Subject: Bones, Imagine and LW
Date: Wed, 18 May 94 03:47:00 UTC
From: w.graham6@genie.geis.com

Imagine's bones do seem a little tedious to set up, but I think of it as a
means to an end. Once the subgroups and axes are set up, you can define a
very large number of poses/states and store them within the object file.
For me, the goal is to develop a "personality" for a character, not just
make some temporary morphing object. Imagine's bones, with the use of it's
kinematics, make for an infinitely poseable character, with all of the
various States options like Clone and Tween. This character can be given
an almost unlimited number of personality traits, with the ability to morph
the polygons in step with bones animation. Does LW allow for the bones set
up, along with all of it's various poses, to be saved with the object? And
with it's "radius" implementation of assigning polys to bones, how do you
combine polymorphic animation with bones movement? What if you, in the course
of morphing, move the adjacent polys out of the range of the defined radius?
In Imagine, you can go into Pick Point mode and alter the geometry of a
certain area of polys, such as making a characters skin wrinkle, and define
a State for that, that also coincides with Bones movement. Does LW have an
equivalent capability? I am curious, having only played with LW superficially.
Any info would be appreciated............Bill Graham


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