How Tmake Animation Compitable With Skyrim From Se

This guide was fabricated to show you how to brand animations from the footing upward or to import existing animations to blender using various tools available. This guide focuses on SAE rig made by Jovel that allows to import existing animations into blender, if you lot don't plan to do import animations, you can use tktk's or Kars' or any other rig for that matter.I take included all my self-made blender files in the downloads page. About of them are made with tktk'southward rig and few with Kars' rig.

Required tools

Mandatory programs & tools

Latest Blender
tktk's animation tools N3+28
Cathedral Assets Optimizer to convert 32-fleck .hkx files to SE uniform 64-flake OR utilise the HavokPostBehaviourProcess.exe and converttoskyrimSE.bat (faster)

For adding/reading annotations yous also need the following:

hkanno Animation Annotation Tools for 32-bit LE .hkx files (to add footstep sounds for example)
hkanno64 Animation Note Toolsfor 64-fleck SE .hkx files (requires HavokPcXsContentTools x64 2010_2_0, link to this is included in hkanno64 files)

For importing animations you lot likewise need the post-obit:

Skyrim LE for skeleton and animation files
SAE.blend rig (you need to exist logged into LL business relationship before you get access to the file) (LL page)

Cathedral Assets Optimizer or any other extractor to extract .bsa files

Blender niftools addonto import .kf file into blender (install with these instructions)
convert-xml-hkx-kf to catechumen .hkx to .kf

For faster LE to SE (32-bit to 64-scrap) animation converting

Download and extract converttoskyrimSE.bat from this folio downloads and excerpt it into tktk'south rig folder
Download and install Cosmos Kit SE and copy paste HavokBehaviorPostProcess.exe from Skyrim Special Edition\Tools\HavokBehaviorPostProcess tktk'southward rig folder

By launching the .bat, it will automatically convert any .hkx file within that folder to SE uniform course. Way faster than CAO setup.

Installing

Download & Install the blender with the installer. You can use portable but yous tin only open .alloy files from blender itself, not from desktop or folder etc.
Extract the tktk's animation tools N3+28
Download and extract SAE.blend file to tktk'due south rig folder
Install Blender niftools addon by these instructions
Download and extract hkanno(64) into tktk's rig binder
Download and extract .bat files from this mod page downloads into tktk'south rig folder

Importing animations

First step is to extractSkyrim - Animations.bsa file from Skyrim LE files to somewhere attainable with Cathedral Asset Optimizer. Locate skeleton.hkx and whatsoever animation file you want to import into Blender.
Second stride is to manually download and extract convert-xml-hkx-kf tool to its own folder. After launching ConvertUi.exe, there appears ii folders in the aforementioned location named infolder and outfolder. Identify the skeleton.hkx and animations in the infolder and use the hkx to kf converter selection in the tool. If done correctly, there should be .kf files in the outfolder and they are ready to be imported into Blender.

Open the SAE.blend file and select File-Import-NetImmerse/Gamebryo(.kf) from pinnacle menu bar and locate the outputfolder and select the animation y'all want to import into the scene. You need to add whole character keyframe to admission all control bones and accommodate playback time from the bottom bar to lucifer the imported animation so it plays correctly.

Note that you volition lose annotations equally they do not convert to the .kf file. You can wait up the annotations via hkanno dump.bat and add them to the exported animation later if you for example are tweaking sprint blitheness that has annotations to queue footstep sounds.

From this point on the guide will prove how to make animation from scratch with tktk's .blend file.

Getting to know Blender

In one case blender has opened you tin familiarize yourself with blender UI. You can too watch some blitheness tutorials to get you started with blender animating

Viewport buttons

Rotate the viewport camera by property mouse wheel
Motion viewport camera by property shift + mouse bike
Zoom by scrolling mouse wheel

Shortcuts

T - Toolbox (where you tin can find move, rotate, scale etc.. tools
I - Setting keyframes
Spacebar - Timeline play/pause

Dope Sheet Editor

Holding mouse wheel - Let'due south yous move in the timeline
Scrolling mouse wheel - Zooms in and out
S - Scaling keyframes when y'all want to make blitheness slower past spacing keyframes out. (you have to highlight the keyframes offset in society to scale them)
Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V - Copy paste bone keyframe in the editor. (copies the location and rotation of the bone at that time)

Keyframes

When y'all start time open up the .blend file, set the animation length to sixty in the lesser for example, so nosotros have some room to piece of work with.
And then go to frame 0 in the Dope Sail Editor console on the left by dragging the blueish box to the left side where 0 is.
Once you lot are on frame 0, press "i" on your keyboard in viewport and set keyframe for "Whole Character", so you have a start for your graphic symbol and all it's bones.
On Kars' rig yous have to highlight the whole rig in viewport and press i

Spoiler:

Show

Nosotros will be animating everything using keyframes.
A keyframe is but a marker of time which stores the value of a property.
For example, a Keyframe might define that the horizontal position of a bone is at a certain indicate on frame ane.
The purpose of a Keyframe is to allow for interpolated blitheness, significant, for example, that the user could then add another key on frame 10, specifying the bones horizontal position at another location, and Blender will automatically determine the right position of the bone for all the frames between frame 1 and x depending on the chosen interpolation method (e.g. Linear, Bézier, Quadratic, etc.).
An overview of existing keyframes can be seen via the Dope Sheet editor.
TLDR Keyframes: Y'all animate using keyframes that tell which position and rotation bones are at given time.

you can shorten the transition time by dragging the keyframe in the editor and also choose the way transition behaves in by right clicking on keyframe and choosing interpolation mode and easing way.
cull a frame and start moving and rotating bones to animate movement. Once you are happy with your first pose, select the bones and printing "i" and choose "Whole Character (selected bones merely) to just keyframe the os y'all accept selected.
I advice non to use the "Whole character" for any keyframing except for starting and ending frame.

Here'due south more info on blender keyframing: Introduction — Blender Manual

How to add together keyframes

Hither'due south how to create your first keyframe and motion. (Use "i" to insert keyframe and copy paste the keyframe.)

Spoiler:

Show

Exporting

When yous want to export your animation to a .hkx format, caput over to "scripts" tab on the top bar and press the execute script push button seen below or click the picayune play push button on the bottom correct. Simply make sure the script selected says AnimationExporter.

Information technology is normal that blender freezes and stays equally "not responding" state for a while. How long the exporting takes depends how long the animation is and how powerful your pc is.
One time the script has finished, head over to the "convert" binder within the tktk's rig binder and you lot should see a "DefaultPose.hkx" file in there.
Note that the animation now is a 32-bit hkx file.

If you lot want to use information technology for Skyrim SE and so you have to convert it to a 64-bit file with Cathedral Assets Optimizer or use the converttoskyrimSE.bat method.
Merely before converting, if y'all have to add annotations, you have to add together them when the file is 32-bit .hkx file if yous are using hkanno, because the tool tin can't work with 64-bit .hkx files.
In that location is hkanno64 that works with 64-flake blitheness files, only y'all need HCT 2010.2.0 x64 to run it. Instructions to install it is included in the hkanno64 folder.

Spoiler:

Show