How do I make animation??

Hello all,

I have tried PaceMaker, ChracterFX, fragMotion, trueSpace, Carrara and the free AnimB3D for character animation.

I don't mean to criticize the respective authors, but so far, all of these apps have failed to produce an animated mesh I can use. Be it because of non-intuitive interfaces, lack of documentation, or both.

I'm desperate. I cannot move forward with my project if I can't do animation. What do other people on these forums use? Has anyone of you been able to make use of one of these apps? What other alternatives are there? Thanks for any info you can provide.

Milkshape3D
Ultimate Unwrap (not for animation but supports B3D format)

I use this:
http://www.sxcreations.com/lr3d/lightray3d.php
Remember: everything its a personal matter...

Character Animation isn't so easy. Esp. since today "real" companies are using Motion capturing, so their animation is looking extremly natural (you even recognize certain soccer players from the way they walk!)

In the tutorials section theres a walk cycle animation tutorial for 3d studio max. You may use the info with other tools too.

Basics:

for the B3D format you first need to create a skelleton, then assign all vertices to some joint of the skelleton. You have to do this carefully. I think this is the hardest part. EG: all vertices of the lower arm should be assigned to the ellbow joint of the skelleton. If this is once done, you can animate the skelleton easily, following the tutorials about human anatomy and motion. you may also use videos of walking people and watch them frame by frame.

If for example a vertex of the upper arm is assigned to the chest joint, then this will look bugous, as if there was some molten cheese on the chars arm.

You need however to search for "npc animation tutorial" or something similar on google etc.

Here's how to do animation:



It's pretty animated, so, Voila!

SkyCube,

On the Pacemaker website there are simple to use video tutorials which go through the basics.

It has been a while since I use dit but I found Pacemaker a much better tool than anything else to concentrate on a single character for animation, unless you have something like 3DS Max or Maya or Lightwave.

Try the Pacemaker website again and look for the videos, they are worth viewing a few times.

IPete2.