I've been wondering about animation a games mesh. this question comes from sports games. I know that for certain movements like running, jumping, walking etc... an animation for each of these movements is made and you simply call it during the game. but for sports games like baseball. let's say a ground ball is hit and the player runs to the ball when in time to catch it how do it know the exact position to put the glove in order to not look like the ball desapears out of thin air and appears at the glove... do you have to make a series of animations for every posible position of the ball or can we move the bone of the mesh on the fly during the game. Just wondering because sports games look very accurate when it comes to this things. same in soccer with the legs and the ball... Does anybody know how this is done? thanks

I would probably have an animation for a short jump catch and a long ("flying" position) jump catch (i don't know much about tweening), both of which wouldn't adjust the overall position of the model at all. I would then line up the glove with the ball/project the position of the ball while the game is running. Alternatively, cut the camera scene and just fake it.

HAHAHAAHA... JUST FAKE IT.... very smart, I think your right. Maybe it takes to much procesing to tweek bones to much on the go... this is a solution, I was wondering if this is how big companies do it, not that I'm going to actually do it like them just as a general knowledge.

The magic google term you're looking for is "inverse kinematics".

thanks joanusdmentia a lot of material about it... I'll get reading.. very interesting!!!