Animating
In the previous section, we went over the basics with bones and how they work.
Right now, they're static and boring. Let's change that!
Table of Contents
Opening Animation Editor
On the top right, you will see Armature and Animation. Click the latter, and a panel at the bottom of the screen will appear.
To the left of it, click New to create a new animation. You will be prompted to name it first, though you can press Enter to leave it with the default name.
The animation editor should appear:
Let's get to animating!
Adding Keyframes
Click on a line anywhere in the animation editor. Edit the bone in any way (moving, scaling, etc), and you should see it appear in the animation editor:
This means that your edit has been recorded!
You will notice that in addition to the keyframe that you clicked, there is one at the very left. This is the initial value of the field that you edited, so the animation knows how to interpolate the field.
Speaking of interpolation...
Playing The Animation
Let's play the animation, either by pressing the spacebar or clicking the Play button at the bottom of the animation editor.
You should see your bone being animated! This will keep running in a loop until you stop it (spacebar or Stop button).
Editing Keyframes
Keyframes can be individually edited, and the individual fields can even be dragged around. Try dragging either the diamonds at the top of the keyframe editor, or the icons that correspond to their field. The animation will be changed to reflect their places in the timeline.
Clicking a diamond will also 'select' the keyframe. The right panel will show extra information about the selected keyframe, along with some options. Play around with them and see how the animation changes!
Conclusion
The animation process is hopefully simple to grasp, as it is essentially recording edits and adjusting keyframes. Realistically however, an animation will contain lots of them. Spend some time creating more animations, and you will be a professional keyframe manager in no time!