Theres a diffrence between rigging and animation (8/5/2014)

Struggling with grasping what to do with my animation, I talked to my lecturer today and found that what I have been doing is rigging and not animation as the two are completely different things apparently. This explains why I was finding things so difficult as, I was enjoying the animation part which is moving the individual parts of a 'CAT Parent' so that it makes the same movements as a person, whereas the rigging is creating an effective model that can be edited by our lecturer realistically. The point of the task was to attach the animated CAT to the rigged model, though the two can be and will probably be separate in my case.

During the lecturer's pointers I made the following notes to remember.

• Always 'Set Key' on frame 0 as this not only saves all data, but it also doesn't mess the model when you move it. 
• Need to 'loop' the vertexes around the limbs on the rigging and set them to '1' so as to fix them. Otherwise, add or take away weight until they look right. 
• Have to use the 'Weight Tool' (a wrench symbol) on the 'Skin Modifier' so as to then edit everything and make all the bending correct. I also have to click the model, go into the modifier list, select 'Skin' and then 'Envelope' so as to bring up the heat signature esk editing.  
• Rigging the trouser legs for my 3D model is going to be apparently even more difficult now since, for some reason I did them in spirals and not loops. However, at this stage I feel it is too late to go back and change them, so I will continue to rig them to the best to my ability.

At the moment the rigging looks like the following thanks to the lecturer's help. As you can see the legs still need to bend correctly, but the arm is getting there.

As for the animation, I will need to animate the following 'CAT Parent' when I get the chance. The lecturer would like to see a walk cycle and, if I find the time, I will get it to do other things.