PART V. RIGGING AND ANIMATION

We’ve come to this part where you will learn how to rig your objects and actually move them for animation. The techniques that I will be introducing to you are generally the same with those we see in commercial advertisements and movies. I will begin by demonstrating to you how to animate your scene basically using the tools that you already know such as moving, rotating, animating the object parameters and using modifiers. Then, I’ll introduce you to setting up bones for your objects and morphing. As a bonus, I’ll also show you how to animate lights and cameras in your scenes for a more dramatic or theatrical effect.

Let me show you the basic principle of animating objects in 3D Max. The very first thing to do is to plan out the animation. For example, you may want to move a sphere from left to right.

Figure 5-1. Moving a sphere from left to right.

You can start by moving the Track Bar to the time frame where you want the movement to end. Then, activate the ‘Auto Key’ and move the object from one location to another. You’ll notice that markers appeared from the first frame to the frame where the animation will stop.

Figure 5-2. Using Auto Key to animate the movement.

When you press the ‘Play Animation’ button, you’ll see how the object moved. This is the basic principle of animating objects in 3D Max. You can animate movements, colors, lights, cameras, the parameters of the primitive, and modifiers. Also, the track bar and the active viewport is highlighter with color red. This indicates that the Auto Key is activated and the any changes in the scene will be animated.

A. BONES

Rigging your objects involves the use of bones. Bones are essential in animation because you use them to create actions or gestures. Imagine the famous 3D character Shrek. If you saw how Shrek was animated, the animators actually placed bones inside Shrek’s body just like how a skeletal system looks like. His movement is due to the correct positions and rotations of the bones. In this section you will learn how to place bones to your characters and move these bones to create an action or gesture.

You can find bones in the ‘Systems’ under the Create tab. When we place bones in the scene we usually from a hierarchical model. This means that the first bone you placed is the root bone or the mother bone and all the succeeding bones are the children. Of course, the children bones follow the same principle of parent and child hierarchy.

Figure 5-3. Hierarchical placement of three bones.

Another concept you need to master is the Inverse Kinematics (IK). This technique allows you to correctly move the bones. As a result you form an IK chain to your bones. You use this chain to animate limbs and organic models such as the turtle you created in the earlier chapters.

Figure 5-4. Forming an IK chain for three bones.

Once you’ve set up your bones with IK then you’re ready to use the Skin modifier so that you can place these bones inside a mesh. However, the Skin modifier is applied to the mesh not on the bones. Inside the modifier that’s the time where you can add the bones and actually use the IK chain in moving the mesh. This process is called bone rigging.

Figure 5-5. Skin modifier applied to the mesh.