I''d read somewhere that bones are represent by matrix.. but now, if i have start and end point of a bone, how can i represent it like a matrix ?? I want to moltiply the bone matrix to a vector vertex to move this vertex in the space.. how can i do it ?

Is there, per chance, any mention of matrix stacks in the article that you have read?

No, i have read nothing about matrix stack..

Ok, sorry, matrix stacks aren't required at all for what you want (though they are related).

You want a matrix transformation such that the "bone" at the position (0,0,0) - (0,1,0) (for instance), is moved to the position (startpoint) - (endpoint). Once you have such a transformation, you can apply it to any point, and it will be transformed to the "bone space".

The transformation that you are looking for is simply a composition of a scaling transformation, a rotation transformation, and a translation transformation. Depending on the graphic package that you are using, building the matrices to do these transformation might be very easy.

- The scaling factor is simply the length of the vector (endpoint - startpoint)
- The rotation angle is the angle between the vector (endpoint - startpoint) and the vector (0,1,0). The axis is the crossproduct of these two vectors.
- The translation vector is simply (startpoint)

I hope that this is clear...

Cédric

[edited by - cedricl on July 6, 2003 11:38:11 AM]

If you don''t know enough about matrices, ask python_regious about his tutorial

Where can i find python_regious tutorial ??? Anyway.. tnx for all !

In the articles & resources section. Alternately, you could make a member search for python_regious and look at his "Contributions" section.