Animation

Writing about web page http://www.blender.org/

After quite a while away from doing any 3D animation, I decided to get back into it with Blender, which is free and has come an awfully long way since I first downloaded it 4 or 5 years ago.

I keep getting distracted from actually finishing anything so I’ve decided to set monthly targets. Hopefully blogging it up will encourage me too, and maybe even motivate somebody else who has an interest in 3D but thought the software would be too expensive. January’s target is to make a character rigged up with a skeleton, with a walk cycle. I went with a classic two-legged ball character to keep things simple.

Early model, testing the variable reflection (fresnel) on the eye.
Just got the model rigged, some simple motion to test it out. Also put in an HDR light probe for an environment map, as it’s an easy way to make shiny things look sweeet.
Walk cycle that I did tonight… only has a few keyframes so it’s pretty robotic motion; hopefully before the end of the month I can tweak it to a more natural stride, with a bit more spring. The “antennae” wiggle in the middle of the walk, which is a separate “Action” in Blender; you can drag and drop multiple actions together to make characters wave while walking, etc.

After this I’ll probably start with a new model with arms and a face, as it’s hard to get any emotion out of this little dude. On the other hand, it might be good animation practice to get some interesting actions out of the limited actions available. If Pixar can get an angle-poise lamp to look confused, I’m sure it’s possible.

Nick Howes : 22 Jan 2008 23:15 |  Tags: 3D Animation Blender Video |  Comments (3) |  Report a problem