When
the bones of one fin are created
and adjusted, to save some time
you can copy them to the other side
using mirror tool. Select all bones
in the fin. Click on Mirror tool
and adjust position in Mirror tool
window.
Now
select first bones in side
fins on both sides. Use select
and link tool and link those
two bones to the first bone
we created (blue arrows).
At first I linked those bones
to the second bone (red arrows)
but when animating I got better
results with those blue arrows
linking, and you will see
latter why. Now every bone
we created is a part of the
skeleton.
When
you hide the body this is
how the skeleton looks like.
So
I forgot to add a back fin
bone. Do it now in right or
left viewport. And then select
the bone and link it to the
second bone in body.
You
probably notice that all the
time I been calling bones:
first bone, second bone...
Its a little bit difficult
to understand and to follow
me. So imagine a more complex
bone skeleton and deferent
people working with same model
and trying to talk about some
parts of it.
So
we are going to add a name
for an every bone. Now at
this stage, for as are important
only three bones so you follow
the picture at left and the
rest of bones name like you
want.
Skeleton
is created, now its time to
connect skeleton with skin
(mesh). Select the shark body
(mesh) and add a Skin modifier.
Click an Add Bone button and
select all bones. Now the
bones are part of the model.
Try to select one and move
it or rotate it.. see how
the body moves with it. But
something is wrong. Not all
the parts of the mesh are
moving with the bone. That's
because every bone has an
envelope around itself. Envelope
define space around the bone
and every vertex of the mesh
that finds in that space will
move with the bone.
Lets
try to adjust our bones to
the mesh. Select Body bone.
If you find difficult to click
on bone use selection filter
on main toolbar. In drop down
menu select Bones. Now you
can select bones only.. While
Body bone is selected click
Edit Envelopes. Envelope is
shown. You can scale or move
the Envelope. See that red
vertexes?, movement of the
bone will effect them the
most. Main front part of the
shark should be in the envelope
of the Body bone.. Now do
this for every bone.
At
the end to check connection
select the Main bone and move
it. The model and all its
parts should move with the
bone. Any part that stay in
place is not connected well.
That mean that you need to
adjust the bone envelope near
that part of the mesh.
Its
time to start with animation.
Firstly place a Target camera,
facing shark. Make sure that
camera is not too far away,
so you can clearly see the
shark. Select the Camera Target
and link it to the Main bone.
The main shark movement will
be done by moving Main bone
so the camera will always
look at the center of movement.
At these three images around
you can see the main path
of the shark body...
Select
the Main bone. Turn on Animate
button. Move the time bar
to the frame 80. Move the
Main bone just down next to
camera. Now move the ruler
to frame 100, and move the
Main bone away from the camera
like the picture below shows.
Now
turn off Animation button.
Turn on play. In top view
you will see how the shark
moves and camera follows.
You will notice that while
shark goes away from the camera
it keep straight forward position
like its not turned to the
left. That means that we have
to rotate sharks body around
frame 80.
3DTotal
Advertisement - We need your support!
As
well as you tutorial hungry people eating through a terabit of bandwidth each
month we also have many additional staff and running costs involved in creating
these free pages. We want to continue bringing you many free tutorials and resources
everyday, so PLEASE check out our products and amazon affiliate schemes via the
above banners. Many thanks!
Go
to the frame 85, turn on Animation
button, select Main bone and
rotate it so the shark's head
is almost facing turn left
direction (final destination
of the movement). Now go to
the frame 90 and rotate the
Main bone so the head is facing
turn direction. Turn off Animation
button and play anim. Something
is wrong. It looks like shark
is starting to rotate from
the start. That's because
we add a rotation in frame
80 and Max automatically starts
rotation from the frame 0.
Every change in Animation
is written in keys. And you
have a key for rotation, position,
scale of the every animated
element on every frame.
