An armature is a
kinematic chain used in
computer animation
Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating Film, moving images. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both still images and moving images, while computer animation refers to moving images. Virtu ...
to simulate the motions of virtual human or animal characters. In the context of animation, the
inverse kinematics of the armature is the most relevant computational algorithm.
There are two types of digital armatures: Keyframing (stop-motion) armatures and real-time (puppeteering) armatures.
Keyframing armatures were initially developed to assist in animating digital characters without basing the movement on a live performance. The animator poses a device manually for each keyframe, while the character in the animation is set up with a mechanical structure equivalent to the armature. The device is connected to the animation software through a driver program and each move is recorded for a particular frame in time.
Real-time armatures are similar, but they are puppeteered by one or more people and captured in real time.
See also
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Linkages
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Skeletal animation
Skeletal animation or rigging is a technique in computer animation in which a character (or other articulated object) is represented in two parts: a polygonal or parametric mesh representation of the surface of the object, and a hierarchical set ...
References
3D graphics software
Computational physics
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