OK, I have successfully modelled, rigged, and skinned a character in Blender3D. However, when ever I go to move a bone, the ball at one end moves, or the whole bone itself moves. I selected “Automatic IK” with all the bones selected (a). And was hoping that that would make them act as joints. But to no avail. I was wondering what I did wrong?
Thanks!
Souns like you’re trying to animate in editmode. Ctrl-tab will put you in posemode, which is where you want to be. You can also find the modes in the 3d-view header.
No – it still does it in Pose mode. And I have Automatic IK selected too. Any help would be appreciated. 
It just bugs me seeing bones not acting like the joints of a human body. 
Maybe post your .blend? Or a screenshot. I don’t really know what you’re after =) What do you mean with “make them act as joints”?
Auto IK is not a per bone setting. It works on the selected bone in a chain if I understand it correctly (as a temporary IK solver, just so that you can position bones in an IK manner even though they work in FK mode) - never really used it so I’m not completely sure.
You also need to connect the bones that should stick together with the little connect button in editmode, and create parenting relationships.
-Mats
How do I connect the bones in Editmode? Maybe that’d help. Also I guess I should Parent them. Maybe tell me briefly how, and than I could just experiment and learn it as I go. I really wanted to get a working model done this weekend. Well, I have it walking… but it’s not the best Animation work I’ve ever done… LOL, but I am still a newbie… Though I understand animation like Pie… so.
EDIT:
Found more tutorials in the Wiki.
I found out how to get the affect I wanted. Needed to extrude the armature out into other armatures… or rather, bones.
Thanks, anyhow!