Blender and Animations

[amorgan]

So I finally worked my way to trying out animations in Blender, just learned today. Now I am attempting to export it into BJS. I have the Mesh, Bones and Animations and for the most part everything seems pretty good, but some of the bones in the animation are all wonky when played in BJS. I have a suspicion is has to do with the legs not being apart of the pelvis bones, but I can't figure out how to attach it correctly. Not sure if that is it, but if anyone can, you are welcome to take a look.

 

In addition are there any tutorials that cover the details of making sure Blender is setup correctly, in regards to animations and bones? Otherwise attached is the babylon export and the blender model. It's still a work in progress

 

Thanks

Blender.zip

[gryff]

So I finally worked my way to trying out animations in Blender, just learned today.

 

morgan,  if the result I see in the download is just "learned today"  - you did very well.

 

the legs not being apart of the pelvis bones, but I can't figure out how to attach it correctly.

 

Here are the couple of simple steps to fix that:

 

1. With the armature selected, go into "Edit Mode" and select the hip.L bone.

2. Now over in the Properties Panel, select the little Bone tab. Go down the to the "Relations" property and you will see a box labelled "Parent". Click on it and chose "pelvis".

3. Repeat for hip.R

 

In addition are there any tutorials that cover the details of making sure Blender is setup correctly, in regards to animations and bones?

 

Well, one suggestion I can make. CIick on the Properties Panel, click on the tab with the little camera. Go down to the "Dimensions" property where you will see a box "Frame Rate". Click on that and change it to 30. - the BJS default frame rate.

 

As for tutorials - this one by Lee Salvemini - a professional animator - is one of my favourites. Comes in three parts but part one is all you need to start with.

 

Introduction to Rigging

 

Did you build the rig yourself? I suggest you look carefully at the rig as Lee works with it. Note it has no bones directly equivalent to your hip.L and hip.R

 

I will look through my stuff see if I can find more tutorials for you.

 

cheers, gryff

 

[amorgan]

Thanks, I've been using Blender for making meshes, but yea this was my first time making bones and animating. I followed a tutorial, but did it myself otherwise.

 

Thanks for the info and the framerate pointer, I was wondering where that was at, since I noticed it was set to 24fps. I was trying to create the parent like suggested, but it wasn't matching the tutorial, but looking at what you linked, is exaclty what I was seeing with it linking it to the tail, so that is good news and will check those out in detail!

 

I'll have to actually try it later, be back after work with an update!

[gryff]

amorgan, here are a few more tutorials that offer slightly different methods and styles for creating an armature.

 

Introduction to Character Rigging by Jonathan Williamson. Jonathan is a co-founder of cgcookie.com and has been using Blender since he was 13 years old.

 

Bones and Rigging 101

 

Intro to Rigging by Ianscott88. Ian has a lot of tuts on different aspects of rigging - including using mocap files and the NLA editor.

 

They represent different styles of doing things - eventually you will develop your own style.

 

cheers, gryff

 

 

[amorgan]

Awesome thanks! The Bones and Rigging 101 was the one I was following.

 

I had moment to try out making the legs parents of the pelvis bone and that worked! I now have a correctly animating modeling imported in!

[gryff]

I now have a correctly animating modeling imported in!

 

Good

 

amorgan, ff you use the tutorial links I posted, you won't know everything about rigging - but you will have a good grounding and should have a good knowledge of how to do stuff.

 

For example, if you wanted to create a medieval knight kind of figure, then the Lee Salvemini tutorial shows you how to deal with issues you might have with a chain mail skirt. To add additional protective armour or weapons, ianscott888's method of adding individual object meshes to specific bones will help. And if you want to create animations using IK then the rig that Jonathan Williamson builds should be useful.

 

You seem to learn easily, so your limit becomes your imagination with using the methods

 

One other tip, if your figure is facing you, then the figures left side is the on the right side of the viewport - those are  the .L bones. And of course vice versa. It may seem like a trivial point - but may prevent errors if you ever use mocap files for animation.

 

Good luck - and maybe show us some things you create

 

cheers, gryff

[amorgan]

Thanks! That is good advice, another reason why I use BablyonJS is because of the community and support.

 

And I am in the process of making a game, if you could guess Stay tuned to for the first preview soon (I hope in less than a month). Almost to my first real checkpoint!