HOW-TO: Use animations in REDkit and Blender

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Here’s some basic information on working with animations and exporting them to Blender - where you can edit them further.

You can access animation files for all characters and other various entities which have any animations via the Asset Browser (CTRL+A or View tab). Below you can find out how to open these files, do simple edits and export individual animations to Blender which is a free and open-source 3D computer graphics software tool.

1. Open a set of animations

Let’s start with something small: a cat. In the Asset Browser go to depot>animations>animals>cat and open the cat_animation set of animations file. This will open the file in the AnimBrowser.

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2. Load the target entity

If we want to play an animation in the newly opened Editor, you first need to load in a the target entity that we want to play the animations with.

Go to the Asset Browser. Search for “cat” and in the results find cat (Entity template). Make sure it’s selected and go back to the AnimBrowser window.

In the AnimBrowser right-click on the viewport (the preview area) to open the context menu and select Use selected entity.

This will upload your Entity Template selected in the Asset Browser into the Anim Browser.

3. AnimBrowser main screen

Now you should be able to see the cat entity in the viewport.

The AnimBrowser presents animations on a timeline where you can see different types of events and tracks (it’s the same for the Scene and Dialogue Editors). Some tracks can play sound which accompany animation.

On the upper right side you can select from the All animations tab which stores every animations associated to this entity. Each of these has a different timeline and properties.

4. Export animations to Blender

To export one of the animations, go to the All animations tab and from the list of animations, right-click on one and select Export animation.

This will export a .re file which you can then import to Blender.

4.1. HDF format

Before we move to the Blender plugin, it’s good to know that animation files from REDkit are exported in the common HDF format. And since HDF is an open source format, it can be manipulated through scripting (more complicated than Blender).

You can inspect and edit animation files manually with tools such as HDFView.

Find out more about the tool, here:

• TOOL: HDFview

Continue reading this tutorial to find out how to work with these files in Blender.

5. Import animations to Blender

After exporting an animation in the previous step you can now import the .re file into Blender.

In Blender’s Scene panel right-click to open the context menu and select Import .re animset file.

This is how an imported skeletal animation for (monster_siren_dodge_to_fly) looks in Blender.

5. Working with Blender

To learn everything about using Blender, please visit the tool's official documentation:

• https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/

• https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/interface/index.html

• https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/editors/index.html

• https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/scene_layout/index.html

6. Export animations from Blender

After you finish editing your animation in Blender it’s time to export it (so that we can later import it back into REDkit).

Right-click on the object in the Scene Collection tab to open the context menu and choose Export animset as .re file.

The exporting menu has several options to choose from.

If you’re ready to export, press the Export .re animset button.

7. Import animation back to Redkit

After editing your animation in Blender, you might now want to import it back to The Witcher 3 REDkit.

You can either replace an existing animation or add a new one.

7.1. Replace existing animation

First open the Animation set file which you wish to edit and add your new individual, edited animation.

In the AnimBrowser go to the Animation tab in the properties section (top right side of the screen). Choose the animation you want to replace from the drop-down menu. In the Import file property, click the three dotes icon and browse for your .re animation file which will replace the currently selected animation.

When this is completed, go back to the All animations tab and right-click on the animation from the list which you want to replace.

Select the Reimport as simple/plain animation option. This’ll try to replace the animation with the .re animation file we imported a moment ago in the Animation tab.

7.2. Add new animation

Instead of replacing an existing animation, you can also add a completely new one.

Go to the All animations tab and right-click on the main set of animations file (w2anims container text) and select Create new virtual animation. From here you need to select and import a .re animation file similarly as described in the section above.

Table of contents:

Installing the Blender plugin:

• HOW-TO: Install the Blender plugin