Using Bones and Biped

In the last lecture, we learnt how to use the bones system as well as bipeds. These are very useful for animating a person and other types of characters.

Firstly we applied bones to a simple shape. In this case using a cylinder. Once the cylinder was made, go to systems and bones. Dragging a few bones down (in this case four) they are then placed inside the cylinder. After this, select the cylinder and use the skin modifier. Adding the bones will mean the two objects become linked together. Now, when you move the bones, the shape of the object will change.





Next, we looked at using a biped. This is a skeleton figure that can be applied to a model to animate it like a human being. We downloaded a human shaped model and selected biped from the systems panel. The first thing to do is to shape the biped to be the same size as the model. This means aligning the arms and the legs into place along with the head and torso. To do this, you have to select motion and figure mode. This will then enable the editing of the bones within the biped.





Once the biped is correctly aligned, place it inside the model. Then select the model and find the physique modifier. This then enables you to link the biped to the model. Once linked, open the envelope tool on the modifier panel. You can then select every individual bone and edit the envelope size, which in turn will change how the model moves when the shape is changed. When this is complete, the model can start to be animated.