Vehicle Animations

So, you want to make an animation for a car? A sunroof maybe? Or have about a visor mounted light bar? Don't worry, it's not as difficult as you might think. So let's break it down!

This tutorial is not for ZMod beginners. It is recommended that you already know your way around ZMod, the tools, and how to compound a dummy.

Setting up the movable parts

First you want to detach any parts you want to have move in your animation, if this is a sun roof select the glass and use the detach tool. Don't forget to do this for ALL LODs. It is not possible to detach all the LODs at once so you will have to grab each one individually. I recommend naming them L0, L1, L2, etc based on what part they where detached from.

Then you can create a dummy helper to compound and LOD all your split parts. Once you have done that we can start with getting the animation ready.

Now you want to switch all your LODs off, and select the dummy. Under properties open the GTA V options and select what axis you are going to move or rotate. You can select all if you wish, however I will only be selecting what ever I plan to edit. In this example it is the the X axis rotation. DON'T FORGET TO CLICK APPLY. Before you close the Properties panel you need to click apply at the bottom.

The Track Editor

Next we will start to map out animation. You will need to open the track editor, it is located down in the lower left hand corner, see attached image.

After the window opens go up to Animation and select "New Animation", then toggle off "Prefer Time" and "Relative to bind", after that set "Interpolate" to None.

For the animation name, you can name it what ever you want it does not really matter. I like to keep the name the same as the model name of my vehicle. So for this example I will call it 02camuc.

Next let's open up the Properties panel by pressing the paper icon at the top and add a new option. Name the option audio:id and set the value to window_start, window_stop, roof_start, roof_stop, boot_start, boot_stop, flaps_start, flaps_stop. Then, under "Events" create the audio:id event.

Only a few steps left until we actually start animating, yay! Close the properties menu by pressing the same paper icon, then click on the track button to make a new track. The name does not matter, but I like to name it what the object is I am animating; I named mine "visor". Now at the bottom of your main ZMod window we want to turn on freemode, when the button turns red it is on. last but not least lets drag our bone onto the track name to add it to the animation list. Select your bone from the hierarchy and click and drag it onto the track name.

Setting up freemode and dragging the bone to the track

Animating

Hooray, you made it to the animation stage! To start let's drag your track onto the Track Editor timeline, then expand it by clicking on the animation name and the expand button on the track name.

This is a WIP document. It will be continued.

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wildfyr

15 days ago

Vehicle Animations

Setting up the movable parts

The Track Editor

Animating

Animation ZMod Vehicle Animation GTA V