First, make a 3D Object:

• If you haven't done that yet, click here to learn how to make a 3D object.
• Make sure you've saved your 3D object in Wings3D.
• To start with, you should make a simple 3D object so that you can figure the animation technique out easily, and then you can try animating a more complicated object.
• For example, this is a simple object:

If you don't already have your 3D object open in Wings3D, open it

• In Wings3D, Click on the "File" menu
• Click on "Open..."
• Find the file you want to animate and open it

Make a copy of the 3D object file:

• Click on the "File" menu.
• Click on "Save As...".
• Give it a name similar to the name of the original 3D object file, but maybe with the number 2 on the end.


• This 3D object file (.wings file) will be your second pose.
• Each 3D object file you make will be another pose.

Make changes to the current 3D object file

• There are a few rules you have to follow when making changes to a pose, and the following picture will help you remember those rules:


• You must only modify your 3D object using Move, Scale, and Rotate.
• You cannot add any new shapes to your 3D object file, and you cannot remove any shapes.
• If you do, the animation will not work.
• The animation works by morphing (changing shape) from one pose to the next, so if one pose has 3 shapes and another pose has 4 shapes, the animation won't know what to do.
• Or, if the animation has one shape made out of 4 verticies, and is trying to morph that shape into a shape that has 5 vertecies, it also won't know what to do.
• This is why it is best to try to learn how to animate using simple shapes before you try it on something more complex.
• Here is that picture again to remind you:


• Here is an example of how you might change your pose:

You can make more poses by making more copies of your 3D object file:

• But for now, we'll keep it simple. You only need two poses to have an animation.

Once you have all the poses you need,

• Export each pose as a .wrl file so that the game can read them.
• If you don't remember how to Export, click here.

Now that you're done making poses,

• Close Wings3D and open the Learn3D level editor (editor.bat in your videoGameDev Folder).
• You can set up the animation without opening a new level.
• Just find the original 3D object that you made poses of in the "Object Selector" window.
• Select that object by clicking on it:


• Now click on the "General Properties" button at the top of the "Object Selector" window.
• At the bottom of the new window that pops up, there should be a box that says "Animation".

Add poses to the animation

• For this example, we'll make the animation that happens when the object is just standing there.
• If you wanted to make an animation for when the object is walking, or when it is talking, you would click on the tab named "walk" or "talk".
• To add a pose to the animation, click on the space below the first pose, so that the space is highlighted in blue:


• Now click the green + button.
• A new window should pop up called "Add Pose".
• Find your second pose in the drop-down menu:


• Click ok.
• Your second pose should now be added to the animation.


• Now click the "Save" button at the bottom.
• Try adding your object that you created into the "Game" window, by clicking on it in the "Object Selector" window and hitting the space-bar.
• You should see your object animated now.


• Notice that after it smoothly morphs from the first pose to the second pose, it skips from the second pose back to the first pose.

If you want it to smoothly morph back to the first pose instead of just skipping back...

• Go back into the "General Properties" of your object.
• Click the space underneath the second pose that you added:


• Click the green + button.
• Choose the first pose from the window that pops up, and click "Ok".


• Now click the "Save" button, and the animation should be smoother

If you want to remove a pose from the animation,

• Click on that pose in the "General Properties" window, so that it is highlighted in blue.


• Now click the green - button
• And now you can just click the "Save" button.
• Also, if you want to make the animation slower, try making the number next to "Time" bigger.