Props on animations

How Prop Attach works

Prop Attach puts props on a ped animation you already made: a cup in the hand, a phone at the ear, a bag on the back. In GTA V a carried prop is not part of the animation. It is an object attached to a bone, and the bone carries it along. Rockstar's own carry animations work the same way.

So Prop Attach keeps the clip of your animation exactly as it is and writes a new script around it. The script spawns each prop, attaches it to its bone at the offset you set, and plays the animation. The preview hangs the prop on the same named bone of the GTA skeleton that the script uses.

Opening Prop Attach

Open a finished animation in Animations. Under the downloads sits the card Add a prop to this animation with the price. It shows for every finished animation with a 3D preview, from AI Animations and from the Animation Builder.

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1. 11. Add a prop to this animation: opens the placing studio

Prop Attach opens with one slot already filled: a suitcase in the right hand, as a starting point. The ped plays the animation in a loop on the left, and the settings of the selected slot are on the right.

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1. 11. CS Paper Cup: the prop and its bone
2. 22. + Add another prop: up to 4 props

Each slot is one prop on one bone. + Add another prop adds a slot, up to 4; the × on a slot removes it.

Picking a prop

Under Model you pick from the 2,952 GTA props of the catalogue. Without a search, Handheld shows only props up to 1.2 m from the groups clutter, food and drink, electronics, bar and shop, and leisure and gym. All 2952 shows everything, and the search always covers all props, by name or model name.

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1. 11. Search all 2952 props: by name or model id
2. 22. Handheld: without a search: only small props you can carry

The tile you click becomes the prop of the selected slot at once, in the ped's hand.

Choosing the bone

Under Attach to are six quick bones:

• Right hand

  Bone:SKEL_R_Hand
  Good for:Bigger things held by the handle: a suitcase, a bag, a toolbox.

• Left hand

  Bone:SKEL_L_Hand
  Good for:The same in the left hand.

• Grip R

  Bone:PH_R_Hand
  Good for:Things held in the fingers: a cup, a phone, a pen. It is the point GTA uses for held objects.

• Grip L

  Bone:PH_L_Hand
  Good for:The same in the left hand.

• Back

  Bone:SKEL_Spine3
  Good for:A backpack or a guitar on the back.

• Head

  Bone:SKEL_Head
  Good for:A hat, a helmet or glasses.

The button below them, All 113 bones for the moonwalk, opens a searchable list of every bone of the skeleton, read from the animation itself: a forearm, a thigh, a foot. The number next to each bone is its tag.

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1. 11. Grip R: the hand’s own prop point
2. 22. All bones: every bone of the skeleton, searchable

Placing the prop

Under Placement you move the prop away from the bone. The values are relative to the bone, so they move with it through the whole animation.

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1. 11. Grip, Carry low, Hold up, Shoulder: starting points
2. 22. X, Y, Z: offset from the bone in metres
3. 33. RX, RY, RZ: rotation in degrees

• Grip

  Position X, Y, Z (m):0.1, 0.02, 0
  Rotation X, Y, Z (°):0, 0, 0

• Carry low

  Position X, Y, Z (m):0.35, 0, 0
  Rotation X, Y, Z (°):0, 58, 0

• Hold up

  Position X, Y, Z (m):0.12, 0.05, 0.08
  Rotation X, Y, Z (°):0, 0, 90

• Shoulder

  Position X, Y, Z (m):0.05, 0.18, 0.1
  Rotation X, Y, Z (°):25, 0, 0

• X, Y, Z move the prop up to 1 m from the bone, in steps of 5 mm.
• RX, RY, RZ turn it by up to 180 degrees each way.
• Reset placement puts it back on the bone at zero. For a cup on Grip R, zero is a good start.

The axes belong to the bone, not to the world, so which slider moves the prop forward depends on the bone. Move one slider a little and watch the preview.

Checking the whole clip

A prop that looks right in one pose can sink into the body in another. Let the animation run, or drag the scrubber under the preview through the whole clip.

Drag in the preview to turn around the ped and scroll to zoom, so you can see the hand from the front.

When a prop cuts into the body, a yellow note says which prop and when, and a yellow mark sits at that moment on the scrubber. Nudge the prop a few centimetres and check again.

The check is rough: it measures how close the centre of each prop comes to the torso and the thighs. It finds a prop stuck in the body, but not a large prop that only touches it, so still look at the whole clip yourself.

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1. 11. clips through the body: which prop, and when
2. 22. Mark on the scrubber: the same moment on the timeline

Your own prop model

Under Ship a different model you can type the model name of a prop you stream yourself, such as a branded cup. The resource then spawns your model with the placement you set.

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1. 11. Use your own prop instead: the model name of a prop you stream yourself
2. 22. ships as: the model name that goes into the resource

• There is no preview of your model. Place a GTA prop of a similar size first, then type your model name.
• Model names are 2 to 64 letters, digits and underscores.
• Your model must already be on the server. If it is missing, the animation still plays and the server console names the model.

Building the resource

The button at the top right shows the price: Build for 500 credits. Press it and the page moves to the new job; ours was done in a few seconds.

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1. 11. 1 prop
2. 22. Build for 500 credits: builds the new resource

• The build makes one resource for each version of the animation, here static and locomotion, which are the in-place and the walking version. Both carry the same props.
• At the moment only the in-place version can be downloaded from the job page; see Prop Attach resources.
• The original animation stays as it is, with its own downloads.
• A new placement is a new build at 500 credits. Prop Attach does not keep a draft, so note your values if you want to reuse them.