Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Skinning and Animations
Our world in 5000 AD is incomplete without our mutated human being Mr. Green.
Our Mr. Green is a rigged model, exported from Blender. All famous 3D games from
Counter Strike
to
World of Warcraft
use skinned models to give the most impressive
real world model animations and kinematics. Hence, our learning has to now evolve
to load Mr. Green and add the same quality of animation in our game.
We will start our study of character animation by discussing the skeleton, which
is the base of the character animation, upon which a body and its motion is built.
Then, we will learn about skinning, how the bones of the skeleton are attached to
the vertices, and then understand its animations. In this chapter, we will cover:
•
Basics of a character's skeleton
•
Basics of skinning
•
Loading a rigged JSON model
•
Animating a rigged JSON model
•
Exporting models from 3D software in JSON
Understanding the basics of a
character's skeleton
A character's skeleton is a posable framework of bones. These bones are connected
by articulated joints, arranged in a hierarchical data structure. The skeleton is
generally rendered and is used as an invisible armature to position and orient a
character's skin.
