Problem following the tutorial "Creating Animated OgreXML Models in Blender"

Troubleshooting import-assets
1

Hello,

I’m trying to follow this animation tutorial : Animation Workflow.pdf - Google Drive
(I found it in the 7th JME tutorial in bottom of the page : https://jmonkeyengine.github.io/wiki/jme3/beginner/hello_animation.html)

At start, i didn’t have much troubles, some little GUI changes i can cope with, but i’m totally stuck at the step of the page 12 when i have to export the mesh+skeleton using OGRE exporter:
It tried to install it using the script given by JME (in Tool → Install Blender OgreXML) and i also tried to directly download the blender installer from this page : Tools | OGRE - Open Source 3D Graphics Engine

In both case, i don’t get the GUI i see in the tutorial and i have some errors if i actually do the export:

KeyError: ‘bpy_prop_collection.get(key, …): key must be a string or tuple, not int’
And i get the mesh.xml but not the skeleton file.

In the Ogre exporter’s help in Blender, it says i have to install the “Command Line Tools” at the default path from the link i mentionned above (Tools | OGRE - Open Source 3D Graphics Engine) but i don’t see the “Command Line Tools” at the page, only different exporters including the one i have tried.

I’m a bit confused as i have never used Ogre before, i’m just trying to follow the tutorial to see how to do an animation, is there something obvious that i missed ?

Thanks in advance,

Gaël

EDIT : I found the command line tools here : Download OGRE (O-O Graphics Rendering Engine) from SourceForge.net, i installed them to the default path and nothing changes.
Btw my version of Blender is 2.78 and my version of JME is SDK 3.0 Stable

2

What version of OGRE Exporter are you using? Screenshots in this doc are from blender 2.49 (medieval comparing to 2.78 :stuck_out_tongue: ) try ogre exporter for 2.78 (version 0.6.0)
https://code.google.com/archive/p/blender2ogre/downloads

3

The thing is, that link is old, very old, and shouldn’t be in the wiki anymore. Its really there because there are no other replacements for it.

You should learn your 3d modeling tools from an independent source. Anything in the wiki is just someone’s attempt to try and help others but as you can see, once created the topics remain stagnant.

I can give you some links to things but guess what, they are also dated. Web searches and youtube are your best bets. But guess what, those are also getting very dated.

You will find that your going to have to read tons of dated stuff and figure this out on your own if you want free.

This page will help you some with jme requirements,

https://jmonkeyengine.github.io/wiki/jme3/external/blender.html

This page or the SDK 3.2.0 has the ogre script that works, others like the one you found on your own may or may not, most likely not.

https://jmonkeyengine.github.io/wiki/jme3/advanced/ogrecompatibility.html

This link has some more info, also dated, but that’s what free gets us.
https://jmonkeyengine.github.io/wiki/jme3.html#animations-and-scenes

No, all you need is the script installed.

This link will also help you with exporting,
https://jmonkeyengine.github.io/wiki/jme3/advanced/3d_models.html

You have to learn your tools as mentioned before.

Here’s a example for you that uses Mixamo to animate, but you should once again learn how to manually do things yourself.
https://jmonkeyengine.github.io/wiki/jme3/advanced/mixamo.html

Lastly, for some dated material on learning, but still relevant, try this,
https://vimeo.com/nhirsig/videos/sort:alphabetical/format:thumbnail
https://trunk.tufts.edu/access/content/group/b78b4dc7-3d98-419d-befd-54d3e7eaa174/Public%20Blender%20Resources/

4

Mmm I had a lot of problems with this too. I’ve downloaded loads of versions of the ogreXML exporter and all but one has been broken.

Here is the exporter if you fancy trying it:

io_export_ogreDotScene.py → http://pasted.co/af8d66f9

To be placed inside your equivelant of

C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.78\scripts\addons

Last time I posted this for someone they had problems related to the export settings, and the screenshot of my settings that worked is still up so here it is:

I do think there is probably an easier way of exporting models with skeletons and animations by now but I’m one of those “if it ain’t broke dont fix it” people and have been using this method for ages now.

5

To answer to mitm, i was not learning 3D modeling with that tutorial, I have already modeled several different stuff with Google Sketchup and Blender. But i never did an animation by myself using classical tools, i am just searching for a way to get a simple animation from Blender to Jme, and when it’s done i can go more deeper in it, but i wanted to have a working workflow first to make sure i use the rights working tools.

To Jester a big Thank you ! Your version of the exporter works well (which was not the case with the one provided by Jme or the one downloadable from ogre’s website).

I still have the problem that i can’t assign different frames to different animation channels (because that GUI no longer exists), but i guess i have to define several different animations directly in Blender to have them exported as separate ones in Ogre.

6

Yeah I make all the different animations in Blender then go into the NLA editor and add them all to one track so it will export them all with the file.skeleton.xml. The NLA editor has been my least favourite part of blender to work with.

7

I still just use the blender impoter and that even handles different NLA strips btw. The only issue I have from time to time is forgetting about reset the scalings back to zero in blender which leads to weird animations on jme.