How to Get Ahead in Character Animation

[2018-07-11] Please note that this post is from 2002 and should be treated as historical – many links will be broken, or will no longer apply to recent versions of Blender

Here is a list of web resources that will
help the aspiring cg enthusiast get a
head start in character animation:

Blender’s Armatures:

http://www.ualberta.ca/~cwant/blender/char_doc/character_animation.php.html
https://blenderartists.org/tutorials.php?id=6
http://mmaigrot.free.fr/didac-blender/ikas/ikas-eng/ik-intro.html
http://blenderchar.weirdhat.com/handtute/
http://blenderchar.weirdhat.com/foottute/

RVK’s/Morph Targets/Lip Sync tools:

http://bec.physics.udel.edu/blender/relkey/rel_key.html
http://blenderchar.weirdhat.com/lipsynctute/
http://www.comet-cartoons.com/toons/3ddocs/lipsync/lipsync.html [NON BLENDER]

Eyes:

http://blenderchar.weirdhat.com/eyetute/
http://blenderchar.weirdhat.com/latticetute1/
http://www.comet-cartoons.com/toons/3ddocs/eyerigging/ [NON BLENDER]

General CG Character Animation:

http://www.comet-cartoons.com/toons/3ddocs/charanim/
http://www.cg-char.com/faq.html
http://www.keithlango.com/popThru/popThru.html [MUST READ!]
http://www.animfound.com/tips/IKvsFK/ikvsfk.html
http://www.animfound.com/tips/IKvsFK2/ikvsfk2_1.html
http://www.keithlango.com

Other Interesting Sites:

http://www.cg-char.com/
http://www.10secondclub.org/
http://www.animationmeat.com/downloads/downloads.html
http://www.freetoon.com/prestonblair/intro/frame.html

Cool Books:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0786860707
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0571202284
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735700443
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0823002292

Please let me know if I’ve missed anything!

Chris

1 Like

WOW, thanx a lot for these 2 sticky posts, they are a real help and i’m sure will help and encourage others, thanx =)

Why did I never look at this post before? Duh!

Er… Thanks man :smiley:

i have been looking for something like this.

thanx a lot.

blend on…

This is a nice one about walkcycles:

http://www.idleworm.com/how/anm/02w/walk1.shtml

Another about a bouncing ball:

http://www.idleworm.com/how/anm/01b/bball.shtml

Seeya

malefico

Here’s an excellent list of resources:
Carlos Baena Animation Material

While I’m not sure how many python programmers show up here check out the BlODEd thread in the python area for an interesting look at physics animations.

currently there is no user friendly way to use it but we’re working on it.

MacBlender

www.keithlango.com

http://www.mesmer.com/public/filebankreader.php?in=306

some techniques outlined here (that’s a XSI book) are also transferrable to blender, e.g animating/deforming via spline, general character sets etc.

just swap Y and Z.

Nice links. Looking at the cvs, the current animation refactoring is going to make animating in Blender a lot more easier and powerful.

Sounds like Blender is fast overtaking the the commercial 3D packages in features etc. I love that :stuck_out_tongue: :stuck_out_tongue:

I hope to write my experice thus far working on The Crosswalk movie. Maybe it will help or inspire others to follow my foot steps.

hey check this thread. I uploaded a new rig that any animators should take a look at.

https://blenderartists.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=57478

Hee hee. I’m taking animation classes from Tony White, the guy who wrote that last book, “The Animator’s Workbook”. Anyway…

Muybridge’s books are invaluable for animation reference:

The Human Figure in Motion
Animals in Motion

Or the complete three-volume set of his work:
Muybridge’s Complete Human and Animal Locomotion: New Volume 1 (Reprint of original volumes 1-4)
Muybridge’s Complete Human and Animal Locomotion: New Volume 2 (Reprint of original volumes 5-8)
Muybridge’s Complete Human and Animal Locomotion: New Volume 3 (Reprint of original volumes 9-11)

They’re old (late 1800’s/early 1900’s) but they’re still 100% relevant and useful.

http://www.comet-cartoons.com/toons/3ddocs/charanim/ was 404

This site gives a break down of martial arts moves I found it helpful i hope you will to.

Since applegrew seemed to have trouble, the link to all of comet-cartoons’ tutorials is here.

I’ve also found a really great list of animation tutorials and resources:
http://www.carlosbaena.com/anim_material.html

Edit: Another site: http://www.navone.org/HTML/Links_3D.htm

Go to the Blender wiki under the blender summer of documentation there is a new animation tutorial that will be replacing gus:eek:

Here is the link:
http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/BSoD/Introduction_to_Character_Animation

IT helped me a lot.:smiley:

http://www.10secondclub.org/ does not work; neither does http://www.keithlango.com/popThru/popThru.html.

Yep! Like the title says, so head over http://www.keithlango.com/wordpress/?page_id=281

About the other tutorials not working, his website has been redisgned since. So maybe the other tutorials are somewhere else on his website.

I’ve downloaded/ payed for one of his tutorials. I must say if you have the cash to spare and you are serious about animating, then you SHOULD subscribe to his VTS (or buy individual chapters). Excellent tutorials!