Teaching Myself Animation... Created 12 years ago2012-05-14 21:14:40 UTC by Tetsu0

So i'm teaching myself how to model, animate, and export into unreal.

I know my way around 3ds Max's modelling and texturing tools (definite Novice, but i can manage) And i'm just using the help files and whatever things i can find on the internet to help me along the way.

Anyone have any tips and tricks or know of any nice tutorial websites for me to reference?

My first project is to get a quadraped walking a straight line.
It consists of a sphere for a body, and 4 legs composed of 2 pyramids.
I figure if i keep the mesh simple, the animation and rigging aspects will be easier as well.

Here's my thought process.. if i start with a simple mesh and can rig and animate and get it into unreal, then i can start with more complicated meshs. The more i do this, the better i get and when i actually have a decent model, this shouldn't be brand new to me, and SHOULD go relatively smoothly.

If anyone's got 2 cents i'd love to hear them, if not.. here's step one:EDIT 1 -
Thanks to the Help files, i have created a IK Limb for one of the legs, have assigned the objects to the bones, and have made a smooth walking animation.
Now to re-do that for the other 3 legs =]This is SERIOUSLY a lot easier to figure out than i thought it was going to be. I finally have the time and motivation to devote to it!

EDIT 2 - Figured out how to animate, and export an AVI render all by my onsey. This is wonderful
I think that's progress enough for a day.

Rendered video

Cool. Now make Gonarch dance.

I'm still teaching myself the basics of modelling. Not even considered animation at this stage.

Thats pretty awesome. But i bet a fully made model is much harder to animate?

I was thinking of getting into 3D animation, but i took a turn to sound. MIDI and Chiptune to be more precise.

Cant wait to see more progress on this.

Thanks guys!
Progress wil be made tomorrow, my day is pretty full as of now.

Thats pretty awesome. But i bet a fully made model is much harder to animate?

Not necessarily- so long as its a rigid model, all you do is link the mesh to the bones. It's when you have bone weights and a more complex, non-rigid model is when it gets tough.

that's awesome! I think a quadruped would never walk over it's own front leg, though, because it would have two at the front diagonally and two at the back, rather than one either side and one at the front and back.

Love to see animators, you guys are a rare breed.

Thanks, but you're probably right Archie. Setting up the animation that way was way easier than diagonally because everything was in the native X direction.
My goal is to import into the UDK and futz with the animation blending and such. I cant find any documentation so im gonna try to make my own.