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I have my character model seperated into three different modles legs, torso, and head so that I can allow for better customisation and stuff.

I want to create a simple hirarcy that has the legs first followed by the torso and then with the head on the torso.

Each of the three objects has it's own animation except for the head.

Not really sure how to do this but I think it may involve limbs.

Hello LE,

Not sure I totally understand what you mean by



because if you want to link the models in a heirarchy, then you have to link them as limbs and in essence, it becomes 1 model with limbs. Then you could animate the model by repositioning and rotating the limbs. Now, if you need to maintain the models independence, then you could create limbs on the master model and attach the auxiliary models to the limbs. Confused yet?

Let's take the first scenario that assumes you want to add your objects as limbs:

Lets say the torso is our root object and we will add head and legs to this. Let's also assume that torso is object number 1, head is object number 2, and legs is object number 3. Because I want to make a heirarchal structure, I'm gonna add a foot to the leg, so that will be object number 4.



The numbers 1,2 and 3 are the limb numbers, not to be confused with the object numbers. The limbs must be added one at a time in sequential numeric order. The add limb command just adds a limb to the root object but doesn't have any heirachal influences (except that it is positioned relative to the root object). The link limb command creates a heirarchy and in this case, the foot - limb 3 - to the leg - limb 2. Now if you move the leg, the foot will move automagically with the leg, but can also be controlled independently. You control the animation with offset limb, rotate limb, and scale limb and setting key frames.
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In the second scenario, you still would create limbs the same way but now you will attach the original objects to those limbs:

glue object to limb head,torso,1
glue object to limb legs,torso,2
glue object to limb foot,torso,3

This way, if you wanted the objects to animate independently, you could. Kinda like if your main character was holding a wiggling lobster in it's hand. The lobster's animation would be independent even though it's attached to a limb.

In this scenario, you'll want to hide the limbs so that you only see the object that is glued to it.

Wow... Did you type that all out yourself?

I think I understand. I would of prefered the legs to be the root object but I think I'll be able to program around that. Thanks.

You can make the root object anything you want. You just order and number the limbs and meshes accordingly.

The basic steps are:

* Create or load all of your objects and assign them numbers
* Make meshes out of the objects (you don't have to do this for the root object)
* Add limbs in sequential numeric order. The limb shape is determined by the meshes you created from the objects
* Link any limbs together that need to be influenced by an heirarchy. That is, if a child limb will be moved by a parent limb (a hand may be the child of an arm. a foot amy be the child of a leg. etc.)
* position, texture and animate the limbs.

Or if you've already created objects that have animation and you want to use those as limbs - all the previous steps apply except for the positioning, texturing, and animation of the limbs and:

* Hide the limb that you want the object to be used in its stead.
* Glue the object to the limb
* position the limb in the right place
* Play or loop the object's animation (that is the object you just glued as a limb)