Customizing animation using the motion editor

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of any animation project, character animation has been steadily evolving into a skill that almost anyone can learn. Gone are the days of taking months to years to acquire animation skills and thanks to real time animation programs such as iClone we can all be animators to various degrees.

Even with all the tools we have available to us, character animation still takes the most time and skill to achieve. We are not going to become top animators overnight nor is this book going to teach you advanced techniques, but we are going to learn how to do the basics of interaction and movement.

As always timing is very important in character animation and as such the timeline will become an indispensable tool. We will work with key frames and the Motion Editor to customize or create animation for our project.

The immediate goal is to have the male character set down the beer then turn to the grill. After checking the fire in the grill he will close the lid and the female character will watch.