sforsyth
08-12-2002, 10:14 AM
Hello folks, haven't been frequenting the animation threads here much as I don't know much about it, but I hope someone will help me out nevertheless.
I've done a few characters now in 3DS Max 4.2 and I always seem to run into the same problem with setting up the teeth for animation. We don't animate a lot where I am, so we just use character studio for setting up our characters, and morph channels for some basic face changes.
The problem I have is this: if I create a morph target of an open mouth and have the top and bottom teeth as seperate objects with a pivot point at the back of each, how can I link the angle of rotation of the bottom teeth to the value of the morph target? :shrug:
Specifically, I want my teeth to rotate 23 degrees on the X axis by the time my morph value reaches 100 for that target. If I change the rotation controller for the teeth to Euler XYZ and wire the rotation value to the morph value, the teeth just spin wildly as they obviously don't match up with the values of the morph target. I'm no maths whizz and can't figure out what sort of formula I should be using, or even how to use it. Shouldn't the wire parameters dialog have some sort of syntax checker or something? Or is it even possible to change the formulas there?
Anyway, this is all a bit of a pain as otherwise I have to animate the teeth independently every time I use that morph targert, which is something I'm sure can be avoided. The only other solution I see is to attach the teeth to all the morph targets and change them all manually in the first place, but the teeth are quite detailed and heavy mesh-wise, so I REALLY don't want to do that.
I'm sure this has probably been asked before, as I imagine a few people have run into it, if that's the case, and someone else has already answered this, can you point in the direction of where this was done?
Any help on this would be much appreciated, and while I won't go so far as offering you my first born, I would however be prepared to offer up a small animal in sacrifice to any god of your choice.
I've done a few characters now in 3DS Max 4.2 and I always seem to run into the same problem with setting up the teeth for animation. We don't animate a lot where I am, so we just use character studio for setting up our characters, and morph channels for some basic face changes.
The problem I have is this: if I create a morph target of an open mouth and have the top and bottom teeth as seperate objects with a pivot point at the back of each, how can I link the angle of rotation of the bottom teeth to the value of the morph target? :shrug:
Specifically, I want my teeth to rotate 23 degrees on the X axis by the time my morph value reaches 100 for that target. If I change the rotation controller for the teeth to Euler XYZ and wire the rotation value to the morph value, the teeth just spin wildly as they obviously don't match up with the values of the morph target. I'm no maths whizz and can't figure out what sort of formula I should be using, or even how to use it. Shouldn't the wire parameters dialog have some sort of syntax checker or something? Or is it even possible to change the formulas there?
Anyway, this is all a bit of a pain as otherwise I have to animate the teeth independently every time I use that morph targert, which is something I'm sure can be avoided. The only other solution I see is to attach the teeth to all the morph targets and change them all manually in the first place, but the teeth are quite detailed and heavy mesh-wise, so I REALLY don't want to do that.
I'm sure this has probably been asked before, as I imagine a few people have run into it, if that's the case, and someone else has already answered this, can you point in the direction of where this was done?
Any help on this would be much appreciated, and while I won't go so far as offering you my first born, I would however be prepared to offer up a small animal in sacrifice to any god of your choice.