Picturing animation in terms of vectors is intuitive, but understanding vector mathematics is a pain. In this tutorial, I hope to ease that pain and provide a solution to animation problems using a custom written Vector2D class. We will look at some fundamental concepts of linear kinematics in the Eulerian approach: displacement, velocity and acceleration. Then, we’ll build a simple application with it.
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Imagine a chain of particles animating in symphony together: A train moving as all attached compartments follow suit; a puppet dancing as its master pulls its string; even your arms, when your parents hold your hands as they lead you in an evening walk. Movevment ripples down from the last node to the origin, abiding to constraints as it goes. This is inverse kinematics (IK), a mathematical algorithm that calculates necessary motions. Here, we’ll use it to create a snake that’s a little more advanced than the one from Nokia games.
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Premium members, rejoice! It’s time for another Activetuts+ Premium tutorial. This time, you’ll learn how to use forward kinematics to create a robotic arm – in this case, the example is for an excavator, but you can use the techniques you’ll learn in all sorts of situations. It follows on nicely from our previous tutorials on linear kinematics and inverse kinematics. Read on to see what you’ll learn…
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