Wishihadaname's guide to mobile frigates
Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2010 12:09 pm
Anyone who's ever made a space map probably wanted to have the frigates move, anyone who's ever animated probably realized how hard it would be to animate each individual gun and gave up on the idea. Well with the help of AceMastermind 
I've figured out how to have mobile frigates with guns and only need one animation.
Before I teach you how to animate multiple objects you should review the basics of animation. If you are comfortable with animations in ZE continue with this tutorial, if not go read the basic animations guide in the FAQ tread before continuing.
Ok, so the process is actually much simpler than you may think.
step by step instructions w/ explanations
1) name EVERY object that your going to have move in the group, if its a frigate name the ship and each of its guns accordingly, you need to do this because you'll be listing them later on and you need easily remmemberable names
2) Make an animation for the central object, by that I mean that if you animating a frigate create an animation just for the frigate to follow, it can be whatever you want it to be.
3) Look on the bottom right area of the screen in animation mode and you will see a panel called hierarchies. It should contain the following fields. Root Name (name of parent object, aka the object with the animation), Selected Obj (a child object which will follow in perfect proportion to the parent object, there can be multiple ones per parent object), Hier list (just a list of differant hierarchies, you will need one per frigate),obj list ( a list of all the child objects in each animation.
4) Hit the add button at the bottom of the Hier list. Input the name of your frigate under Root Name. Don't forget to hit enter at the end of each line to avoid typos.
5) now hit the add button at the bottom of the obj list. Input the name of a turret. Rinse and repeat for each one of the turrets. DO NOT make a separate hierarchy for each turret, just use one per frigate!
6) once you've input all of the hierarchies just create an animation group. MAKE SURE YOU INCLUDE ONLY THE FRIGATE IN THE ANIMATION GROUP DO NOT LIST TURRETS. Never attempt to animate a child object, you won't like what happens.
*note* when you try to play the anim in ZE it will not move the turrets however trust me on this one it will work ingame, why IDK by it does so just go with it.
Questions or comments?
I've figured out how to have mobile frigates with guns and only need one animation.Before I teach you how to animate multiple objects you should review the basics of animation. If you are comfortable with animations in ZE continue with this tutorial, if not go read the basic animations guide in the FAQ tread before continuing.
Ok, so the process is actually much simpler than you may think.
step by step instructions w/ explanations
1) name EVERY object that your going to have move in the group, if its a frigate name the ship and each of its guns accordingly, you need to do this because you'll be listing them later on and you need easily remmemberable names
2) Make an animation for the central object, by that I mean that if you animating a frigate create an animation just for the frigate to follow, it can be whatever you want it to be.
3) Look on the bottom right area of the screen in animation mode and you will see a panel called hierarchies. It should contain the following fields. Root Name (name of parent object, aka the object with the animation), Selected Obj (a child object which will follow in perfect proportion to the parent object, there can be multiple ones per parent object), Hier list (just a list of differant hierarchies, you will need one per frigate),obj list ( a list of all the child objects in each animation.
4) Hit the add button at the bottom of the Hier list. Input the name of your frigate under Root Name. Don't forget to hit enter at the end of each line to avoid typos.
5) now hit the add button at the bottom of the obj list. Input the name of a turret. Rinse and repeat for each one of the turrets. DO NOT make a separate hierarchy for each turret, just use one per frigate!
6) once you've input all of the hierarchies just create an animation group. MAKE SURE YOU INCLUDE ONLY THE FRIGATE IN THE ANIMATION GROUP DO NOT LIST TURRETS. Never attempt to animate a child object, you won't like what happens.
*note* when you try to play the anim in ZE it will not move the turrets however trust me on this one it will work ingame, why IDK by it does so just go with it.
Questions or comments?
mostly because alot of them use technical language and I have no formal training in computer language at all. I think i'll just delete this then, thanks again for helping me figure it out, I thought it would be useful to have as something other people could do.