Blue Whale animation
 

HI!


I've just made a Hi-res model of whale for my short animation and problem is how 2 animate it.
Should I use the bones or some of the nonliner deformers like bend...?

Please, save the whale!

LOL save the whale's. I like that.

I would just use a skeleton for it my self. Set up a spline IK on it. It will be easier in the end if you ask me to get lots of different movements out of it. More and different cycles of animation also.. rather than worrying about correctly twisting points around on a lattice, etc.

hi .. i would say exactly what pony said ..and i would like to add that
if your whale emotes then you have to use the both bones and some non-linear deformers (blend shapes for expression part of animation)

but if it wont emote just swimming around in the ocean .. then as pony said no need to use deformers

wish you all the best bro

HI!


I asked cuz this is my first touch wit IK.When I use bend I get very basic and not very natural motion. I tried to setup IK spline handle but I relly dont know how it works!!!
So if you guys know any good free tutorials on that?
By the way is there any kind of animal motion library on the web?


Thanks!

splineIK is mostly controled buy the curve that is made with it. In your outliner will be a curve right buy the spline that you made. Select it and press F8 for componet mode. You will thin be able to select the CV's and move them around. The bone's will try to falow the curve.

Thanks Pony, that really helped!