i could use a hand..

[maxxeh]

Hi..I've been modelling and rendering on/off in 3dsmax for about 7 years now..and I dont seem to be getting anywhere at all..

Anyway, I'm at college studying media, and we are doing an animation unit. Obviously I have decided to make mine in 3D.

I have made my basic character..He's simple on purpose, for the cartoony look, although I dont want him cel shaded..He only took an hour to think up and create..
Now..my main problem is rigging and animating..I have NO idea where to start!

Of all the things I've made, I have never got round to rigging a full character..I've seen a few tutorials but i never seem to get my head round it.

Heres a picture of my dinosaur-like creature.
http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/3553/dinoscc9.jpg

I am hoping someone on here could help me out and nudge me in the right direction to what methods I should use to make this guy move..I dont know the first thing about rigging, so i dont know which tutorials i should be looking at!

[BiG ToE-3DT]

for that character, I won't rigged him. Instead use morph targets. Just clone a few, and move the verts around to where you think they should be when he is moving. Your all set.

[maxxeh]

Thanks for the advice. I have now made several expressions for my creatures head now, But I'm not sure how I can morph his body..Would I be able to make walk cycles and muscle movements with this?

I want it to look really good as this is just as much of a personal project as it is for my college work..

Here are the expressions:
http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/6682/expressionsuv0.jpg

[BiG ToE-3DT]

yep.

[maxxeh]

I'm not sure I understand how to animate his body moving with morphs..Could you point me to any tutorials? I dont really know what parts to morph.. I want him to walk in an exaggerated slug-like way..

[BiG ToE-3DT]

it depends if you want him to move, or walk in one spot, like a treadmill.

Don't have any tuts, but I can say that I would sit back look at the model and think about what it would look like frozen in the middel of walking. Then try to make it. Use that as one morph, then do it again of the other have of the model, for when he moves the other side.

One side at a time.

[maxxeh]

ok..that makes sense..I'll see what i can do.. I want him to be walking around scenes..and he should move with his front 'feet' first, followed by the back, like a slug, rather than left/right..

[BiG ToE-3DT]

that should be easy. at most 2 morphs. 1 for the streched out front, 1 for the back,

[maxxeh]

looking back with much more knowledge than I used to have, I want to thank you for bearing with me :D the project never did get finished, it was way too much for me to do alone.
I also had no idea what you meant at the time but I do now! and agree with you! haha!

sorry for resurrecting, but I wanted to thank you!