Making a Kenshi Animation, a Blender and FCS Tutorial

[@Mopsisgone]

Just wanted to say amazing work..Kenshi badly needs these tutorial vids, i've been making a few of my own :) I couldn't add you on steam but I wanted to thank you..trinity now has her own special pose thanks to you! Now if I can just do it twice... :D xxx MiG

[@savrulsavvy2219]

This video helped a ton. Thanks!

[@TheInquisitor2012]

Thx man, was having problems 'cuz of the Action clip name not being the same as the rest its stupid how u cant rename dat section

[@paiaaa]

How do I override (or add if possible) to the idle standing poses? I created an animation (not pose) and named it idle_stand_timid to replace that stance. In FCS all I did was add the .skeleton file to the copy of base animations, and added the animations for greenlanders but it didn't work

[@cayenigma]

You cannot add idle poses. All you can do is overwrite them. Meaning, you save over the vanilla poses. Import a vanilla skeleton, edit one or all poses save, export the skeleton and add it to the race you want to use it. If you want all vanilla races to use it, you need to replace the vanilla base animations skeleton.

[@paiaaa]

@@cayenigma Thank yooou

[@uncheat]

Yey finaly done the animation! Thanks for your tutorial: steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2369615809&searchtext Notes to do not mess up export(I did use): 1. export only skeleton and animation 2. Insert only loc and rot keys (scale did mess up the animation)

[@cayenigma]

that is interesting, I always save all three in my keyfranes

[@Bautimevault]

Hey there, is the IOS continued not working on 4.2 blender on steam? It works with imports of meshes for creating clothes/armor but doesnt import the animation list.

[@cayenigma]

No, only in 4.0. I have noticed it too. I am sure Kindrad is working on it.

[@RiiNagaja]

I tried the old 2.8 io_mesh plugin on a separate Blender 2.8 installation just for Kenshi. I also tried the linked Kenshi_IO_continued on newest Blender 4.2. The results are always the same: Failure at step one. The mesh does load, but the skeleton and animations don't follow. As I understand the plugin description it should automatically import a likewise named skeleton, but whether I try with the vanilla files or modded ones, old Blender or new Blender, the result is always that the plugin doesn't do the entire job.

[@NickKim]

latest io_continued works on blender 3.6, not 4.2

[@RiiNagaja]

@@NickKim Thank you for the reply. I will try that then.

[@uncheat]

Any tips for example how to change ninjarun animation with new one on FCS? I've animation but have problems may be with naming or else... can't get it work on game

[@cayenigma]

It is always best to leave the vanilla base animations be and only add a new armature (.skeleton) containing only that one animation (or set of animations). Each anim strip in Blender NEEDS to be exactly identically named as the vanilla file. Do note, if you import a second armature in Blender it will rename all the animations in that second armature with .001. If you then start to edit that armature you will end up having your mod break.

[@АндрійКрук-ц9р]

Hello. Thanks for your videos, they help. I have the following question: is it possible to replace the original crossbow shooting animation with your own? I put my own animation on the crossbow, but both mine and the vanilla one are used in the game.

[@cayenigma]

The shooting animation needs to replace the vanilla animations, ie. the name of the animation strip has to be the exact same, case sensitive. It will replace every crossbow's animation, including all crossbows added by previously loaded mods. This is the main reason there are not many classical bows in the game, one could not have a specific animation for the other type of bow at the same time. I wish we could set custom animations per each weapon, but we cannot.

[@АндрійКрук-ц9р]

@@cayenigma Does this apply not only to crossbows, but to all weapons? I don't understand in which section should I add the crossbow shooting animation?

[@cayenigma]

@@АндрійКрук-ц9р The animation is assigned to all the races you wish to use the animation. It is not assigned to weapons, it is assigned to people. And the game calls it by the name when shooting a crossbow. The game does differentiate between swords and ranged weapons, so we have one animation to replace for ranged, but there are several for swords.

[@АндрійКрук-ц9р]

@@cayenigma drive.google.com/file/d/1NChHiP5jal8kOOc4sFED8VWhBfToqPDx/view?usp=sharing Did I do the right thing?

[@yeye3999]

Hm, so how do I make a new choosable idle animation on loadout? These videos are helping me a lot! Thanks!

[@cayenigma]

I have not made any so this is quesswork: either all idle poses are pre-set and you can only write over them, or you can make a new one putting its name idle_yourposename I am assuming that would require to have the idle pose in the actual original skeleton, and replacing that is frowned upon, because you can mess the entire game if every other mod makes alterations to the original skeleton. I suggest you focus overwriting the existing idle poses, so you can make a separate Animation file (and separate skeleton) in FCS that uses the same animation name you want to replace.

[@yeye3999]

@@cayenigma Hey thanks for the quick reply! Yeah I suspect I have to edit the original skeleton. I'll play around with it some more today.

[@NLaev]

I have been trying to work with other races for a week now, but when I import their mesh into the game they don't have the skeleton like the human male and female. Im not trying to make an animation mod as much as I would like to actually make a short film with blender or any other software for animation. Do you know a way I could work around this?

[@cayenigma]

You need to export your character meshes out WITH the skeleton from Blender, rigged to the skeleton. When the skeleton used is the same as vanilla, you do not need to set up an animation file. But if you have a custom skeleton, then you must create an animation file in the FCS and assign that to the new race.

[@NLaev]

@@cayenigma ​Excuse me i just realised I made a mistake while writing. The problem isn't that I there is no skeleton in the GAME , rather that when I import the models into BLENDER that the skeletons don't appear with the imported meshes. I just need a connected skeleton to the hiver, skeleton and shek meshes and I dont know how I would go about doing that. I don't need the models in the game, i just need them exported into another animation software. I tried looking at other blender tutorials but all of them already had the animation skeleton connected to these models when imprting so I dont know how I could do that manually. Thank you for your time! edit: I do not need the models imported into FCS or Kenshi just an animation software like Iclone or cascadeur, I understand you mostly do modding and not short film animations but any help would be appreciated.

[@cayenigma]

@@NLaev The skeleton file needs to be in the same folder where the mesh is and named to exact same as the mesh. Hive and Shek do not have skeletons in their folders, so you need to do like I show in this tutorial, import the human male and then select skeleton and import the mesh with 'use selected skeleton' selected.

[@Scriptures_K]

Hi, I know this is 3 years old but I hope you could answer a question. Do you think it would be possible to: *A)* create a new weapon class (bows), and *B)* have an animation chain (i.e. aim, shoot, reload) dedicated solely to that new weapon class?

[@cayenigma]

Unfortunarely no. All we have for ranged is the crossbow and the crossbow's animation and sounds. One can replace them, sure, but that would apply to all ranged weapons then. Come join the Steam forums, we have an active community there, where this issue, among other modding subjects have been discussed at length. I'm Cattrina there.

[@Scriptures_K]

@@cayenigma Aw crap! I just finished building a Japanese longbow as well, lol. Thanks for letting me know though, I'm sure that's saved me some time. I might check those forums out, since I do plan on replacing a LOT of items in the game (i.e. UC/Shek/HN armours). I just thought having a second option for ranged weapons would have been a neat addition to the UC changes in mind.

[@uncheat]

I jsut edited ninjarun animation but ingame it looks like it exists but there lot of rotations from reference position! Do I need to reset body somehow before export?

[@cayenigma]

It is really difficult to say what is wrong with the actual animation without seeing it. Remember Kenshi plays the breathing animation with ALL other animations. And the breathing moves shoulders. So you need to have clavicles saved (posrotscale) on keyframes, otherwise the breathing will mess the anim.

[@uncheat]

@@cayenigma Modder AGO found out that ninja run should be split by upper and lower animation to work propper if it's edited

[@MysteryFinery]

Hi. Subbed. Thanks for the vid. Where can I contact you?

[@cayenigma]

Hi, I am really active on the Kenshi forums. I´m Cattrina there

[@BAD8TRUMP]

howe did you import in blender ???? in my Blender i trying but dosent works ? what i mist

[@cayenigma]

I show the process in this video. If you cannot import, probably you do not have the kenshi plugin installed on your Blender. You can get it from here: www.lofigames.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=10732

[@BAD8TRUMP]

Thanks i found and install " import/export kenshi plug-in

[@BAD8TRUMP]

Can you show , howe to crate clothes like skin clothes , the canibal met lord hawe , name of the skin " Darkwrap " howe its works , i want create pants , in all internet is only you hawe experience in kenshi

[@cayenigma]

@@BAD8TRUMP I am planning on making more tutorial videos for Kenshi this weekend

[@BAD8TRUMP]

@@cayenigma )))))))))))))) cant wayt

[@Indikid9149]

Does all of this still work in 2022?

[@cayenigma]

Yes :) They are all still valid.

[@Indikid9149]

@@cayenigma I get an error message everytime I try to import the skeleton, i'm using the most up to date version of blender, could that be the problem?

[@cayenigma]

@@Indikid9149 Do you have proper export import plugin installed? I recommend IO_continued github.com/Kindrad/Kenshi_IO_Continued/

[@Indikid9149]

@@cayenigma just installed it and it worked, thanks! I was using the old one from the lofi forums

[@Indikid9149]

@@cayenigma do you know if it's possible to add new character animations to the character creation screen?