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meisterjoda
11-29-2005, 09:10 PM
Hello,

i'm trying to animate a cable with connector along a path with a motion path and a flow path object. The animation of the cable is ok, but my problem is to attach the connector to the cable object (this is a simple cylinder with ~30 height segments). If the cable and the connector are one object, the connector is deformed by the modifier. And if i try to attach the conn. with a point constraint, it allways is attached in the middle of the cable object, because the pivot-point has to be there. Otherwise the flow path does anything exept that what i want him to do...

Is there any other (easy) way to animate a cable with connector or a simple solution to my problem?

Greets from Germany
Steffen

Dominik Rose
11-30-2005, 10:21 AM
Hi Steffen,

I don't know if I got you right, but maybe try this:

Select the middle vertex of the end from your cable where you wanna "parent" your connector.
Now create a cluster with the default settings. When you play back your animation, the cluster should stay on the vertex and follow your animation. Now make your point constrain from your connector to the cluster (maybe you have to tweak some values until they fit your needs).

Just a quick idea. I haven't tested it yet.

Maybe check out that tutorial http://www.visualart.ro/tutorials/cablu/cablu.htm. It doesn't cover your special problem, but may give you some ideas combining clusters with point constrains. :)

Hope that may help you a little bit out.


Greetings
Dominik

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