Artorp Object Animation Tutorial

Encouraged by users in this thread, I decided to make a tutorial.

This video tutorial will go through the steps required to make object animation (not to be confused with character animation) in Blender and export it with the Blender Nif Scripts. This tutorial is aimed at intermediate users of Blender, for people new to blender, see the links in the FAQ section.

Bethsoft discussion thread

Before you start with the tutorial, install the latest version of these programs, the version listed here are the ones I used, but newer versions may be available: Python 2. 6 Blender 2. 49b Nifskope 1. 0. 21 PyFFI 2. 0. 3 Blender Nif Scripts 2. 4. 12

A GIMP package is avaiable at TESNexus - http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=14920 - with the dds plugin included, make sure you follow the installation instructions.

FAQ: Q: Why has the video such bad quality? A: I had to balance quality and file size, and had to sacrifice the quality to make the end video useable. Text should still be readable.

Q: What's up with the sound? A: That's what happens when you try to combine recording results from three different recording programs with different audio bitrate and fps. Therefore the sound will sometimes be a little jumping, sorry for the inconvenience.

Q: That is an ... interesting door. A: Thanks! I made it entarily from pictures I took myself, so don't be to harhs when judging it.. also it serves like an example.

Q: I can't get this to work? A: See troubleshooting section

Q: I am not familiar with Blender, how do I use it? A: This tutorial is not aimed at people new to Blender, if you are new to it I suggest you check out these pages to get some experience with Blender:

N00b to Pro wikibook Blender.org education and help page Blendernation links Echo's blender tutorials Miax's Training Manual

Q: Why didn't you made a text version instead? A: Some find it best to view the process visually, while others may prefer a text version, I like them both. Some of the reasons as to why I made a video instead of a text version, is: There may be some obscure settings that is set wrong, but isn't descibed in a text, seeing all settings in the video works like a safety net. Also with video, I can show off some grapichs like the credits :P

Troubleshooting: make sure that -> The animated objects are under a NonAccum node if using animated collision, check the layer type and quality and motion setting Also check out this thread, with SaidenStorm's knownedge: http://www.bethsoft.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1048285

Textures: All textures MUST be saved with a pixel dimension of a power of two: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512,