Rotation
 

Hi all!

How can I rotate an object around his own axis.
I want to make a planet, like Earth.

thx

(I'm a beginner, so sorry if the question is too easy :)

do you mean the
1. earth orbiting the sun
or just to make an
2. object rotate

Dae

I want to make an animation, where Earth is rotating around his own axis.
Can you help me?

The second thing, that Earth rotates around Sun, is another good thing. How can I make it?

Thx for answers!

Well, to make your Earth rotate you could simply keyframe the rotation or you could write a simple expression to rotate it.

If you want to make the Earth rotate around its own axis as well as rotate around the sun all you have to do is group the planet to itself then move the center point for the group to match that of the sun. Keyframe (or write an expression) the rotation of the group. This will animate the Earth around the sun while the keyframe or expression that you set up for the earth itself will animate the rotation of the planet around itself. It's a very simple thing to do. What version of Maya are you using. I have 6.5 and would be willing to set up a demonstration file for you so you can download it and use it. The hardest thing to understand is grouping an object to itself. When you do this, all your really doing is giving the object a second set of attributes to play with. Each set of attributes works independently of the other. In other words; you can have more than one rotation or translation for the same object.

it sounds great!

can you help me, how to write an expression?
I use Maya 7.0

It will be good to understand, how mel scripts works.
thx

(I'm from Hungary, so sorry, if I make some mistakes)

OK. I'll post a link to a file in about 6 to 10 hours when I get home from work. It will include the sun and earth objects plus the expression driven animation. I'll also include a brief explaination of the expression and how it works.

Try this out. It's a Maya 6.5 file.

orbit example

To look at the expressions that I wrote, look in the expressions editor.

thanks for the scene file.

it's very useful for me.

I think, I will use this forum many times :D

hi

hi all!

I have an another question!

How can I "tell" to my camera, that when I push the play button, he will rotate in axis Y from 20 (for example) to 40.

It doesn't matter,how long the scene is??

thx

You want the camera to rotate on its Y axis for 20 degrees? Keyframe it.

The camera is just like any other object in the scene. I assume you're using the "pers" camera. It's the default camera that lets you move all around the scene. Anyway, choose it in the Outliner then set up your start and end keyframe.

Just so you know, I think most people would agree that it is better to create a new camera to use to shoot the scene. The default cameras are tools to let you see the scene while you're building and animating it.