CGTalk - to constrain or not to constrain

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InnerVortex

08-07-2002, 11:14 PM

this is what i wanna do..
i have a character, and there is a sword that comes into him, the movement of the sword is keyed, but when he holds the sword and i want the sword to folow his hand, that is easy with parent i can do it, but i cant have that keys before.. there is any way to use keys before a parent in time?, well i can key it but as i move the hand before the keys just go crazzy..what m i doing wrong? help pls!!

CitizenVertex

08-07-2002, 11:31 PM

I'm pretty new to Maya, so I don't know exactly what's possible, but a quick solution is to have 2 swords in the scene. One attached to the hand and make it invisible, the second one not connected to the hand. Key the loose sword all you want and when you need it connected to the hand make the keyed sword invisible and the linked sword visible.

InnerVortex

08-07-2002, 11:41 PM

wow, thats it:) thanks alot. simple.. and works for sure!

Razvan

08-08-2002, 08:37 AM

I would use constraints, and animate the weights.
Here's the main setup: 2 locators, one parented to the hand, one free; point and orient contrain the sword to both; set weight 0 on the hand locator and animate the sword's movement with the free one; then switch the weights when the sword is in hand and animate the hand locator for its movement.

InnerVortex

08-08-2002, 11:49 AM

thanks Razvan, i sure ill gona try that:) that visibily thing worked really fine for what i was doing, but ill gonna really need that in the future, that was what i was looking for,it gives more flexability, thanks alot.

ReD_MeRkIn

08-08-2002, 02:38 PM

I put a two locators into the hirarchy one where the sword is when it's not in the character's hand, and one when it is in the character's hand. Then i animate the weights to swap the constraint from the sheith to the hand. I used a simlar setup to this for a raygun in a character's hand, and it works great. You can even link the weight nodes up using a set driven key in an extra chanel on the sword.
You need to key both an orientation and point constraint.
I think Maya 4.5 is supposed to have dynamic parenting, so this techinique may become obsolete in a few months anyhow.

Good luck

Red Merkin

iC4

08-08-2002, 06:38 PM

check the online gnomon page.....I remember a tutorial about riging a sword, not sure if it is exactly what you want but maybe it will help :)

alexx

08-08-2002, 08:19 PM

Originally posted by ReD_MeRkIn

YI think Maya 4.5 is supposed to have dynamic parenting, so this techinique may become obsolete in a few months anyhow.

?? aha? never heard of that one.. sounds nice..
have you seen it or just rumours?

ReD_MeRkIn

08-09-2002, 08:40 AM

I don't remember where i heard that, but checking alias's site, they do have ofset constraints in 4.5 which sound pretty cool.

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