I need help. I'm trying to make an animation of a belt, one of those worn around the waist, being fastened. But I need to show the action happening. Does anyone have a tip on where to start?
Hello Augusto. That is one of those things that is a lot to go on, it depends on so much. I guess one of those important thing is your rig capacities and model. I don't know if the belt model to make it follow a curve that deforms around the waist is a good approach, or a mixture of rig and curve and animation. Do you need to show and animate the hands? Do you have screenshots? Are your models already rigged? Does it have to be realistic or just stylistic?
That sounds very complicated, even in it's simplest form (highly stylized and without hands).
But it's probably just going to be manual animation; I don't think you will be able to use Physics Simulation (like Rigid Body and Cloth) or so, to your advantage in a case like this, but I'm not sure....
It might just boil down to looking at video reference and start setting Keyframes (you'll also need a good Rig on the belt, of course!).
Unfortunately, I cannot show the model because it is a project from the company I am studying to execute, and since it is an unreleased product, I am not allowed to share it.
However, I can show a similar existing product to help illustrate what I need.
To clarify the animation: I do not need hands making the movement, just the buckle itself.
Well, seems like you just need to study a lot of animation and have a good rig, maybe a mix with curves to get the motion done. There isn't really much to say, it's all very manual work and eye, you need to have animating knowledge. I guess we could point you to Wayne's and Phil's animation and rigging courses?
https://cgcookie.com/courses/spider-animate-in-blender-easy
https://cgcookie.com/courses/core-fundamentals-of-rigging-blender
https://cgcookie.com/courses/core-fundamentals-of-animation-in-blender
https://cgcookie.com/courses/rig-blender-s-character-rigging-playbook
It depends on how complicated of an animation you need to do. For example a very simple moving the belt thru the buckle can be done with a curve and a curve modifier or a lattice with lattice modifier and move the object in a straight line along the curve/lattice. Side Note: Both curves and lattices have shape keys. Be aware that the shape keys move in shortest direct lines. If you need something more complex then a splineIK rig is the route I'd go. Here is a video to help with that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9uDM1lHm28&t=64s Even though it's common in Blender community to use empties for the hooks. I personally recommend using bones for the hooks. In the video if you made a copy of the bone chain used for the Spline IK that will put the bones in the best position. The in edit or pose mode select the bone. Then in object mode select armature, shift+select curve, tab into edit mode, select the control point, and press ctrl+H->hook to selected object bone. Repeat for next hook. You can disconnect the hooked bones if you need more wild movements. Some riggers would just use one bone chain and use a regular IK setup. It really depends on the animator's animation style in my opinion.