Posts from Guide on adding a new model, animation, and creature to HoMMV

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the problem with Heroes 5 is that it's a mess there....

okay, if you have trouble finding animations, there's one dumb way - look at the animation of a creature from a mod, yeah, some footman and Banneret have the same animations and even the model, even though it seems like it's a new unit

so, comrade Psatkha's creatures have a standardized file structure, so if you need an animation you always have to go into the \Characters\Creatures\Neutral\H5A0\ folder
well, let's say there's a file Banneret-arena-attack01.xdb there, in it the fourth line is <uid>B2C850DF-75C7-45F7-A8F5-015D8CD89E0D</uid> - copy the red part and search in data.pak, that's the attack animation

of course this method has a downside - some creatures may have "different" animations, for example a shot instead of using an ability, this applies to gremlin saboteurs - instead of repairing they have a flame strike

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method #2 - use the Remake mod, there's a huge downside here - in this mod some creatures are replaced, but this mod still has a clear system

first you go into Remake\Town\ - there are 10 folders there, you go into the one you need, let's say we need a druid
\Remake\Town\Sylvan\Creature\Creatures-4  - there, all creatures are in their own folders and everything related to them is collected there
the only thing I don't like is that sound files are lying next to the animations, which get in the way
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okay, let's say you really need to find creature animations in data.pak

for example because the Remake mod replaced gargoyles, or let's say the author is a fool - for all druids he uses one set of animations of the unupgraded druid, even though the elder druid has one unique one

let's start with gargoyles 
in data.pak we go into \Characters\Creatures - there are faction folders there (yes, some of these folders have many, for example the human alt grade lives separately) 
we need gargoyles
EVERYTHING BELOW APPLIES TO ORIGINAL GAME CREATURES WITH RARE EXCEPTIONS
we go into Academy - there's a file StoneGargoyle.(Character) there, but there are no animations... a normal person will tell you that in Character you can find the path to the animation set, so you need to open it, blah-blah-blah
we're not suckers - we ignore the file

we know that the animset is in \_(AnimSet)\Creatures\Academy (there are folders for other factions too) - gargoyle files are there, we're lucky
but for example the footman doesn't have all animations there - his animations are in _(BasicSkelAnim)\Creatures\Haven\Swordsman

AND NOW LET'S TALK ABOUT DWARVES, ORCS AND ALTERNATIVE GRADES
the Nival folks gained experience and started putting animations and the model into one folder

let's say we need a dwarf berserker, that's the \Characters\Creatures\Dwarves folder, the T4_Dwarf folder, the berserker's animations are called Berserker-arena-{animation name}, and the brawler's are Brawler-arena-{animation name}, with orcs it's simpler, their units have a,b,c markings, and almost always it's unupgraded, grade and alt-grade, only the shaman b and c seem to be mixed up

ALTERNATIVE GRADES
they have a separate folder inside the folder with the main units (but not the red Haven, Haven is in Characters\Creatures\Renegades)

elves for example are in \Characters\Creatures\Rampart\AlternativeUpgrades, but here's the catch, elves are also in the Preserve folder, there's also an AlternativeUpgrade folder there, but there are junk files there

also should write what each animation is responsible for
idle00 - the unit is standing
stir00 - this is "warming up", the footman may look around, the skeleton adjusts its head, the orc stomps its foot....
specability - an ability, sometimes there's a second animation for the ability specability2, this is for example the griffin's takeoff and strike from the skies
move - running... note, the unit is NOT RUNNING IN PLACE, it runs forward
cast - spellcasting
rangeattack - a shot
hit - taking damage
happy - joy
attack00 and attack01 are attacks, I think the minotaur also has attack02, but it's not used
death - death BUT some creatures don't have death, they have a separate model and death animation for it, these are golems, skeletons of all kinds and treants from the beta version

there are also animations for cutscenes and special hero animations