Using Animations

By Kumar Shah
created 8/23/03

Below is a short guide to help you when you use the Set Aniamtion effect in the AoM editor. This is mainly written out of experience.

1.) Some animations are spelled differently then what they may appear in the animations list in models.bar file. So if your animation doesnt work, this could be one problem.

2.) There are two animations for all units, called idlea and walka. This animations are used to define how the unit appears and walks. If you will notice, the unit appearance changes when animated, so using these two you can keep the appearance of you unit when not animated, same as when animated.

3.) The animations idlea and walka only work in cinematic mode. They won’t work in normal mode. There are also some other animations I think, which only work in cinematic mode.

4.) In cinematics, when u animate a unit, either use the idlea and walka for its appearance and walking, or after it performs the actions, set its animation to default. Ohterwise, I have found units sliding instead of walking sometimes.

5.) A good way to see the exact spelling of the animations, if they dont work, is to look in the ES campaign. They have used all the animations in them. Don’t worry, u dont have to search all 30 scn as most animation names define in which scn they appear. Example : jarl_aomsp21aye means it appears in scn 21.

Hope that proves useful while designing. Remember to use this excellent AOM feature to give your cinematic a more movie-like feel. There is nothing like seeing the hero talk with actions, or a group of hoplites nodding in approval to the general.

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