sliding joints tutorial?

[threed_modeler]

Hi all!

 

I'm doing my level best to animate a forklift whose arms telescope in several stages. The best technique I've found so far is using the path constraint for each stage.

 

I'd like to enhance the animation by using sliding joints, but haven't found any good tutorials online devoted to sliding joints. I'm somewhat familiar with IK, but none of the resources that come with Max go into sliding joints in any great detail. Any suggestions? Thanks!

[Craig Ramsay]

You could use the reactor controller I think

 

Check out buzz's tutorials on www.3dbuzz.com

 

Craig

[John Dollus]

Parent the arms in reverse order smallest to largest and active the translation limits in the IK panel. It sometimes helps to create a dummy on the very end so the limits work correctly.

[threed_modeler]

Cheers, Craig!

[threed_modeler]

John:

 

I appreciate the advice. I am having difficulty locating the translation limits parameters on the IK panel. Do I need to create a bones system first and skin them to the "arms" before I go into IK?

 

Thanks,

Dave

[Craig Ramsay]

Why even bother with IK? A reactor controller would be much easier and do the job perfectly IMHO

 

Craig

[threed_modeler]

Craig:

 

I've started to explore the Position Reactor controller. Is this the one you're referring to? It seems like I can only restrict the parameters of my child to the specified parameters of a parent object. Furthermore, I can only change the parameters by creating keyframes.

 

Can I use this controller to restrain the limits of my forklift's reach, and then go back at a later time and apply a separate animation control to the forklift body? Thanks again.