It’s very difficult to understand what question(s) you are asking…
If you are asking the question: how do I animate in blender? (without using someone else’s mixamo animation strips)
Much depends on the rig (and character) you have. But the basic sequence of events is:
- Use Timeline to select the frame number where you want a specific pose.
- Pose the character (change the transforms of different bones in the rig).
- For each bone whose transform you have modified on this frame, select the bone(s) and press I (the i-key) to Insert-Keyframe.
- return to step #1 and choose the next frame, and repeat the process.
Blender automatically interpolates between keyframe poses, so you don’t need a keyframe on every single frame. Typically you start with the extreme points of motion, and see what that looks like. If the midpoint is not where you would like, you add another keyframe between the extrema to correct the interpolation.
The Graph Editor will show you curves of how the values are being interpolated. You can modify these curves, the interpolation mode. If the motion is correct in form, but too fast/slow, you can scale the keyframes to happen slower or faster.
The NLA (Non-Linear-Animation) Editor lets you stack and re-use different animation strips. For instance, you can have one strip that is just a walk-cycle, and another that is just a hand-wave. The NLA-Editor lets you stack these, adjust their relative start times, add repeats, adjust each strips speed.
As for using Tools, it’s good to have extra “anchor” bones in the rig. Extra objects (that are not part of the character) get a Child_Of constraint. Constraints have an “influence” parameter (0…1 that turns the constraint off…on). These can be animated (go to the frame (time) in question, set the influence, hover mouse over influence field and press i-key to insert keyframe. To pick up an object and frame N, you need to go to frame N-1, ensure influence=0, i-key to add keyframe, then go to frame N, influence=1, i-key to add keyframe.
In this video: Amsterdam Monkeys and the Raiders of the Default Cube , the monkey handles several different objects. The hat is kept on the head using a Child_Of constraint targeting a bone called “AnchorHat”. The AnchorHat bone is a child of the head, so it follows the head around, but you need the AnchorHat bone to be “floating” (not directly attached to the Head bone), so that you can adjust and animate the position of the Hat on the Head by animating the AnchorHat bone.
There is a floating bone in each hand (anchors) called Grip.L and Grip.R. To pick up an object, you need the Child_Of constraint on the object to be picked up, targetting the Armature and the bone Grip.R. Animate the constraint influence to pick up the object. Animate the bone Grip.R to adjust the object relative to the hand. Note that the Object origin is what becomes pegged to the bone Grip.R … thus it’s a good idea to have the origin of an object like a hammer be located at the point in the handle where one normally grabs a hammer. Angles matter too, but you can adjust that by animating the bone Grip.R.
Once your character is successfully holding a hammer, then you need to animate the character to perform the tool-usage. For pounding a nail, start with 2 keyframes: 1 the hand+hammer raised, and 2 the hand lowered, and the hammer head in contact with the nail. Each subsequent hammer blow, you need to lower the nail more, and lower the bottom point of the hammer-swing to keep contacting the nail.
Once you master these basic techniques, the biggest question is always, “which frame number do I need to pick to get motion that looks realistic?” You can always scale timings later, but the book “Animator’s Survival Kit” has a wealth of information on typical motions.
- Choose time (frame number)
- Pose Rig
- Add keyframes
- Play & Watch
- Adjust by changing or adding more keyframes, modifying curves in Graph-Editor…
Repeat this loop ad nauseum… this is Animation.
