sherban
08-10-2004, 10:37 AM
Yes, it has happened again...
Today's episode:
I had 2 very simple objects (rings) moving towards each other and clashing. The clash did not occur at coordinates 0,0,0 (BIIG mistake, I was later to learn). Simple boring animation.
At this point I realized I needed another few seconds of animation and decided I wanted the two rings to spin around a common center as if they were dancing. Something at the back of my head kept screaming "do over! Do it over!!!! From the BEGINNING!". But being bull-headed as I am I did not listen to that voice.
I was not to be deterred so easily.
Naturally all I needed to do was to parent them to a null that would act as a pivot to spin them around. Or so I thought...
I tried parenting them to a null - they jumped. child comp - they jumped. freeze translation - the null jumped. model node - wrong center for animation. child comp on that - no good. set neutral pose - not in this lifetime.
Eventually Oz (who is apparently an XSI GENIUS!!) suggested I put my rings under 2 (that's right - 2) model nodes and move the top node with child comp turned on. It worked YIPPPPEEEEEEEEEEE.
Now, why in the world does such a simple operation require pre-planning or silly workarounds only God and the creators of XSI know.....
That's all for today. I will probably be updating this regularly...
maybe even make it a sticky one day.
Today's episode:
I had 2 very simple objects (rings) moving towards each other and clashing. The clash did not occur at coordinates 0,0,0 (BIIG mistake, I was later to learn). Simple boring animation.
At this point I realized I needed another few seconds of animation and decided I wanted the two rings to spin around a common center as if they were dancing. Something at the back of my head kept screaming "do over! Do it over!!!! From the BEGINNING!". But being bull-headed as I am I did not listen to that voice.
I was not to be deterred so easily.
Naturally all I needed to do was to parent them to a null that would act as a pivot to spin them around. Or so I thought...
I tried parenting them to a null - they jumped. child comp - they jumped. freeze translation - the null jumped. model node - wrong center for animation. child comp on that - no good. set neutral pose - not in this lifetime.
Eventually Oz (who is apparently an XSI GENIUS!!) suggested I put my rings under 2 (that's right - 2) model nodes and move the top node with child comp turned on. It worked YIPPPPEEEEEEEEEEE.
Now, why in the world does such a simple operation require pre-planning or silly workarounds only God and the creators of XSI know.....
That's all for today. I will probably be updating this regularly...
maybe even make it a sticky one day.