Introduction to Character Animation Blender Summer of Documentation Copyright © 2006 by Ryan Dale BLENDER OPEN CONTENT LICENSE Terms and Conditions for Copying, Distributing, and Modifying Items other than copying, distributing, and modifying the Content with which this license was distributed (such as using, etc.) are outside the scope of this license. 1. You may copy and distribute exact replicas of the OpenContent (OC) as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty; and give any other recipients of the OC a copy of this License along with the OC. 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IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MIRROR AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE OC AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE OC, EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. This PDF contains a snapshot of the Blender Summer of Documentation tutorial, “Introduction to Character Animation”. This PDF was generated on 19 Sept 2006. For the most current version (with corrections and clarifications, and links), please see the Blender wiki at: http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/BSoD/Introduction_to_Character_Animation Enjoy! -Ryan BSoD/Introduction to Character Animation < BSoD Contents 1 Welcome! 2 Feedback 3 Introductory material 4 Modeling 5 Materials and lighting 6 Rigging 7 Animation 8 Finished product Welcome! This tutorial is the result of about a month of intense work as part of the Blender Summer of Documentation. I created it with the hope of introducing many new users to Blender, as well as providing a resource for experienced Blender users. Even if you've never heard of Blender before, you will be able to do this tutorial. Enjoy! -Ryan Marenzelleria 05:46, 26 July 2006 (CEST) Note: The review in the latest Blenderart (http://www.blenderart.org/) 6 magazine (thanks Blenderart!) refers to three sections of the tutorial that were referred to in my original outline: envelopes vs. vertex groups custom bone shapes using the stride bone If you're looking for these somewhat advanced topics, they aren't in the current version of the tutorial yet. They're on the way. -Ryan Feedback Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Visit the support thread (http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=74704) at blenderartists. Introductory material Introduction: What to expect from this tutorial. Modeling Setting up the mesh - Start up Blender, add a plane, and set up symmetrical editing. Creating the mouth - start shaping and extruding the mouth. Face and eyes - Keep extruding the face, and add eyes. Finishing the head - Finish off the head. Neck shoulders and arms - Create the upper body by extruding neck, shoulders, and arms. Torso legs and feet - Create the torso and lower body. Materials and lighting Lighting - Add lights to the scene, and do a test render. Materials and textures - Add materials to the skin and eyes, and add textures to the skin. Rigging Upper body: building the armature - Build a skeleton for the upper body. Upper body: Weight painting - Configure the skeleton for the upper body. Lower body: building the armature and weight painting - Build and configure the skeleton for the lower body. Final rig adjustment. - Make some final improvements to the rig. Animation Animating a simple action - Animate a "Wave" action using the Action editor. Animating a walkcycle - Animate a walkcycle using the Action editor. Mixing actions with the NLA - Combine the wave action and the walkcycle action together in the NLA Editor. Facial expressions - Create a set of facial expressions. Adding sound and lip syncing - Use the facial expressions to lip sync to sound. Final animation - Mix everything together into a final animation and render the output. This page was last modified 17:07, 16 September 2006. Summary - A recap of the tutorial, and a final note from the author. Finished product Here are some static poses of the character you'll create in this tutorial. The end product of the tutorial is 5-second animation of the character, including a walkcycle and lip sync. Ready? Start with the Introduction . . . Categories: Introduction to Character Animation | Blender Summer of Documentation BSoD/Introduction to Character Animation/Intro From BlenderWiki < BSoD | Introduction to Character Animation Blender Summer of Documentation: Contents | Manual | Blender Version 2.42 Contents 1 About this character animation tutorial 1.1 Why should I do this tutorial? 1.2 How long will it take? 1.3 Isn't this information available elsewhere? 2 Format of the tutorial 2.1 Main body 2.2 Side notes 2.3 Keyboard commands, mouse controls, and menu items 2.4 Notes 2.5 Downloadable files 3 Prerequisites 4 Caveats About this character animation tutorial This tutorial is designed to teach you the more advanced tools available in Blender. It's written in the spirit of "Gus the Gingerbread Man" tutorial: no prior knowledge is assumed. In other words you'll be able to follow this tutorial without any prior Blender experience. Why should I do this tutorial? Upon completion, you will have a fully rigged character (with facial expressions and a skeleton) and an animation - lip synched to sound, starring your character. You'll end up with the tools and knowledge to make your own character and make it do whatever you want. It's your one-stop-shop for learning many of the tools in Blender. How long will it take? Depending on your prior experience and how quickly you work, it could take anywhere from a single day to a month. Take your time and don't worry about finishing it within some time limit. It's not about the destination, it's about the journey: don't try to speed through this tutorial. Take the time to learn Blender -- it will pay back in the long run, when you'll be able to finish your own projects quickly and efficiently. Isn't this information available elsewhere? It sure is! I've repeated things that are found throughout the Blender manual, in other tutorials, and around the web. If I've used someone else's work for reference, I've cited that in the text. The advantage of this tutorial is that it compiles all of that knowledge into a single step-by-step guide. About side notes This is a side note, which will introduce new commands or concepts. It is a way of separating out explanatory material from the step-by-step format of main body of the tutorial. These side notes will contain a brief explanation, relevant hotkeys or menu items, and a link where you can find more information. Format of the tutorial Main body The main body of the tutorial consists of steps to carry out and accompanying screenshots. Individual steps are indicated by bulleted items. Step one, with some explanatory text Step two Step three, and why we did it that way. If a screenshot is too small, you can always click on it for a larger view. In the text, I've tried to explain why you're doing a particular step in as well as how to do it. Side notes To accomodate the widest range of skills, I've tried to assume as little as possible on the part of the reader. To prevent beginning users from becoming lost and more advanced users from getting bored, I will introduce new topics and concepts as side notes that beginners can read and advanced users can easily skip over. Keyboard commands, mouse controls, and menu items At the beginning of the tutorial, I've tried to include the hotkey or menu item for each command. It's easy enough to skip over them if you know them already, but they'll be helpful if you take a break and come back later. You won't have to page back looking for the hotkey if you forget. Later on in the tutorial, I won't spell out often-used commands, since you'll have already learned them. Notes Periodically you'll see a note like this: A note on notes: Notes like this one will warn you of common pitfalls, explain why some steps were taken, and to periodically remind you to save Downloadable files At the end of each major section, you can find a .blend file to download. If you get stuck, or want to skip some sections, feel free to download the file and start from that point. Prerequisites I've assumed little to no prior knowledge of Blender. As such, I take the time at the beginning of the tutorial to explain common tools and commands. An experienced user can cruise right through the first few sections quickly, while a beginning user should take the time to read the explanations. As supplementary material, check out the one-page Blender QuickStart Guide. Don't worry about memorizing all those commands. At each step throughout the tutorial, I'll remind you of the hotkeys or menu commands. With enough practice, you'll memorize the commands that are worth memorizing without even trying. Caveats Please keep in mind that this is only one way of doing things. There are many different work flows, and I'm only showing you the way I do it. I've tried to strike a balance between keeping the character simple enough so that a beginner can follow along, but complex enough so that you can learn more advanced techniques. Feel free to add more detail, make more complex materials and textures, or make a more complex rig. Consider this tutorial as a guideline for your own creations. Next: Setting up the mesh Previous: Index Back to Index Retrieved from "http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/BSoD/Introduction_to_Character_Animation/Intro" This page was last modified 08:49, 15 September 2006. BSoD/Introduction to Character Animation/Setting up the mesh From BlenderWiki < BSoD | Introduction to Character Animation Contents 1 Welcome to Blender! 2 Vital functions 2.1 Selecting 2.2 Undo 2.3 Saving 2.4 Loading 3 A fresh start 4 Add a plane 5 Mirror the plane Welcome to Blender! If you haven't already, please take the time to read the Introduction for important information regarding this tutorial. You can download Blender from www.blender.org (http://www.blender.org) . Blender is available for many operating systems: Windows, OSX, Linux, Solaris, and FreeBSD. Instructions for installation also an be found there. Once it's installed and started up, you'll see something like this: In the default screen, moving from the top down, there is: A top header containing the File menu, Add menu, and others 1. The 3D Window with some objects 2. The header for the 3D Window 3. The header for the Buttons Window 4. The Buttons Window 5. Note: When you start Blender, a console window is opened. This is useful for feedback when doing more advanced operations. For now, you can safely ignore this window. Don't close it, though, or it will close the other Blender window as well. Let's get started! Vital functions Note: A note on abbreviations used in this tutorial: The default scene. RMB stands for "right mouse button". LMB stands for "left mouse button". MMB stands for "middle mouse button". MW stands for "mouse wheel". NumPad 3 refers to the "3" key on the NumPad. 3 refers to the "3" key on the top of the keyboard. Keyboard commands like G , Ctrl Alt R , Ctrl I should be self-explanatory. Selecting In Blender, the most frequent action you perform is making a selection. So, there are many different ways to make a selection: RMB - make a single selection. Shift RMB - add to existing selection. B - bounding box select. Draw a rectangle with the mouse, then use LMB to confirm or RMB to cancel. B B (hit it twice) brush select. Use LMB to "paint" over vertices you want to select, MMB to deselect, or RMB to cancel. A - select/deselect all More info: Manual/Selection Undo It's probably a good idea to let you know early on that, like many programs, Blender has the ability to undo: Press Ctrl Z to undo. Everything we just deleted is returned to the scene. Press Ctrl Y to redo. Back to the fresh scene! By default, Blender has 32 undo steps, so you can keep pressing Ctrl Z to do multiple undos. Or, for more control, you can use Alt U for a menu that acts much like the History in Photoshop where you can select which step to undo back to. Saving Now is a good time to save your file. Blender's file sizes are not very large, so you can save often. Press F2 to save. The 3D Window turns into a big Save dialog box. Navigate by clicking on the "P" button to move up one directory, or by clicking on directory names which are in white text. LMB on the file name text box ("untitled.blend" by default) to be able to edit the text (Saving a file) Type in a file name. It's a good idea to use a number at the end, because Blender will auto-increment the filename for you Saving a file. NumPad Views NumPad 1 - Front View NumPad 3 - Side View NumPad 7 - Top View NumPad 0 - Camera NumPad 5 - Perspective/Orthogonal More info: Manual/PartI/Navigating_in_3D_Space (see below). Press Save file to save. You are returned to the 3D Window. To illustrate the useful feature of auto-incrementing (I wish more programs had this!), Press F2 again for the Save dialog Press + to increment the filename. If it was "Tutorial_01", it will now be "Tutorial_02". Click Save file or hit Enter to save. Using this feature, you can quickly save a file with the combination F2 - + - Enter . Loading Show the Load dialog with F1 MMB on the file you want to open, or select it with LMB and click Load file. A fresh start The default scene has a cube, a camera, and a lamp. Let's delete all that and start from scratch. Since the default scene has the cube already selected press A to deselect all, then A again to select all objects. Press X to delete selected objects. Ah, a fresh scene! Add a plane Now we will add a Mesh object (a Mesh is the basis for most 3D models). Since we're modeling a character, it will be useful to only have to create one side, and automatically create the other side. To do this, we'll Mirror the mesh. Change to Front View (press NumPad 1 in the 3D Window). Note that this is different than the 1 key in the row of numbers at the top of the keyboard. We will use the NumPad keys frequently, so If you have a keyboard without a separate NumPad (for example many laptops lack a separate NumPad), then follow these quick instructions to reassign the top row of numbers to act like the NumPad numbers. Add a plane ( SPACE >>Add>>Mesh>>Plane). Two things determine the position and orientation of an object when you add it: 1) the 3D Cursor (the red-and-white circle that acts as a reference point) and 2) your current view. We switched to Front View so that the plane would not be crooked when we added it. We could have added any one of those mesh types, but a plane is the simplest and most straightforward to work with. Object vs Edit Modes Use Object Mode any time you want to do something to the whole object at once, like moving it around in the scene. Use Edit Mode any time you want to do something to part of a mesh, like editing vertices. There are many options in this mode, for more info see Manual/PartII/Edit_Mode. Switch between the two with TAB . When the plane was added, Blender starts us out in Edit Mode. Edit Mode is where you can edit the vertices (the yellow and pink dots) that make up a mesh. Note: For the remainder of the tutorial, I have turned off the Transform Widget (the thing with the three colored arrows). The Transform Widget is a graphical way of moving objects, but I prefer to use the much quicker hotkeys (more on these later). Turning off the Widget also makes these screenshots less cluttered. To turn off the Transform Widget, press the button with the pointing hand on the bottom of the 3D Window Subdivide the plane once ( W >>Subdivide, as in Subdividing the plane). Subdividing adds vertices to the mesh. Then delete the left half of the plane: A to deselect all B to switch the mouse cursor to border select mode. Drag a rectangle around the vertices all the way on the left with RMB to border-select them. X to delete the vertices. If we didn't subdivide, we'd only be left with two vertices now. You should have something like Half a subdivided plane. Add a plane. The new plane. Turn off the Transform Widget by pressing the pointing hand button. Mirror the plane Press TAB to switch from Edit Mode to Object Mode. The plane is outlined in pink, showing that it is currently selected (The half-plane in Object Mode). Go to the Edit Buttons (Press the context button in the Buttons Window, or press F9 ). Note: There are too many buttons to show all at once, so the Buttons Window is divided into sections. You can access these different sections by pressing the different Context Buttons along the top of the Buttons Window. In the Edit Buttons, find the Modifier tab. Click Add Modifier (Add a Mirror modifier). Select Mirror. Subdividing the plane. Half of a once-subdivided plane. The half-plane in Object Mode. Context Buttons in the Buttons Window. Here, the Edit Buttons selected. Add a Mirror modifier. In the Mirror modifier, make sure X is selected Important: Make sure to click Do Clipping, as in The Mirror modifier. This will prevent vertices from crossing the mirror axis. DO NOT hit Apply. We'll apply the effects of the Mirror modifier later when we're all done modeling. Go back into Edit Mode ( TAB ). Your mirrored plane should look like Mirrored plane. Summary: We created a simple mesh, deleted half of it, and then mirrored it. Now we can model only one half of the character, and the other half will automatically update. Next: Creating the mouth Previous: Introduction Back to Index Retrieved from "http://mediawiki.blender.org/index.php/BSoD/Introduction_to_Character_Animation/Setting_up_the_mesh" This page was last modified 17:08, 19 August 2006. The Mirror modifier, applied to the half-plane. Note that Do Clipping is selected. Mirrored plane.