AnimB3D Tutorial
I am for myself a beginner in animation, but I make this little Tutorial to explain how AnimB3D works.
I only use Freeware tools for that.
First Step: You need a B3D file.
Make a 3ds file with Wings3D and convert it with Decorator in to a B3D file.
You can also use Xworld or Biturn for that.
Sometimes Biturn don't set the Textures, I prefer Decorator or XWorld.
Links:
XWorld http://www.freewebs.com/kefir/
Biturn http://mirex.mypage.sk/index.php?selected=1
Decorator http://www.blitzbasic.com/toolbox/toolbox.php?tool=26
Second Step: Open AnimB3D.exe
First you can select up to 6 different Graphic-Settings, with that a Screenconfig.dat would be generated.
Look for the number after Mode: put in that number and press Return, first mode is set.
You can only get one Graphic-mode if you would, press Return without number exits the graphic setting window.
Then a Filerequester pops up, you see on the bottom "files-mode" this is the mode you are in.
In mode = file only .B3D files would be listed.
In mode = Dir only directorys or "." ".." would be listed.
If no B3D-file in the current directory push "mode = file" Button, then you are in "Dir mode",
now you can change the directory press ".." or a dirname and click then on "Dir-mode" to switch back in Files-mode
you can now select your B3D file.
When you not load a B3D File, the Programm shut-down.
Third Step: Create Bones
This is the first what you see when you load your B3D file.
Press the middle Mousebutton (also a mouse with a wheel has a third mousebutton, press the wheel down, some people did that not know.)
move the mouse with the pressed middle mousebutton (MMB) move the wheel to scroll fast, press down SHIFT while move the wheel to scroll slow.
- press MMB to rotate around the mesh
- move wheel to scroll fast
- press SHIFT and move wheel to scroll slow
Alternatively you can use INS + DEL to fast zoom and HOME + END to slow zoom
use the cursor keys to rotate around, also CTRL + Cursor Keys to move, CTRL+0 to reset camera to 0,0,0
SHIFT and MMB is also an alternativ way to rotate.
With F9 and F10 you can scale the size of the Vertex-Cubes.
With F11 and F12 you can scale the size of the Bone-Spheres.
Scale now the Bone a bit bigger with F12 and press the red Sphere, there is only one yet.
Now press J to aim the view to that bone.
With ALT-A you can create a new Bone, do it now.
Give in a name for that new Bone.
Now a second red Sphere is over the first sphere (it's now blue).
Press the red sphere and the first is now pink, this means the pink one is the parent bone of the red one.
If you make a mistake you can delete the active Bone with ALT-D, before select the Bone you wish to delete.
At the moment you create a new Bone, the new Bone is red marked, but
sometimes it is not the active Bone. To activate select it.
With the Spacebar you can aim the view to the selected bone.
Move the bones with the Number Keys on Keyboard or Numblock.
Numblock:
1 + 3 = X Axis
4 + 6 = Y Axis
7 + 9 = Z Axis
Keyboard:
1 + 2 = X Axis
3 + 4 = Y Axis
5 + 6 = Z Axis
Or use the LMB on the red green and blue X Y Z Buttons in the right bottom corner of the window.
If the bones move to fast or to slow you can go to the menu Settings, select move bonespeed slow (-mid or -fast)
for slow give in e.g.. 0.005 and Return (do the same with mid and fast with other speeds)
now you can quick select slow-movespeed with F6, mid with F7 and fast with F8 or press l, m, b over the X Y Z Buttons.
.
For my example I create for each leg 4 bones each.
Hierarchy
second Bone(Parent of Leg1 and Leg2-Bone)
|
Leg1 (Parent of Knee1-Bone) | Leg2 (Parent of Knee2-Bone)
Knee1(Parent of Heel1) | Knee2 (Parent of Heel2)
Heel1(Parent of Toes1) | Heel2 (Parent of Toes2)
Toes1 | Toes2
|
ROOTBONE is (parent of second Bone)
If you want to save your work now, go first to Anim-Mode: Press TAB or in Mode menu select Animation.
Go back in Edit-Mode with Backspace (BS) or in Mode menu select Edit mode.
Fourth step: Assign Vertexes to Bones
Select now the
second Bone in Object mode, if you are in Bone-Mode press SPACEBAR this
toggles between Bone mode and Object mode.
You see like in the picture above the green spheres are the childs of the selected bone and the pink one is the parent bone.
Now assign to the second bone the top 8 vertices, only click on the vertices with the left mousebutton (LMB)
If you have selected a wrong vertice, then click with the right mousebutton (RMB) on the wrong marked vertice, it is now deselected.
Do the same with the other leg.
Sometimes many Vertexes are on the same place, and I dont know why but sometimes not all vertices would be selected.
You can select randomize vertex in Settings menu, now you see the different vertexes a bit better.
Select now, and you see if all would be selected.
For selecting different vertices and not all on the same place use diff-vertice Mode and press K
Now the Vertex is lightblue if you select them.
After you selected press L then again L you can toogle through a list of vertexes they are all in the same triangle as the selected.
If you wish to get the right vertex press Enter when the right one is selected, you see it by the green selected vertexes.
If you want to look if the vertex is selected to the bone, use randomize vertex for that, because it could be that your selected
vertex is not visible. You can select randomize vertex more than one time.
If you want to sort them select order vertexes from settings menu.
To give in a weight press V and give in the weight for the newly selected vertexes.
Fifth step: Animate the legs
Go now in Anim-Mode by pressing TAB or in Mode menu select Animation.
Select a Bone with LMB
First select Rotate-Mode by pressing R or select from menu or toggle with LMB on the Button-Block above the -X +X
then press A for add new Frame or select in Frame Menu add new Frame
With LMB on +X or press 3 on NumKey or press 2
you can move the leg forward as the picture above shows.
The X-Axis is the red line
The Y-Axis is the green line
The Z-Axis is the blue line in the colored-cross
Add a third Frame (press A) and select the knee
with Comma and Period you can switch between the frames, or you can use the Slider on the bottom with the LMB.
Experiment now a bit and try to make a animation walk cycle.
In the Sequences Menu you can add Sequencenames to a frame, then there starts a new sequence and by saving
a "filename.bb" file would be saved.
You can also store some Bone or/and Framedata, and restore it.
You can also change some speeddata, it would be saved in SpeedConfig.dat
That's all for the moment
if you have questions in the official Blitz -Forum/Showcases is a thread called AnimB3D
or in the German Blitzforum http://www.blitzforum.de/ unter Projekte.
