Blender Animation Bylaws

[JA-forreal]

I hope to start a thread on a detailed discussion all of the known methods on proper usage of the Blender animation system. Hopefully we will add our questions, solutions, web links, opinions, experiences and provide answers to the topics covered in this thread.

Topics on the basic principals of Blender animation setups:

-Character animation rigging conventions for building fail-safe animation rigs.

-Character animation rig control methods. Putting the IQ in IK control.

-The basics of building a working RVK system.

-Basics of Character Model topology. Modeling with realistic deformation control in mind.

-Basic Blender Weight painting methods 101.

-Basics of working with and animating multiple rigged characters in Blender.

-NLA basics. Working methods for building a NLA friendly rig. Basics of working with NLA actions.

-Building mechanical animation systems in Blender. Animating a robotic arm, etc.

-Building working secondary animation structures. Building muscle systems, rotating tires on a moving vehicle, animating a propeller driven vehicle, etc.

-Additional animation principals. Particle animation principals, Metaball animation, animating water ripples, etc.

- And whatever we feel free to add to this knowledge base.

[Katt]

I found OTO's tutorial very hepful for weight painting:
http://otothecleaner.free.fr/tutoria...tellatoon.html

As far as animation is concerned though, (i've done lots of stills, and now I'm trying the movie thing) Animating the simple stuff is easy...a box...a gingerbread man...a waving arm, etc... but a 10 billion vertice character, it never moves all together. ANd somebody oughta find a good tut for facial expressions... :-?

[OTO]

Hello Katt and the others

Thank you for your kind comments about my tut.
Just want to give the correct link:

http://otothecleaner.free.fr/tutoria...ellaToon1.html
Bye

[JA-forreal]

Originally Posted by OTO Hello Katt and the others Thank you for your kind comments about my tut. Just want to give the correct link: http://otothecleaner.free.fr/tutoria...ellaToon1.html Bye

Thanks OTO! As always, you provide detailed tutorials that put the right emphasis on the most necessary points of a topic. The information that you provide on weight painting for deformation has some of the best techniques that I have seen for Blender rigging.

Your tutorial will help to get a Blender animator off on "the right foot set up for rigging" and more. Thanks for your addition to this thread.

[JA-forreal]

Originally Posted by Katt I found OTO's tutorial very hepful for weight painting: http://otothecleaner.free.fr/tutoria...tellatoon.html

Thanks for this link to one of the best of our many talented Blender tutorial writers overviews of the character animation setup. This really give us a good start off on the topic of-

-Character animation rigging conventions for building fail-safe animation rigs.

and

-Basic Blender Weight painting methods 101.

[beau]

I'm trying this tutorial for the Amature/Bones/Posing stuff and hit a problem.

Similar to the problem I hit in the actual documentation.

When I'm parenting the Arm armature to the mesh, I select "Armature", and then "Create from the closest Bones".

The arm works, but the fingers are not parented to the arm - mesh or bones. I tried parenting the finger bones to the hand bone, but they still do not move when the arm is moved.

What did I miss?

Blender 2.31, btw.

Thanks.

[Katt]

[color=blue]I gotta admit, that one has stumped me too... somebody help?!?!?!? WHen i don't create the bones together initially, i can't seem to attach them.[/color]

[broken]

All the bones need to be part of the one Armature, in order to deform a mesh. To join multiple armature objects into one, select them in object mode and do Object > Join Objects (Ctrl J).

[beau]

Thanks for the reply Broken.

Um. When I'm in Object mode, the fingers and arm are already a single object, so I can't join them.

Was I supposed to create the fingers as separate armatures? The tutorials didn't indicate this, they both seem to indicate that I'm sposed to continue building the bones within that first armature.

So confused.

[Katt]

You misunderstand. The bones are all of the same armature, but they don't move each other, unless i create them of the same chain and then if i end the chain, IDK how to attach bones so that they move each other after that. :|

[OTO]

Hello

are you talkink about my Stella tutorial??
Anyway to link bones, select your armature, enter Edit mode,
Tab key, select all, A key, and in the Edit window, F9,
now you've grey squares with the bones names.
Just choose the bones you want to link in the grey square
with the white square inside (press the Draw Names buttom
to help you).
A doted line will appear ( if bones are a bit far)
Is this clear??
Bye

[theeth]

To parent bones to one another, select them in Edit mode and change their Parent property.


In the Editing window.

Martin

[Katt]

Originally Posted by OTO Hello Are you talking about my Stella tutorial?

The tut was great, the thing is there was one page in the middle i couldn't open b/c my comp has issues, i think it was page 4. Anyways, that was the only thing that was really buggin' me, but i got it now, thanx.

[beau]

Augh.

I keep flipping between tutorials, trying to find one that will apply to 2.31, or, either that or, is clear enough to someone who's just learning...

In the documentation tutorial, ("Rigging a Hand and Foot" http://download.blender.org/document...tml/x5638.html ) It talks about IK solvers.

I create an extra bone projecting away from the HAND bone, called IK_arm.R. There's no mention of this bone again until I'm setting the IK solver for the wrist.

No mention of joining, parenting, mating, adopting, cleaning or purging.

So, when I try to get up on this IK solver thing, the arm swings around 180 degrees. Yes, I then input the BO field, expecting it to swing back around, but nope. Nothing.

So. Should the IK_arm.R bone be parented to something?

[beau]

ANSWER: absent in the documentation.

When setting up a constraint, the tutorial says to type in "Armature" into the OB field. Actually, no, you type in the NAME of the ARMATURE you want to control with this IK Solver.

Clarity is a great thing. Thanks OTO for your tutorial.

[Katt]

yessss, great tutorial..... must worship OTO....his greatness is just too great.... just kidding. But the tut did rock...Dude, i'm starting to become *gasp* blenderized!!!!!

[JA-forreal]

Well, I am putting up my offering to help aid you in the area of:

-Character animation rigging conventions for building fail-safe animation rigs.

Here is my "Base Model" Test Rig:

http://www.solarflarestudios.com/for...oad.php?id=303

Next, I will attempt to write a little essay to explain how I chose my method of preparing this rig and why. Then I can hopefullly add some of my own info in the area of:

-Character animation rig control methods. Putting the IQ in IK control.

Until then, Blend on!

[bernstein]

This might be the place to ask:
CAN ACTIONS BE DELETED?

I built an armature, i go into posemode, rotate, grab and scale the thing.
On my way i press "i" to produce keyframes.
I can playback the resulting animation.

In the ipo-window i get an action-ipo, in the pose-window i get my keys for the bones i moved.
In the NLA-window i can turn the actions into action-strips. (These CAN be deleted.)

But where do i delete actions?

Cheers!
neubernstein

You can delete anything in Blender: objects, meshes, materials etc.
So how about actions?

[JA-forreal]

Yes you can. Check the Blender.org Docs on the subject for a more detailed explanation.

[bernstein]

:|
Hello JA,
what did your answer mean? "Read the f... manual." ? "Snappy answers to stupid questions." ? - Not so polite... But maybe you were just tired.

Once again: When I create actions, I can CLEAR the keys that they have inside.
BUT: When I go to the Action window to create a new action, there are STILL the names of my formerly created actions in the selection that you get, when you hit the little white dot in front of the actions name.

(Thinking obout it, I just tried it out with materials, and its the same: When you create new materials, the list in the window header gets longer and longer and you cannot delete the names there.)

If you know an anwer, how to tidy up my files a bit, let me know.

It is one of my experiences with software, that you can evolve some special skills with parts of a program, and still there are white spots on the landscape in other parts.
Photoshop was something like that to me for a long time. With Blender, it is the same story.

Believe it, I am studying the online manual and the printed blender books I got, a lot. When I post something here, it is a question that I could not solve by myself, reading the manual.

This forum is a place to discuss the future of blender, blenders abilities in comparison to Maya etc. etc.
But it should also be the place to ask simple questions - hoping to find some people who had the same problem some time ago and who are willing to give a helping hand. Thank you.

neubernstein