i did it before
you build the model in blender , but you will need to seperate it into limbs.
you exctract the entire model, this model in GDK will have limbs, like head , hands , legs etc..
the bones will also be exctracted using the correct DirectX exctractor found here on the 3D section in the main forum , you can always ask their.
about animation blending for induvidual limbs.. that is not possible with what DarkGDK presents, you may need to code it yourself , or , create induvidual body parts as objects , or just use the same model you already have , seperate the limbs and bones when you are finished with all the animations you want , then export induvidual object , that object will be the current selected in blender.
but then again you will need to code it in GDK to somehow Glue the objects together just like you would do with an anmiated weapon like the M16 or anyother object that has animations .
once you have induvidual objects glued together where each will have induvidual bones / animations , you will be able to blend it easly.
but if you animate the entire body with one bone structure , you will have to recode how animations will work under Dgdk.
i would suggest the second one , induvidual objects with induvidual bones and induvidual animations , it can be done if you animate first , seperate everything after you are pleased with it (dont forget to save a backup of the original), export selected objects , load them , glue them , animate as induviduals , then you could blend using the frames that are already inside them.
on a diffrent approach , a more advanced approach is to do all the animations inside GDK , move , rotate , size , offset object limbs where the object is the entire body seperated into limbs but act as one.
when you export a bocy with animations and bones from blender
you will recive this:
object - body .
limb 0 .. 10 = head , torso , legs, hands , fingers, foor
10 - 20 - head bone , torso bone , legs bones etc...
when you rotate , size or anyother thing with this approach , you will have to change the bone limbs and not the actuall limbs, i dont know why but its just how it works.
animation blending is very prectige , since most games, developers use a combination of procedual and coded algorithems to animate.
the more advanced developers such as Ea Sports for example use their own Animation Suit programs i dont remmber its name , but those animations are awesome becouse , it uses
Procedual , Bone Algorithems , blending , Physics of each bone and joint and sometimes even athmosphere and special gravity diffrences such as when a player is falling down or even trying to get up , the only thing to remmber here , is that there are nomberos ways to do it , you can always search google for animation blending before purchasing anything cause you may find libraries that are first free second so advanced that they may offer a way to handle a ready body model with limbs and to do what you want to do with blending for induviduals.
anyway you look at it , animation blending of induviduals are much better then just procedual cause you can get some really awesome results that will look real , feel real and will give you the prectige of a very good animator / programmer.
hope you will find your best approach , sorry if i wrote too much
got excited by this
