Preface#
The content of this column is from the online course "Fundamentals of 3D Game Engine Architecture and Design" on XuetangX. I have transformed it into a text and image version (I personally prefer text tutorials, which are much faster to read) for easy reference.
Original course link: Fundamentals of 3D Game Engine Architecture and Design.
Character Animation#
Overview and Representation of Character Animation#
Characters refer to the carriers that drive the game plot, including players, non-players, monsters, enemies, etc.
Representation of Characters#
-
Cel Animation
-
Rigid Layered Animation
-
Vertex-Based Animation
-
Morph Target Animation
-
Skeletal Skinning Animation
Skeletal skinning animation is the most commonly used rendering technique.
Character animation modeling process in games:
-
Skinning: Create the mesh model of the character.
-
Skeleton: Create joints and joint hierarchy, and bind joints to corresponding mesh vertices.
-
Skin or clothing: Define the material and texture mapping of the mesh.
-
Character animation: Describe the character's actions and define the movement of the character's skeleton.
Examples:
Important Concepts in Skeletal Skinning Animation#
-
Degrees of Freedom and Joint Types:
-
Joint Space Transformation
-
Mesh Vertex and Joint Binding
-
Motion Synthesis and Motion Control
Important concepts in motion synthesis:
Animation Clip: Refers to the local poses that make up the actions of a game character, such as raising hands, jumping, walking or running strides, etc.
Keyframe or Key Pose: Refers to the important poses set at specified time points in an animation clip. Through keyframes, intermediate poses, or intermediate frames, can be automatically generated using linear interpolation or curve interpolation algorithms. Keyframes can be seen as static images of character poses. An animation clip is composed of several keyframes and intermediate frames, and all frames are displayed at the specified time points. An animation clip is a local pose of a character animation and is dynamic.
Example:
Animation clip synthesis refers to the calculation of corresponding joint positions. The methods for automatic synthesis of character actions include:
- Linear blending
- Skeletal subdivision blending
- Additive blending.
Examples of Character Animation Implementation#
OGEE Character Animation#
OGRE Character Animation Rendering Process:
OGRE Node Types and Skeleton Tree Structure:
Relationship between Joint Nodes and Scene Graph:
Main Classes of OGRE Character Animation:
Below are descriptions of several core classes of OGRE character animation:
Example of Skeletal Skinning Animation in Character Animation:
Summary of OGRE Character Animation:
Panda3D Character Animation#
Concepts of Character Animation in Panda3D:
Class Diagram of Character Representation in Panda3D:
Class for Local Motion of Characters:
Finally, the Panda3D Animation Class:
