AnimGroups
AnimGroups are families of animations used by the engine to execute attacks, movements, spell casting, and other vital game functions. Every animation in Oblivion must fall under either one of the below listed AnimGroups or be classed as a SpecialIdle. (More information about SpecialIdles can be found under the Idle Animations menu.) Animations contain information about when an attack or spell hits its target, how far forward an actor should move when running, when sound effects (like footsteps or growls) should be played, etc.
Animations are played on actors when certain events occur in the engine. For example, when a hostile actor is alerted to the player's presence, the engine will call the actor's Equip animation. The particular animation that is played depends on the actor's equipped weapon and the availability of an appropriate Equip animation. If the actor does not have an equip animation, then no animation will be played and a weapon will not be equipped. The Equip AnimGroup contains all of the animations for one and two-handed weapons, staffs, hand-to-hand attacks, etc.
The AnimGroup is set in NifSkope as the value of the 0 NiControllerSequence and must be one of the valid AnimGroups listed in the chart below. SpecialIdles must be identified as SpecialIdle_*, where * is the name of the animation, and must be located in a sub-folder of the main creature/character folder named idleanims.
AnimGroups can be played on actors and creatures as well as some objects by using the PlayGroup function. Note that some combat animations can only be played while the actor is in an "alerted" state (has a weapon drawn; see SetAlert).
AnimGroups are closely related to Combat Style and appear to be hardcoded (ie. you cannot add new animgroups).
Note: "DynamicIdle" tells the game how to interact with statics. For instance, you would use a dynamic idle to tell an npc how to sit down on a chair. Then you could use a normal idle or special idle once on the chair. The dynamic idle gets the npc from some other position, near the chair, to sitting.
| AttackBackPower | BlockIdle | Equip | Recoil |
| AttackBow | CastSelf | FastBackward | Right |
| AttackForwardPower | CastSelfAlt | FastForward | Stagger |
| AttackLeft | CastTarget | FastLeft | TorchIdle |
| AttackLeftPower | CastTargetAlt | FastRight | TurnLeft |
| AttackPower | CastTouch | Forward | TurnRight |
| AttackRight | CastTouchAlt | Idle | Unequip |
| AttackRightPower | DodgeBack | JumpLand | DynamicIdle |
| Backward | DodgeForward | JumpLoop | SpecialIdle |
| BlockAttack | DodgeLeft | JumpStart | Death |
| BlockHit | DodgeRight | Left |