Animating the Zombie - Game Character Creation with Blender and Unity - page 200

Using Blender's Animation System
In the previous chapter, you utilized Blender's animation system to implement action
constraints for controlling the zombie's hands. Using this system, you posed the zombie's
fingers and created keyframes out of these poses. When you created the actions for the
constraint, Blender took care of the frames in between the keyframes.
The way Blender processes keyframes and everything in between is typical of many
computer animation programs. As such, game animations like the ones you will create
are simple to make with a properly rigged model. As stated earlier, all animations for a
character must be on one timeline, so animating a character is as simple as putting key-
frames into the Blender timeline.
As a quick refresher, let's create a simple jumping animation with a subdivided
default cube:
1. Open a new Blender file and create a cube object or open Ch08_Cube_Rigged.blend
in the Chapter 8 online resources ( www.sybex.com/go/gameblenderunity ). In Edit
mode, make the cube taller and use the Specials menu (W key) to subdivide the
model twice (Figure 8.8).
2. Using the Add menu, create a new armature bone inside the cube. In the Object
Data panel (the one that has a stick figure) of the Properties editor, activate the
X-Ray display option located in the Display panel so you can see the bones inside
the cube mesh.
3. Move the tail/tip of the bone up to the center of the cube. Extrude a new bone from
the tail/tip of the first, and then extrude another new bone from the tail/tip of your
first extrusion to create a chain of three bones. Make sure they extend to the top of
the mesh, as shown in Figure 8.9.

Figure 8.8
Creating a
subdivided cube