The Area

Morph problem

2012-05-17T02:19:33+02:00

Hi. Could someone please explain the reason for this? I have a simple object that I want to morph between the original and a smaller version of the same thing. I made two copies "start" and "finish". I then selected the original part and then Create/Compound objects/Morph. Under "Pick targets" I ticked "Copy" and then selected the first target ("start") and the second target ("finish") ready to set animation keys. When I select the first target the original part moves randomly to another position in the scene. If I change the pivot point of the object it changes where it moves to but still moves it somewhere else in the scene? If I move the original part back to the correct location the animation still has incorrect movement? Can someone please tell me what causes this and how can I fix? Many thanks, Terry

Dynamic Cut Away

2012-05-16T02:35:44+02:00

Hi there, am struggling to create a cut away on a rotating tool, seen video below. I'd like the create a 90 degree cut out (represented by the two planes). I've tried using the slice and cap tools to cut the section away on the part but I need the cut out to be static, independent of the spinning tool. Can anyone please help me?!! Thankyou

Vol Select with A group of Objects

2012-05-15T07:54:47+02:00

Good Morning, Was wondering if anyone had any clever ways of accomplishing this; I have an excavator on treads, with each tread made up of about 100 Individual components. I also have a high poly ground plane that I wanted to deform when the tread hit it, compressing it a tad. Vol. Select is my typical tool, but I can't puzzle out how to get it to work with multiple objects or a group. Anybody happen to know how to deform a mesh with numerous objects, shy of just assigning around 200 vol select modifiers?

Metronome not playing

2012-05-14T23:42:31+02:00

Simple question. I have activated my Metronome (and turned off my sound track) with the following settings: Beats per minute =60. Beats per measure=4. However, I don't seem to get any sound. I reactivated the sound track and it plays fine. How comes I'm not getting any beats? Cheers

Attribute wiring for delta position

2012-05-14T02:00:40+02:00

I'm trying to set an attribute to animate several objects moving relative to their parent (bomb bay doors opening on a plane). They dont rotate, they slide but I cant figure out the expression for moving relative to a parent. Can anyone advise on how to do this or a tutorial example which relates to delta movement rather than absolute position. TIA.

Hoist Animation

2012-05-14T00:40:51+02:00

Hi. I am looking to create an animation of a box being lowered through an opening into a cylindrical vessel. The box is held/manipulated by three wires (one each side that each branch/split into pairs, and a single central wire) from hoists on beams above. There are connectors between the wires/hoists. There are points where a couple of wires are taught and the other is loose. I also need to add a flexible rubber pipe to the box and hang this over the opening and out of the vessel. To animate this properly should I be looking at kinematics (a topic I have not looked at yet) rather than just key framing? Could someone please advise on a suitable approach and the areas that I need to read up/get tutorials on. How do I animate the wires stretching (reeling out from the hoists)? Thanks, Terry

Link Constraint animation causes weird/unexpected problems

2012-05-13T19:54:32+02:00

Hello, I'm working on a character in a wheelchair maneuvering in spaces and manipulating various objects. I currently have a fully rigged chair that is attached to a path and the large wheels automatically rotate based on a dummy object's change in position. To attach the hand to various objects (the wheel, the doorknob, etc), I have the biped's hands linked to dummy objects so I can use a link constraint. Everything works perfectly, until I try and animation the link constraint. Somehow, the animation of the link constraint causes the hand dummy object to fly around and the wheel that it's linked to no longer correctly rotates. I have no idea why this is happening. I've attached the file below (without the biped for file size) The way the file is currently set up: The [b]R Hand Dummy[/b] is supposed to animated from the RR Wheel Dummy to Cylinder002 (the door handle) and then back after opening the door. The wheel animation is handled by a float script on RR Wheel Dummy's z-rotation and references the position change of R Wheel Rotation Master When scrubbing (from 0) you can see the [b]R Hand Dummy[/b] and the Right Wheel spinning incorrectly when the chair starts to move after opening the door (starting frame ~225). Is there any solution to this other than manually animating the wheels (which is a problem if I want to change later paths)? Thanks for taking a look.

'attract' vertices from a spline?

2012-05-13T14:06:36+02:00

Hi all, I'm trying to animate an object moving near a spline object (with many vertices). I'd like the vertices to stick to, or attract to, the dummy object as it advances down the spline. I guess the best basic example would be a rope sitting on the ground, with a ring threaded through it, and moving the ring the length of the rope about 6" above the ground. Any thoughts ? I tried using the displace space warp, but it 'pushes' the vertices instead of attracting them. This provided unwanted results. Thanks Phil

Excavating a trench

2012-05-13T06:48:16+02:00

Good Afternoon, I'm working on an animation that involves showing an excavator digging out multiple layers of strata. I can think of a few potential ways to do this, involving vol select and particles primarily, but that doesn't always come off super realistically. Does anyone know any way to semi-realistically show the excavator digging in and picking up the dirt before dropping it back to earth?

Skip existing frames in video post? / video post chokes on Net Render

2012-05-10T16:47:58+02:00

I have the option checked in Render Setup->Common->Common Parameters roll-out to skip existing images in a render of an image sequence (animation), and that works fine, but it seems as if Video Post ignores that, or I need to accomplish that some other way through video post. For any image in the sequence that has already been rendered, Video Post re-renders the frame and overwrites it. How can I skip existing frames in an image (animation) sequence in video post? Another problem is that when I try a Net Render from video post, every node hangs after the first frame is rendered, with the message "waiting for frame . . ." . . . If I do a local (one machine only, no Net Render) Video Post or straight sequence render, everything zips along as well. . . I've wondered if it would do better to have all the scene materials local to each machine so that they aren't sent over the network for each frame, and will look into that. But what could be a cause of that hang? Zipped up scene file with video post settings but no textures (all copyright me), so anyone who wants to investigate my video post setup can see what I may be doing wrong. You'll need to adjust the file output path to do any tests. Max 2012 scene file and video post setting export. A still from the sequence is also attached for the curious :)