Animating along a motion path! with a twist
 

I have attatched an object to a motion path, really simple.

But I dont know how to make the object (spaceship) twist at certain positions along the motion path!

Keyframes are set to frame1, 10, 31, 49, 61 and 75.

If I use the usual rotate tool, the animation will not store the manipulations. If I use the "show transformations tool" the object stays twisted the same way all through the motion paht, according to whatever was the latest twist, done with the "show transformation tool".

OK, I can make an object follow a path, but how about those small manipulations, the little twists here and there.

What have I done wrong ???

And...
 

Using the "show manipulations tool (T on the keyboard)", to rotate an object is wierd!!!

If I rotate up/down, the object rotates left/right!

Why is that?

"Sub-animations"
 

This spaceship of mine (using a dummy now) will have extendable/retractable landing gear.


How do I set up this sub-animation with the landing gear?
Can a sub-animation be parented to the spaceship?

I think what you'll want to do is Group the spaceship to... itself!

So, you'd have Group A containing Group B. Group B would be all of the ship's compenents themselves.

By attaching Group A to the motion path, it leaves Group B alone, and you're able to animate the rotation of Group B independant from the motion path...

I hope that makes sense.

As for landing pad animations, I think I would go about it by using set driven key animations attached to a Locator. I've got a little tutorial going over that kind of thing. It's at my site. Link in the sig.

Just parent the locator to your group and it should be all set.

Fantastic
 

Great!

Another question; how do I animate lights (on spaceship) to go on and/or off at a certain point of time during the animation???

I would think it'd just be a matter of animating the intensity of the lights.

Just remember though, If you want them to go without the intensity fading away, you can change the curve in the Trax Editor to be perfectly vertical. That way, you wont have the fadeness, but a On-Off kind off light animation. If you don´t want to mess with the Trax Editor, then keyframe the frame in which they´re starting to go off, and the very next frame, Key it too, but with the lights intensity off. That way, it´ll try to fade the lights, but I´t won´t have a chance, since the lights only have one frame to go off. (Hope you got that.)

Man I just love this model.

oooh
 

Thank you both guys, this animation thing is quite intimitading to me, as with the texturing.

Im ambitious and I'll deliver a stunning animation, or no animation at all :) :) :).

um... well Im looking into to it now and the whole thing is starting to get more clear.

animation is a totally different beast from modeling/texturing. That's why the vast majority of studio positions are either modeling/textures OR animation. Seldom do you see many doing both except in small studios where there aren't enough people to go around.

By the way, now that I think of it, the term is interpolation, not fadeness. :)

Even though it´s a bit out of topic, I would have to say, I´m more of a movement guy. I´m much more into dynamics and keying (maybe flash© helped a bit) than modelling. I happen to get a rush everytime I see those spheres fall because of gravity. :)

Worthless post, I agree, but hell! I felt good about it. Sorry undseth :P

:beer:

oh...
 

I have a full-flash website! :)

Nobody knows about it, because i dont promote it in any way. I guess it isnt possible to find it by search on the internet. :)

But this site is just something I made for fun, there's little content, but Im proud of the setup, although the layout is really bad!

Heres my webpage;
http://home.online.no/~torm-eng/

Hey, actually that looks great, my page is in the works now, and it´ll feature ... ehh, where did I leave EVERYTHING?! ... nothing for the moment. Just plain personal stuff. Hope it´ll go better in the future though.

I tried getting help on mirc...
 

But the people were shamelessly rude to me :(

Only hours later did I get a neutral response, at that time I had figured it out and made everything on the page synch.... :( I found it hard to make it, but I have learned.

I love this forum...
...because the people here are...
...SAINTS (!) compared to other people on the internet!

I have a flash only webpage, too. If someone wants to see it, here is the link:
http://www.morpher.de