Planets, Who, What, Where?

[JBruckner]

Ok, scratch thething about the planets and not gettin them to line up. Now all I need to know how to do is make them rotate.

[JBruckner]

Ohh well, I tried to make the planets rotate with Xform and I could seem to get it to work, I have tried everything I can think of. If there is anyone out there that would mind lookin at the MAX sceen and telling my whats wrong, and why my planets arnt rotatin' that would be great. Anyways heres the max file.

www.rctworks.com/SUN.max Its for max 4

[Taoizm]

click the animate button

go to frame 100

rotate planet with rotate gizmo

Turn off animate button

Press play and watch the planet spin

[googlo]

Glitch,

Don't use Xform to rotate a planet, just put an Euler xyz controller into the rotation part of the transform track for each of the planet and then on the z-axis track, place keys on the beginning and end of the animation and give the first key 0 for it's value and then the last key some multiple of 360 to tell it how many times you want it to rotate around during the length of the animation.

[JBruckner]

Googlo,

Thats way ebyond me, I could consider myself a newb at 3ds max. Tao, I have tried that and it doesnt seem to work for me, any of ideas?

[TheCaptn]

Tao's idea works for me, but not the same way.
Using R3.1, if I key 0 and 100, and rotate it 360 nothing happens.
If I key 0, 50 and 100 and rotate it 180 for each key it sometimes works, and at other times it rotates half, then spins back in the other direction.

So I normally key 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100, and rotate it 90 degrees for each key.

If I need it to spin more than once, I go to the Track View and start duplicating keys...

For moving the planets around the sun I would set up spline circles as paths, and have each planet follow it's own path.
This tut should help you set an object on a path:
http://www.rethinkfx.com/tutorials/ball.htm

[3rd Dimentia]

Why not link each planet to it's own dummy, then use the path constraint on the dummies. Then just animate the planets. If you only rotate them once and get the timing right, you could use "out-of-range" to keep em spinning. Check online help for how to use this.

[Taoizm]

Originally posted by TheCaptn
Tao's idea works for me, but not the same way.
Using R3.1, if I key 0 and 100, and rotate it 360 nothing happens.
If I key 0, 50 and 100 and rotate it 180 for each key it sometimes works, and at other times it rotates half, then spins back in the other direction.

So I normally key 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100, and rotate it 90 degrees for each key.

If I need it to spin more than once, I go to the Track View and start duplicating keys...

For moving the planets around the sun I would set up spline circles as paths, and have each planet follow it's own path.
This tut should help you set an object on a path:
http://www.rethinkfx.com/tutorials/ball.htm

Ahh, MAX3.1... in MAX4 they changed how it figured up things like rotation. In order to get a smooth rotation in 3.1 (if I remember correct) is to rotate it 359 degrees, and then loop the animation keys in trackview. By default it tries to take the shortest route to next key which is why it'll go 180 and then reverse. You can also edit this in trackview by changing the value on the second key.

it is 3:30am though and my mind is shot. If you have any questions feel free to PM me.

cheers

[3rd Dimentia]

If you rotate 360 and when you play it doesn't move. Just edit the key info on the second key so it does. There is no reason you need to have lots of keys to do a 360 rotation. Honestly.

[JBruckner]

Umm, I must not have been clear, sorry. i got the planets to move around the sun just fine, using splines and dummys. But I cant get em to rotate, thats all, it being a real itch.

[Grosserfrosch]

Here, I threw this tutorial together for you.

http://www.oomst.com/krystan/tutorial/euler_xyz.html

[Martijn Wijmer]

I don't know if you already mapped all the planets, if not, here's a timesaver: http://gw.marketingden.com/planets/planets.html

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.