Skeletal animation

Animation
1

1.) I need a tutorial for Skeletal animation in Unity.

2.) Is there a way to combine Skeletal and Keyframe animation?

Example:

Assuming the character has a keyframe animated body and I want to move his fingers with skeleton, while the keyframe animation is running, Is it possible? (I know that it isn’t the best example, but you understand what I’m interested in)

Thanks

2

I don’t understand your section question. You animate the skeleton with keyframes, they’re not different things.

Do you mean object animation and skinned meshes? You could definitely do that, they can be in the one animation, or you could animate the hands separately and layer them on in script.

3

Young man, you are completely wrong.

Keyframe animation: (for example MD2)

Animators determine the position of each Vertex in each frame, and everything is written in the model file.

Skeletal/Bode animation:

Vertex positions for each frame aren’t stored in the model file, they are generated in real time by the engine from the skeleton.
This technique is used for stuff like ragdolls.

4

I belive unity is animating realtime skinned skeleton by default. even if you baked it in another 3d apps. but i would not be totally sure hehe…

i think unity only reads the skinning/skeleton etc as it is, but unity can bake them for you …from what I know… and the difference is that you can blend etc properly with realtime skin, wich is default?

so I can’t see the problem.

edit
when it comes to characters, animations are baked less and less, since you want to be able to move them dynamically. but baked/cached animations are ofcourse less demanding in performance.

5

What you describe is point/vertex animation, commonly done in Messiah, etc. People usually think of that more as morphing than keyframing.

I don’t think you should have any problem using Unity for both systems… ie. weighted bones and something like a morph mixer for facial expressions or muscle bulging, etc.

I was just catching up on Messiah news and read -

We’re pleased to have added FBX export of objects with UV info, bones and weights, point caches and motion, to make messiah the most powerful and affordable addition to your CG toolbox.

Sorry, no idea if Unity FBX importer supports the point caches.