Animating Characters

Skeletons provide an intuitive way to pose and animate your model. A well-constructed skeleton can be used for a wide variety of poses and actions, in much the same way as the all-purpose skeletons in our bodies can.

How parts of the skeleton move relative to each other is determined by the way your skeleton hierarchy is built, whether and how objects are constrained to each other, and if you have created any expressions to govern their motion.

 

Topics

About Forward and Inverse Kinematics

Copying Animation between Characters

Animating with Forward Kinematics

Animating with Inverse Kinematics

Blending Between FK and IK Animation

Choosing How an IK Chain Reaches Its Goal

Setting and Blending the Effector’s Orientation

Changing the Joint’s Preferred Angle

Constraining the Chain’s Up Vector (Direction)

Constraining the Preferred Axis of Rotation

Rolling an IK Bone

Changing the Bones’ Order of Rotation

Animating Pivots for Characters

Setting Restrictions on Movement

Creating Subchains for Independent Movement

Creating Neutral Poses for Skeletons

Storing a Skeleton Pose in an Action Source

Using the Animation Mixer for Character Animation



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