How I Animate Dinosaurs in Blender for Games (5 Tips) — Transcript

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1. 0:00Do you want to create an animation, but
2. 0:02can't afford a program like Maya? You
3. 0:04try to use Blender, but you don't know
4. 0:06how to animate. You may think that
5. 0:07Blender is unsuitable for animation or
6. 0:10that you absolutely must use
7. 0:12professional-grade software. That's not
8. 0:14the case. I have used Blender to animate
9. 0:16rich creatures for games. I will give
10. 0:18you five tips that will help you become
11. 0:20a better animator in Blender. The
12. 0:22dinosaurs you'll see are for my asset
13. 0:24pack.
14. 0:24>> [music]
15. 0:25>> Link in the description. For this video,
16. 0:27I'll be using Blender 4.5. Step one,
17. 0:30dope sheet and non-linear animation.
18. 0:33These are the two windows you will want
19. 0:34to use to manage your animations.
20. 0:37To open them, select the editor type.
21. 0:40You'll find them under the animation
22. 0:42section.
23. 0:43You will use the dope sheet to manage
24. 0:45your keyframes, while the non-linear
25. 0:48editor will be useful for managing your
26. 0:50animations.
27. 0:52Step two, create your actions.
28. 0:55>> [music]
29. 0:55>> Whenever you want to create a new
30. 0:57animation, go to the action editor
31. 1:00within the dope [music] sheet and create
32. 1:01a new action.
33. 1:03This is how you begin creating different
34. 1:05animations for the same asset.
35. 1:07Step three, how to not lose your
36. 1:10actions.
37. 1:11Has this ever happened to you?
38. 1:13You create an action and finish it, then
39. 1:16create another one. Before closing
40. 1:18Blender, you check [music] if it's still
41. 1:20there, but when you reopen Blender, your
42. 1:22action is gone. The solution is to use
43. 1:25NLA tracks.
44. 1:27In Blender, these are the layer system
45. 1:30used in the NLA editor to organize,
46. 1:32combine, and blend animation clips in a
47. 1:34non-destructive way. When [music] you
48. 1:36finish your action, select push down
49. 1:38action. In this way, your action is
50. 1:40persisted and will not be lost the next
51. 1:42time you open Blender. This is where
52. 1:44non-linear animation comes in.
53. 1:47This window is used to view the actions
54. 1:49already created for your asset.
55. 1:50>> [music]
56. 1:51>> You will also use it when you want to
57. 1:52edit them. Step four, use animation
58. 1:55paths.
59. 1:57Animators often use these lines in 3D
60. 1:59software to visualize the follow through
61. 2:00the
62. 2:01and detect errors. [music]
63. 2:03In Blender,
64. 2:04to get this option for a rig, go to pose
65. 2:07mode, select the bone you want to
66. 2:09examine,
67. 2:10under the data tab, look for motion
68. 2:13paths,
69. 2:14and click calculate.
70. 2:17You will see a motion path line for your
71. 2:19rig in the 3D viewport.
72. 2:25>> [music]
73. 2:25>> Step five, playblast in Blender. This is
74. 2:28useful if you want to get a quick look
75. 2:30of how your animation is progressing.
76. 2:32For those who may not know, a playblast
77. 2:34is a low-resolution recording of the
78. 2:36viewport in 3D animation software,
79. 2:38used to generate a quick preview of an
80. 2:40animation without the need of a formal
81. 2:42render.
82. 2:43This means that instead of performing a
83. 2:45heavy render, you can generate a quick
84. 2:47view of the scene. For this, first go to
85. 2:49output, select video as your output
86. 2:51format, and select your output folder.
87. 2:54For the video codec, I recommend H.264.
88. 2:58Then, go to view and select view render
89. 3:00video.
90. 3:02You do not need to have a camera in the
91. 3:03scene to render it.
92. 3:14Keep in mind that this will show
93. 3:16everything visible in your viewport,
94. 3:18including the character rig.
95. 3:21Be sure to hide anything you do not want
96. 3:23to appear in your playblast.
97. 3:26As a bonus tip, use modifiers.
98. 3:29In the graph editor, you can use Blender
99. 3:31modifiers to create more organic
100. 3:33movement for your rigs.
101. 3:35Here, I use [music] a modifier to create
102. 3:37a wave cycle for my T-Rex tail.
103. 3:40As you can see, with just some
104. 3:41adjustment, you can create something
105. 3:43like this.
106. 3:47This is just a simple example.
107. 3:49There are a lot of good moments you can
108. 3:51create using a modifier. Would you like
109. 3:53to see a full process to create an
110. 3:55animation?
111. 3:58You want to see these animations in a
112. 4:00real project? The creatures for this
113. 4:02video are in my low poly per story pack
114. 4:05for the dot and unity.
115. 4:06>> [music]
116. 4:07>> Everything's linked in the description.
117. 4:09Thanks for watching. More animation tips
118. 4:11coming next.