YSFlight Animations In Blender 2.49
A Brief Note:
One of the main advantages when using Blender for YSFlight Modeling has to do with the ability to define animations. In Blender, high-level animation definition is perhaps one of the most complicated parts of creating models for YSFlight. Without some experience in Blender, you may find these lessons quite challenging. You can check out this introductory series about how to use Blender for YSFlight modeling.
Introduction And Setup
Before discussing the mechanics of creating animations, it is important to have Blender configured to help with your animation workflow and that everything is in place to create your animations.
Parent-child relationships are critical to unlocking the potential of YSFlight animations. Without this property, most animations would be impossible.
The DNM file houses all visual animation information. Therefore it makes sense to dig into it to learn about what is required for a YSFlight animation.
If you can learn from my mistakes and trial and error experiences you will benefit from all my frustration and have a smoother animation experience.
Simple Animations & Fundamentals
When creating your first animation it is important to start with the simple before working your way up to more complex challenges.
Most components that need to be animated require some preparation in order to get the right result. This lesson explores 1-axis rigging.
This lesson highlights some differences between 1-axis (lesson 6) and 2-axis rigging.
Complex Animations
When we want to make a lot of components move together we need to learn about complex rigging to help us position things well.
When we want to mix animations together we need to start getting creative. In YSFlight only one animation can be applied to an object, so in order to get something animated using multiple CLAs, we must start to use empty mesh objects.
Lesson 9 - Nested Animations (Not started, check back later!)
Sometimes we want to have objects animate relative to other objects. This is one of the most complicated animation rigging processes we can perform.