I’m just starting to learn character animation, and I’m a bit confused. In Essential Blender the armature is made the parent of the mesh. In other references this does not seem to be the case. So, how necessary is it to make the armature parent of the mesh, what are the alternatives, and why would you choose one over the other?
Anyone…?
There’s parenting to individual bones, parenting to an armature, and using an armature Modifier.
Parenting to an individual bone allows you to pose rigid objects together, like skeletal bones, without bending the objects themselves.
Parenting to an armature allows you to set up a rig easily, especially with the new “bone heat” option.
Using an armature modifier explicitly allows you to do kinky crazy stuff with setup – integrating a cage mesh, a lattice, etc. and decide how much influence one has over the other – in short, it can give you more control.
My view is just use parenting until you find you need more advanced control. It’s easier.
Thanks, that gives me a bit of perspective on the options. Appreciated.