B3D mesh animation questions...

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Rage_Matrix(Posted 2004) [#1]
I have almost finished my character rigging and want to ask a few questions before I get stuck into the animation...
How should I organise the animations? I've not really done much animation, so help would be appreciated. You have one animation timeline of frames for the model so would you organise the animations something like: -

Frames 0 - 49: Idle animation.
Frames 50 - 99: Walking animation.
etc...

Also, I was playing "Zelda: Ocarina of Time" last night and you know the bit where the zombie creatures pop out of the ground when it gets dark and you can chop their heads off, I'd like to do something like that. The easiest way would be to have two seperate meshes (body and head) and parent one to the other and then reference the head seperately when you want it to "come off". However, I've already made the model as one file. The head is seperate (and named) but its all grouped together as one model. Is there some way to reference the "head" part of the model from within B3D and move it around as a seperate entity or something like that?

Thanks for any info.


scribbla(Posted 2004) [#2]
i think you answered most of the questions ur self..:)

the head thing..i think if its not stiched onto the body then try using getchild(bonename$)the bone in the head.. then move the bone ..the head should go with it...


jhocking(Posted 2004) [#3]
FindChild would probably be easier but otherwise what he said. Just rig the character for skeletal animation and make sure the vertices of the head and nothing else are bound rigidly to a single bone in the head. Now when you move the bone (standard entity movement commands work fine) the head will go with it.