IndieGamesCon '02 - 3D Character Animation

I'm going to be doing a session at the IGC focusing on 3D character animation. Here's a quick list of what I plan to talk about:

- working with skeletons (general processes and techniques)
- skinning (Skin modifier, not texture mapping)
- pros/cons of inverse and forward kinematics
- designing character rigs
- expressions
- custom animation controls
- approaches to animating characters

At the moment, I'm only planning on working in 3ds max, although I can also do demonstrations in Maya. I'm also going to keep this presentation non-engine-specific. My goal is to give those attending a solid understanding of character rigging and animation, so they can use the knowledge in whatever engine they like. However, everything I'll talk about should work in the TGE just fine (almost all of the character rigs I've designed/worked with over the past couple of years work in the TGE just fine).

I'd like to know from those attending what they would like to see in this session. Please keep in mind that this session will focus mainly on character rigging and animation. Modeling and texture-mapping will be covered in Barry Drew's "Creating 3D Characters" session.