Blender to MSFS Tutorial - How to make animated FLAG with bones, game ready!

In this tutorial I will show you how to make an animated flag in blender, reacting to physics and wind, and also how to add an armature to it to bake the animation for a game engine. The flag will be exported to Microsoft Flight Simulator as SimObject and will react to wind direction and strenght!
if you like the tutorials and the channel, consider subscribing or making a donation!
paypal.me/mamudesign
for further information, please join the discord channel:
/ discord
The tecnique used in this tutorial is thanks to:
• Cloth Simulation to Bo... , kudos to him!

[@rhumbaflappy]

Hi Mamu! rhumbaflappy here. I found I can rotate the flag in the sim and scale it as well. I also solidified the flag plane and used UV mapping to correct the back side image. Great tutorial.

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

Hi Dick, thanks! That's correct, we can scale Simbojects since SU9 or 10 So creating the flag (or the windosock) without the pole is a good idea to have more flexibility! (Not a lot indeed cause we can scale only in all axis, so modifying height or length must be done in the 3d software)

[@pilotomaia]

Another great video. It's a shame that in the world of MSFS everything is much more complicated, considering the ease of the X-Plane world. Thanks. Hugs.

[@needles50]

Hey Federico, tante grazie. This tutorial is just I needed. Eccellente.

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

Hi Brian, you're welcome! And THANKS a lot for your support, really appreciate it!!

[@needles50]

Prego Federico.

[@elgalopinos]

What a nice gift after my return from Italy, after eating a couple of arrosticini as you suggested to me...!😁. What a nice country my friend. This is the tutorial I was waiting for a long time ago, thank you again for all the hard work you share with us, and I hope to be able to make it with my little knowledge of Blender that I have. Cheers Federico!

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

Hey Rafael, hope you had a great stay!...a couple you said..maybe you mean a couple batches 😁 I'm quite sure you will succeed with the flag, in need , don't hesitate to ask!

[@quandumphone]

Thank you for the tutorial Mamu! I've had success making a US flag for an airport I'm working on and the flag works really well. I learned a few new things too.

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

There is nothing more rewarding that seeing your country flag moving into the wind, glad that the given instructions were clear enough to achieve the result 😊

[@brianbremer383]

Thank you for all these videos. Teaching myself how to make MSFS scenery assets and these videos are a great reference and help motivate me to keep going forward. Always looking forward to the next video!

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

Thanks Brian, if you need some topics that need a tutorial drop me a line and will try to accomplish!

[@johnarnold7460]

Another great tutorial. You mentioned that you would do this in your previous 'animation' tutorial and here it is already.

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

Thanks John, had this in the to do list for such a long time, but all those vertex groups and bone constraints require lots of patience! (And doing animation for every wind strength, too!)

[@xMIGHTYx]

You are back! :)

[@TheGobby]

Awesome work as always Mamu. I actually manage make a working flag using your windsock tutorial, but yours is much smoother :) Now all I need is how to attach a sound to a SimObject and my life will be complete.

[@cebrady]

Did you ever figure out the sound piece?

[@mache82]

excelent!! the best tutorials!! 👏👏👏...we need tutorials on bonfires and smoke in chimneys for example...please

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

Ah yeah effects! I will need to fire up again the effect editor, now should be stable enough to avoid me throwing the computer through the window (believe me, when it firs came out is was a mess!!)

[@mache82]

@@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS Thanks my friend! I will wait for those tutorials!

[@AG_Sim]

YEEESSSS thank you 😍

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

Thanks mate, better late than never,this topic had to be done!

[@Helicopterx1]

Ciao Federico, complimentoni per i video che fai, sono iscritto al tuo canale da poco ed ho trovato molte cose utilissime relative a Blender-MSFS. Io sto sviluppando l'elicottero AW139 per MSFS, l'ho già sviluppato per altre piattaforme ( in termini di avionica integrata, modello di volo, sistemi, suoni etc... ) ma soltanto da un annetto sto scrivendo un modello 3D accurato. Con blender è uno spasso sia modellare che animare e i tuoi video mi sono davvero davvero utilissimi. Ancora complimenti e buon lavoro!

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

Ciao, che onore! Ho visto quello che stai facendo ed è di una qualità assolutamente invidiabile, complimenti a te, spettacolo! Spero di vedere il tuo prodotto al più presto! se ti capita fai un salto sul Discord!

[@Helicopterx1]

Grazie mille ma sono io quello Onorato! Non so se conosci i miei progetti relativi al 139, non ho mai curato l'aspetto grafico in quanto la considero un arte vera e propria di cui io ne sto conoscendo una minuscola parte soltanto adesso che sviluppo su MSFS. Come ti dicevo, in passato ho sviluppato tutto riguardo avionica, sistemi e modelli di volo ma soltanto da un anno sto scrivendo un modello 3D accurato. Avrei qualche domanda da farti relativa a Blender, magari ( se non disturbo ) appena ho un attimo ti scrivo due righe. Ancora complimentoni e grazie per i video tutorial dettagliatissimi ed esplicativi 👍 @@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS

[@Giampa_Pol]

Nice nice 🤩

[@OltcitRoom]

I was waiting for this a long time, thanks a lot man, i really appreciate your hard work.

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

Thank you, flag are really a pain for me, takes quite some time, but when you see them waving you gonna be proud of that!

[@OltcitRoom]

@@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS it is a lot of work for sure, since this is a sim object , does it work to have multiple texture folders set up?

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

@@OltcitRoom I haven't played with multiple texture models yet, but it should work flawlessly

[@OltcitRoom]

@@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS nice, ill try it over the weekend.

[@muffo1965]

I can export only orientation animation and not the others. The animations work fine in blender. I don't understand where is my mistake. I can see gltf only with modelconverter, and there, it is only orientation animation.

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

Hey Andrea, are you sure you are exporting the right collection? The one ai the backed animation?

[@videolifeca]

Thanks so much. Question: why is it a good idea to use 'fake user'?

[@tbryson2]

Thank you for your video. I will admit it took several times and many replays to fully understand what is going on. I did eventually get my animated flag into my scenery! I do not understand what the purpose of the “default_state” is. I wound up creating another windspeed for 0 wind. Also, changing the start/end in the baking did not have good results. My flag always wanted to start straight out so I simply recreated the animation and deleted the keyframes (for each speed) as we did for windspeed_15. Ain’t modeling fun? 🤪

[@needles50]

Hi Federico, Could you explain to me why, in your Outliner and your Armature group it shows the bones but it does not show in mine unless I open the Armature group. I'm just being pedantic but I like to follow as closely as possible. Am I missing some setting? Grazie

[@SergioRochaPlus]

Hello, everything works correctly, until the moment we edit the animation, at 20 minutes of the video, when exporting the SDK does not understand this edition and deforms all the bones stretching the flag. Anyone here with this problem?

[@davidros47]

Hello Federico do you have it in 3dsmax ?

[@DeMoNELectro]

can it be used for sourrce games like garry's mod

[@EvilNando]

as soon as I set up a pinned vertex group the flat stops simulating and stays frozen in place, any ideas?

[@LeeCleydaSilvaLima]

Can anyone help me I'm having an error when I build

[@LeeCleydaSilvaLima]

[Package Validation] 'mylibrary' - Error@wrong_size_files: SimObjects\LandMarks\mysim\model\flag.xml the error only appears when I put AnimGraph and Behaviors (A:AMBIENT WIND VELOCITY, KNOTS)

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

Say the erors, otherwise how can I help? Write me in discord and let's try to solve it! discord.gg/JXWp6YRV

[@MrHarbonaut]

Hi, I've done this process a few times and I always have one or two bones that rotate randomly and ruin the effect. The only solution I've found is to remove the constraint from the offending bones. Does anyone know what might cause this?

[@Harti2000]

Federico, thanks for this tutorial. I followed every step many times to learn the workflow. But the result is a distorted and fidgeting mesh during the animation in MSFS. Did you forget something or is it me?

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

Hi Harti, The steps are correct The basic to avoid distortion is: add the armature and never touch again in Object mode. It needs to be created at the origin (0,0,0) and needs to stay there forever. Than in edit mode you can mode it everywhere. This is the basic for every bone animation in the game I suggest doing the windsock before venturing in the flag!

[@Harti2000]

@@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS Yes, that´s it, many thanks for help!

[@Harti2000]

@@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS It´s me again Federico. I have solved the disortion problem for my training flag. But my final flag with various windspeeds is distorted too. If i parenting the baked animation with the armature with automatic weights the vertex points of the flag mesh will be connected to other bones which are not allowed to be connected. (?!). I am not sure if that´s correct. In Blender the animation works well but im MSFS the mesh is heavily distorted. The rest of the animation is working good but the mesh animation has so much errors. The origin of the armature is 0,0,0 an the transform will be applied after setting up the bones. I have no idea what´s going wrong here. It is weight painting?

[@Jamoso98]

@@Harti2000 In the gITF exporter configuration did you activate the Apply modifiers option? That worked for me

[@shaunsprogress]

Sorry, why are you using the windsock as the component ID? Shouldn't it be orientation? Neither is working for mine, the empty is working, does there need to be another animation assigned to the orientation? I've followed this to a T and the orientation isn't working.

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

Hi, the Component ID can be what you want, is just a unique identifier for a part of your simobject. In that block of code there a hook to the Asobo_WindDirectionTemplate, that set the keyframe of the animation based on wind direction, you only need and animation called "orientation", just like in the video Did you make sure to push the animation to the NLA track and name the NLA track properly? that one is really the name of the animation

[@shaunsprogress]

@@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS Hi, Thanks for the reply. Yes everything is correct. How does it know to use the orientation animation so set the keyframe to when it isn't defined anywhere in the xml? Other than the term orientation, which is defined in the sim.cfg. Could I send you my xml and blender file?

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

@@shaunsprogress it is defined in the Asobo template it is reference to 😅 Yeah sure can you join my discord and send the files via pm? discord.gg/J8Na8azv

[@JuanCarlos-dn6wo]

Nice , thx...do you have discord or so?

[@MSFS-SDK-TUTORIALS]

Hola Juan, Thanks, here is a fresh link discord.gg/h6TWyweb