attaching bits of geometry to each other

[Dave Buckley]

hi guys

 

small technical question here hopefully something really simple

 

i am doing an animation and i have a few different parts making up a model, for example a pipe with screws and seals.

 

i now need to make these seperate parts one complete object, i usually group things like this together, but for this one i do not want to use a group

 

how would i go about this??

 

my reason for attaching everything together is that they all rotate around a central pivot point and i do not want to have to rotate everything individually

[Matt Sugden]

well as long as you are using the same material or multi-sub material for all the components you want to add together simply go into edit poly and use the attach command.I think that is what you are meaning?

 

The other way you could get objects to animate in a group (without actually attaching them) is to use hierarchy system, so you only need animate one object and the others lower down the hierarchy tree will follow.

 

Oh and also, you could just select all the objects you want to group and set a new pivot point which is at the center to the the group.

[Dave Buckley]

cheers for the reply, i have however no done it using the pivot method you mentioned, no to familiar with setting up a heirachy although watch this space as i feel i made need to use it for another part of the animation.

 

i see you are based in cheadle, thats quite local to me, as i am currently sat at my desk in Bramhall

[SandmanNinja]

Link. You want to link them.

 

All individual parts, but linked they behave as a single object.

 

For Example: A finger linked to a hand, linked to arm, linked to a body.

Move or rotate the body and they all turn with the body.

[Dave Buckley]

so is link the tool you use to create a hierarchy then?

 

because that method you just outlined sounds like it would create children and parents

[Matt Sugden]

yes, the link button on the top left of the tool bar creates your hierarchys.

 

Very useful for animation.

[vizfx]

Hi.

I don`t know the reason why you are avoiding the group.

If you`re not familiar with other options mentioned above, the easiest way to animate in your case is to group all the elements. After that go to “Hierarchy” panel / "Pivot" / "Move/Rotate/Scale" – “Affect pivot only” and reposition the pivot to fit you`re center of rotation. Finally check again “Affect pivot only” to deactivate it.

Be careful to use “Use pivot point center” and not “Use selection center” or “Use transform coordinate center”

Mihai

[Paul Twyman]

If your linking stuff try using a dummy helper and linking everything you want to move to the dummy. Then just move the dummy. That way you don't have to mess about with the other objects and if you want to start again you can just delete the dummy and add a new one.