Animating more than one Polygon at once
 

Hi ,

I have a little problem....

I built an object consiting of several polygons.....

however , whenever i try to animate them (such that they move one after the other...or at the same time) it doesnt work.

how can i do this?

Thanks alot -in advance- for the help.

-afro

Your going to have to describe it a bit better than that, as I aint a clue what you mean, your animating something but it dosent work???

http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/9899/animesmuh5.jpg

i am trying to animate several polygons in the same scene....

for example (see attatched picture) ....

to let cube 1 and cube 2 detatch themselves in sequence from the main cube ,...such that i place the animation keys on the same timeline....

i hope you understand what im trying to say....

cheers

-A

You should just be able to move the slider to the appropriate frame, move the object in question, and insert a keyframe. You could move both objects and key frame them at once, or do them one at a time. No different from how you would animate a single object.

cheers,

gubar

Thanks Gubar but....

when i try to do this it only animates the last marked object.

(if i mark the two of them at the same time,...i can key them together...)

keying them one by one -or in two or more separate groups-..... doesnt work.

why?

-afro

Try this:

Select your first box at frame 0 and hit "s" to key it in the start position. Then move the time slider forward, move the box, and hit "s" again.

Then, go back to frame 0 and select the second box. Hit "s" to key its start position. Move the slider, move it to its new position, then hit "s" again.

You need to key the first frame too, to set the start position. Once you get this principle, you can set frames in between frame 0 and the later frames, to make the box stay where it is, change its course or speed etc.

Hope this helps.

cheers,

gubar.

hey it worked!!! :attn:

thank u so much....

PS: can you tell me how i can set a key that would picture the original state of my objects at the end of my animation.....

i assumed copying key No. 1 (or 0) and placing it on the end position frame in my timeline would do the trick but it's not working.....

how can i do this?

Hi,

Pasting it should work, though you might get a bit of overshoot since Maya will try and create a smooth movement curve.

What you could do, is open the channel box for the object in question. At frame 0, you'll notice that its various values are at 0 (for example, translate x,y and z). Move the time slider and you'll see them change.

At your final frame, you could just go into each box in turn and input the original value (probably 0). Then move you pointer back over the scene view and hit "s" to keyframe the move.

You should try and work through the built in tutorials in Maya, they will give you a good grounding in the basics, and cover the kind of animation steps we're talking about here. I'm new to Maya too and only done those about a month ago.

Let me know how you get on,

cheers,

gubar.

actually,...

when i select the object,....and move the timeslider,....the values in the channel box dont change.

besides i've got almost 40 objects,.....which rotate, translate and spin randomly....

wouldnt it be too cumbersome, resetting everyone of these values? ;)

there's got to be a more straightforward method, hasnt there?

PS: i tried copying + pasting the key frame.....

the copying worked, but the pasting proved problematic.....

it's kinda frustrating.... 'cause i actually have gone through a couple of tutorials, but none were able to explain these things to me......

:(

Look at Maya's in built tutorials, there's one on animating to a path. You create curves that dictate the path of the object. You could have it start and begin in the same position, then rotate them as they move around it.

Think that would be the best way.

cheers,

gubar.

Hey gubar!

just wanted to say: it worked! :attn:

thanx man!

-afro

Glad to have been of help.

I'm always posting questions on this board, so it was nice to have been able to answer some for a change!

cheers,

gubar