2 Comments

  1. > How does it work?

    The way this works is, geckolib animations are just json files with every keyframe written down, with the coordinates, scale and rotation of the object, as well as what is the transition from one keyframe to the other should be (linear, bezier, etc.)

    So, If I were to extract a model from blockbench to .obj to blender, did all the animation there, and then somehow was able to bake and extract all the keyframes of rotation and location to .json, I’d be able to do use all the amazing animation instruments from blender and not limit myself to just blockbench, and geckolib limitations.

    > Why is “able” in quotes?

    I think I’ll get a lot of backlash for this, but I don’t know python, and don’t know how to write blender addons. And a custom addon was required to create a script that would convert blender keyframes to geckolib json animation file. That’s why the addon was written by, you guessed it, chatgpt. And as chatgpt does, the addon is a complete and utter garbage. The scaling sometimes is incorrect, sometimes animated models just flip 180 degrees randomly, XYZ -> XZY conversion seems to just not work all the time. That’s why able is in quotes. I don’t have the skills yet to create a good addon myself, and those 3 animations that you see here are the only things I was able to extract that were good enough.

    In fact, I then proceeded to manually animate arms for the 0g thing that yeets a box everywhere in blockbench, because, while I was able to extract a physics sim of the box to blockbench, arms just were not cooperating.

    > Why blender? What limitations does blockbench have?

    No drivers, no constraints, no animation layers, no IK’s, no bones, and probably no physics simulations since this guy is just a low poly modelling software and wasn’t made for this

    …So yeah, all the animations you see here use either physics simulations (sattelite yeeter and the 0g assembler), or blender’s constraints (oil rig)

    Do not look at the sun, I broke it accidentally