Im going to be getting into charcteranimation soon, and im trying to get it laid out in my mind before i sit down and code it, where can i find some good articles/etc.. on designing a charcter animation system. I plan to use multi-part models, and I handle loading and manageing all the pieaces, its just the actual animation that ive never messed with before.

Can you be a little more specific? Then I''ll be able to direct you to more specific articles.
Like, you want to implement skeletal animation, keyframed animation? etc..

Well, i really dont know ''how'' to do charcter animation, i can handel building/loading/manageing the multi part models i want to use. But i have no clue on how to animate them. The least processor intensive would probably be the best for my application(a 3rd person RPG).

There are a few good ways.

INTERPOLATION: with this you provide versions of your model in key positions. You then make your program morph between them to form smooth animation.

INVERSE KINEMATICS: this is a skeletal animation system that allows you to animate people and creature how they move in real life by deforming your mesh to match it''s skelital position. I reccommend this for your project type. I can offer no more info on this meathod, as I am just about to start learning how to code it.

SEGMENT ROTATION: if you use multi-segment models as you say, a less realistic way is to record animations that say how much to rotate each segment over what period of time along what axis(s). It would probably work for you, but would not offer very realistic motion.

Mind you, I am no expert on character animation, so I may be wrong on something. Please let me know if I am.

Alex Broadwin
A-Tronic Software & Design
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"if you fail in life, you were destined to fail. If you suceed in life, call me."
"The answer is out there."
"Please help, I''m using Windows!"

Oh, and segment rotation would be least processor intensive, with the cost of realism. A BIG cost.

Alex Broadwin
A-Tronic Software & Design
-----
"if you fail in life, you were destined to fail. If you suceed in life, call me."
"The answer is out there."
"Please help, I''m using Windows!"

Ive seen some things that use Deformable Mesh Charcter Models, That would restrict the control I have over the models. I want to be able to remove heads,limbs,hands,arms,etc...

Perhaps I can create a data system to move all the body parts(ala Serment Rotation), then build some kind of editor to modify the animation data? Mabey I could just interpolate the data?

With skeletal animation you could remove limbs, blast off the coordinates and that bone node.

Alex Broadwin
A-Tronic Software & Design
-----
"if you fail in life, you were destined to fail. If you suceed in life, call me."
"The answer is out there."
"Please help, I''m using Windows!"