technical information, all that I know is posted on the wiki in the file format for the Clip files, but that is mainly aimed at people who would want to write programs that accessed Sims 3 file formats directly, not users that just want to make mods and other cool stuff.

While I apologize for misreading the intention of your post, I think that you have mistaken this small tool for more than it is, which is just a file converter. Go ahead and study the tutorial and you will see that it is just one small step in a detailed process.

<* Wes *>

There was no insult to you there axron and if you perceived one that's your issue. You were given help. The link shows how to use the tool to make poses. It also shows how to make those poses play in the game using the Pose Player that Cmo made. I would give you more explanation but, quite honestly, after reading your post I don't feel like it.

You have been extremely insulting and for no clear reason. If I were you, I would rethink your attitude if you expect to get any help at this site.

Hey,

I'm trying to use the SMD-> clip feature and it keeps giving me "Error 2." I have my .smd files in the same folder as the executable. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks

Error 2 occurs when you try convert the wrong smd to the clip or if the clip and smd are not in the same folder. The smd you want to convert back to a CLIP has to have been converted from that CLIP and they both need to be in the same folder.

Hello everyone,

Now that I've bought Pets & Cie for the Sims 3, I would like to make custom poses for animals. I've started to work on adult dog. I've generated a rigfile from adRig and now I'm trying to convert the clip ad_idle_stand_breathe_x to SMD. Unfortunatly I always get the error message: ERR: jtCount of 597 detected, limit is 512. Trying with other clips give the same error but with different jtCount (sometimes > 600). Is there a way to get around this error ?

Thanks.

The joint count limit built into Animtool is because MS has a joint count limit.

I'm adding this in the absence of anyone else posting...this is only my understanding and not something I've successfully done, but I think the way to get around it using MS is to lower the number of joints in your rig. I could be mistaken though and if someone who has a better understanding could post about it that would be great.

Thank you for your answer orangemittens.

The original adRig has 215 bones. I've removed all *slots to lower the bone count to 170. But I get the same error with the exact same number (jtCount of 597) in AnimTool.

What rigfile.txt are you using?

I'm using the rigfile.txt generated by S3PE RigExport plugin with the adRig resource as input.

Can someone post the rigfile and especially the clip ad_idle_stand_breathe_x file?
I have access to neither.

<* Wes *>

Thanks for taking time to look at it.
You'l find all what you need in this archive.

I didn't think the rigfile.txt exporter worked with pets yet(I'm not actually sure it ever worked for anything). That said, there may be problems not only with the amount of bones used in your rigfile.txt, but also with the amount of bones the clip itself declares that it uses. You can give a skeleton with 200 bones, but if the clip declares that it uses more than that, there could theoretically still be problems.

Hey, buddy, apparently you do better work than you think.

So I reworked this, tested it and it worked. Sadly, I did not have time to rummage around and retest it with a Sim animation. I moved some files around and can't seem to find my old test folder. The issue is that MilkShape limits us to 255-1 joints. The CLIP files have always used about double the number of real joints, because they relist the same joint as a translation and as a rotation joint. The converter matches these up with the output list joints (from the rigfile) by name/hash. So the CLIP files can have 1024 joints but the rigfile is still stuck at 256 (which is really 1 too many).

But the dog showed up, head bobbing and tail wagging. I have no idea whether it will round trip back into the game, though. Someone else will have to try that (do not have Pets here).

I am just going to attach the program file to this message, because it needs some testing. If it works out, I will put it in Message #1 later, as a general release (version is V07).

Also, I asked Mete recently to look through MilkShape and try to identify anywhere that might have trouble with more than 127 joints (a signed integer issue, for techies), even though >127 seemed to work, and he posted a 1.8.5 Beta 2 version at http://www.milkshape3d.com/. That is the version I tested with, although I am not sure that Beta 1 would not have worked.

I will be watching for any feedback on this.

<* Wes *>

Thank you for the new release. It fixed the error and I am able to convert the clip to smd, import it to Milkshape and convert it back to clip. Unfortunatly, the new clip doesn't work in game. The mesh is completely messed up (looks like it uses the human skeleton rather than the dog one). I've tried to convert ad_idle_stand_breathe_x to smd and convert it back to clip without any modification, but it didn't work either.

Are you using the pose player to view it? If so, that is the probably the problem, and not the clip. Even EA poses do that when played with the player. This is something I have to fix(or make a separate player ).

I'm not using the pose player, but my own tool and the EA dog animations I've tested with it work perfectly.

Thank you!! i already made three animations that work in game (one of them is a Geisha dance, and i had no problem :3 )

Where can I get the animal meshes? I'd like to try making pets animations :O

Hi. Sorry for bad english. I'm Italian

I'm not an Animator but I like convert Dance Animation for Various game

I made a Test for Convert Some Mocap Animation but with Sims 3 I have a problem


I try to transfer some mocap to sims 3 rig but wen I try in game with cmomoney AnimationPlayer only the upper part works.

But in milk shape animation works fine.

-I use WesHowe_AnimTool-04a and 05
-I transfer animation only in b__ROOT__ and children

EDIT:

OK I find the solution. I use the a_idle_JazzUtility CLIP, with delete all the IK chains

New Question:
-Sims 3 How many frame can I have in one animation? Because some transfer animation not finish loop in Game .. 3903 frame...
-The Child rig.txt have scale info? Or Where I can find Scale info?

Hello I'm not realizing with making animations, could you please explain to me, please

Thank you for this!

Hi,

I see this post has no responses for over 5 mos. but here goes a longshot.

Is there anyway to make this utility convert a folder full of 100s even 1000s of animations
Automatically such as a batch script or something?

This would be really Awesome!

Any Help would be really appreciated.

BTW: WesHowe Thank you for this awesome little utility

Hi, I trying to make poses but, when I have to change the .smd file to clip, with the animtool, I get error "Unable to open file: wendy.animationError 2". What I doing bad? :/
I download V05 version.

Thanks!

Error 2 occurs when you try convert the wrong smd to the clip or if the clip and smd are not in the same folder. The smd you want to convert back to a CLIP has to have been converted from that CLIP and they both need to be in the same folder.

I have the same problem. All my files are in the same folder. Could you explain, what does it mean wrong smd?