creating a polly with the lid hinged from a side
 

Hi I seem to be stuck with trying to animated a lid opening on a cube. I am working on a project that has the lid of a poly cube opening

Poly cube
 

Any help would be very much appreciated. Thank you in advance

If you could be more specific with the question, or post a screenshot of where you're at that would be helpful.

It sounds like you want to move the pivot point of the lid to on edge so you can rotate it from there? To do that, get your move tool, hit insert, move the pivot point to one side, hit insert again. Then use your rotate tool to test how the lid moves. Hope that helps.

thank you for your help I will show you what is happening with this with a screen shot. I got that same help from somebody else. However i know this may sound like a dumb question but which key on the mac keyboard is the insert key. Here I will let you look at this maybe you could help. Thanks

Also do you feel like using a hinge constraint is the best approach to this. Or do you have any other suggestions. Also should i do this with poly only or should i start with a nurb cube.

I don't know anything about mac, but try holding down the letter d. If you have a later version of Maya it should allow you to move the pivot point.

i have 8.5. If you would not mind could you give this similar project a whirl.
And see how it works for you.

Here is another screen shot of the problem i am having

the insert key is the home key on a mac keyboard

question to you.... what are you using the hinge for? like... are you wanting it to be simulated (like something will pop out and move it without you having to keyframe its movement)? or are you going to just animate it with keyframe animation?

My Original thought was to animate it with Keyframe. What will happen is the lid will pop open and out will come an animal. with the appropriate sound specified for that particular animal. Does this make sense

Keyframe it. Don't bother with a hinge constraint unless your animal will push the lid open with a dynamic simulation, which would require both the lid and the animal being rigid bodies.

I am not sure i know how to keyframe it. Is it too long to give a brief explanation of how to do that. I have the box created I know how to animate it with the keyframes. but how do i get the lid to do just what i want it to without a hinge. I don't know if this makes sense. But i am desperate for help on this.

Probably best to go through the tutorials included in the maya help files at some point, but I'll write something up quickly here.

Start with your box and your lid with the lid flat on top of the box (closed). The edge of the box and the edge of the lid should be touching.

Now you need the lid to rotate properly. Select your lid, and hit 'w' for the move tool. The manipulator (axis arrows) will likely be right in the middle of the lid. Hit 'home' (on mac) and the arrowheads will disappear allowing you to move your pivot point. Move the manipulator to the edge of the lid just where the box and lid are touching. Hit 'home' again to exit.

Test your rotation. Hit 'e' and rotate the lid in whichever axis, allowing the lid to open and close. All that's needed now is to key it.

Start by keying the lid closed at frame 1. Hit Shift - E with the lid closed. A red tick will appear at frame 1 and your rotate channels will be colored indicating they are keyed.

Move to frame 10 or whenever you want the lid to start opening. Hit Shift-E again to key, (alternately, select the correct rotate channel, right click on it and hit 'Key selected')

Move to frame 15 or whenever you want the lid to be fully open. Rotate the lid to the open position and hit Shift-E again to key it as open. Great!

Scrub in the timeline (LMB back and forth) to see the result, or hit play.

Stew. Thanks a million that perfectly described what i was in need of. My problem has been the pivot point. Everything else should be a breeze. Seriously you just put a smile on my face. Thanks again for the help.

No problem. Good luck with the animal popping out :)