Hi, I have a 3D model of a human figure - each limb has its geometry defined under a series of TransformGroups enabling me to control how the character moves. This is ok but it's difficult to precisely state where the joint is so as to minimise gaps that appear if a limb is bent to an extreme and so on. I am sure this is a common problem.
My question is, though, can someone please explain what graphic artists mean when they talk about "skin and bones animations" or "skeleton and skin animation"? Is this where as a figure moves, the skin (clothes or whatever) "stretch" so that the above gap problem does not occur?
How can such animated figures be included in Java3D? Is it a case of loading the key frames and morphing between them? How effective is that ? What is the performance [overhead] like?
I guess the problem then becomes that you are limited to whatever animations have been developed by the graphic artist. Or is there a way of controlling individual limb movement from the files they generate?
What happens in professional games? How are they developed?
Please forgive me for asking a question that to you all may seem common knowledge - all the articles that I've found on this are written from a graphics perspective and do not talk about how such animations are dealt with in Java3D, or any other development platform for that matter.
Many thanks, -Paul
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