How to build a bones animation engine?

Question

I want to develop a flash game. It would draw a stick man, and edit his pose.

I think what I need to learn are bones animation and physics engine.

Can anyone introduce some good resources to learn both?

Answer 1

Here is another such tutorial, which might help you:

http://content.gpwiki.org/index.php/OpenGL:Tutorials:Basic_Bones_System

It's very thorough, and I even used it once to produce an animation engine. The theory is very good and it should be easily understood for you to use it in AS3.

Answer 2

I'd look into a physics engine like Box2D or Nape. These engines come with several different joints you can use to animate lots of different stuff. Here's an example of the different joints/constraints possible.

On the Box2D (for Flash) homepage you'll also find a Ragdoll example which probably comes really close to what you're trying to achieve. Maybe you could take the ragdoll-example code as a starting point for your own modifications?

Answer 3

Check out the skeleton animation tutorial over at Rookscape. It's VB based but the theory should be sound. Also take a look at some of the other tutorials if need be...

HTH

Answer 4

I would definitely take a look at some of the underlying principals in skeletal movements.

General background: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse_kinematics

Good pictures here: http://freespace.virgin.net/hugo.elias/models/m_ik.htm

This guy was doing 2D stick figures: http://www.chrishecker.com/Inverse_Kinematics