animating animal from standing to sitting

[maggie]

Hi, What might be the best way to animate an animal (with long legs) from a standing postiion to a sitting position and vice versa? The back legs are the problem. I tried a switch layer for a standing animal and another switch layer for sitting, it works OK but I couldn't get it to 'interpolate' even tho I though I had the same points. When I don't use the switch layers and try moving the animal via its bones I run into trouble with what to do with the too long back legs. Could I just use point animation to do it with no bone layers? My only other solution is don't do it in the same film clip- is that cheating?....... (I don't have these problems with people, standing and sitting).

Maggie

[Touched]

Well, cutting away from the action to avoid tricky animation is indeed a cheat, but in the practical world, if it looks fine that way just do it.

But yes, point animation doesn't require bones, and can also be done together with bones.

[Víctor Paredes]

use lock bone to the four hands...
and angle constraints to the legs to make your animal have knees.

its useful to have a parent bone of all the character, you can use it to move all the body.


here is a fast draw of a dog (right click, save as):
http://www.freewebs.com/tazatriste/mohos/perro.anme

i hope help.

[maggie]

Hi, Thanks for your help- the bone locks work good. I hadn't thought of locking the front feet, nor the angle constraints on the knees, was just getting in a big mess with 'translate' bones and 'rotate bones' and got a very oddly shaped dog.......
Maggie