Relevant to Blender v2.31

Once you have a rigged and skinned Gus you can start playing with him as if he were a doll, moving his bones and viewing the results.

1. Select the armature only, then select Pose Mode from the "Mode" Menu (Figure 4.59, “The toggle button to switch to pose mode in the 3D Window toolbar.”). This option only appears if an armature is selected.

Figure 4.59. The toggle button to switch to pose mode in the 3D Window toolbar.

2. The armature will turn blue. You are in Pose Mode. If you now select a bone it will turn cyan, not pink, and if you move it (GKEY), or rotate it (RKEY), the body will deform!

Figure 4.60. You are in pose mode now!

We'll make Gus walk by defining four different poses relative to four different stages of a stride. Blender will do the work of creating a fluid animation.

1. First, verify that you are at frame 1 of the timeline. The frame number appears in a NumButton on the right of the Buttons Window Toolbar (Figure 4.61, “The current frame Num Button in the Buttons window Toolbar.”). If it is not set to 1, set it to 1 now.

Figure 4.61. The current frame Num Button in the Buttons window Toolbar.

2. Now, by rotating only one bone at a time (RKEY), we'll raise UpLeg.L and bend LoLeg.L backwards while raising Arm.R a little and lowering Arm.L a little, as shown in Figure 4.62, “Our first pose.”.

Figure 4.62. Our first pose.

3. Select all bones with AKEY. With the mouse pointer on the 3D Window, press IKEY. A menu pops up (Figure 4.63, “Storing the pose to the frame.”). Select LocRot from this menu. This will get the position and orientation of all bones and store it in a pose at frame 1. This pose represents Gus in the middle of his stride, while moving his left leg forward and above the ground.

Figure 4.63. Storing the pose to the frame.

4. Now move to frame 11 either by entering the number in the NumButton or by pressing UPARROW. Then move Gus to a different position, like Figure 4.64, “Our second pose.”, with his left leg forward and right leg backward, both slightly bent. Gus is walking in place!

Figure 4.64. Our second pose.

5. Select all bones again and press IKEY to store this pose at frame 11.

6. We now need a third pose at frame 21, with the right leg up, because we are in the middle of the other half of the stride. This pose is the mirror of the one we defined at frame 1. Therefore, return to frame 1 and, in the Armature Menu in the 3D Window header select the Copy Pose entry. (Figure 4.65, “Copying the pose to the buffer”). You have copied the current pose to the buffer.

Figure 4.65. Copying the pose to the buffer

7. Go to frame 21 and paste the pose with the Paste Flipped Pose option in the Armature Menu (Figure 4.66, “Pasting the copy as a new, flipped, pose.”). This button will paste the cut pose, exchanging the positions of bones with suffix .L with those of bones with suffix .R, effectively flipping it!

Figure 4.66. Pasting the copy as a new, flipped, pose.

The pose is there but it has not been stored yet! You must press IKEY with all bones selected.

8. Now apply the same procedure to copy the pose at frame 11 to frame 31, also flipping it.

9. To complete the cycle, we need to copy the pose at frame 1 without flipping to frame 41. Do so by copying it as usual, and by using Paste Pose entry. End the sequence by storing the pose with IKEY.