Animasters 2.0

[pmgolf]

Introducing "Big Sexy JC", a person that is new to the scene of Link 2003. When I first saw the name I thought, now who is this guy? Well, you better get used to it, because he has dug into all the info about Links Animasters that he could find, and has mastered all of it! He has redone all our animations, figured out how to redo player faces, their clothes, their hats (or no hats), their clubs, and more! He has a web site: https://www.jclinks2003.com and he would like to join us at our site!

He is going to submit his application for LSPN.net, and would whoever that takes care of new members please watch out for him!

Check out his site and see what you think. Many downloads available for all kinds of Links stuff! No cost - no registration necessary.

Pete

[rwoodworkr]

Now here's a guy with some serious time on his hands.

[Dr golf]

Help me please.............. I successfully downloaded several players and their photos. I got the players however the photos are nowhere to be found. Can you help me? Thank you. I've done this before but it's been so long that I forgot what I did. I open the polyanni file and put the players in and tried the same procedure with the photos but no luck. Thank you in advance.
Steve

[Dr golf]

i have windows 10

[BigSeksyJC]

Dr Golf,

The pics need to be placed in the below path on your PC. Keep in mind that this path is normally not viewable so you will have to make it viewable in your folder options in windows explorer. Let me know if you need help with that.

C:\ProgramData\Links 2003\Players

You can also navigate to the photos wherever they reside on your PC using the browse button in the player editor. The path above is just the default location, but they don't necessarily have to be there.

[BigSeksyJC]

Thanks for the intro Pete. While I introduced myself initially on Links Corner with the below thread a couple years ago, I have been enjoying Links since the mid 90s. I guess that makes me new to the community, but certainly not a new user of Links.

PGA Tour Replay LC Thread
https://linkscorner.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=1741

As you noticed from my LC thread above, I originally started out playing Links (I was a super high 700th rated player back in the day on Chase's Ladder LOL), but really get my enjoyment out of it by creating PGA players using the AI/computer player ratings feature and replaying PGA seasons based on real world statistics. I also use those AI players as opponents when I really feel like playing a round and want some competition.

Being bored with the available player animations and not having enough of those available to represent all the PGA players, I went on a mission to figure out everything there is to know about animations. That mission started about 2 years ago and I'm about ready to wrap up that mission and move on to other things as there isn't much more to accomplish on that front.

I don't want to create all new posts on this site so I'll just reference the LC links to the important ani related threads I've had over the years. If you really want to get an understanding of all things ani related look over the below thread.

The anatomy of an ani
https://linkscorner.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=2353

There are two main reasons I wanted Pete to introduce me here. The first is that I noticed there was more traffic here so I wanted to know if there was something I could provide on the ani front to this community as the interest in animations on the LC forum is almost non-existent. Second, as I already mentioned, I'm finishing up a few more things and then I'll probably be moving on from Links as far as the community involvement goes. For that reason, I wanted to make sure that if there was interest in anyone else doing animations going forward that I could help with that.

While the comment on the thread was that it appeared as though I had serious time on my hands, the reality is that I've worked 2 40 hour a week jobs for the last 23 years and just retired from one of them. The one I still have is 3rd shift from home while the rest of my family is sleeping so I do have 8 hours a night to do whatever I want around work calls. I do have 16 year old boy/girl twins that are heavily involved in sports so outside of those 8 hours I have next to no time for Links or anything else for that matter.

I've mooched off this community for over 2 decades and sincerely wanted to give back to it as a sign of gratitude for what I've gotten from it. If there interest is here in the ani stuff I'm here to help. If the interest isn't there then I can sleep at night knowing I've given back and offered to share my knowledge with the community.

[BigSeksyJC]

Sorry for back to back posts, but I thought this post should be separate from my last since it's kind of a different topic. On my mission to learn everything about the animations, I reached out to the original animasters and they were gracious enough to answer some of my questions, but more importantly, they gave me the tools that were used by them and Microsoft to create the animations that were originally in the game and that the animasters made available later.

As far as I know, I'm the last person on the planet (except for the last 3 living original animasters) with access to those tools and the knowledge to use them. This includes the ability to shape and modify the physical structure of the animations in Maya. If there was interest from someone, I'd be willing to share those tools and knowledge so that others could create animations.

Lastly, while learning the animation side of things, I also stumbled on to the details of the clubs. I can also use Maya to reshape clubs and know the texture mapping for the clubs since I can see it in the texture editor of Maya. This has long been kind of unknown since the original animasters "retired". This means I can also help with clubs if there is interest in anyone learning that side of things.

[Harpo]

Hi, I downloaded Scottie Scheffler's ani and there are a lot of .bmps of shirts, pants ... etc. Where do I put those and does it even matter if I put them somewheres. Is there a voice file for him?

Maybe an instruction sheet telling where each file type goes where? Maybe something Mark can pin to top of our forum? Or maybe there is one on another site that I just don't know about. I am not a member of Links Corner site. Another or, did I miss seeing it on your site?

[BigSeksyJC]

Jim,

All the zip files on my site come with the .L3 file (that's the ani), the BMP texture files that make up the face, arms, pants, shirts, hats, etc., the .SKL file that is the body type from Maya, the script.txt file that configures that ani, the profile pic of the golfer and the .PIN files that are statistically accurate representations of that golfer for that year from my replay.

To answer your question, you dont need to do anything with any of the files outside of the .L3 file. I just made everything available in case anyone wanted to shuffle body types or apparel between golfers. I'll explain my golfer utility modifications in a later post.

[Harpo]

Jim,

All the zip files on my site come with the .L3 file (that's the ani), the BMP texture files that make up the face, arms, pants, shirts, hats, etc., the .SKL file that is the body type from Maya, the script.txt file that configures that ani, the profile pic of the golfer and the .PIN files that are statistically accurate representations of that golfer for that year from my replay.

To answer your question, you dont need to do anything with any of the files outside of the .L3 file. I just made everything available in case anyone wanted to shuffle body types or apparel between golfers. I'll explain my golfer utility modifications in a later post.

Ok, thanks and thank you for taking the time to make all these [censored].