Dark Bit Factory & Gravity

GENERAL => Projects => Topic started by: combatking0 on October 29, 2011

Title: 3D Person in JavaScript
Post by: combatking0 on October 29, 2011
I thought, rather than take over the "What are you working on at the moment?" topic, I'd create a new one seeing as I'm working on it full time.

Here is the latest update for the stick man:

http://barcodebattler.co.uk/stickMan/

I need to update it to use the correct set of HTML5 tags, as it uses some older tags mixed in with the new ones.

Hopefully I'll have the had finished this weekend.

I may leave out the inverse kinematics, as I want to have full control over the pose of the stick man. I may make a seperate version with the inverse kinematics too.
Title: Re: 3D Person in JavaScript
Post by: Shockwave on October 29, 2011
This makes me think of an Amiga demo by someone called Thomas Landspurg, it was a wireframe stick man in a 3D world, he had a sword and he was trying to hit birds and other objects flying around him.

I can't find a video capture of the demo at the moment..  It would be worth you seeing it though because it was really cool.
Title: Re: 3D Person in JavaScript
Post by: Kirl on October 29, 2011
I may leave out the inverse kinematics, as I want to have full control over the pose of the stick man. I may make a seperate version with the inverse kinematics too.
Instead of a seperate version you can try to create a toggle between IK and FK (Forward Kinematics) like you have now. This is common for animation software as FK is usefull for mechanical parts, while IK is usefull for natural motion.

I'm quite familiar with IK/FK because I used it a lot for 3d animation and I'd really recommend trying IK before animating him with FK, you'll thank me for it eventually. We're usually only interested in where the hand/foot should go and the rest of the limbs automatically adjust themselves to make it so, we don't (like with FK), first move our upper arm, then lower arm and finally the hand, it all happens in one smooth motion. This is exactly what IK does.

If you need any help on implementation I'd be happy to help, as I skimmed through a chapter on it in my favourite AS book. I also have a lot of possibly useful tips from my 3d animation experience.

Anyhoo, I think it's a really cool project (especially in js), keep it up!  :)


[EDIT] Ah, for static posing FK is fine, but some animations would be really awesome!
Title: Re: 3D Person in JavaScript
Post by: combatking0 on October 29, 2011
@Shockwave: I like the sound of that demo.

@Kirl: Initially I plan to use it for static images for a comic I plan to start writing, as I'm a bit rubbish with a pencil, and drawing hands is quite a challenge. This should make my characters faster to draw.

Animating it sounds like an excellent next step.
Title: Re: 3D Person in JavaScript
Post by: benny! on October 29, 2011
Very cool project and good to see that you do some javascript! Keep us informed about your progress!
Title: Re: 3D Person in JavaScript
Post by: Raizor on October 29, 2011
Looking forward to seeing the kinematics stuff CombatKing :)