All language subtitles for 03-03-Animating with an armature

- [Instructor] From the time being,

we've been animating only object.

And we have seen that each
time we try to animate

a new object, the new animation

or a new action data is created.

And when it comes to animating an object,

we are currently only animating
at point, its origin point.

But what if we want to animate

a more complex object or a character,

will we have to create an
action for each finger,

or do you bend an armor if
it's not a separated object?

There is one tool that
allow us to do this,

and you've probably
already heard about it.

It's a rig or an armature.

So if you think of a
human with character rig,

it's generally a skeleton

with a bunch of constraints and mechanism

that allow the animator to
manipulate the character

in an intuitive fashion.

And you can rig absolutely anything.

Here is a new version
of our bouncing ball.

So there is a new object in my scene,

I can find my ball object,

but I also can find this
ball armature object,

and as an object, it has
transformed channels.

And as any other object,

it's a container with specific data,

we can't find armature data and bone data.

Also as a specific object,
it has a specific mode,

an edition mode, that
allow to bird the armature,

and that is used by a riggers,

so you won't need to enter
edit mode at any time

and a pose mode, that is
the mode that will allow us

to manipulate the armature
and animate whatever character

or object that is bound to this armature.

We can change mode from object to pose

by pressing Control + Tab.

So let's have a closer look
to this rig or armature.

When in pose mode, you can
select whatever controller

you want, those are called
bones, and you can consider them

as being sub object of the armature.

It means that each bone

will have its own transformed channels

and each bone have a specific
behavior or a specific task

such as being created by the rigor.

On our bone domain
controller is called the root

and allow us to move the entire ball.

Moving the green controllers allow us

to use squash and stretch,

the yellow controller allow
us to rotate the ball.

So instead of transforming
the ball directly,

here we are using those controllers

to create those transformation.

And it will allow us to
create way more complex

transformation on to a character

than animating simple objects,

because the armature can deform the object

that is bound to it.

The armature is actually a simple modifier

that deform our object.

So a versatile armature
or rig will allow you

to give the pose you
want for your character

and the good rig will give you the maximum

of posing possibilities
with intuitive fashion.

So before we start animating
this query character,

I will give you some good practice

when it comes to animating
using an armature.

(swooshing slide)

With my ball rig file open,
I will enable the Auto King

and I will switch to pose mode
by pressing Control + Tab.

As soon as I transform
one of the controller

by selecting it pressing G, S or R

as I will do for any object,

I can see that my Auto King
is recording what I'm doing

and Blender is creating a keyframe

for the transform channels
of the controllers.

The first awesome thing is that
if I switch to the doc sheet

in the action editor and switch to see

all the keyed channel, I can see that

all the different manipulator animation

are stored into a single action

because the action is associated
to the armature object

and we can consider each manipulator

as being a sub object
that can be animated.

And as for any object,

I can see that each of the
manipulator has their location,

rotation and scale key, but
each of those controller

has a specific desk, for example,
this rotation controller,

if I try to move it or scale it, I can't.

And when I try to rotate it,

it only rotates around its x-axis.

So instead of having a keyframe
for every transform channel,

that couldn't be better
if I add only a keyframe

on its x rotation, since I won't be using

any other of its transform channel.

So I've selected all the
transform channel I don't want,

And I will simply press
X to get rid of them.

Now, I will go a little further in time

and I will try to rotate the ball.

As soon as I rotate to
rotation controller,

I can see Auto King is on and
the x value being arranged,

meaning that it's being
transformed but not recorded.

But as soon as I release the
transform Blender, right again,

a keyframe on all the transform channels,

and I can go ahead for
a long time like that,

removing the keyframe I don't want

and whenever I try to
transform this manipulator,

Blender writes a keyframe on everything.

So to get rid of this issue,

we need to create what we call a king set.

To access the king option, we
need to go into the timeline.

So the first thing I do
is renaming the action

and call it zero zero
so that it will be first

in the alphabetic order, king set ball.

Now I will check each controller

and for each transform
channel that is locked,

I will get rid of the
corresponding keyframe

because these are the only keys

that will really serve
the animation of the ball.

In the end I only have
14 keyframes remaining

instead of the 36 initial I had.

So my action editor and my graph editor

will sure be way cleaner, I
now need to open the timeline.

So I will drag a new editor
and switch to the timeline.

In the timeline header I
will go to the king set

and in the active king,

I can see that I have a
lot of different options.

So I will choose rotation
and I will try rotating

my manipulator then
Blender is still recording

all the keyframe, and this is because

we need to tell Blender
to use this king set

by clicking the arrow near
the auto recording button

and choose only active king set.

Now when I try transforming
my manipulator,

all the rotation channel will be keyframe.

So we are getting close,

I will get rid of the unwanted keyframe

and if we go back into the king set,

we can see that there is a lot of option

and the one that is interesting
for us is available.

From there Blender will only
auto record the keyframe

that has already been written,
meaning that to channel

where we have inserted a keyframe
file to use this king set.

If you haven't set the first keyframe

before applying the king set,

then the Auto King
won't write any keyframe

and if I try inserting a
new keyframe pressing I,

I will get this error message.

Basically, I can't write a
keyframe with the actual setup.

To fix that, we only need to
insert a keyframe directly

into the transform channel panel,

then I can get rid of the
two channels I don't want,

the Y and Z channel.

There is another way to set the Auto King

on available by default, it's
by going into the preferences,

animation, only insert available.

It's really a matter of
personal preferences.

I personally use the king filter,

please note that I'm
using Blender 2.92 Alpha,

so the position of the
different option might change.

All right, now you are ready
to animate using an armature.

We have seen that we can use an armature

to perform more complex transformation,

that an armature can deform
the object that is bound to it.

So the armature object
is made of super object

and called bone, each of those
controller bone can be king,

but Blender will create a single action

that will hold the different key

of all the controller
of a single armature.

It is highly recommended to
create a king set to keep

your dopesheet and graph
editor as clean as possible.