LWJGL Forum

Programming => OpenGL => Topic started by: LWJGLNoob on July 06, 2015, 17:05:02

Title: Skeletal Animation
Post by: LWJGLNoob on July 06, 2015, 17:05:02
I have research skeletal animation for a while and still can not seem to find anything for LWJGL.

* I want to create a model and rig it all in blender
* Then export the model in a .dae file.
* Parse through the collada file
* Then render the model with the skeleton applied to it
* then when ever I hit the W key on my keyboard I want the animation to start playing

How will I complete my goal? Is there any library I can use to make this simpler?
Title: Re: Skeletal Animation
Post by: Kai on July 06, 2015, 17:17:08
Please understand that LWJGL is no game engine, it is a wrapper for the very-low-level OpenGL API (and others).
The workflow you are targeting is most likely better supported by a real game engine, such as JMonkeyEngine (http://jmonkeyengine.org/). I would recommend using that instead. It supports importing COLLADA files directly.
Title: Re: Skeletal Animation
Post by: LWJGLNoob on July 06, 2015, 17:38:13
I completely under stand that. But I am not interested in a game engine I am interested in LWJGL. So, I am still looking for a good answer.
Title: Re: Skeletal Animation
Post by: quew8 on July 06, 2015, 23:52:12
Quote from: LWJGLNoob on July 06, 2015, 17:05:02
How will I complete my goal? Is there any library I can use to make this simpler?

If you're not going to use a game engine (and I agree with @Kai; you should unless you have good reason not to) then no there is no library. As for completing your goal, tenacity and patience.

Quote from: LWJGLNoob on July 06, 2015, 17:05:02
* I want to create a model and rig it all in blender
* Then export the model in a .dae file.
* Parse through the collada file
* Then render the model with the skeleton applied to it
* then when ever I hit the W key on my keyboard I want the animation to start playing

* There are plenty of blender tutorials out there.
* Ditto
* Have to write your own parser. There was a topic on that subject here a few days ago with helpful links. Go there.
* A matter of writing the right shaders. Once all parsed correctly, not the hardest bit.
* Simple use of GLFW's input handling systems. Look at examples, LWJGL's getting started links.

But the important thing is are you up to this at the moment. It is no small undertaking and unless you have a fair bit of experience with OpenGL and graphical programming it is not for you and you should start on something simpler. How much experience do you have.