Skeletal or model based character movement

Hello,

I dont understand that Quake 3 uses kind of like X files to show there characters and or guns in Quake 3 . But what is this skeletal thingy? Your telling me we can how movment of some 3D image jump as like a human with Matrix Tranformations? This is what I heard. Which way is more suitable for newbies? Anyone know some links related? Im a freshman in high school go easy : )

I am not an expert on this topic but I believe that a search on “inverse kinematics” will pull up a lot of stuff that might help you get started.

the more suitable method for newbies is like what quake3 does (key frames). the modeler will make a a few frames say of a person walking + during runtime u lerp between them so u get a nice smooth action. download a quake3/2/1 model viewer program loadin a model and start the animation u should be able to work out whats going on. www.planetquake.com/polycount