Thanx guys.... more to come next week...

all i can say is that this is amazing!!! i love it

Awesome stuff, I've always liked robots. These look fantastic!! I really like the humaoid looking one, very cool.

tim, your web site seems to be a little broken.....

Thanks for heads up CraigC, I wasn't aware the link was pointing at the wrong site link. It's been fixed now.

i have a question...the dynamics for the hoses...how do you set that up? or can you point me in the direction of something that tells me how, because im looking to do something similar very soon : )

imagine you have 2 cubes, and you want them to be attached by a cable/rope.

Get the two cubes.... and make the curve between them.
I make my curves so I have 3 CV's by each cube then just one lone one in the middle.

Now, select the first 3 CV's by the cube and creat a clucter. Parent that cluster to the cube.

Now do the same to the other end, parenting that new cluster to the nearest cube

Now select the middle cv, and make that into a cluster.

Now, select one of the clusters by a Cube, and point constrain it to the middle lone cluster. The middle clouster should now pop on over to the Cube. No probes. In the outliner, select the other Cube cluster and point constrain that to the middle cluster. It should now pop back into the middle....

In the Chan ed, change the weight values so that the to end clusters have an influence of .5 on the middle one.

Now, create a circle and extrude it alonge the curve.

Make sure it is set to follow path and makes a Nurbs tube.

Select the new tube, and rebuild its surface....you can have a play with the seetings here

Now delete the tubes history with the curve and the circle you extruded from.

Now, go to the deformers menu, and select wire deformer.

Click the tool on the tube, and press enter, then select the curve and press enter again.

Now, make sure it has a average offset value in the chan ed. I use 13 for good luck. No need to worry about the other settings.

Hopefully, if you now move the cubes, you should get a nice action with the cable going on.

If you select the middel cluster, you can adjust its offset in xy, or z... use this to adjust the droop of the cable... these values can be keyed as well... If you wanna be real cool, you can then paint jiggle weights on the hose in the middle section so that when the object stops...you know the rest.

very nice dude, awesome description...you should write some tutorials...thats an awesome model you have there, and thanks a lot for letting me in on the secret : )

ach, too busy to write tutorials at the mo, I have 5 more droids to build. But good luck with the hoses.... drop me a pm when yu have had a bash and we'll swap files and stuff and I'll have a look at what you came up with.

the only thing i havent been able to find is the average offset...is it on the curves outputs? under the wire node?

is this for the tube (so that the tube stays with the curve regardless off position) or the cluster?

my bad, its not offset, its dropoff....

http://www.craigcrane.com/bodypaint/dropoff.JPG

if you select the tube, you'll find it

thanks again dude : )

when i adjust the middle cluster to give it some slack...and then move one of the root cubes the mid. cluster snaps back to the original position...id like to avoid that if you know a way