|
|
|
|
OK, some people want Avatars that look and act like humans. VRML allows us to animate models and gives us the tools to do that smoothly. Here are some examples of the grouping of "nodes" for avatar animation. A more detailed investigation into the humanoid model may be found at Waterloo University. So, if we look at the following picture from Flux Studio you can see that I have added a bunch of groups and put different body parts into them. When I added the groups to the existing VRML model, I clicked exactly where the joint should rotate. The little green arrows are the locations I clicked. NOTE: This is an old document, Flux Studio now has an Avatar wizard that builds a humanoid animation standard compliant skeletal structure for you. The joint model is pre-completed, all you have to do is add a mesh (body). It is a lot easier than this early attempt.
OK, what did you call these nodes and how did you group them together? Well, I am not an anatomist, so I named them things I could understand (torso, and forearm etc..) Please look below and see how the nodes are grouped. The arm group has the forearm group as a child, and the forearm group has the hand as a child of that group. The arms in turn are a subset of the torso, which is a subset of the upper body, which is a subset of the entire avatar. Whew. So when I move the arm, the forearm and hand follow along. Same concept for the legs also.
Here is a copy of the .SPZ file for this exercise, perhaps you will find it instructive. It is not perfect; I did that on purpose so you could learn from my mistakes!
|
|
|
