I bet this question gets asked a lot. I'm a newbie to blender so please forgive me - and please point me in the right direction. My issue is that it still does not click at a high level.

I have read numerous tutorials on character animation e.g. http://dev.newmediaworx.com/johnnyb/bplanet/tut_charanim.htm and the blender manual(s)

... but it still does not click...

1) I assume that you build actions for your character, waving, walking etc. and then stich them together using the NLA - is this correct?

2) If using the NLA and the action editor - what's the point of poses?

3) How do you organise your work? Do you have one blend file for your objects (characters) and one for each time-line? When I use multiple scenes - I still have the same time-line.

Is there anyone or anywhere that explains this in broad understanding? All the docs seem to go straight into the animation and not explain the concepts?

Please help me - I'm a physicist and software engineer - so I need to know these things...

--Peter



2)

1, True, that's one way of doing it. You could also just animate your character in one big action.

2) Poses should be understood like keyframes. No poses = no animation.

3) You animate you characters in one scene, then you render it out. If you want to make a new scene, just make a linked copy, animate it differently, then render that out. Once you have all your scenes and shots rendered out into different files, use Blenders Sequence Editor to stitch the files together and add sound, effects and crossovers.
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Ah! So poses are equivalent to getting to a key frame quickly, and giving it a name of course. Then I assume you actually key it in the animation.

So you use Pose mode to create actions - there is no such thing as named Poses are there? e.g. a 'Hand-Up' Pose might be useful in both jumping and waving.

So can you produce sub-animations? Or does an animation have a one-to-one relationship with a scene? i.e. if you want a new animation you need a new scene. So does an action have its own 'time-domain'?

Is the _actual_ animation always that in the NLA? There just seems some weird relationship between the NLA and Actions what is this?

stinkypete wrote:

Ah! So poses are equivalent to getting to a key frame quickly, and giving it a name of course. Then I assume you actually key it in the animation.

well, a pose is basically equal to a keyframe, but the term is used alot for characters when you have 'posed' all of his/her bones.

stinkypete wrote:

So you use Pose mode to create actions - there is no such thing as named Poses are there? e.g. a 'Hand-Up' Pose might be useful in both jumping and waving.

It depends how you work. If you use the NLA Editor, you can load Action strips with single poses wich have names.

stinkypete wrote:

So can you produce sub-animations? Or does an animation have a one-to-one relationship with a scene? i.e. if you want a new animation you need a new scene. So does an action have its own 'time-domain'?

Well.. Each object has it's own timeline and IPO curves (though they can be shared between objects should you want to). You can have several animations stored per object, and load animations from one object to another, but only one can be used at a time (except if you use the NLA... though it sadly only works for Actions)

stinkypete wrote:

Is the _actual_ animation always that in the NLA? There just seems some weird relationship between the NLA and Actions what is this?

Again, the NLA is an optional tool. You can use it to mix between poses or sets of poses (animations). So, if you use the NLA then what comes out of the NLA is what you get, so to speak...


Hope I cleared things more up and didn't make you more confused. Cheers.
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Website: http://www.shadeless.dk

Oh, and if you got further questions, remember to post them on www.elysiun.com - you will get alot more answers there. This is a development site, not a user forum.
_________________
Website: http://www.shadeless.dk

Great! thanks for all the information. I'll have to learn how to store more than one animation per object. Sorry, guess I didn't realise the use of this group - expect you'll see me at the elysiun, where I'll ask the question.

Thanks to all...

--Peter