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SSS 17-11-2002 01:27 AM

constraints
 
Hi guys,
I have a character holding a cauldron via the cauldron's handle. The cauldron's handle is parented to the character's wrist. The cauldron has a ladle in it which is point and orient constrained to both the cauldron and the character's other wrist.I want the character to grab the ladle out of the cauldron, so at the point when the character grabs the ladle I'm changing the piont and orient constraint values so that the constraints move from the cauldron to the wrist doing the grabbing. The problem is, as soon as the constraint values change, the ladle seems to rotate to a different allignment. Is there any way to solve this, or any better way to animate this. Thanks.

mtmckinley 17-11-2002 03:06 AM

You might want to consider grouping an object onto itself. Doing this gives you a second pivot point which can be constrained to an object, but leaves your object's primary pivot point free for animating like you choose.

For animating a character picking something up, one method I've seen is constraining it to locators, rather than specific joints. You can then parent a locator to a joint if you want.

If you constrain an object to two locators (or objects) you'll see in the channels that you can animate how strong one constraint pulls in relation to the other. If both are at the 1 value, for example, your object will constrain between the two points. So, you can animate the constraint between these two points seamlessly.

Good luck!

Kurt 17-11-2002 06:32 AM

Try Mikes way first, if that doesn't work try making a copy of the geometry (cauldron and ladle) you want to use on the second hand and set up all the constraints. Then turn the visabilty off till the point when you switch hands. Turn the visabilty on the hand its transferring to and turn off the visabilty of the geometry of the first hand. The off and on visablity option will have to be keyframed in the channel box

Sounds somewhat confusing and a bit hard to explain without showing you, but i've seen something similar done when I was at school.


Hope you get it.


Kurt

mtmckinley 17-11-2002 03:46 PM

Kurt's way works as well, but you have to ensure that the moment they "switch" is either not shown or is seamless, or you'll see it jump or twitch when it changes.


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