Version 9 (modified by Zaggy1024, 11 years ago) ( diff )

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Basic Animation Exporting

3D Animation

http://i.imgur.com/cI4zu.png

  • STEP 2 Press space and type in "Armature" in the search box that comes up, and press enter. (This will activate the first option that Blender finds)

http://i.imgur.com/8NEl9.png

  • STEP 3 Find Properties panel. If you can't find it, then set one of your panels (other than the 3D View) to the Properties panel.

http://i.imgur.com/DWqrv.png

  • STEP 4 Select "Object Data" in the tab bar on the Properties panel.

http://i.imgur.com/FOyUC.png

  • STEP 4 Check X-Ray in the "Display" box. This will allow you to see the bones through the mesh so you can manipulate the bones even when the bones are enveloped by the mesh they deform.

http://i.imgur.com/w7xVK.png http://i.imgur.com/b2HnP.png

  • STEP 5 Select the mesh and then the armature in that order, and press Ctrl+P. Blender will give you 6 options of how the mesh should interact with the rig. Rigs for 0 A.D. should use vertex groups (which allow you to select exactly which vertices move with which bones) so the deformations can be made to look as natural as possible. (Bone envelopes, which are basically automatic groups, often will make the deformation look totally wrong.)

http://i.imgur.com/2kcr8.png

  • STEP 6 Select the mesh and go into edit mode using the menu on the left side of the bar along the bottom of the 3D View, or by pressing Tab.

http://i.imgur.com/7VpDq.png

  • STEP 7 In the "Vertex Groups" box in the Object Data panel, you should see a vertex group called "Bone" selected. This vertex group corresponds to the bone in the armature. To make that bone move all the vertices in the cube, select all the vertices of the cube using the A key with your mouse over the 3D View, then press the "Assign" button under the list of vertex groups.

http://i.imgur.com/aCqKh.png http://i.imgur.com/cDbq4.png

  • STEP 8 Exit edit mode using the menu or by pressing Tab, then select the armature. Go into "Pose Mode" using the same menu. This will allow you to move the bone around and have the cube move with it while animating.

http://i.imgur.com/HqHs3.png

  • STEP 9 Select the bone. Press G to move it around, and R to rotate it. When you have it in the position you want it in, left-click to set its location. To to move it or rotate it around only one axis, use this panel: http://i.imgur.com/6p1Pj.png to add the "widgets" to your 3D view that let you.

If you want to cancel the transform, right-click or press Esc. After setting its location, press I and select one of the options. The one I use is LocRotScale, which means it'll make a keyframe which includes the location change, the rotation change, and the scale change. 0 A.D. doesn't actually support scale, though.

http://i.imgur.com/T7eqN.png http://i.imgur.com/XkDI2.png

  • STEP 10 Use the left and right arrow keys to change which frame you're working on. When you've changed the frame to the one you want to add a keyframe, repeat step 9. You can tell which frame you're on by this number: http://i.imgur.com/G5pdr.png

To play back your animation, press Alt+A. To change the length of the animation, go into the "Render" panel in the Properties panel and look at the Frame Range in the Dimensions section.

http://i.imgur.com/SNOas.png http://i.imgur.com/jirAX.png

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