I have two questions:

1. What's the Papyrus command to make an actor play an animation? I'm finally polishing up some scenes and in various places I simply need some NPC's to play animations during the scene.

2. Where can I 'browse' the animations? In previous games they had the 'idle animations' section where you could see all the choices and what they were called. In this one it's not there, and I haven't a clue how to do it. I'd prefer a way to do it without needing third party tools or to do anything complicated... if one exists.

If there is no 'easy' way, can someone provide to me the names of the animations for: The 'priest' animation that the guy in Whiterun does while preaching. He has his hands up on the air as he speaks.

I also need an animation similiar to being on your knees, looking up and shouting into the sky. (Like they do in movies when it's raining and their best friend dies) I can force him to look up through SetLook() commands, so really just on his knee's, preferably arms out and up.

Then, if one exists, an animation like someone is breaking a door open with their shoulder. If there isn't anything like this, I'll simply make him swing his weapon at it instead. (2h Claymore, should make sense)

Thanks for any help!
Alexander J. Velicky

I mainly use PlayIdle for animations on my actors:
http://www.creationkit.com/PlayIdle_-_Actor
http://www.creationkit.com/PlayAnimation_-_ObjectReference

There's also a debug function for initiating animations, but I don't use it anymore because it has caused my actors animation to get out of synch (just like the warning in the wiki.)

As far as getting a list of animations, go to the Creation Kit, Gameplay menu and chose Animations.

Ah, perfect. I'll try this out and report back if I have any issues.

Thanks!

I was going to say there was http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1370687-kneeling-and-hugging-animations/page__view__findpost__p__20707428 a few weeks back... but you started that thread. Guess you've been pretty busy with Falskaar, so maybe you forgot?

Doh! I did have that thread that covered very nearly the same thing, didn't I... I am indeed quite destracted.

Regardless, I've got my animations playing ingame and it all looks good, so thanks Sollar!

Glad it's working AV. I was just reading the link to your earlier thread that Aenara posted... similiar, but I see why you posted again. It seemed mostly about what animation to play, overall. Did you ever find a kneeling animation? I was thinking the Bleedout animation that followers use when they're almost dead would look good... but anyway, that was weeks ago. I also saw mention of the debug animation but I found a situation in my mod that if the player has readied a weapon and boards the carriage, the animations get out of synch. I'm sure I could check for weapons readied, etc, but the PlayIdle just seems easier.

I have yet to find a basic script example that shows just how to have an actor perform an animation. Maybe the people that know how how to do it consider it such a simple thing that they haven't bothered with an example but could someone please post a working script that I could learn from? If one already exists could you point me to it?

I'm looking for something like when you activate a cup it would switch to third person and play the drinking animation or something along those lines. If anybody could help I'd appreciate it!

Thanks!

Sure, this is right out of my code:

; The idle is passed in as a propertyIdle property IdleCartDriverIdle auto;myDriver is passed in to the function: RideInCart(Actor myDriver)myDriver.PlayIdle(IdleCartDriverIdle)

Thanks Sollar! I'll see if I can figure out how it works. I know I'm going to sound stupid here but am I somewhat close in saying:

In the script you are saying there is a property and the property contains the idle animation (IdleCartDriverIdle). Then there is a function (RideInCart) which has an Actor defined as "myDriver". The bottom line then tells (or initiates the action for the ) the actor to play the idle contained within the parentheses. So to make this animation play I would need to come up with the remaining code which would contain some activator in front of what you have provided to start the process and then the code to end the script, correct?

Sorry for being a complete dunce at this!

Here's something that you might like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRz12_ykvf4

Awesome! Thanks for the video link. I had been watching many of those by that person but somehow I had not come across that one. A big thanks!

You're on the right track.

Here's how to set the third-person view: http://www.creationkit.com/ForceThirdPerson_-_Game

I don't use http://www.creationkit.com/PlayGamebryoAnimation_-_ObjectReference as used in that video, I use the PlayIdle as I pasted above, but that will hopefully give you a better example geared to what you are doing. My earlier post though really shows just how easy it is. If I had any examples closer to what you are doing, I'd show those instead. You need to go in to the CK and find an animation you want. You can then use the animation event or the PlayIdle.

I feel like a have a directions to head in finally vs. looking all around and not knowing where to start. You've been a really big help! I really appreciate it!

Yeah, I know the feeling. Sometimes I run in to such Papyrus/CK issues, I spend days trying to find work-arounds.

Glad I could help!!