What's the best way to do this?

[Devin Johnston]

I need to recreate this folding wall for an animation, I'm not entirely sure how to go about doing it, does anyone have any suggestions?

 

http://skyfold.com/portfolioDocs/smartlink/47.mpg

[andstef]

try making the first panel (the one at the top) the parent of the second panel (the one below), and the second panel the parent of the third and so on.

now when the first panel rotates, the rest will follow

to keep them in line, you just have to rotate each one

and of course, move the pivot of each panel where the hinge is.

[kippu]

wont it be easier just to go ahead and keyframe it ?

[Devin Johnston]

Well I've tried setting up a bone system, I've linked the panels to the appropriate bones but I'm not sure how to limit their movements. Maybe that's not the best way to go about doing this, maybe I should just keyframe it.

[caffa]

Here's a good tutorial that shows how to rig an accordeon door: http://area.autodesk.com/tutorials/animation_and_rigging_techniques_for_architecture_visualization

(step 4 IK chains)

[andstef]

bones are too complicated

 

i attached a set of images, you should understand what i meant by linking

[andstef]

and it should work just fine

[CJI]

Andreis manual keyframing way is the simplest way to achieve it. Yes you could do it with bones and FK animation which is pretty much the same as Andreis except your using bones to create the heirarchy rather than the object heirarchy itself. It should be even possible to automate with one controller using Bones and IK but in my opinion it really doesn't warrant it for something like this. I don't think it would end up any quicker.

 

The short of it, i would do it Andreis way.

 

Oh and i liked that little tutorial there andrei. very clear.

[andstef]

Thank you for the appreciation Curtis

(it wasn't my intention to make a tutorial, but i'm glad that it came out this way)

 

best regards

[CJI]

No problem, i just think it is quite a straight forward simple technique for those animation shy among us, to see how something can be quickly put together.

[Nils Norgren]

In my opinion there is no better example of when to use "Parameter wiring" I made this example in about 10 min.

 

I created a dummy, added an "Attribute Holder" modifier, added a slider with the parameter editor, then created the boxes, offset their pivots (rather crudely) and linked them to each other, with the top being the root of the tree for each side. I then used parameter wiring to hook up each box's x rotation to the slider, I had to get the value just right in the slider which took a bit, and once that was right the value was either used straight for the top boxes, or turned negative, or doubled (all the boxes below the top need to rotate 180 degrees).

 

take a look at the scene, select the dummy and slide the slider.

 

-Nils

[Claudio Branch]

 

In my opinion there is no better example of when to use "Parameter wiring"...

 

 

I was playing around with this little challenge myself using Wire Parameters.

 

I had half of one "box" working very nicely, just by moving the pivot point to the end, key-framing the rotation and making a duplicate with the rotation turned the other way.

 

I was going to use the Z_Rotation of the top half to drive the Z_Position of the bottom half.

 

I just couldn't get the proper syntax for my expressions. Where can I find a "glossary" of the proper syntax to be used?

[Nils Norgren]

Here is the passage from the help for parameter wiring (at the bottom):

 

--------

For more information on expression syntax, see the topic “Script Controllers” in the MAXScript Reference.

 

When the parameters are first wired, the default expressions are simple 1-to-1 links between the parameters. These expressions can be edited into any valid script fragment that will yield a result of the correct type for its parameter.

 

--------

 

hope this helps,

 

-Nils

[andstef]

I played around with parameter wiring too, and i find it to be a real pain in the arse, and i didn't want a complicated thing.

i made a template scene with a hdri as the environment and a target direct light positioned so as to give the impression that the sun is casting parallel light. and i did the following: linked the light and it's target to a circle, and i managed to wire the circle's rotation in the horizontal rotation of the vray hdri. now i could rotate the circle and the light and hdri would follow and i wouldn't have to spend time aligning the light to the sun in the hdri. anyway, being happy with what i did i thought to share this with a friend, and went at his place with the scene, and guess what ? it didn't work any more i came back and it didn't work on my computer either . and that was the last time i tried to wire something in max. maybe i will try ZOOKEEPER when it will be possible to have more functionality with the trial version.

right now i'm playing with rhino and grasshopper and it's amazing.

[daniohayon]

This is the simplest. Link all objects by hierarchy and wire the Y_Rotation in the way it shows in the image. First flap wire goes with "0-Y_Rotation*2" and the next down with "0-Y_Rotation". The third will do "0-Y_Rotation*2" again and the fourth "0-Y_Rotation"...

 

All you have to animate is the first flap, the rest will follow ;-)

 

Edited March 23, 2010 by daniohayon

[Koper]

think you guys might have solved this already

 

but here is a thread we had going almost a year ago

 

http://forums.cgarchitect.com/36980-scissor-lift-rig-anyone.html

 

A

[Devin Johnston]

I wound up using and IK chain and key framing, it works really well and I'll post a video once it's rendered. Thanks for all the help guy's!