Need Animation Help!!

[Bugga_Guy]

Hi all

 

Does anyone know a good tutorial that I can find on how to animate one object that can influence another?

 

For example: If you pull a leaver it will open the door - depending on how far you pull the leaver will determine how much the door would open.

 

Another example:

 

You have 2 gears, both interact with each other. If you move one gear clockwise - the other gear moves counterclockwise automatically - visa versa.

 

Thanks in advance

[Fernando Lino]

I am not sure, but I think you need to link the objects...parent>child to do that.

[Bugga_Guy]

well I know that the objects somehow have to be linked, and that both objects need to be animated . But I know there is some way you can bring up a toggle, so when you do all the set up first, you just move the spinner (or parent object) which can save alot of time in animating these kind of things.

 

I think it has something to do with reactor in max?

[lambros]

Well, the simple solution is to use a parent-child link so that an object follows the motion of another. Actually, under motion you can assign a new controller for the child object, a Slavepos, Attachment or PositionConstraint, and use the parent object as a target. Just check the help file on these.

If you need a really custom workout, perhaps let's say that you have a Pivotdoor and you want to animate the "open" slider according to a simple box's x position, so that when you move the object on the x axis, the door will open and close, you have to use the wiring parameters feature. Just select the box, and under Animation menu select Wire parameters and again wire parameters. In the pop up select "Transform", "Position", "X Position" (or whatever you need). Then click on the pivot door and select "Object (Pivot Door)", "open (degrees)". The Parameter wiring dialog will open. The connection has not been established yet, you need to specify if it will be a one way connection or a two way one, so the perhaps if you move the open slider yourself the box gets moved in the x axis. To establish a one way connection so that when the box is moved, the door opens, click on the arrow that points from left to right, in the middle of the parameter box to set the control direction. If you click connect then, the connection is established and the open slider is updated with the x position of the box. Of course, in that case, the door will open in 360 degrees cycles, so the box will have to be moved to an initial xposition of 0. You can have more control over this by entering an expression in the lower right part of the wire parameters box. So, let's assume that you pressed connect, and you think that the movement is too fast. In the Parameter wiring box just enter "(X_Position)/4" without the quotes of course in the lower right part of the box and click update. More box movement is needed to open the door now!

[lambros]

Now, if you need to use a onscreen slider rather than an object to control the door open parameter, under Helpers, Manipulators, click on Slider, name it prehaps "door open" and click on the viewport to create a slider. Give it a minimum of 0 and a maximum of say 180. Then, wire as before, i.e. under Animation menu click "Wire Parameters", "Wire Parameters", "Object (Slider)", "Value", click on the pivot door, select "Object (pivot door)", "open (degrees)", and click the desired control direction arrow and then "Connect". Bingo! The slider position on the viewport can be adjusted, but bear in mind that in order to adjust its value, you have to turn on "select and manipulate" on the main toolbar.

[dicatta]

sorry

maybe this is off tread but does anyone know if there is a way

to link a object to only one plane

i want to attach shadow to my moving object so it will only

follow it on xy plane and not by z-axis

 

thanks in advance