Hi guys, I''m fairly new to game development. I understand all of the basic concepts, 3D math, and am a wiz in C and C++. However, I don''t know where to begin with 3D animation. I''m wanting to use completely free tools to make my game, such as Blender 3D. Sooo I guess my question is, what format should I use? I''m pretty lost here. Yes, I sound confused, because I am. I''m not even entirely sure whether I want to go with mesh or skeletal animation. Can you gurus offer any suggestions to this poor lost n00bie? Robert

It sounds like this question would be better answered in the graphics programming forum.

OK, thanks. I''ll put it there.

Just find a tutorial, and use it.

Getting something done is 10x more important than getting it "right" the first time.

I recommend googling for an "md2" tutorial, because that format is very easy to understand and there''s tons of sample art to download. It uses mesh blending.

If I were creating a new engine from scratch, I''d definitely use skeletal animation, though. However, the number of tutorials and freely available models is slimmer. I guess I''d start looking for ".md5" tutorials and content, although I don''t particularly like their format because it''s per-bone vertex data, instead of matrix palette based skinning; that format doesn''t translate well to hardware shaders.

But, trust me: getting ANYTHING actually done is MUCH MORE IMPORTANT than getting it "right". Start with MD2; it''s the easiest path.

I don't see why this belongs anywhere but this forum.

I agree.

Blender is free, if difficult to figure out. GMax is free, if difficult to actually use in a game (the format sucks, best I can tell).

3DMax is the best... but only free if you steal it. Which I'm not in any way discussing, per forum FAQ. Pretty easy to use, though, for most stuff. I made a pretty decent animation (5 minutes?) for a contest when 3DMax was still on version 2.0 (and yes, the program was legal...)

So, Blender seems to be the way to go - and open source, too.

Just search for it and md2 tutorials, you'll figure it out fast.

Good luck!

_GEo.
RHS Band...

[edited by - Avatar God on December 30, 2003 12:36:12 AM]

I''m not entirely sure what you mean by which format you should use. Like most if not all 3d animation procedures, you would need to model an object such as a character for you animation, then you would add skeletons to it. After that, you add textures to the object.
Now, all that is required of you is that you make animation keyframes...

Programs I use is Lightwave and Maya which are both commericial programs. Maya is the choice for game development if you are interested while Lightwave and also Maya is good for Animation.

I really, really appreciate the help & advice. MD2 is Quake II, right? Seems like a sane choice since it is so widely used. I''ll look for some tutorials for that and start writing a loader for that format. I''ll move onto MD5 or something like that later, depending on how my game performs.

In the meantime, I''m still listening to any other good ideas. :-)

BTW, this is very likely to be a free and open-source project, and I absolutely do NOT have the resources to get Maya or Lightwave. Outta da question. Game development is just a hobby for me, not a profession.

OK, sorry for making 3 posts in a row, but why should I use MD2 over MD3? Also, I''ll be creating completely original models for this game. I''ve been working on concept art for the past couple days, and I''m almost ready to start some modeling.