"1)Does blender use weighted vertex binding?"
yes.With weights painting or asigning an weight value per vertex group.
"2)Is IK animation supported?"
Yes. But no planted keys or sliding keys (joint pining), like in Character Studio or certain ik rigs, xsi pin object, AOI pinning , etc.Its faked with a system based in complex rigs , null bones constrains and ik solver. I use just empties , ik solver and a copy constrain.
"3)If IK is supported, can feet and hand be pinned into position (frozen) while other parts are positioned?"
LOL!it's rare to see someone demanding it, apart than me.I have a feeling that in blender comunity major interest has not be human animation, but that is changing.Not many there knowing what joint pinning is(part of the problem)
There are workarounds , as I mentioned.
"4)Can reference pictures be loaded into the background?"
Two options: bacground picture loading, or like in wings, max , etc, just texture two planes (easy just invert a cube.The scanned pictures must match in height, pixels etc: u prepare it in adobe or gimp.)
"5)Can animated models be exported in a file format which keeps the weighted vertex positions and can be converted to B3D Ultimate Unwrap?"
yup, i think i was the main tester of it, x format.It ports weights. you have ben omari's one http://xoomer.virgilio.it/glabro1/ or another (which I use) that slightly changed the plugin at www.mindfloaters.de
that last one i test often that works in ultimate, also the export from there as x or b3d.All tested.
Ben , the original x exporter author, is in the middle of creating an x importer.This for example will allow to animate in a better package for that matter, like xsi or max, and for example , render hair with fiber (similar to shag hair though not that powerful)..for those intereste also in high res movies, like me (the only important -to me- feature removed from xsi 500$ is hair rendering)
All that road has many ..stones in the way.
but all is perfectly possible. I just bought xsi to make my life easier.
animating with xsi or cs is many times quicker or easier, be aware of that.
yes.With weights painting or asigning an weight value per vertex group.
"2)Is IK animation supported?"
Yes. But no planted keys or sliding keys (joint pining), like in Character Studio or certain ik rigs, xsi pin object, AOI pinning , etc.Its faked with a system based in complex rigs , null bones constrains and ik solver. I use just empties , ik solver and a copy constrain.
"3)If IK is supported, can feet and hand be pinned into position (frozen) while other parts are positioned?"
LOL!it's rare to see someone demanding it, apart than me.I have a feeling that in blender comunity major interest has not be human animation, but that is changing.Not many there knowing what joint pinning is(part of the problem)
There are workarounds , as I mentioned.
"4)Can reference pictures be loaded into the background?"
Two options: bacground picture loading, or like in wings, max , etc, just texture two planes (easy just invert a cube.The scanned pictures must match in height, pixels etc: u prepare it in adobe or gimp.)
"5)Can animated models be exported in a file format which keeps the weighted vertex positions and can be converted to B3D Ultimate Unwrap?"
yup, i think i was the main tester of it, x format.It ports weights. you have ben omari's one http://xoomer.virgilio.it/glabro1/ or another (which I use) that slightly changed the plugin at www.mindfloaters.de
that last one i test often that works in ultimate, also the export from there as x or b3d.All tested.
Ben , the original x exporter author, is in the middle of creating an x importer.This for example will allow to animate in a better package for that matter, like xsi or max, and for example , render hair with fiber (similar to shag hair though not that powerful)..for those intereste also in high res movies, like me (the only important -to me- feature removed from xsi 500$ is hair rendering)
All that road has many ..stones in the way.
but all is perfectly possible. I just bought xsi to make my life easier.
animating with xsi or cs is many times quicker or easier, be aware of that.