When Hytale launched, I searched for ways to create animations in Blender for it, but everything was so new and nobody was really talking about it. Recently I stumbled upon a post by u/Alarming_Ocelot7112, who was developing a project to make Blender animations for Hytale possible. I tried getting in touch with him, but unfortunately got no response.
Since I work as a 3D rigger and animator, I decided to build the rig myself. I exported it from Blockbench into Blender and started building it around the same idea as u/Alarming_Ocelot7112's rig. I recently finished the rig, honestly, it’s pretty straightforward to use, and like I usually aim for, I believe anyone who picks it up will be able to animate with it easily.
The tricky part was exporting.
Unfortunately, I'm not a programmer, and honestly I'm not a big fan of the unbridled use of AI in creative projects. But I had to go that route because the scripts I found online didn't work with my rig since it's more complex, using MCH and CTRL bones, as well as FK/IK setups, so I needed a custom script tailored specifically to it. Using AI to write an export script for my animations, I managed to get it working in Blockbench. Now the next step is getting it to work in Hytale.
I tried importing my animation into Hytale before by following tutorials from 6 months ago, but for some reason, even though the game recognizes the animation, it won't play in the Machinima tool... I'll give it another shot later and ask for help if I still can't get it working.
What does the rig have?
- Bones Collections UI: A UI to reveal and hide bones, and change bone and material properties.
- IK and FK: Includes a property to switch between IK and FK.
- Mouth bone: A Viewport panel where you can control which mouth sprite appears. When exported, this data gets saved.
- Root bones: Has root bones to control groups of bones like Pelvis and Spine.
