Real-Time 3D Rendering with DirectX® and HLSL: A Practical Guide to Graphics Programming

Chapter 20. Skeletal Animation

Skeletal animation gets its name from the hierarchical set of interconnected transforms (bones) associated with a model’s mesh (the skeleton’s skin). When these transforms are modified, over time, the mesh is animated. In this chapter, you explore skeletal animation and develop the systems to animate your models.

Hierarchical Transformations

In most of the demonstrations thus far, you have applied transformations—scale, rotation, and translation—to orient your objects in world space. These transformations modify the position of each vertex in an associated model. That’s the basis of animation: If you modify these transformations over time, your object will animate. However, most people wouldn’t consider an object ...