[EXPLAINED/SOLVED] How do I create a custom anim set for a creature?

So have a custom mesh, which I rigged to the NWN2 wyvern skel. The head position doesn’t fit the skel 100%. The result was, that the head reached into the ground, when playing both death anims. Following the advice of @FreshLook (thanks), I was able to adjust these animations, so they now work well with my alternative mesh.
Now the problem is, that the death anim doesn’t work for other models anymore, which also use the wyvern skel… So in the end, I need a new set of anims for my custom mesh.

Questions:

  1. Is it enough, if I just copy all NWN2-wyvern skels & GR2-s and rename them to fit the name of my c_xyz-model (eg. c_wyvern_skel.GR2 → c_xyz_skel.GR2, c_wyvern_idle.gr2 → c_xyz_idle.gr2, …) AND change the according appearance.2da entries to point to the renamed c_xyz_skel? Or do I actually have to import every animation (and the base skel) and export it again, because there are internal GR2-references, which also need the new naming?

  2. How does NWN2 know, which anims are assigned to a model? If I see it right, then there are models in NWN2, which eg. draw on their special own anims, but also on some of the human anims (eg. hags - IIRC). Is there an according file, which holds the info for the engine on what anim of what GR2 to play on what event?

Thanks!

  1. Unfortunately, no, as the skeleton name internally would still be c_wyvern_skel and not c_xyz_skel. So I’m afraid you’ll have to import all wyvern animations, replace wyvern by xyz and export them.

  2. The animations are assigned in appearance.2da:

    LABEL NWN2_Skeleton_File
    6 Human P_HH?_Skel
    1076 Human_Swim P_SWM_HH?_Skel
    2129 Cavalier(humain) P_HR?_Skel
    2154 Cavalier(humain),on/off P_HHR?_Skel

In the example above (extract from my appearance.2da), you’ll see that the creatures based on the human skeleton use either the stock animations (internally, their skeleton is P_HHM_Skel or P_HHF_Skel) or can swim (they’re in fact using P_SWM_HH?_Skel) or ride a horse (two different sets of animations: one for mounting/dismounting and one while on horseback).
But that being said, the animations also depend on the weapons they carry (P_HH?_UnA_Idle is the idle animation for unarmed human creatures, who will use however P_HH?_1hS_Idle if they carry a one-handed sword [or equivalent], 1hSS if they also carry a shield, C2h if they’ve got a weapon in each hand, D2h if they’re using a two-handed weapon but not a polearm [in which case it will be O2hT if it’s thrusting attacks and O2hS for slashing]).

LABEL NWN2_Skeleton_File
1021 Hag_Annis_NX1 c_hag_skel
1022 Hag_Green_NX1 c_hag_skel
1023 Hag_Night_NX1 c_hag_skel
1043 Hagspawn_Var1_NX1 P_OOM_Skel
Well, hags have their own skeleton (and hagspawns are based on the male half-orc), so some of the hag animations are probably copies of the human animations, but with an internal skeleton called “c_hag_skel”.
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@4760 : I feared, that I would have to do that… Anyways: Thanky you very much the explanation and for taking the time to write it out!

Edit: Just had the idea to view a GR with a HEX-editor, hoping, that I can quickly adjust the internal references there, but I didn’t find any, so the way will be a re-export.