Animating the cat part 1

Now that the model is done, it is now time to rig the cat before animating it. Initially the plan was to use Blender’s rigify feature to generate a mesh (since there is a cat armature) but this meant having specific geometry to use. On top of this the armature was quite complex and included bones for face, shoulder, toes, claws and caused issues with parenting once removed – and so I decided on the alternate route create my own.

[Face slap Gif audience]

It had taken quite some time to rig the model, but it worked better than the easy way out. Next was to weight paint the bones to allow for movement. This was a very long and painstaking process which I had repeated several times and accidentally undid all my hard work twice. In the end it was completed and now that it works so well, I immediately forgot how hard it was to do in the first place.

It was now time to work on the actual animations. I decided to work on the animations in 3 separate parts: Movement, Behavior, static. Grouping the animations like this helps with introducing priority and allows me to take a break and work on programming to prevent from feeling burnt out. Taking some time away from the animation also aids in spotting mistakes or strange movements in the mesh.

The animations to do this week are walking, running, and jumping.

I referenced Edward Muybridge zoetrope of the horse running (it was the first evidence that a horse always has one hoof on the floor)

I had previously created an animation of a kitten chasing after it’s tail in the style of William Kentridge.

I started by creating the keyframes of each animation and checking the automatic in between (Blender automatically creates a smooth change into the next pose). The in between was then adjusted and more frames were added. For fast snappy movement – it is important to have fewer in between poses.