CompuServe Thread

Judy – It can't be done. You have to make the mesh one object (can't even smooth over separate elements within one object) and then bend it around into your desired positions (using copies of the original) and then morph between them in the keyframer. That's where all the discussions of inverse kinematice and stuff comes from. 3DS is not so friendly for character animation. It will be eventually, maybe due to IPAS routines, but right now it's grunt work, pure and (not) simple. David Taffet

Although you can't do skeltal skinning without special IPAS routines in 3DS (ie, tuber), you _can_ make joint objects that fit in between the limbs very precisely. This is what Tom Knight has done with his 3D characters that he's designed. The joints are almost seamless. – G

One way is to go out and spend $100k on a Wavefront, etc./SGI setup. It can't be done as you describe in 3DS. You'd have to either create very tight (perfectly matched seams) joints, or use morph objects, where each object would represent a key frame. This is how keyframing inthe the much heralded dino.flc and shark.flc on the r3 cd-rom was done. jt

You might want to take a look at some of the meshes on the R3 CD-ROM by Tom and Helene Knight. They have managed to create jointed characters whose joints are so carefully crafted as to be hardly visible. Thus when a knee bends (pivots), the seam between the thigh and calf sections hardly "show." They have 3 jointed models (with keyframes) on the CD-ROM (in directory \geometry\vendors\iworks) and 2 "static" ones. The static ones show the detail and economy their modeling and the (much simplified) jointed ones illustrate animating a character. The ones they SELL, of course, are both detailed AND jointed. They are Imagination Works, and can be reached at (408) 354-5067.