Animating game characters – a primer
Moving a game character around in a virtual world with lots of different animations, changeable outfits, a collision detection system for other characters and the environment, and maybe even interaction with other characters looks nice and simple when playing a game.
But the mathematics and techniques behind the smoothly animated game characters are extensive and complex. Every movement, animation, action, or state change of the character involves a long journey until the final image is rendered to the screen.
Let’s look at a high-level explanation of animations first. If you already know the details, you can skip to the next section.
About nodes, bones, skeletal animation, and skinning
The building blocks of an animated three-dimensional character model are the so-called nodes. A node can be compared to a joint in the virtual body of the character, like the shoulder or hip.
All nodes in the character model are...
