Need more information on how this thing works

[Zeratul491]

Your description is way too vague. I need more information on how this thing works, because I go and select my armature, add an animation file to a blender project and nothing happens. Is this suppose to insert keyframes of the animation or what, because I have no idea what I'm even supposed to do with this. Your help would be much appreciated.

[Psycrow101]

1. Import the .dff model using the DragonFF addon (File -> Import -> DragonFF DFF)
2. Import the .anm animation
   No further action is required. If several animations were loaded at the same time, they will be available in the Action Editor.

The DragonFF addon is necessary because it assigns special tags to the bones. Without these tags, bones will not be properly identified and keyframes will not be added.

If you still cannot load the animation, please send me the dff model and animation.

[Zeratul491]

Do you know if I would be able to import a .anm file to a custom model from another game? What I'm trying to do is import .anm animation files from Telltale's TWDG, and use those animation files on the character armature it was designed for. Could I do that with this addon? I understand that I would need DragonFF, but do you think it would work for another game?

[Psycrow101]

@Zeratul491 You can import animations from a native game and use the retargeting addon to export animations for another game. Some retargeting addons are available on GitHub:
https://github.com/Mwni/blender-animation-retargeting
https://github.com/igelbox/blender-retarget?tab=readme-ov-file

[Zeratul491]

Okay. I went and got DragonFF installed, and that worked fine. What I'm wondering, is if I would be somehow able to import an XPS model into blender (Already know how to do this part) and save it as a .dff file, to then import that .dff file back into blender and import the animation file that I need for the character? I should have explained things better, I apologize. I'm having an error when I try to directly export the imported XPS model as a .dff file. I don't quite understand why it wouldn't export, because the file path does in fact exist.

[Psycrow101]

There is no point in resaving the model in dff to open the anm. If I understand correctly, you should:

1. Import the DFF for which the animation was created
2. Import anm
3. Import XPS
4. Retarget the animation from the DFF armature to XPS armature

The export error you received is due to the fact that you did not specify a file name to save

[Zeratul491]

Okay, gotcha. Is there a way to import the anime without the .dff file? I ask cause in Telltale's The Walking Dead, I don't believe the anime files are tied to a dff model, not that I'm aware of anyway. I'll go through a tool called the Telltale Explorer and see if there are any dff files within the seasons, but I doubt it. If that's the case, do you know of anything else I could try? That's pretty much the reason I was trying to export the model to a .dff file, because I don't have a .dff model from the game to import in the first place.

[Psycrow101]

The Walking Dead was developed using the Telltale Tool engine, not RenderWare. This addon supports animation format only for games on the RenderWare engine.

[Zeratul491]

Okay. Makes sense. Do you know of any programs or blender scripts that could help me with what I'm trying to do?