Animations are coded into models (although a model may reference another model for the animations to be copied from).

Animations are used in the engine to time actions (eg casting a spell) as well as even make situational bonuses apply (eg; Knockdown is "they're in the knock down animation state" - the effect just plays the animation for a set duration).

This page is currently written just to list "these are animation names and durations" not about creating custom ones - that will hopefully follow!

Tutorials

A reasonably old tutorial on creature animations that still mainly applies today is available here: http://www.neverwinternights.info/cc_creatureanimation.htm

Full (Humanoid) versus Limited (Creature)

Most humanoid sized creatures use a full animation set - ie they can sit down, or whatever else. The super model for this is "a_ba" (which can also be edited to affect all things referencing it).

Many monster creatures use a limited animation set. These are usually more model-specific, eg; wolves would be very different to ogres.

The types of animation allowed are set by the appearance.2da line:

Animation Lists

The animations have a model animation name, and a length. Length is in frames based on 60 FPS.

Full Animation List

a_ba Model

a_ba_casts Model

a_ba_med_weap Model

a_ba_med_weap Model

a_ba_med_weap Model

Partial Animation List

These are used by the non-humanoid based models.

Ambient and non-combat Animations

Used when PlayAnimation is played and for certain actions in the game.

Many are also used in Conversations - a hardcoded list according to the GFF documentation, although since the list there doesn't correspond to the nwscript there may be more options? (presumably these are engine IDs?). Putting your own in via. a GFF editor may trigger some interesting results. The default conversation editor only shows these options however as per above menus. There is nothing special that PlayAnimation cannot do, so you can also use the animations from that.

The fact some say "overlay" probably means the head continues to bob as if talking when the animation is played. Not sure if PlayAnimation also does this or if you put in other values into this field in the GFF.

• 0 = default, talk normal
• 28 = taunt
• 29 = greeting
• 30 = listen
• 33 = worship
• 34 = overlay salute
• 35 = bow
• 37 = steal
• 38 = talk normal
• 39 = talk pleading
• 40 = talk forceful
• 41 = talk laugh
• 44 = victory fighter (note: interestingly not named 1/2/3...)
• 45 = victory mage
• 46 = victory thief
• 48 = look far
• 70 = overlay drink
• 71 = overlay read
• 88 = play no animation - A special one presumably stops talking (the 0 option or option 38)

Conjuration and Casting Animations

Note that spells cast from items come with their own pre-set animations. These appear to be hardcoded to different baseitems.2da lines.

Conjuration Animations

Conjuration animations fire while a spell is being cast (attacks of opportunity and concentration checks happen during this time).

For some feats and many monster abilities this is omitted or cut drastically short and leaps immediately into the CastAnim. Most spells use a default 1500 for this (1.5 seconds).

Casting Animations

Casting animations fire once the spell has gone off and throw a projectile / look cool.

They again have a CastTime which is usually 1000 (1 second) but several have higher (eg; Dragon Breath is 3000!).

Animation Name	Animation Duration	Animation Availability	spells.2da CastAnim reference name	Example Picture	Description / Notes
			area		Hands up but spread wide. Example: Bless, Cloudkill
			attack		Attack animation used. Appears to be a single version of the attack animation based on the weapon used (or fists, if nothing equipped). EG: a great axe does a "thrust" animation. Bows, of course, use a fire animation, as to be expected since it was used primarily for the Arcane Archer. Does work with all animation master types but of course defaults to the "first" attack. If no attack animations then no animation will play. Need to tie up exactly what "default" animation is used for each weapon type - is it "stab" attack for each? Obviously bows will fire a shot - this was intended for Arcane Archer arrow attacks. As with the "creature" one there is no "ConjAnim" or "ConjTime" set so it immediately does this, although the projectile delays the ImpactScript. Example: Arcane Archer abilities.
			out		Hands outstretched. Commonly used for cone attacks. Example: Burning Hands, Sleep.
			self		Hands together on chest. Example: Aid, Magic Weapon.
			touch		Left hand outstretched. Example: Aid, Harm
			up		Hands up and together. Example: Call Lightning
			creature		Mind Flayers use this as a special attack so only their model likely has it. Note there is no ConjAnim for this "spell", the conjuration time is also blanked out so it should fire this animation immediately (and the ImpactScript near immediately). Could be used as a new animation on other creatures who want to do something similarly (ie a custom monster ability).

Tile Animations

VFX Animations

Placeable Animations

Animations just for placeables. Animation times are examples there is no set limits.

Note if there are inventories some of the animations are disabled; on, off,  on2off, off2on, default  (used when set to static). 

Note: Setting a placeable containing a skinmesh or animmesh to static will lead to a crash. There is a flag in the placeables.2da which prevents the user from setting it to static. Example: Ballista model from patch 1.69 (its bowstring uses a skinmesh).

Animations for Doors

Animations just for door objects.