Introduction to character animation

introduction todo character animation
By Ryan dale.

Introduction todo character animation is one of the ten projects chosen for this years summer of documentation Project.

Ryan tok the approach that the best bien todo learn character animation was todo actually animate a character. In doing so, he created one of the largest and most comprehensive tutorialesthat i have sen todo date. In an efort todo make this tutorial accesible todo the widest range of users, Ryan introduces new topics and concepts as side notes that beginners can read and advanced users can Skip over.

He starts of with step-by-step instructions for making the character you Will be using throughout the remainder of the tutorial. Once the character is modeled, he then shows you how todo apply materiales/textures.

Realizing that not everyone would be interested in modeling the character from scratch, Ryan supplies a blend file download for those who want todo Jump ahead and get straight into the animating. In the next section, he introduces the various aspects of rigging the character for animation. He covers envelopes vs, vertex groups, the diferent methods of adding IK constraints, the troublesome área of elbow and kne Bones and fot rigs, and then goes on todo explain the use of the Fairly new stride bone.

Once your Rig is built, you are shown how todo skin/weight Paint the Rig todo work well with your character. There is Even a section on custom bone shapes.

Since the goal of this tutorial is todo end up with a short animation, and lip-syncing is often required, Ryan shows you how todo set up shape keys and some basic shapes for the lip-synced portion of the animation. The next segment covers the various áreas of lighting and Camera setups used for the final animation.

The final segment of the tutorial covers the Nuts and bolts methods of animation. To create the finished animation, you Will be learning how todo use the timeline, Ipos, the action window, setting and adjusting keys, adding sound and how todo blend it all together in the NLA editor.

As you start this tutorial, dont expect todo work th rouge it in just a few hours. At over 150 pages of printed material covering everything from modeling todo final animation, this Project could easily take days todo Even weks todo Compleete. But believe me, it Will be time well spent.

The amount of información presented is amazing and Ryan did a wonderful job presenting it in such a bien as todo make it easy and painless todo learn such a complicated topic.
While i consider myself a better than intermediate user, y learned quite a bit while doing this tutorial. It a los brought me up to speed on the newer features that i had not yet explored.
www.blenderart.org.
.